While organizations of all sizes may struggle with the timely processing and fulfillment of requests, larger companies may suffer especially. As organizations grow, their requirements will increase in scale and volume—yet processes sometimes remain manual, like the back and forth sending of emails.
The delay and inaction caused by reading and answering emails to get approvals on company processes hinder growth dramatically! As such, process automation technology needs to be integrated to make things faster, more accurate, and effective. It also saves the business plenty of money and recovers the lost productivity brought about by manual work.
Process Automation and Workflow Automation
When reviewing the approval workflows in a company, one will observe that they typically involve several departments across the organization. The appropriate process automation software will help you execute needed approvals end-to-end. Let’s take, for example, a clearance process for a resigned employee.
An employee leaving the company would need to secure approval from their immediate superior and division head using a form signed by clearing officers from other departments. These might include logistics and asset management, finance, and HR. Upon the return of the employee’s accountabilities, such as their laptop, mobile phone, and other specialized equipment needed for their role, they often have to go to finance to seek clearance. They go there, paper in hand—only to be sent back to asset management for further processing.
The employee discovers another list of accountabilities under them that should be under their teammate. As a result, they have to fill up a transfer of accountability form, which needs to be signed by several division heads to return to asset management and finance. Even then, the transferred assets might not be cleared because of their value, which is something the finance clearing officer needs to bring up with their immediate supervisor and division head!
This story can go on and on, but this snippet illustrates the tedious nature of manual processes. Not only do these take up precious amounts of time, but they are also prone to error and very costly—just to secure one approval, to boot!
Automation will force the process to follow a logical sequence of events with the right limitations, resulting in a workflow that makes sense. It can establish rules that will generate pertinent information to the next person after one step has been approved. Specific documentation can be required for each step to ensure compliance and completeness and reduce the back and forth trips between offices.
This process is part of a larger digital transformation that will help the organization streamline and simplify other procedures to eliminate manual work.
The Benefits of Automation Software
The most apparent benefits have already been described above: firstly, the clarity in the process, and second, saving time. There are a few other benefits from automating workflows that are worth noting, among which are the following:
Processes are Standardized and Streamlined
There is no room for useless deviation and missing requirements in a standardized and streamlined process because everybody knows how to accomplish what is needed and when it must be done. This creates a straightforward policy execution that is consistent across all users.
Approvals are Done More Quickly
Long waiting times could seriously hurt your authority and credibility, especially when it comes to finances. An automated approval workflow will allow things to move more fluidly, especially if you can provide more immediate responses internally.
Audits and Compliance Monitoring are Much Simpler
Automated workflows provide audit teams to ensure compliance by providing the necessary transparency on documentation, interactions, and other process details. To ensure that your automated workflow is compliant, start from the beginning when designing the process to ensure that it meets all regulatory requirements! Your company will have cleaner audit trails in no time.
Conclusion
For many organizations, workflow automation is the key to getting rid of bottlenecks hindering growth opportunities. Your employees could be spending those hours wasted emailing back and forth, working on a new flagship product or a key project instead. The time to do away with manual work is now; take your business forward with automation software and a modern workflow management system.
Here at Digital Fractal, we work for both small and large companies to find solutions to some of the most complex problems. We do this through business process automation, helping your business move away from manual processes to more efficient systems. To know how we can accelerate digital transformation for your business, contact us for a quote today!