Businesses increasingly depend on automation to modernize their processes and maintain a competitive edge. Worldwide revenues for the artificial intelligence market are expected by some to generate $327.5 billion and grow 16.4% in 2021 alone, and companies are increasingly realizing the benefits automation can provide to their team members as well as to their bottom line.
Automation can be implemented in multiple facets of a business—practically every department has work that can be automated to save them time and effort.
How automation is used in a business is sometimes referred to as business process automation. If you want to maximize your efficiency, you need to know what it is and how it can be implemented to maximize the value of automation to your business.
What is business process automation (BPA)?
Business process automation (BPA) refers to how businesses use technology to automate manual workflows.
These workflows could involve multiple tasks, people, and departments. With BPA, tasks are completed automatically and seamlessly threaded through each department for easy completion.
The purpose of BPA is to streamline operations, get results quicker, and eliminate the chance of human error. As a result, employees have more time for the complex, strategic tasks that drive long-term value.
For example, you could use BPA to automate bank reconciliations as part of your accounting process. Doing so would give your finance team more time to build forecasts, budgets, and financial strategies that maximize profits.
Types of business process automation
Business process automation is used as a catchall term to cover everything from automating a single component of the workflow to end-to-end completion. Generally speaking, there are three tiers or types of business process automation.
Task automation
The most common type of business process automation is task automation. It’s so common and used by many types of software that you’re likely already using task automation in your operations.
Task automation is focused on one component of someone’s workflow. Someone is still involved in initiating the automation, completing the rest of the workflow, or both.
Examples:
- Using automated emails to send invoices to customers after they’ve been approved.
- Online signature collection sending the document to the signor once drafted.
- Receipt capturing tools importing documents to an accounting platform.
Workflow automation
Workflow automation takes it a step further by completing a series of tasks in a workflow. The process isn’t completely automated, but human involvement is reduced to complex tasks requiring decision-making.
Examples:
- Sending emails, assigning training modules, and making document requests as part of the employee onboarding process.
- Routing invoices through each stakeholder for approval, sending out reminders, triggering payments, and pairing the invoice with the transaction in the invoice reconciliation process.
- Assigning sales leads to representatives, sending sales touchpoints, and tracking client sign-ups as part of the lead generation process.
Process automation
If all tasks involved in a process are automated from end to end, it falls in the bucket of process automation. A human may need to initiate the process or review the output, but otherwise, they have no involvement.
Examples:
- A payroll platform calculating salary and wages, taxes, and other deductions before generating payments and forwarding employee pay stubs.
- An online storefront collecting customer information and payment on an order, updating inventory, and creating a shipping label for a distribution center to fulfill.
- An expense reimbursement tool that collects expense reports, checks transactions against company policy, and triggers a payment based on its checks.
What are the benefits of automating business processes?
Business process automation has benefits that impact multiple facets of a business. By embracing technology and automation, you’ll likely experience some of the following.
Increased efficiency
Labor costs make up a significant chunk of a business’s expenditures. For a business to guarantee they’re getting the biggest return on their labor, it needs to think about how it can enable its employees to do their best work.
Losing unnecessary time to manage menial tasks prevents employees from doing the work that really matters. By automating these time-consuming tasks, workers have the capacity to tackle tasks that generate value.
Think of it this way: would you rather a salesperson record the sale in the system or pick up the phone to make another cold call?
Reduced errors
For all of our positive traits, humans are prone to mistakes. Any time a process depends on manual inputs, there’s a chance of an error resulting in a costly, time-consuming review finding and correcting the mistake.
Automation is predictable and cuts down the possibility of data entry errors, miscalculations, or skipped steps. This gives you peace of mind that the work isn’t just done, but done correctly and ready to action on.
Consistency and standardization
Teams are able to do their best work when tasks are carried out the same way every time. Rather than taking time to analyze and plan for the work to be done, they can jump straight into action.
Whether you’ve already standardized tasks or you’re doing things on an ad hoc basis, business process automation helps you set and stick to a standard.
For example, if your finance team is getting the same automated expense reports on a regular basis, they’ll know exactly where to look for insights that drive budgets and financial strategy.
Scalability
If any work relies on an employee to complete it, the only answer to completing more of it is hiring more employees. In this case, the business is always bottlenecked by the amount of people on staff.
With business process automation, tasks aren’t dependent on an employee to get done.
The more you can automate, the more you can grow without hiring more people. Not only does this help you hit your growth goals, but it keeps your labor costs in check as you do so.
Improved collaboration
When teams or departments need to work together, there’s the potential of friction through poor communication and inconsistent workflows.
Business process automation can address both of those concerns. Automated notifications ping the stakeholder when their work is ready to be done and standardized outputs keep their work predictable.
Work doesn’t get stuck in the pipeline because of a missed message or back-and-forth troubleshooting. Instead, teams work seamlessly together with work smoothly flowing from one team to the next.
What business processes can be automated?
With the technology out there today, much of a business’s operations can be automated. Let’s dig into the most common examples available today broken down by department.
Marketing
- Email campaigns: Schedule emails to be sent or automate emails that are triggered based on a customer action like signing up for a newsletter or abandoning a cart at checkout.
- Social media marketing: Automate posting, commenting, and messaging so the business has a social presence with less labor. Have automated reports for analyzing trends so you’re never missing a marketing moment.
- Marketing analytics: Get insight into what channels are generating results with automated reporting. Import data from multiple platforms for quick comparison with no manual labor.
Sales and lead management
- Lead management: Capture leads through forms that automatically sync with your CRM. Leads are then automatically distributed to a salesperson based on availability to ensure no one is overburdened.
- Lead nurturing: Keep leads interested with automated touchpoints and messaging. Schedule follow-ups and send reminders based on how long it’s been without contact.
- Contract management: Once someone is ready to sign, have contracts automatically delivered and personalized. Collect signatures with ease so the lead becomes a customer as efficiently as possible.
Customer service
- Chatbots: Service common questions with an automated chatbot. The automated responses can trigger the intervention of a human agent if the requests get too complex.
- Ticket management: Automated funnels collect customer tickets and distribute them to the right department depending on the feedback. The business saves time matching a customer to the right people and the customer gets a better service experience.
- Customer feedback and surveys: Distribute surveys regularly for feedback with automated follow-up emails and customer service intervention for negative responses.
Procurement and supply chain management
- Purchase order management: Get purchase orders in front of the eyes of approvers without manual intervention. Once approved, seamlessly submit them for invoicing, payment, and fulfillment.
- Supplier onboarding: With automated supplier checks, you get the information you need in your system without a single missed detail. Have everything you need for placing orders and making payments.
- Analyzing supplier performance: Compare and contrast suppliers with automated reports. Get a bird’s eye view of costs, delivery times, and overall efficiency so you can double down on top suppliers or know when to cut ties at a glance.
Finance and accounting
- Accounts payable: Have incoming invoices go through a seamless approval process with automated notifications that ensure everyone is signing off on a purchase. Once approved, payments are automatically scheduled so due dates are never missed.
- Accounts receivables: Generate invoices from work orders that are automatically sent and synced with your accounting platform. Even reminders are automated so you’re not spending time chasing down payments.
- Financial reporting: Reconcile bank and credit card transactions to keep your financial reporting up-to-date. Balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, budgets, and performance metrics are generated and ready for analysis.
Ready to automate some business processes?
For finance teams looking to improve their accuracy and efficiency, BILL’s financial business automation solution has you covered. BILL automates bill payments, invoicing, controlling budgets, and more—all in one easy-to-use platform.
With connections to the top accounting platforms, all of your work is synchronized to ensure accuracy and consistency in your reporting. With no effort, you’ll have accounting and reports that are ready to be analyzed for impactful findings, generating real value for the business.
Reach out for a demo to learn how BILL can save you time and money.