What Role Does Business Process Automation Play in the Long-Term Success of an Organization?

Organizations can enhance productivity, streamline operations, and employ new business models through business process automation. Nevertheless, over 90% of automation initiatives fail due to a variety of factors, including technical challenges, high implementation costs, reluctance to change, and inadequate planning. Learning about business process automation and its successful implementation is the most straightforward approach.

In terms of productivity, cost savings, and, of course, digital transformation, businesses can significantly benefit from business process automation. Please provide me with additional information regarding business process automation.

What is the definition of business process automation?

The term business process automation (BPA) is self-explanatory, as it denotes the utilization of technology to automate business processes that would otherwise be performed manually. In this context, business process refers to a sequence of actions that are intended to accomplish a specific objective, with a particular emphasis on those that are highly repeatable and involve multiple IT systems. BPA can be employed by organizations to automate entire processes or individual stages within a broader process, depending on the specific requirements of the business.

Business process automation facilitates the standardization and optimization of operations, thereby generating cost savings and efficiency improvements by eliminating or significantly reducing the necessity for manual intervention. This is the reason why BPA is also frequently used to refer to workflow automation.

Please be advised that business process automation should not be confounded with business process management (BPM). Business process management is an organizational discipline that involves the analysis and evaluation of an organization’s existing processes to achieve the following objectives:

• Recognize opportunities for enhancement,
• Create a plan to execute those improvements, and
• Implement that approach.

BPA can be a significant component of BPM, but it is not the entirety of BPM, and the two terms should not be used interchangeably, depending on the organization.

An overview of robotic process automation:

Manual data input and other traditional computer tasks occupy a significant portion of a knowledge worker’s day, consuming an astounding amount of time. Just ask the workers. A recent survey revealed that individuals believe they are squandering five hours on repetitive tasks that have the potential for automation. Experts estimate that approximately 60% of occupations can automate at least 30% of job activities.

Creative or intuitive work—both of which drive job satisfaction—is rarely involved in tasks like data collection, approvals, updates, etc. Instead, job satisfaction declines, reducing productivity and other inefficiencies.

Technology, and robotic process automation (RPA) specifically, are emerging as an answer for organizations looking to take the cycle of monotony out of worker routines. Employees will free up more time for companies to improve customer service, do harder issue-solving, and provide new business insights that enable the company to be successful.

There are numerous compelling reasons to invest in business process automation, such as but not limited to:

Optimization of Workflows:

As previously mentioned, BPA can be employed by organizations to automate entire processes or even individual stages within a process. In either scenario, BPA has the capacity to apply business rules and logic to both structured and unstructured data sets to determine the most efficient method of executing a workflow and execute it accordingly.

Enhanced Productivity:

Numerous organizations employ BPA to automate highly repetitive, menial duties, which are typically low-level and consume employees’ valuable time. Business process automation increases overall productivity and expedites business growth by enabling employees to concentrate on higher-value duties and eliminating bottlenecks from existing workflows.

Reduced Operating Costs:

It is evident that the implementation of business process automation can reduce costs, as it enhances workplace productivity, reduces the need for manual intervention, and improves operational efficiency. In fact, a report from Deloitte indicates that robotic process automation, in particular, can assist organizations in reducing costs by 59% and enhancing quality and accuracy by 90%.

Effective Resource Allocation:

Business process automation allows organizations to more effectively utilize both human and digital resources by improving productivity and streamlining workflows. In addition, by reducing operating expenses, BPA releases capital that organizations can subsequently allocate to other aspects of their operations, such as expansion initiatives.

Simplified Document Management:

Companies can set up digital archives and automatically collect important documents and data by using BPA. These archives function as a sole source of truth, thereby facilitating increased transparency. Additionally, they facilitate the sharing of materials in real-time and the access to information for individuals at all levels of the organization, thereby fostering productivity and cross-team collaboration.

Reduced Paperwork:

Business process automation is intended to centralize and streamline processes, thereby eliminating the need for burdensome paperwork and promoting greater transparency.

Employees who are engaged in their work:

A survey of working adults in the United States revealed that employees allocate an average of 520 hours annually—more than a full day’s work per week—to repetitive duties that could be easily automated. This can result in employees feeling disengaged from their employment, which can have detrimental effects on team morale, employee satisfaction, and workplace productivity. By automating menial duties with BPA, employees can concentrate on more engaging, strategic, or creative work, which increases their engagement with the organization’s overall success and business outcomes.

Reduced Risk of Human Error:

Despite the best intentions of all employees, they are inevitably prone to making errors. Although some errors are minor and relatively inconsequential, others can pose a significant hazard to the entire organization. By eradicating the human element from the equation, business process automation eliminates the risk of human error, ensuring that workflows are executed consistently and accurately.

Increased Consistency:

BPA’s allure is partially due to its ability to standardize processes and eliminate potential variance. Business process automation provides organizations with substantial value in terms of quality assurance by establishing repeatable, dependable operations.

Enhanced Compliance:

Business process automation is indispensable for organizations that operate in industries that are highly regulated, such as the financial services and healthcare sectors, as it allows them to automate components of their compliance program. By automating procedures such as third-party onboarding and complaint analysis, the risk of human error that could compromise compliance is eliminated, and compliance officers can focus on more critical issues that affect the business.

Expedited Auditing:

By automating a variety of auditing tasks, including reconciliations, internal control testing, and detail testing, organizations can enable auditors to prioritize more intricate tasks. Businesses can improve the quality of their audits and expedite the audit process by reducing the demands on auditors’ time.

Increased Customer Satisfaction:

For customers, the improved overall experience is a direct result of the increased efficiency gains on the business’ back end. This is due to the ability of organizations to allocate more time to one-on-one interactions, accelerate turnover times on requests, and more effectively ensure quality.

How to Choose Operations to Automate Your Business

Recognizing the prospective benefits of business process automation is straightforward; however, selecting which processes to automate is somewhat more difficult.

Nearly half of all business activities can be automated, according to McKinsey’s research. A workflow may be an appropriate candidate for automation if it is classified under one or more of the following:

• It is straightforward and repetitive.
• It is generally prone to errors.
• It necessitates an audit trail.
• It has a significant impact.
• It provides substantial utility to the organization.
• It is predominantly composed of paper.
• It is significantly grounded in research.
• Multiple individuals are involved.
• It is executed frequently.
• It is time-sensitive.

Calendar management, document organization, processing invoices, processing purchase orders, processing payroll, processing refunds, hiring talent, and onboarding new employees Approval of leave requests, authorization for travel, submission of expense claims, approval of budgets, acquisition and extraction of data,

This list is merely the beginning; there are hundreds, if not thousands, of prospective processes that organizations can automate.

To observe BPA in action in the actual world, consider this particular Velan client in the mortgage lending industry: The company’s loan officers were obligated to access a website that lacked an API after each week to obtain information regarding current mortgage rates. Subsequently, officers would be required to manually input the data into an Excel spreadsheet and execute a mail merge for email marketing. The entire process was labour-intensive and typically required an hour for each officer to complete. This time could have been better utilized by following up with potential borrowers or networking with referral partners. The client was able to fully automate the process by partnering with Velan and implementing business process automation, thereby sparing loan officers valuable time and optimizing the business’s resources.

An important point to consider:

The mere fact that a business process can be automated does not inherently imply that it should be pursued. High-level strategic decision-making or face-to-face interaction is among the workflows that necessitate a human touch. That being said, it may be feasible to automate portions of a process, even if it is not feasible to automate the entire process from beginning to end. For instance, you could implement a chatbot to handle initial customer service inquiries and subsequently escalate cases to a live agent as required. In circumstances such as these, it may be necessary to exercise some creativity to identify methods of utilizing BPA; however, it is undoubtedly feasible.

Optimal Strategies for Implementing Business Process Automation

To guarantee the success of BPA in your organization, there are a few additional measures you can take in addition to selecting the appropriate processes to automate:

Establish unambiguous objectives and expectations.

This serves three primary functions: Initially, it establishes a business case for BPA, thereby validating your investment in BPA technology. Secondly, it serves as an endpoint from which you can work backwards to develop a strategic roadmap for your business process automation initiative. Third, it allows you to evaluate the performance and return on investment (ROI) of your BPA initiative, which leads us to our subsequent best practices.

Evaluate your outcomes.

Be certain to specify the metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that you intend to employ to track the progress of your BPA initiative when establishing a goal (or objectives). For instance, if you are attempting to decrease the cost or expedite a business procedure, it is crucial to monitor the automation’s outcomes to determine whether it is providing the anticipated value.

Understand the compliance obligations of your organization.

It is crucial to be cognizant of prospective requirements, limitations, and restrictions when developing a business process automation strategy, even if you are not automating a process (or processes) within your compliance program.

Ensure that all information is recorded.

Ensure that every aspect of your business process automation strategy is meticulously documented and accessible to all relevant personnel, from the changes being made to the existing workflow to the process of rolling out those changes. The establishment of this solitary source of truth will facilitate the resolution of any ambiguity and guarantee that the new process is consistently implemented.

Consider investing in employee training.

Training materials should not only provide an explanation of the new process and the updated duties and responsibilities of employees, but they should also establish a rationale for the change. Assisting employees in comprehending the rationale behind business process automation is a critical component of change enablement, which enhances the probability of user adoption and the overall success of any BPA initiative.

Start with a modest scale and gradually increase it.

Rather than attempting to automate all processes simultaneously, it is more effective to identify three to five processes that would benefit from automation and proceed from there. It will soon be evident whether business process automation achieved the desired results, considering the objectives you have established and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you have established. If your BPA initiative is successful, you may consider incorporating additional processes; however, if it is not, you may utilize the data you have gathered to pinpoint potential areas for improvement and potential failure points.

Seek a BPA solution that is easy to integrate.

The ideal solution should be able to seamlessly integrate into your current software ecosystem and require minimal, if any, rearchitecting to interact with other programs, as business process automation is designed to streamline operations rather than disrupt them.

Form a partnership with a consultant who possesses a substantial background in BPA.

While it is feasible to execute business process automation independently, it is much more advantageous to collaborate with a partner who has a demonstrated history of effective BPA implementations. Such a partner can utilize their expertise to assist you in identifying which of your current workflows are most suitable for automation, establishing metrics, defining objectives, and proactively identifying potential points of failure. An established partner will be able to utilize their years of experience to diagnose the issue and devise a course of action should your BPA initiative fail for any reason.

Velan: Your BPA Implementation Partner

Our methodology is straightforward:

We analyze your current operations and identify the most significant opportunities for automation by integrating our BPA implementation experience and relevant industry expertise with the RPA function within Power Automate.

After identifying three to five potential workflows for automation, we deconstruct them into their constituent elements and begin developing an implementation roadmap for each one based on the most effective automation approach.

We collaborate closely with you to develop automation processes within Power Apps, utilizing the system’s visual front end and straightforward user interface to create integrated operations within a single platform.

You will gradually develop the ability to independently construct and automate new processes, and you will be able to operate with or without Velan’s assistance. The decision is entirely yours.