This article will tell you the benefits of Power automation, especially process automation. There are an awful lot of business processes that are still (partly) performed manually, and this often costs an unnecessary amount of time and money. In addition, the chance of errors is also much greater with manual actions.
There are processes in every organization. No matter how small the organization is, they are there. But as an organization grows (which can sometimes happen very quickly), the processes become more complex. There will come a time when an approach that is more efficient and certainly less error-prone is required. Because the more actions and the more links, the greater the chance of errors.
Map your processes
Processes are accompanied by information, often with a lot of information, and before you know it, you have lost the overview. That is why it is important to structure the process. You do this by looking at the process from a distance and describing it without judgment. Which actions do you perform daily or very regularly?
Mapping out the processes creates clarity and makes the structure and points for improvement visible. Which actions together form a process and can be automated? This is no higher math, and you can do it yourself.
Once you have defined the different process flows, you can start with the next step towards automation. You can see if there is a standard application that supports your process. When it comes to accounting, for example, there are plenty of packages to choose from. If the processes in your organization are much more complex, it can be smart to delve into custom applications.
Custom software has the great advantage that it can support and automate any process, regardless of the complexity of the process. If you want more information about how Senet can automate your business process through a custom application, please contact us using the form below.
The 6 benefits of automation
Automation has some clear advantages. For most organizations, the main benefits are time and cost savings. But there is more to be gained through automated processes:
- Employees work more efficiently and are more productive. For example, an account manager now has more time to go out to the (potential) customers because the lead generation process is much more efficient and takes less time.
- The entire process becomes less error-prone because manual operations are reduced. Because where people work, mistakes are made, which is well known. All are perfectly human, but it is very important to keep the risks as small as possible in some sectors. For example, consider healthcare. But it is also a pity in the industry if a plane ticket is sold for a ‘zero’ less due to a small mistake. Think of the error rates. An automated process can take care of this, provided it is set up correctly.
- Insight into and overview of the process for everyone. With an application, it is possible to build a tool for monitoring, status, and reporting. This makes the question ‘what about X?’ can always be answered objectively and at the touch of a button. Everything is measurable, which is nice for improvements and process optimization.
- One uniform process in which all ‘rules’ are laid down so that everyone goes through the process in the same way. This creates a continuous quality level, and you do not always have to check everything manually.
- Your organization becomes scalable, and growing becomes easier. The process is much less person-sensitive. If that one important person is now on vacation, the process can continue. And where you used to depend on new people for further growth, growing is now much easier and faster with automated processes. Best practice makes it possible to copy (part of) a successful workflow to a new workflow. And suppose it works well at location A. Why not at location B? Especially if you have purchased a custom web application, this is very easy to use if you have multiple locations in your organization.
- A system can also perform automatic actions outside office hours, on weekends, evenings, and holidays without paying 200% of wages. Process automation is certainly cheaper. Of course, an investment must be made in the beginning in purchasing software and setting up the workflow, but in the long term, you will enjoy this greatly through considerable time and cost savings. And that’s not to mention the mistakes that are prevented by this.
