Small business owners have been traditionally slow to the punch when it comes to deploying breakthrough technologies, but this has started to change in the past few years. Cloud computing, unified communications and other major movements in corporate IT have presented entrepreneurs with a wealth of affordable and revolutionary technologies that actually can be provisioned and used without major enterprise-level budget or expertise.
Automation is likely one of the most important types of technologies with respect to optimizing a small business for the highest possible productivity and efficiency at the lowest cost. One of the best places to start with these deployments is business process automation, as the tools can empower employees, managers and the entrepreneurs themselves with all of the support solutions necessary to maximize their performances on a large scale.
Examples of automation can be in the back office for AP invoice processing, expense report processing, HR employee onboarding or the front office for customer proposal review, marketing collateral review and anywhere in between. The important aspect to remember is that many of these tools are now out-of-the-box ready to create simple workflows that can eliminate many simple but mundane tasks such as vacation request, as well as any complex workflows that may require advanced logic and validation against line of business systems.
In the past, these workflow automation tools were very flow driven and likened to structured processes. The tools today can still address that philosophy, but are also adept at handling unstructured processes that are event driven and require users to act on the fly and adjust the flow on the fly.
Everything to gain
Small Business Trends recently listed several reasons why entrepreneurs need to begin taking business process automation and productivity software more seriously, asserting that completely neglecting these options is poor form for a variety of reasons. For one, the source explained that human resources will simply not be able to conduct its responsibilities in the most accurate and efficient possible fashion without using more modernized solutions and techniques.
Considering how quickly a company will feel the strain when a key position has not been filled, it should be clear enough why entrepreneurs must empower their human resources employees as soon as possible. What's more, the news provider pointed out that business productivity and process automation software will generally make client experiences far more preferable and beneficial, and it will be difficult to meet modern consumers' expectations without at least some of these tools.
According to Small Business Trends, integration and collaboration can also benefit through the use of business process automation software, and this will inherently lead to more progressive performance across the company.
Other benefits to keep in mind
With a strong BPA solution, small business owners can expect to enjoy a higher level of accountability, streamlined compliance performance, increased productivity and, maybe most importantly for entrepreneurs, more consistent applications of corporate rules and procedures.
Because the majority of time spent on processes is tied back to the movement of information, organizations that deploy effective process automation solutions can often see as much as 90 percent efficiency improvements as soon as the deployment has been completed.
