Why Business Needs Automation
If we consider that profit and money are always the end results of running any business, we can safely say that automation is used to increase profits. But how it happens is another question.
A company’s profits can grow not only due to an increase in the number of clients but also because of the competent distribution of finances, and workflows, creating conditions in which greater profits are made with less effort.
Automation is where business management comes in, where budgets and resources are allocated. Companies can increase productivity by investing in software solutions that automate routine tasks.
An intelligent approach to automation is cost-effective. It is a productive way to speed up all company processes significantly. Automation allows a company to scale faster.
Benefits of Workflow Automation
Generally speaking, automation liberates employees’ time to perform more complex, skill-intensive, or creative tasks.
Any company that plans to grow in a competitive environment can use automation to free up additional resources, keep up with changes in the marketplace, and fine-tune its promotional strategy as needed.
In particular, in workflow automation, employees can shift routine tasks to programs and participate only in non-standard situations requiring decision-making.
This approach increases income from improving processes and, at the same time, reduces personnel expenses. You can automate many different business processes: calculating sales and profits, project management, human relations, customer service, order processing, website administration, etc.
Automation can concern an individual employee’s work or an entire process.
What is Personal and Business Process Automation
As we said before, automation is necessary when there is a possibility for a company’s expansion and growth. A large number of repetitive processes allow their automation. In addition, you can automate a single individual process or a system.
Personal workflow automation focuses on an employee’s individual type of repetitive activity. In some ways, a tool that solves this problem can be called a robot because it automatically performs routine work that does not require human intervention.
Business Process Automation focuses on reorganizing the company’s operations by adopting a more holistic strategy influenced by the most effective management techniques. It means that the company is tasked with developing its own methodology and applying its implementation tools.
Is there any contradiction between these two processes, and what should company managers pay attention to when thinking about implementing them?
The Difference Between Personal Automation and Business Automation
Globally, both corporate and personal workflow automation are sharpened to solve the same problems, namely, to speed up and simplify the work, make employees more productive, acquire new valuable skills, and reduce the number of errors caused by human factors.
And yet, some differences can play an essential role in choosing one another. So let’s consider a comparative table of key aspects:
| Personal Automation | Business Automation | |
| Corporate infrastructure upgrades | No need to modify existing company system, and operations | Requires complete or partial modification of company infrastructure |
| Implementation speed | Can be very fast, takes place directly at the employee’s workplace | Development takes many months, as changes affect the entire company |
| Implementation complexity | Tailored to the employee’s specific needs, flexible | Designed as a corporate system, rigid in implementation |
| Officer requirements | Often has ready-made solutions and does not require programming skills | Complex system requires expert programming skills |
| API restrictions | Easy to integrate and compatible with other applications and systems | Most often has its own API, the integration of software depends on the company’s and developers’ capacity |
Seeing this difference, we can conclude that personal process automation is a software solution tool. In contrast, business process automation leans more toward a whole methodology that is more complex and costly.
The personal automation tool is ideal for repetitive tasks and works excellently in structured, rule-based activities. Business process automation aims to define a flow or function to improve operational efficiency. Both of these processes can interact and complement each other when tasks arise that can slow down the overall pace of the process. It is the ideal choice.
Leveraging automation integration can help overcome silos, build and revise business processes, and provide more information to everyone in the enterprise. But at the same time, software tools have essential pitfalls that affect automation integration when developing business processes.
However, if the choice is still necessary, consider the following factors affecting the implementation process and subsequent results:
How soon do you need to implement automation?
Different automation tools require additional time to implement into the system. If you use an off-the-shelf solution, you can start the process immediately. However, it is worth considering the number of functions to be automated.
What is your investment budget?
It is cheaper to buy licenses and write a software robot than to launch a lengthy process of full-scale integration of bulky software affecting numerous people and processes of a company. Personal automation tools boast lower implementation costs than business process automation solutions, which can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 for a mid-level software system.
What functions do you need to automate?
If there aren’t many tasks to be automated, personal workflow automation will suffice. It will save time and money and free your hands. If, however, there are many such functions and they are multi-tasking, then business process automation is worth considering.
Do you have other programs with which the automation should be compatible?
If a company already uses specific software solutions, it is necessary to consider this. Automation often involves the transfer and uploading of data, the incompatibility of which can cause particular problems. The company’s IT infrastructure systems should be interconnected to facilitate data movement.
If you are still undecided about the right technology for your work processes, it would be a good idea to address the needs of your business and the scale of its operations.