Workflow automation packs a lot of benefits for businesses and enterprises that use it. From saving such companies the time and money that it takes to manually conduct business processes to reduce errors and inefficiencies in the business process, workflow automation is a blessing.

You probably have heard about workflow automation a couple of times, but there are questions you need answers to, to be sold entirely to the idea. How does workflow automation work? Can you automate all of your business processes? What apps can you use to automate your business? How can you set up a workflow automation app for your business?

We’ll answer all these questions in this post so that you too can join other successful businesses to enjoy the benefits of using workflow automation apps.

What is a Workflow Automation Application?

A workflow automation app is a software that allows you easily automate specific tasks in your business process. It processes data along a path that you’ve directed it to follow until it has completed an item in the process. The kinds of tasks you can easily automate with workflow apps include transferring data, giving approvals, or inputting information.

Some workflow app comes packed with all the functions you want while some are integrated with several other apps vital to your business operation. What a workflow automation app does is that it breaks down a workflow to bits of data required to complete a process and create a path that the data will follow.

How Does Workflow Automation Apps Work?

Workflow automation software helps you cut down the time it takes to complete a task. Say, for example, you are a sales representative in a company. Typically, you have to record each sale in a sales register, enter them at the end of every workday in an excel sheet, and email a report of your total sales to your supervisor and manager.

Should You Automate All Your Business Processes

No, you can’t automate every of your business process, especially at the start. It’s best first to automate repetitive processes that you do manually. Also, look for paper-based processes and have a high margin for error and automate them – for example, data collection.

What Areas of Your Business Can You Automate?

Different kinds of businesses in various industries can benefit from workflow automation. However, not every aspect or unit of the company can be automated. Here are departments within your enterprise that can benefit from using workflow automation software:

Human Resource: There are several processes in the human resource department that you can ease through automation. For example, the entire process of onboarding new staff, the process of leave approval, reviewing the team’s performance, and termination of a staff’s contract.

IT: Areas in the IT department that can use automation include requesting support and troubleshooting, keeping stakeholders up to date on ongoing projects, and asset management.

Finance: A lot of paperwork goes on in the finance department that can easily be automated, including the payment process and all other financial processes that require the filling and submission of forms for approval.

Sales: Almost all processes in your sales department need to be automated – documenting leads, following them up, placing them in segments, and sending reports.

Accounting: If there is one department in most companies that are already enjoying workflow automation, it is the accounting department. The recording of source documents and reconciliation of accounts to filing tax and auditing can benefit from automation.

How to Set Up a Workflow Automation Software

Now that you know some business processes in your enterprise can be automated, here are the following steps to get them automated.

Step One – visually represent the workflow you want to automate by using flow charts. It will help you get a birds-eye view of the workflow and identify gaps that should be filled or processes that can be merged.

Step Two – Get input from the users involved in the workflow to help you capture all the necessary steps in the workflow that will be automated. The purpose of this is to provide workflow automation software that adequately meets their needs.

Step Three – Browse for the best workflow automation system that best suits your user’s needs. Workflow automation software by Groupe.io is what you need if you want a system that can be easily customized to suit your business processes while integrating apps you use daily.

Step Four – Set Key Performance Indexes (KPIs) for the workflow you want to automate so that you can measure actual vs expected performance. KPIs to establish can include process completion percentage, average run-time of a process, and the rate of error of a process.

Step Five – Test the newly automated workflow for issues to ensure that no action is missing and that the selected workflow automation app works flawlessly.

Step Six – If no action or person is missing in the workflow process, train the users of the workflow software to use it effectively, launch the automated workflow, and monitor your KPIs for performance and decision-making.