Do you have too much to do with too little time to get it all done? We can help take a load off with the use of automation for certain manual tasks.
Automation involves using technology to take over manual, recurring tasks that take up too much of your team’s time. Whether you’re utilizing applications for IT automation, network automation, business process automation, system integration, or other uses, automation-enabling software is revolutionizing businesses everywhere.
According to Salesforce’s “Trends in Workflow Automation” report, those who have implemented automation are seeing an almost 75% increase in time savings every work week. This is equivalent to at least four hours saved per 40-hour week thanks to automation.
They also reported that 95% of IT leaders are prioritizing process automation, whether it’s for automated incidence responses, purchase order tracking, or asset management.
Not only can automated tasks save you from unnecessary headaches, but implementing automation can also give you a competitive advantage by improving employee and customer satisfaction.
Business process automation (BPA)
Some positions, more than others, are in charge of updating information regularly. These tasks can be tedious and time-consuming. However, when you automate many of these manual tasks, there is more time for the employee to analyze data, make more informed decisions, and work on other less tedious tasks for which they are responsible. Automating these tasks is all a part of business process automation (BPA).
BPA includes and is known by other terms as well, such as workflow automation, basic automation, task automation, process automation, robotic process automation (RPA), chatbots, and more.
There are many areas in which BPA can play a huge role in saving you time, including decision assistance, digital process automation, integration, service automation, sales automation, robotic process automation, and hyper automation.
Process automation uses rule-based logic and algorithms to perform and optimize tasks to increase efficiency. It involves automating processes and centralizing data and requires less human involvement and input.
Automation saves your team from unnecessary frustration and wasted time, improves communication, accessibility, and efficiency, and decreases human error and workflow bottlenecking. And in a short amount of time, it can also save you quite a bit of money.
One simple example of automation would be automating the new address of an employee who just moved. Instead of manually entering their new address into every system and program, you can enter it once into one location and it will automatically update everywhere else, saving time and minimizing human error. By utilizing workflow automation within your systems and programs, you don’t need to worry about forgetting to add it to a certain location.
Take a good look at your company’s processes
If you’ve decided you want to start saving time, avoiding frustration and boredom, and gaining file accuracy, you first need to identify your current processes, problem areas, and goals to decide what should and can be automated.
Identify processes, problem areas, and goals
As you go through your current company processes, identify tasks that are repeated often, involve multiple and/or repetitive steps, clicks, and various teams, and could easily include mistakes made by humans. All of these areas should be considered as potential areas to automate.
While you don’t need to change every problem area immediately, you should implement changes as soon as possible with the most problematic and time-consuming tasks.
To identify areas that can be improved and automated, we recommend:
- Diagraming the tasks and processes of each employee, department, and system.
- Keeping track of how long these tasks currently take to complete, not only so you can identify problematic areas, but also so you can monitor the time you’ve saved once automation is in place.
- Listing everyone involved in the identified processes, whether they are people involved in the work itself or they need to be notified of updates.
- Identifying the data and systems involved.
- Keeping track of how much these processes are costing your company as they are right now. Factor in time spent on delaying launches, shipping, etc.
Oftentimes, identifying problems and goals go hand in hand. You may identify a problem, and your goal is to solve the problem and stop it from continuing.
For example, if your goal is to improve employee satisfaction because they’ve been stressed, first understand what they are stressed out about. Do they have a to-do list a mile long and don’t have the time to accomplish what is needed? Gather a list of all their regular tasks, their processes, and the times it takes to accomplish these tasks and decide which tasks can be automated (such as minimizing the amount of time they spend on seeking out necessary data).
Do you want to improve customer satisfaction? Identify the bottlenecks and implement automation where necessary to shorten the time it takes to address customer concerns and resolve issues.
To make improvements wherever possible with automation, you first need to understand the needs and processes of your business, employees, and customers.
You and your team should also come up with measurable business goals, such as increasing specific sales numbers in the next quarter after identifying ways to improve processes that could directly affect those numbers.
As your business evolves, so should the processes you have set in place. By choosing to automate processes, you’re benefiting not only your business but your employees and your customers as well.
WARNING: Just because tasks may be automated doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be monitored.
Be sure to continue monitoring your goals and key performance indicators. This information is imperative to understand how much automation is helping your business and employees achieve goals.
Monitoring goals often is forgotten amidst the hustle and bustle of daily work, but it is vital to understand how your company and work processes are performing. If business improves or declines, you can evaluate processes and see how they are affecting your business.
Now that you know what automation can look like, it’s time to choose the right tool.
Choose the right tool: Automation with SmartConnect and Popdock
SmartConnect
Since most members of your organization may not have highly technical experience when it comes to software development and coding, a low-code tool like SmartConnect is ideal. It alleviates the workload of your IT specialists as well because they will no longer have to assist any time someone needs access to specific data.
SmartConnect saves your team from data inaccessibility issues, mundane tasks, and workflow bottlenecks.
Whether you need to automate manual processes, integrate data, improve data accuracy, or reduce errors, SmartConnect is the only tool you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to change. We recommend using SmartConnect for your automation scenarios with files.
Automate
With SmartConnect, you can easily integrate any file with accuracy and efficiency. Connect integration and automation between systems, and automate cloud software sales and invoicing, shipping processes, and much more. You no longer need to manually input data and worry if you’ll trigger a major mistake. SmartConnect assures you that your file data is accurate and up to date.
Whenever you’re using a file within an automated process, SmartConnect is the perfect solution. It gives you a variety of options to work with myriad file types and file/folder locations, both local and online (FTP/SFTP, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft OneDrive).
Bring live data into your spreadsheets, or send data to other apps, right from Excel. No more back-and-forth or manual data entry mundanity. Just enter your data in the defined format and hit “send to SmartConnect.” Effortlessly fetch data from your data sources directly into Excel using the intuitive “Get Data” function.
Integrate
With options like scheduled, event-based, and changes-only triggers, you’ll never have to manually run integrations again. Plus, whether you need to perform additional processing steps or trigger certain actions before, during, or after an integration, you’ll be able to easily build and monitor integrations. Drag-and-drop mapping makes it easy to manipulate data, and with SmartConnect’s multi-data source support, you can bring in data from all your favorite sources.
Transform
Get the data you want, the way you want it. Transform your data with a flick of a wand. Say goodbye to time-consuming and error-prone processes and hello to calculations, date functions, and scripting transformations that will help you conjure up the data you need. Want to calculate shipping costs based on weight and destination? No problem. Need to convert data from one format to another? Consider it done.
Develop
SmartConnect’s developer options and REST API give you all the flexibility you need. With scripting options and a library of functions, you can get creative and build custom transformations and connections. Call integrations from anywhere, and ensure your data is always up-to-date and flowing smoothly.
Whether you’re a technical guru or a non-technical user, SmartConnect by eOne Solutions will simplify your workflow.
Popdock
Popdock is a great interface to query any type of data in the cloud or on-premise. We created the capability to use Scheduled Jobs so you can get the information you want, without logging into any system (except your email!).
Key elements of this are selecting which connector, list, and favorite you want to publish. After selecting list details, you can choose the options on where and when you want this report to be sent. You can send to multiple email addresses, change the subject of the email and choose the time of day this report should run. Additionally, you can choose the frequency this report should run. It could be every day, Monday through Friday, only on Wednesday, on the first and fifteenth of the month or the last day of the month.
Here are a few examples of situations that you can be notified on:
- Low on Inventory levels
- Customers that have more than $5000 in receivables that haven’t paid for 90 days
- Leads that do not have a source on them in your CRM system
- Declined credit cards
- Vendors that we owe more than $1000
There are an unlimited number of situations, but you can see where a process that automatically runs without human interaction could be beneficial to your organization.
Need assistance?
If you have any further questions about automating your tasks with SmartConnect and Popdock, contact our sales team at sales@eonesolutions.com or 888-319-3663 ext. 1 for more personalized help answering your questions. They are always eager to provide help and answers for your automation needs.