How many simple, repetitive, and recurring tasks does your business have? Business process automation is the key to significant time and cost savings and greater growth potential. More than just process improvement, automation takes complex business tasks away from knowledge workers, freeing them to think strategically and creatively. Our business process automation experts here at Momentum can help optimize your business so you can focus on your goals. Learn more about why automation matters.

Business Process Automation Benefits

Ask an employee their least favorite part of their job. They will probably tell you it’s paperwork or spending time documenting the work they’ve completed. Those repetitive, tedious, and recurring tasks take away from valuable time to think creatively.

More complex business tasks are good candidates for automation, too. Before we dive deeper into what you can automate, we want to highlight these key benefits of automation:

• Frees knowledge workers to work human-only tasks
• Allows aspects of the business to run 24/7, such as email drip campaigns or supply chain management reports
• Reduces time and cost of performing recurring, repetitive tasks
• Creates predictable work outcomes and improves service
• Increases productivity by allowing employees to focus on bigger-picture goals
• Reduces risk of errors and duplication of effort

Why Does Automation Matter?

We often field questions from clients like, “We just implemented a new IT system which will speed up our processes, so we don’t need automation. Why should we make things more complicated by automating?”

Automation goes beyond simply improving or speeding up processes — it eliminates the need for a person to complete the task or set of tasks. For example, even with an advanced IT system, such as an online time-and-attendance (T&A) application, there are still tasks within the T&A process that could be automated. An automated T&A system could send leave requests to the approver, auto-fill time worked, send the time cards to payroll, and generate leave and work hours reports. All of these tasks can be completed automatically, creating an opportunity for a leaner payroll team and, ultimately, a more straightforward process to pay your employees.

We’ve coached dozens of clients on how to incorporate automation into their workflow. Here are just a few examples of how businesses of all sizes might automate:

• SAP supply chain management: Federal government logistics systems utilize SAP to conduct automated demand planning and inventory management
• Licensure tracking and management: Track licensure requests and renewals and automate renewal notifications.
• Configuration management: Keep technical publications, engineering drawings, and other documentation organized with a system that automatically moves documents forward through the signature process
• Electronic Health Records: Manage health data, appointment reminders, test results, and lab work in one central location with customized automation to reduce provider paperwork
• IT service requests and ticketing systems: Manage IT service tickets and auto-fill forms based on certain conditions; automatically route tickets to the appropriate desk-based on predetermined criteria

Organizations that had already embraced automation were better prepared when the pandemic forced us to transition to remote work. Companies that already used automatic processes, like an email drip campaign for new email subscribers or an automated requisitioning system, could maintain the speed of these automated tasks during the initial uncertainties over the lockdowns.

Getting Started with Process Automation

Leaders who invest in automation are setting up their organizations for success in the future. The more streamlined and focused your processes are, the better your chances are for growth and becoming the industry leaders. Momentum is passionate about providing expert guidance and coaching to organizations that are ready to automate, so contact us today to learn more.