July 23, 2024 - A well-managed business continuously evaluates its processes to enhance efficiency by monitoring and analyzing various metrics, coupled with ongoing training and development for managers. Regularly reviewing, updating, changing, replacing, or eliminating processes ensures alignment with business goals across departments. This is where business process automation (BPA) comes into play.

What is business process automation?

Business process automation (BPA) leverages technology to assist with or replace manual, repetitive tasks. By automating these tasks, BPA can significantly improve efficiency, save time and money, reduce errors, and enhance transparency. BPA can take various forms and deliver results across different industries and departments. It's particularly effective for routine, repeatable tasks to use less of employees' time and skills.

BPA differs from business process management (BPM), encompassing a broader effort to regulate company-wide processes. While BPA focuses on specific, task-oriented workflows, often at the departmental level, it's a component of the larger BPM framework.

Business management solutions, like NetSuite, helps organizations operate more effectively by utilizing business process automation and providing real-time visibility into operational and financial performance.

BPA offers a wide range of benefits, including:

• Cost savings: Automation often reduces expenses compared to manual task performance.
• Time savings: BPA frees employees from mundane duties, allowing them to focus on more important tasks such as problem-solving, brainstorming innovative ideas, and building customer relationships.
• Process standardization: For global companies, training thousands of employees to perform tasks can be challenging. BPA helps standardize processes and results across different locations.
• Consistency over time: Automated processes exhibit less variability over days, weeks, or years compared to manual ones.
• Fewer errors: Automation minimizes the likelihood of manual errors.
• Improved data tracking: Sophisticated software excels at maintaining precise records of events, which is valuable for audits, analytics, and business insights.
• Enhanced transparency, accountability, and security: Superior data tracking improves transparency for leaders and stakeholders, fosters accountability, and helps prevent fraud by making financial transactions easily reviewable by managers.

Types of business process automation

A business process is a series of tasks and events designed to produce a particular outcome or achieve a specific result. Various business processes exist, including core, support, and long-tail methods. Each type plays a crucial part in the company and can be enhanced and automated for process excellence with a well-honed strategy and the right software.

BPA uses software to minimize and enhance human effort within specific business processes. Since each process consists of tasks and workflows, BPA aims to remove the manual aspect of work from as many elements as possible. Essentially, BPA software automates and optimizes various processes, which is called low-code automation.

While BPA typically refers to a component of process management strategy, it also encompasses several specific types of automation, including:

• Task automation: This eliminates or minimizes labor-intensive or time-consuming tasks within a process, such as sending emails, capturing signatures, generating documents, or updating statuses.
• Workflow automation: This applies automation to a distinct set of tasks and activities. Some workflows can be fully automated, while others may require human intervention for decision-making or critical thinking tasks.
• Process automation: Unlike task automation, process automation evaluates an entire end-to-end system to identify automation opportunities. It involves automating individual tasks and the workflows that constitute a process.
• Robotic process automation (RPA): RPA is ideal for structured, redundant tasks that happen consistently with no exceptions. Tasks like logging into systems, gathering data, and transferring that information are well-suited for RPA, as they require no decision-making.
• Intelligent automation: This is a multifaceted solution that combines task automation, process automation, and RPA with AI, data analysis, and other technological advancements to automate higher-level tasks, including decision-making.

Deciding which business process to automate

Business processes can be automated based on roles or specific workflows that are best suited for automation. Simplifying process automation by role enables a CEO, CFO, CIO, or line of business manager to easily automate many of their daily or weekly tasks.

Another approach to automation involves focusing on related or grouped processes. For example, foundational automation is built on best practices learned by software vendors from years of experience across various industries. Other examples include prebuilt reports and pre-configured roles in business intelligence (BI) dashboards and metrics to guide automation efforts. Plus, intelligent phased implementations focus on incremental process automation, allowing progress with minimal business disruptions.

Ready to transform your business?

Mastering efficiency through business process automation solutions empowers companies to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance productivity. Companies can significantly improve performance and agility by strategically implementing automation across roles and workflows. Leveraging best practices, prebuilt tools, and phased implementations ensures these advancements are achieved with minimal disruption, paving the way for sustainable growth and success.

Contact Citrin Cooperman’s Digital Services Practice and discover how our tailored BPA solutions can revolutionize your operations and drive your business forward.