Latest posts by Maricel Rivera (see all)
- 5 Productivity and Collaboration Apps to Test for Free - May 31, 2014
- Workflow Automation: What It Is and What It Can Do for Your Business - October 8, 2013
- When BYOD Means BAU, Your Phone Signal Can’t Go Loco on You - August 26, 2013
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We live in a world that operates on autopilot – the earth spinning in its orbit 24 hours a day, and revolving around the sun 365 days a year, unless it’s a leap year.
The average corporate busybody survives a workday comprised of routine tasks –organizing files and documents from varied sources, creating charts, graphs and other reports from spreadsheets spanning several different departments, reviewing and approving budgets, expense requests and invoices, resolving IT helpdesk issues – the list can go on and on.
Repetition may be the mother of learning, but repetition, too, is the father of boredom that then morphs into errors, mistakes, rework, missed deadlines, canceled contracts, and top talent leaving for life-work balance.
Some things are better accomplished by a live person, and some others left automated.
Workflow automation, in a nutshell
A workflow, according to Investopedia, is the sequence of tasks required to arrive at a desired outcome, usually involving multiple stages and participants.
In today’s business landscape where software utilization is the industry norm for streamlining business processes and operations, automating or managing a workflow entails investing in an application that’s either pre-made, customized, or both – both, meaning, the software, like Comindware Tracker, comes with pre-built templates that can also be tweaked according to your specific business needs, eliminating steep learning curves or complex programming know-how.
When automating your workflows, you first have to design a workflow model. The software then takes care of task tracking and administration while providing real-time visibility to all involved parties. This eliminates the need for constant status meetings or project updates just so everyone is in the loop, among many other things.
What can you get from automating your workflows?
Aside from not chasing your staff away with boring, repetitive work, here are some of the benefits of workflow automation:
1. Team collaboration
In the job site, individual processes are becoming obsolete. Jobs are now better accomplished by teams. Big tasks are broken down in smaller chunks and distributed to team members for faster and easier execution. Team collaboration, therefore, is essential. Team collaboration, as you are probably aware, is fostered by effective communication, which the right workflow automation application encourages
2. Increased productivity
If every task is done right the first time, workflows and projects progress swiftly and smoothly, which, in turn, leaves room for more tasks to be accomplished. If every task is tracked and accounted for, redundancies are eliminated, freeing more staff to do other value-adding activities.
3. Data management
Imagine having to go through various files, documents and spreadsheets to secure the raw data you need for a report spanning, say, twelve quarters. That’s three years worth of data. If these are scattered across inboxes, hard drives, and stacks and stacks of manila folders, the report is going to take you a good bit of time to complete.
Automating your workflows allows you the benefit of a single repository, making your data search a relative breeze.
4. Real-time visibility
For a project or department manager, knowing the status of tasks assigned to his/her team as they happen is a must. Real-time visibility allows him/her to determine whether or not deadlines will be met on budget and according to specifications. With knowing comes the power to devise mitigating actions, if needed, to ensure that everything goes as planned.
Through workflow automation, you get a central dashboard that provides managers this level of visibility. Further, built-in but customizable charts, graphs and templates make reports generation relatively instantaneous.
5. Best practices discovery
If you have top-notch database management, plus an efficient reporting tool, discovering best practices and areas for improvement doesn’t have to mean jumping through hoops.
6. Improved customer/partner relations
The ever-growing prominence of Web 2.0 applications has empowered customers in ways unheard of decades ago. Using role-based access controls (RBAC), you can grant your customers access to information that will help them better understand your products and processes, and a platform that affords them the chance to air their views that can, in turn, help you better what you offer.
Your supplier/vendor partners can similarly be allowed access to data that concern them, speeding up transactions entered into with them.
7. Cost efficiency
Businesses, big or small, are continually finding ways to cut down on costs. Errors, reworks and whatnot do not obviously contribute to this goal. Having a reliable software solution in place saves you not just time but the added cost of having to redo erroneous tasks that, if not spotted at the earliest possible instance, may cause your business to lose more money by failing to meet deadlines.
Conclusion
Automation may sound a tad too mechanical, if you’re all for personalization. But if you’re to survive in today’s business landscape, streamlining routine processes to maximize your resources sometimes is a no-brainer.
Image credit: photostock | FreeDigitalPhotos.net
