Improve Your Business With Automation

Don’t make the simple mistake of thinking that business process automation is only for large enterprises! Smaller businesses can definitely benefit from countless types of business automation. Whether you already run a business, want to start one, or work for a large corporation, automation is something everyone should be thinking about.

It could be something that revolutionizes your business! Here are 10 quick reasons why you should automate your business processes:

1. Stay Competitive
2. Reduce Error
3. Increase Speed
4. Increase Productivity
5. Build Volume
6. Eliminate Steps
7. Format Compliance
8. Reduce Waste
9. Save Money
10. Expand Capabilities

And to top it off, here are 6 different ways automation can help improve your business:

1. Improve Process Efficiency

Every business is consistently looking for a way to effectively improve efficiency. If you truly want to become efficient, automation is something you will have to consider. There are so many different ways you can utalize automation to improve processes. It’s all about trying to make sure you don’t waste time on unnecessary process steps. These are the kinds of things that humans are worse at than machines :)
Machines can do things over and over again and not make an error or tire. Humans tend to slow down and work at different speeds throughout the day (are you a morning person or a night owl?). With that being said, some processes can be made much more efficient by using automation. For example, creating a workflow process using mobile forms or creating an automatic marketing campaign.

2. Reduce Costs

Saving time and most importantly money is at the top of every business owner’s mind. Manual tasks are performed one at a time and are by nature slower than automated tasks and processes. Sure, there are some tasks that cannot be automated, but a surprising number of them can be. Automated tasks eliminate time-intensive steps like manually filling out customer orders and in turn mailing them, and they reduce paper and ink usage as well, because they’re done electronically. Savings in terms of time and resources add up significantly over the course of a year. Think about how much money you spend on paper, ink, and envelopes, and an employees time spent on this particular activity in a given year.

3. Ensure Quality and Consistency

Business process automation ensures processes are carried out with consistency and accuracy, because users are stepped through it in a prescribed way every time. That means no steps are inadvertently omitted or forgotten, nobody can cut corners, and you can expect results of a process to meet standards every single time. This can be valuable in heavily regulated industries where processes must be tracked and audit trails are required, since business process automation software can automatically generate audit trails and record real-time analytics.

4. Speed Up Processes

It only makes sense that automated processes are faster than standard manual processes! Think about a process like business purchase orders. When done manually, the result is a pile of paperwork that could potentially be lost from passing around, and time spent writing down line items and information. With business process automation, however, purchase orders can be submitted electronically (so none of them will get lost), and employees can create more in less time. You can even make the process mobile-friendly so travelers can submit purchase orders on the go.

5. Greater Accuracy/Reduce Errors

In any business it’s a good idea to ensure that things are accurate. The best way to deal with errors is to prevent them in the first. When accuracy becomes a problem, your products will become variable and inconsistent. That’s not what any business wants. There are all kinds of examples of machinery that can help you to automate processes and improve accuracy and consistency. Business process automation eliminates paper forms, and can make it so blanks must be completed with the right type of information before a form is submitted. Fewer errors mean less time spent tracking down and correcting them. When you do this, it will be much easier to keep your customers satisfied because you can be confident that they are getting top products and services. That could help you to retain customers, as well as generate word of mouth sales. Don’t underestimate how important that could be to the long-term success of your company.

6. Easier to Track Data

With business process automation, data can be collected every time a process happens. That means you are able to analyze your data in real-time. That data can be made into reports that track the metrics that are important to your business. How many employees completed safety training? What percentage of fleet vehicles was reserved on a given day? How many customer service calls come in on Mondays compared to Thursdays? The right business process automation software lets you track the metrics that matter for continual business improvement.

In Conclusion…

Business process automation is for organizations of all types and sizes. It doesn’t require custom programming or a big IT investment. In fact, you can create automated forms and workflows even if you know nothing about programming. Forms On Fire makes it easy, with an intuitive drag-and-drop form designer. Your electronic business forms can look exactly like your paper forms for a quick learning curve. And forms can easily be connected into workflows that are efficient, less error-prone, and easier to track.