Quixy Editorial Team

August 11, 2023

Nowadays, every company needs to have systems to help employees do their work efficiently and in a streamlined manner. Business workflow automation is a process that can help businesses cut down on identified repetitive tasks and speed up the workflow of their employees. This is a form of business process automation.

Business Process Automation is a process through which a company can reduce costs, investment, and resources by automating routine business processes through technology. This form of automation has many benefits for the company, including streamlining processes, decreasing routine tasks that employees have to do, and promoting better workflow efficiency.

While implementing business process automation, the business needs to increase efficiency by removing redundant and time-consuming tasks. If this is executed properly, employees will have more time to add value to the company instead of completing tasks like responding to emails or other repetitive tasks. By 2025, the market for workflow automation procedures is predicted to grow to $26 billion, up from less than $5 billion in 2018.

What is business workflow automation?

Workflow automation is the process of streamlining essential processes and finding ways to remove manual and repetitive tasks to make the employees’ workflow more efficient. This can involve using applications, processes, and other tools to make these tasks easier to handle.

There are already multiple examples of business workflow automation that companies across the globe are currently using. Companies that help make tasks like sending emails, accepting meeting invites, and sending forms from person to person more efficient are all examples of workflow automation. Most of the existing workflows in businesses are not as streamlined as possible, and business workflow automation can help simplify these processes so that employees have time to do important tasks.

Employees are supposed to create value for the company, but this can be hindered if they get caught up in constant tasks such as sending emails. By replacing these tasks with creative and innovative tasks, the employees can truly provide value. Business workflow automation helps in making repetitive tasks streamlined. Generally, this is done by programming software to fulfill basic if-then conditions and complete tasks.

It is essential to identify the exact problem that can be streamlined using technology to conduct automation. As long as the organization is open to changing the standard methods already in place, business workflow automation can proceed smoothly and help make the employees more efficient.

Also read: A Complete Guide to Workflow Automation Software

Workflow automation can help employees manage their time and take their schedules into their own hands. As long as the new automation process is easy to understand and doesn’t require employees to learn any new technologies or procedures, it will be easy to implement to save on costs, time, and resources.

Where can business workflow automation be implemented?

Let’s discuss a few areas of the business that may thrive with workflow automation. 60% of the current occupations can have 30% or more of their activities automated.

• Marketing: Content development workflows for a SaaS product, generating and circulating weekly reports for marketing activities.
• Software Development: Tracking software development tasks and tracking software defects.
• Sales: Leads Management, reminders for renewal, automating the follow-ups, alerts of the status of accounts.
• Human Resources: Streamlining hiring processes, employee onboarding, leave request workflows, offboarding, employee grievance tracking
• IT – Helpdesk Management, Ticket Tracking, Purchase Request management
• Accounting: Invoice and Purchase Order Management, Employee expense request management.

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Creating an effective business workflow automation process

The following steps are essential for implementing business workflow automation in your business:

1. Identify the problem

Identifying the problem or activity slowing down the employees’ efficiency is important. This problem needs to be found from a business viewpoint.

After breaking down the workflow, it must be cross-checked with the workflow’s end-users to get their input. It is also essential to consider the savings in terms of cost and time on behalf of the company and employees. This will help you get a better idea of which processes need to be automated quickly and which can be automated a little later.

2. Identify your goals

After identifying the problem, it becomes necessary to identify the goals you are working towards to automate certain processes. It is also essential to understand what you are hoping to accomplish. Your automation goal can be to free up your resources for other jobs, reduce the time required to complete a task or get better output from your current resources. This goal needs to be properly defined to ensure that the business workflow automation processes are structured properly. These goals need to be aligned with your business goals.

3. Choose the correct solution

Once you understand why you are considering business workflow automation, you must identify the correct solution to suit your needs. There are many options in the market, and they range from cloud solutions to on-premise solutions. There are no-code solutions that business users can use to automate their workflows without writing any code or depending on the IT team. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so take the time to figure out what’s best for your business.

Once you find a few suitable vendors and tools, carefully compare their benefits and disadvantages. Based on this analysis, you can choose one solution and begin to implement it in your business.

4. Teach the users

Every new solution or tool requires users to learn how to use it. This change in a workflow using the new software may seem foreign to the employees who are used to the current work method; however, it will be necessary to convince them that this software can help them with their daily tasks. If the end-users anticipate this change, they will be more welcoming and open to learning the fundamentals of this new business workflow automation tool and process.

If this transition between the current and new process goes well, the business process automation can become successful. Testing can be useful in this step to ensure that workflow automation can be implemented smoothly.

5. Evaluate the processes

After the workflow automation tool has been implemented, you will have to keep an eye on how the employees are using the tool and whether they benefit from it. The users can help by providing invaluable feedback regarding the tool, which will help determine whether this tool is correct for your business. Using defined metrics can help you get a quick overview of the success of the automation effort.

Any areas for improvement and problems can also be easily identified through this feedback, so you will know what you need to fix before automating any other processes. As long as you ask for feedback consistently, this process of business workflow automation will be successful and help you cut back on the resources, costs, and time that was lost due to repetitive and manual tasks.

Also read: What Processes Every Business Must Automate?

Benefits and ROI of business workflow automation

There are several benefits to implementing business workflow automation:

1. Better accountability: There is a better chance for employees to be held accountable for their work due to defined steps and process owners.
2. Reduced chances of error: Due to the implementation of workflow automation, accidents, and oversights can be largely reduced as manual processes will be eliminated.
3. Better communication: There is a better chance of streamlining communication by automating responses and eliminating requests for status reports and follow-ups.
4. Streamlined touchpoints: The number of touchpoints of human communication can be largely reduced, leading to streamlined processes.
5. Specialized processes: As workflow automation can be implemented in various departments, it can be specialized to solve the unique tasks in question.

After implementing a workflow automation process, it is important to understand how it has helped your business and whether it’s a good investment in the future. You can measure the return on investment (ROI) for the workflow automation process in a few different parameters.

Business workflow automation is a process that is put in place to make it easier for employees to concentrate their efforts on more important things. It is important to measure ROI through indirect metrics such as increased efficiency, better team collaboration, better accountability, fewer problems in the workflow, fewer fraudulent activities, higher morale, better company culture, and more satisfaction from the customers.

These metrics will be a good way to understand whether this form of business workflow automation will be profitable and successful and whether it can be implemented for other processes in the future.

Business workflow automation is also a process that is meant to provide benefits that can be measured objectively. This can involve using direct ROI metrics such as time saved per task, rate of workflow completion, approval/rejection rate, overall cost savings, savings in office operations costs, and reduced roles. These metrics will be a good way to prove that business workflow automation is beneficial and improves revenue and profit. As long as these metrics are fulfilled, this business process automation can be adopted to continue saving on time and costs.

Also explore: How different departments and industries can benefit from workflow automation?

Automating your workflow through business automation processes

Any business needs to have a good understanding of the various tasks necessary for the business. Each task undertaken by the employees helps add to the value of the business. However, if some tasks are too repetitive, it can become a burden for the employee and prevent them from completing other tasks. These repetitive tasks can be automated through workflow automation to give your employees time to focus on more pertinent tasks. The method of business workflow automation can be chosen through the above steps, and you can find great ways to cut down on costs, resources, and time.

Also read: The Complete Guide to the Approval Process and Workflow

One such business workflow automation solution is no code. No-code tools can help individuals create applications and tools without the need for coding. No longer do businesses have to rely completely on developers and coders; with no code, it’s possible to build simple applications and test them quickly, helping save money and time for the business. While no-code tools cannot always accomplish everything, they can help you optimize workflows and increase the business’s efficiency.

Calculate your ROI with Quixy

Quixy’s workflow automation can cut request and approval cycle times in process workflows by more than half and significantly reduce costs. To help you calculate the possible savings, use any of the calculators below to estimate your current costs and potential savings.

Why Quixy is your go-to No-code Business Workflow Automation tool?

At Quixy, we provide a no-code solution that can help you automate workflows with an intuitive and easy-to-use visual interface. If you’re looking for a tool that is easy to learn and implement, Quixy could be a great option for you. Begin your journey towards streamlined operations and tailored apps – all with the simplicity of our platform. Get started today to harness the potential of automation. 

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