Workflow, as defined in Wikipedia, may be considered as a view or representation of real work. The flow being described may refer to a document, service, request, or product that is being transferred from one step to another.
Workflow automation is an approach to create series of automated work performed independently by various stakeholders in a process. The steps in the workflow are performed based on predefined rules one after another or in parallel. When workflow automation is implemented rightly, the automation will be a simplified way of executing work on a day-to-day basis.
How to decide if a workflow can be automated?
- It is a repetitive work
- Errors occur when performed by human
- It’s a series of simple actions which needs to be performed based on the preceding action leading to an outcome
Workflow automation will help organizations to streamlining their daily tasks and identify new opportunities for automating other areas of work. Workflow automation can be as simple as a Leave/Petty Cash Approval process to as complex as Procurement Management.
Importance of workflow automation
You need to automate your workflows whenever possible for various reasons, including faster Turn Around Time(TAT) resulting in saving time. It also increases the efficiency and accuracy of the work. The other advantages of workflow automation are:
- It allows the employees to use the time saved from automated workflows to work on other tasks which are nonautomated
- As the productivity of employees goes up with more work getting done, you will have cost savings
- Workflow Mapping, a method to diagram an entire process with different symbols to document one process step and actions, when implemented paves organizations the way for a more visible and transparent top-down view of their workflows
- Workflow automation addresses communication improvements among your team. Once a visible workflow is automated, employees know what needs to be done next and by who accurately
- It also allows your employees to collaborate in completing work collectively
- Visible workflows let you identify unnecessary tasks easily and eliminate the redundant tasks from your process
- Digital workflow platforms enable you to easily review organizations business operations
Benefits of workflow automation
Some of the benefits of workflow automation are:
- helps you with optimized workflow cycles
- saves man-hours by automating repetitive and redundant tasks
- eliminate manual intervention involved in completing a work
- improved visibility to the process
- helps you identify bottlenecks in the process and eliminate it
- improves employee satisfaction, and work-life balance
- Dashboards and Analytics Tools gives you complete visibility to Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and improvement areas
- improved internal and external communication
- it offers flexibility to modify the process to the changing business need with easy to use no-code platforms
- with the ability to integrate with your email, calendars, and other applications, it offers efficient ways of task management
Uses of workflow automation
Workflow automation can be implemented from admin to finance and IT to marketing. Here are some of the departments in your company which can benefit from workflow automation:
Human resources
- Reduce paperwork
- With automated approvals, Sourcing to recruiting of candidates is made faster
- Process Compliance
- Enhanced employee onboarding/offboarding experience
Finance
- Document management
- Faster approvals
- Auto-payments of recurring invoices
- Setup a simpler Payroll management system
- Seamlessly transfer data to other accounting software for better management
Marketing
- Delegate repetitive to the system
- Collaborate with teams in multiple locations
- Ensure content gets approved by the right authorized individuals
Some of the key features to look for in Workflow Automation Software:
- Online forms
- Individual and Team assignment
- Scheduling
- Progress tracking
- Communication tools
- Customizable notifications
- Reporting
- Document management
- Integration capabilities
- Prebuilt Templates
Conclusion:
Streamlining your processes with a highly visible, intuitive workflow management tool, will help you improve team efficiency and reduce room for error. There are many tools like monday.com, Kissflow, asana, cflow in the market. Each of these platforms has its advantages. Carefully evaluate a solution that suits your organization’s needs or contact a certified implementation partner like Scalerater for a seamless transition.
About the Author
Mr. Vijayanand S.
CEO, Scalerater LLP
Scalerater, a Start-up based out of Coimbatore, is focused on releasing bottlenecks to Scale & Accelerate Business. Our Partnerships are chosen carefully to aid End Users. They allow Business Owners complete Flexibility & Control in managing and growing their business. Scalerater is an authorized reseller & implementation partner for leading CRM, BPM, Customer Experience, Productivity and Mobile Device Management Tools.
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vjanands/
He can be contacted at Mobile : +91 90940 43330 or e-mail : [email protected]
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