For most small businesses, overlooked details, skipped workflows, and repetitive tasks are everyday occurrences. Well, some mistakes here and there are to be expected, but if these habits and mishaps become regular, it will affect the efficiency of the business workflow.
Case in point: A study done on workflow automation revealed that business managers spend around eight hours a week manually working on unstructured data. One in 4 respondents in the survey spent as much as 20 hours a week working on these same tasks! Why immerse in an obviously ineffective method when you can leverage the power of technology to automate repetitive tasks?
Reluctance to change is the primary reason, but can you imagine all the tasks that one can accomplish in eight hours, much less in 20 hours? If your company is hesitant, here are 3 reasons why you should summon the power of a BPM (Business Process Management) system and see how it transforms your business.
First, let’s quickly refresh what BPM is all about.
Brief Overview Of BPM
In simple terms, it is a way to supervise processes in your business. As a business manager and owner, you take a step back and make sure that all the processes involved in running the business are effective and efficient.
Business process management is different from task or project management. Task management is about dealing with tasks and activities that could surface in a project. More often than not, these situations happen only once.
On the other hand, BPM is sort of a manual on how to get the job done. These are repeated, and a project manager ensures that everything is running as efficiently as possible. They should eliminate whatever obstacles are in the way. Even when everything runs relatively smoothly, the employee still needs to identify potential opportunities to decrease the amount of time it takes to complete a particular process.
That is why, as a process manager, you need to be convinced why you should make the change now. Let’s start with reason #1.
Reasons Why You Should Use Business Process Automation
- Operational Efficiency
This is something you should be on the lookout for all the time, right? And it’s the first reason why you should pull the trigger for change. Business process automation software, otherwise called a BPM system, practically eliminates human errors and workflow bottlenecks. It may not be possible to automate everything in your business. However, for repetitive manual tasks, you must do so.
- Cost Reduction
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if business costs are down, there’s more profit at hand. After all, making money is a businessperson’s primary goal.
How does process automation lower costs? Again, manual execution of processes that could be automated is severely prone to human mistakes. When errors are made, employees spend a considerable amount of their paid time plugging holes. You’re paying for their time for a task that they should have done already, and it’s only going to end up in a vicious cycle. With business process automation software in tow, it will put a stop to the madness.
- Keeps employee morale high
Automating business processes decreases friction and red tape for employees. In turn, they will get the job done quickly. BPM software breaks the dreaded work monotony while keeping approvals faster. This allows employees to focus on the rewarding aspects of their job, increasing their productivity and satisfaction.
Conclusion
Needless to say, business process automation has become a need rather than a luxury, even for small businesses. And what’s not to like? It will help businesses in ways that a human workforce couldn’t, improving efficiency and lowering costs while keeping employee confidence high.