When done right, digitization of business processes can help you quickly gain a competitive advantage – but only when you design a process that can adapt to change. But what is business process automation, and what are its main benefits?
The rise of digital transformation of business processes is a great reason for companies to change the way they operate and implement business process automation. The benefits companies gain by doing so include streamlined work processes, the ability to open up to new markets, and better customer service.
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Digitization and automation — is there a difference?
Automation and digitization of business processes go hand in hand, and companies are striving to combine the two processes for maximum benefit. Automation is the use of technology to execute recurring tasks, which streamlines existing processes and improves predictability, eliminates errors, and increases productivity. Process automation is used to improve, accelerate, and sometimes replace human work with modern solutions and technology.
Combined with digitization (which is based on the use of digital technologies in processes), automation improves workflows, which offers significant time savings and often translates into improved sales.
An ACG Research report notes that one goal of introducing automation is to reduce the overall time to complete a process by 90%. The Total Economic Impact™Of WEBCON BPS study points out that the automation of business processes can bring savings of more than $600k in 3 years and speed up internal processes by 87%. Automation also increased the quality of customer service and improved the quality of work.
Ongoing digital transformation of business processes and advanced automation technologies allow companies to automate more and more of their business processes. Work automation and data digitization are already used in almost every field. They are especially useful for tedious, repetitive processes such as filling in numerous documents with similar data and sending automatic replies from bots, analytics, or employee onboarding.
Business process automation benefits
Automating technological processes allows companies to streamline their operations and optimize work by using new technologies. Not only does this save time in repetitive processes, but it also creates the following business process automation benefits:
- Improved work efficiency — the automation of repetitive and time-consuming processes allows you to focus on elements important for business development. Wise use of the software leads to increased efficiency and productivity in the team.
- Fewer mistakes — even the most committed and thorough employees can make mistakes, and sometimes a small mistake can lead to irreversible consequences. Errors may also appear when introducing other people to a given process. Business process automation can therefore help, especially with repetitive tasks such as data entry. In properly set up processes, machines are much less error-prone than humans.
- Fewer limitations — the use of software that works continuously 24/7 allows you to set any number of processes, so the automation can be set to run all day and all night.
- Time savings — using machines for tedious and repetitive tasks significantly speeds up the process, and eliminating the human factor reduces a lot of limitations. Therefore, employee time can be devoted to other, equally important tasks. Automation also makes it easier to predict when a task will be completed.
- Reduced costs — automation makes it possible to increase the amount of work done while maintaining the same number of employees. Dealing with fewer time-consuming manual processes allows you to focus on strategic tasks without wasting valuable resources and increasing operating costs.
Wondering which processes in your company can be automated?
Studio Software runs product workshops to clarify what business processes you should automate. This lets us analyze a company’s manual processes and propose IT solutions that will automate some or all of the work, depending on the client’s needs.
Examples of automation and digitization
For many years, we’ve been providing solutions that allow us to streamline processes in our clients’ companies. Below you will find examples of our product in action.
Hevea
The need for automation occurred naturally for our client because of a dynamic increase in sales. Saving data in huge spreadsheets wasn’t good enough, and it forced the automation of production processes and electronic management of orders and inventory. The effects of moving the company to the cloud and automating the production process were, among others, a decrease in the number of orders marked as lost, 60% faster order processing, and increased employee productivity.
More: Effective automation of the production process
Euro-Tax
Besides building an app for comprehensive management of marketing activities, we automated the process of sending contracts to the platform’s customers. We wrote a program that generates contracts in PDF format based on the data saved in a WORD file. The documents created this way are then quickly and efficiently sent to clients.
More: how we helped Euro-Tax.pl unlock their potential.
Setpin
Setpin is a tool that automates guest check-ins in hotels and apartments. The implementation of this application proved that automation not only covers internal corporate processes but also works perfectly as a separate product. Setpin was created to facilitate and automate the check-in process used by accommodation facilities across Poland. Currently, customers can manage their facilities fully remotely, from anywhere in the world.
More: Hotels and apartments automation system.
Is it worth automating and digitizing business processes?
Automating and digitizing business processes brings many benefits to companies. New technologies can reduce the time spent on repetitive, usually tedious tasks and optimizes budgets. Automation can surpass the best human performance levels.
The key to success is cooperating with a team of experienced developers who know how to use technology to create workforce optimization solutions. If you need help to design automated and digitized business processes, give us a shout. We’ll analyze your company and identify key opportunities to improve your business processes using new technologies.
