How To Automate Manual Business Processes [Your Guide To Success]

Are you still working with clunky software and cumbersome spreadsheets? Chances are, you have several manual processes within your company that are slowing you down and causing pain points.

Before you automate manual business processes, it’s important to understand how to approach this effort strategically. Today, we’ll talk about the “why” behind process automation and share some general best practices for process improvement and ultimately, automation.

4 Benefits of Process Automation

Here are some positive changes you can expect around your workplace when you transition from manual-based to automated processes.

1. Improve Employee Morale

By automating your business processes, you free up team members who would otherwise have been stuck on repetitive tasks. Now, they have time to focus on more fulfilling tasks that were pushed aside.

In time, they’ll become more efficient, well-rounded employees. They’ll be more willing to embrace higher roles, learn new skills, and devote their loyalty to the company.

Morale can drag when systems and workflows are slow, but the opposite happens when they are automated.

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2. Work Any Time, from Anywhere

With automation, employees can work from any device, at any time, as long as they have the proper connectivity. This makes them more flexible, efficient, and productive. They can also work more proactively, taking care of tasks before the last minute.

3. Reduce the Risk of Human Error

If your company is relying on manual-based workflows, employees are the ones handling your most important data entries and calculations. Even if they’re highly experienced and trained, the reality is that mistakes can happen, especially when there are multiple people working on the job at once.

Something as small as transposing one number can have detrimental consequences. This isn’t a business risk that any organization wants to incur. By automating business processes, you can reduce or even eliminate this vulnerability.

4. Make Smarter Business Decisions

Are you using your data to your advantage, mining it for insights that can help you make better, more informed decisions?

If not, then a business automation system can bring many benefits. For example, you can leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your data management and provide users with customized dashboard views that show them real-time insights.

These insights can be used to make smart decisions about your company’s future. When you know where you are and where you’ve been, it’s easier to plan where you want to go.

How to Automate Manual Business Processes the Right Way

By taking the time to lay the groundwork early, you can set your teams up for success when it’s time to get started automating your business processes. Here are a few steps to help you get there.

1. Identify Your Core Functional Areas

If you’re committed to automation, you might be eager to start daydreaming about all the ways it can change your workplace. This might include cost savings you think you’ll generate once you start replacing roles with robots.

While this is exciting to think about, companies still need human intervention to function. Instead of analyzing org charts and thinking about swaps and substitutions, take a step back. Identify the core functional areas of your organization that can benefit the most from automation. Which areas will require business process reengineering? This might include your sales team, project managers, or customer service representatives.

2. Understand the Roles

How well do you understand the roles you’re trying to improve with automation? You need to clearly define how each workflow happens, including which tasks are required and who is responsible for each one.

For automation to work, we recommend creating standard operating procedures (SOP) documents for each process. Employees in each department can help create these SOPs, as they will have the closest working knowledge about their roles.

3. Explore Repetitive Tasks

Once you know the core functional areas you want to improve with automation, break it down even more. Think about which jobs within those areas are routine and repetitive.

To find repetitive tasks, start by reviewing the SOPs that your employees created.

4. Prioritize Key Areas

By this point, you’ll likely have a long list of repetitive tasks that automation could support and improve. Looking at the list, you might feel overwhelmed, unsure where to start.

Start by prioritizing functional areas you want to automate. Think about which areas will see the biggest operational improvements. Which ones will have the greatest impact on your customers?

Rank each process based on the benefits you expect it to provide to your workforce, clients, and overall business.

5. Consider Digital Transformation

To derive the most benefits from process automation, consider implementing enterprise systems as part of a digital transformation. Look for systems that will support your transformation, such as ERP, CRM, or SCM systems.

Learn More About Business Process Automation

If you’ve found that your teams are growing sluggish, the workflows you’re following could be to blame.

When you automate manual business processes, you transform your company and allow employees to be as productive as possible. This improves morale, brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and your bottom line.

Interested in learning more about process automation? Contact one of our ERP consultants below to connect.