Business functions in the past were all done manually, requiring employees to manage even the smallest and simplest of tasks individually, every day. Manual office work, therefore, required a lot of patience and accuracy for the sake of getting the job done quickly and efficiently; human errors and time constraints, however, made these tasks more difficult than they should be.
Over the past few decades, businesses everywhere have been tackling new and more challenging markets, and with consumer demands becoming more complicated, manual approaches to tackling certain business functions are becoming inefficient.
With business process automation or BPA, businesses can automate various processes, allowing management and staff to dedicate time and attention to more important aspects of their business. As many businesses turn to the internet as a platform for their operations, the need to automate is inevitable, even for small businesses.
Automation is growing rapidly and it’s estimated that 25% to 46% of job tasks in Australia may be automated by 2030. BPA has helped businesses all over the world grow by significantly improving their productivity.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how BPAs make a business more productive.
Keeps human errors to a minimum
One of the biggest challenges in running a business is maintaining accuracy. We’re all human, so errors are bound to occur when people handle a task manually.
The more complex a task is, the more people it will require. This increases the chance of incorrect information being shared between different departments, leading to confusion and errors that should have been easy to avoid.
It’s estimated that 75% of data losses in businesses are caused by human errors. These errors can lead to costly repercussions, slowing down business processes and negatively impacting productivity. This downtime can make it difficult for a business to keep up with consumer demand.
With business process automation, businesses can greatly reduce human errors. Process automation software and tools use AI and machine learning to maximise accuracy during tasks and prevent major errors from happening.
Business process automation can centralise communication within your business, making sure that the information shared between teams is accurate. Essentially, BPAs remove the human element from certain tasks to minimise errors and enhance productivity.
Improves process management and workflow
A critical determining factor of a business’ productivity is how well processes are managed. Businesses want to be able to focus on bigger and more vital tasks so that productivity can be improved; but the existence of small, less critical tasks makes it difficult to keep track of everything.
With BPAs, businesses can automate these smaller tasks and funnel more of their human resources and time into more important processes. BPAs will not only carry out small tasks but can even monitor and give results.
BPAs can also help improve productivity by streamlining workflow. Many processes in an organisation may be carried out by a single person and keeping track of these individual tasks can be a chore.
With workflow automation software, businesses can manage all their processes in one place and employees will be able to see exactly what tasks they have for the day. This degree of transparency promotes accountability by making employees aware of tasks they need to complete and this will, in turn, make them more productive.
Empowers employees
Taking control away from employees and automating their tasks may, at first, look like a scenario that would displease them — however, it can have the opposite effect.
Employees who are unhappy at work will feel less motivated to show results, and this will affect their overall productivity. Minor, repetitive tasks like data entry and sorting through emails might not be very attractive to employees, and in the long run will lower their satisfaction. By automating certain tasks, businesses can free up their staff to take on more challenging and rewarding work.
Every employee wants to feel like they contribute to the organisation in a significant way. Automating menial processes will give them a boost in morale, encouraging them to work harder to reach business goals.
As an added advantage, the promise of automation may be attractive to prospective employees; this could give businesses access to a large range of skills and talent that can further boost productivity.
Enhances customer services
Customer service is critical for keeping customers satisfied and engaged with a business. A customer service department’s productivity and efficiency are paramount for keeping customers happy and bringing in more sales.
With the help of CRM software, businesses can automate tasks such as organising customer information; this will allow them to focus on serving their customers better and giving them a quality service or a product.
Customer complaints are some of the trickier aspects of customer service, and sometimes it’s difficult to trace a complaint to the relevant department, leading to delays in getting the customer issues resolved. With some of their tasks automated, customer service employees will have more time and opportunities to improve their productivity and skills by working on customer-oriented tasks that automation can’t handle, like conversing with customers and answering their queries.
Business process automation — leave it up to the computers
Modern businesses have come a long way from the manual paperwork and bookkeeping of the past.
Today, automation has opened new avenues to help businesses streamline their work processes and increase productivity.
Regardless of the size of your business, automation can introduce it to a world of change and opportunity.
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