What is Business Process Automation (BPA)?

Business process automation is the utilization of modern technology to automate complex, repetitive business tasks to achieve digital transformation. In the contemporary world, technology keeps taking mammoth steps forward in its advancement journey, and businesses are forced to keep a sharp eye on it.

According to McKinsey Digital, 45% of business activities could be automated with the help of existing technology. We are doing business in an era where automation is rapidly evolving, and to remain competitive, it takes us to adapt quickly. 

Purpose of Business Automation

Technology keeps developing and businesses keep adapting to it – Does this happen without a strong reason? The obvious answer is no, it doesn’t. 

Business automation is getting highly popular mainly because of its effectiveness and reliability. As businessmen, the set of things you’d love to see in your processes undoubtedly is agility, manageability and flexibility. When certain tasks are repeatable and needs consistency throughout the business, automation can assist you with reaching your goal.

BPA and BPM

Before digging into comprehensive applications of business process automation (BPA), it is crucial to talk about its not-so-distant cousin, business process management (BPM). When BPA is setting the groundwork for a digitized and automated business workflow, it’s BPM who takes control of maintaining the smooth functioning of business activities. 

Regardless of the type of business, it is important to understand what Business Process Management is and how to implement a good strategy that complements their automation efforts. 

Applications of BPA

In the ever-changing world of competitive businesses, automation has been absorbed as a part of living breath to a majority of mature businesses already. In the practical run, they have performed tremendously on specific business functions, with the aid of a successful and imperative business automation strategy. 

  • Onboarding (HR)

    Hiring employees may sound initially like a strictly manual task with all the phone calls, interviews, discussions, and training in mind. However, behind all that, there’s a lot of scheduling, data gathering and maintenance, and paperwork that you can get done eased with automation.

    By automating the process, you can pass half of your work on to the candidate himself. Job applicants could be directed to fill out electronic forms, which can then be used to automatically schedule assessments, interviews, and phone calls with all the applicants.

    Without automation, you could end up with endless paperwork, employee dissatisfaction, too many mistakes, and low overall productivity.

  • Accounting

    Accounting is a key business aspect that will directly involve maintaining good faith with your suppliers, clients, employees, and investors. The worst thing that you could ask for is to encounter delayed payments while having all the cash in your bank. A poor financial management system that does not resonate with automation can lead you there.

    Use cutting-edge software and tools to manage the calculations, bookkeeping and standing orders. These tools will reduce the inefficiencies that can be caused by paper receipts, invoices, and manual routed payments. With this, you won’t see anyone, from frustrated suppliers to dissatisfied investors.



  • Marketing

    In modern days, marketing already is digitized and you might have wondered if it could be automated. Well, you guessed it right, it could!

    Marketing automation is a strategy that a fair lot of stable and emerging businesses are heavily relying on. When you automate repetitive tasks such as content downloads, email newsletters, smart personalization, email follow-ups, recurring webinars and many others, you can save time for more intuitive tasks that would enhance the productivity of your marketing effort. 

In a Nutshell

It is conclusive that to run a successful business, facing all the competition in your industry, takes strategic thinking and the implementation of the newest technological innovations. Automation would play a key central role in everything from hassle-free onboarding, targeting potential customers, generating leads, doing continuous follow-ups, and gaining conversions, to maintaining clear and concise financial discipline within your organization.

Our business analysts and business automation consultants can assist you to have the most suitable and effective automation plan, implemented in your organization as well. Contact us today to start your journey to attaining digital transformation.

Tips on what business processes can you automate?


Project tasks

Most of the project operations will result in a number of tasks that need to be completed, otherwise known as dependencies. Automation can assist in the creation of these tasks and even the closure of tasks in some cases. 

Use BPA for project tasks to:

  • Move tasks to the correct project

  • Assign tasks to the right teammate

  • Notify stakeholders of project dependencies

  • Set and shift due dates

  • Handoff work at the right time

Communications

Communication is a must in any work environment, Automating communications is another way to streamline recurring tasks. Weekly updates, project coordination to reminders, team conversation are elements that are crucial in a business yet time-consuming.

Use BPA for communications to:

  • Send project reminders

  • Send team updates

  • Send post-meeting minutes

  • Send customer-facing communications

  • Send post-purchase email series

Data entry

Most organizations look to automation first as a means of completing data entry. It’s a tedious job and a very time-consuming one at that. Data entry is also a repetitive task that usually requires monthly or weekly work. 

Use automation for data entry to:

  • Reduce duplicate data

  • Import forms

  • Flag and prevent data inconsistencies

  • Route data to appropriate stakeholders

  • customer information

With these capabilities, automated data entry can enable lower operational costs that would otherwise be done manually. 

Sales orders

With the proper CRM in place, automation can aid in collecting and routing customer sales order information. This can be helpful for several reasons, such as servicing customers and organizing personalized marketing campaigns. 

use automation for sales orders to:

  • Service customers

  • Personalize marketing campaigns

  • Forecast product success

  • Track market trends

These capacities will not only provide time back to the team but will also aid organizations to compete in the market by assisting with future growth strategies.

Payroll

Payrolls are a necessary task for every business. If one is still manually working on payroll, not only they are missing out on the benefits of automating but they are also wasting their valuable time. Parallel to other business processes outlined above, automation can prevent errors, create faster procedures, and maintain systems. 

Use automation for payroll to:

  • Submit payroll

  • Create payroll reports

  • Provide pay stubs to team members

  • Adjust hours for PTO

  • Assist employee tax filing

  • Make changes to open enrollment benefits

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is another significant process to automate with the implementation of the right technology. This can be in the form of email programs like a welcome series or reactivation series or content campaigns like targeted ads. 

Use automation for lead nurturing to:

  • Create campaign workflows

  • Share relevant content to potential customers

  • Send lead nurturing emails

  • Store personalized lead data 

There are several ways to use automated lead for advantage, be sure to constantly enhance campaigns established on key performance indicators (KPIs).