Enterprise Automation – Understand How to Automate Your Enterprise

What is Enterprise Automation? 

Digital transformation is not a new phrase at all. It has refined how organizational processes are being carried out. Before this transformation, several limitations brought down the performance rate of these processes.

Hence, digital transformation altered the perception from inefficiency to efficiency. Enterprise Automation is one such solution that redefines and presents the processes in an enhanced way.

Enterprise automation is the process of automating and integrating all the necessary activities and processes using automation software. Through this process, the enterprise combines all the isolated automated processes and forms a comprehensive working culture. This transforms and promotes a collaborative and functional working of the enterprise.

Enterprise process automation enables a review system, where the processes are constantly scrutinized to ensure flawless performance and scan for areas that can benefit from automation or any other digital solutions.  

Specific to marketing, enterprise automation also entails enterprise marketing automation. So, what is enterprise marketing automation? 

Enterprise marketing automation (EMA) is an end-to-end automation solution for the marketing processes of an organization. EMA aids businesses in maintaining a consistent and long-lasting rapport with their customers through different channels such as email, telephone, web, fax, etc. 

Why Focus on Enterprise Automation?

The automation of certain processes that were initially performed manually has gained more efficiency and shown significant improvements. Hence, many advantages tag along when enterprise automation is adopted. Let us know why it is important to focus on enterprise automation.

Efficiency

Enterprise automation helps you streamline and elevate organizational processes. This is achieved as there is no human involvement in the process. The processes are better and boosted to higher efficiency. 

Productivity

Different enterprise automation strategies are implemented when this solution is established. This solution synchronizes the tasks and brings coordination among all the departments. Hence, the productivity of the entire business increases. 

Cost Efficient

Enterprise automation lets you invest in fewer resources. Your organization will not have to hire many employees or need to invest in expensive equipment when certain tasks in the processes are automated.

Faster Business Processes

Business processes gain a heightened momentum when they are automated as they do not require any human input. With a simple initiation, the process works automatically. Comparatively, the process is much faster than done manually. 

Audibility and Accountability

With enterprise automation, audibility, and accountability are improved to a great extent. There is proper evidence that the tasks and activities that have been carried out have reached the expected outcomes.

Job Satisfaction

When all of the repetitive, mundane, and tedious tasks have been automated, your organization will not come across any limitations like delays, inaccuracy, or inefficiencies. Employees feel empowered which increases their job satisfaction. 

Accuracy

When systems and machines perform the processes, the possibility of errors is removed and in turn, more accuracy is achieved in the final outputs. Desired results can be obtained precisely and easily. 

Additional Benefits

• Fewer approval cycles
• Enhanced visibility
• Adherence to policy compliance
• Lesser manual involvement
• Continuous and smooth running of the tasks
• Removes bottlenecks
• Zero errors

Four Types of Enterprise Automation

Enterprise automation serves different types of automation solutions. Depending on the size of the business, organizations can adopt these different automation solutions. Broadly, these automation solutions can be classified into four major categories. 

• Basic automation
• Business Process Automation (BPA)
• Integration Automation
• Robotic Process Automation

Basic Automation

Basic automation is the general optimization of simple organizational tasks, that are repetitive, using any software. The initial step of automation for any organization would be the implementation of basic automation. It is the base of the complex automation structure that will be built on this.

Basic automation generally involves low-code or no-code, where each employee across any department can take part in the process for their own needs. Basic automation can just be a spreadsheet with formulas. Some of the essential areas that can be automated in different departments are:

• Finance and Accounting: Incorporating spreadsheet formulas and other sorting inputs.
• Human Resources: The use of a form system. This is an automatic employee feedback system. This system will automatically send and log the feedback from the employees.
• Marketing: Automation is adopted in setting news alerts that help in brand monitoring, and also spot competitor mentions.
• Sales: Using automation custom dashboards can be set up. In such a setup, the sales representative can track the department’s daily progress. 

Business Process Automation (BPA)

Unlike basic automation, Business Process Automation uses software to automate and optimize multiple processes across departments. In BPA, multi-step workflows can be set up.

When Business Process Automation is implemented, all the involved departments or teams will be equally aware of the status of the processes, and coordination is created. This effectively takes care of areas like documentation, management of tasks, and maintaining the communication systems. Let us get an idea of the differences between basic automation and business process automation.

Integration Automation

Integration automation is the system of all the interconnected software tools that work towards the completion of automated tasks based on shared data. For example, if a hiring manager wants to track the status of all the candidates through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), using integration automation, they can integrate the ATS into the automation software.

Robotic Process Automation

The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software bots to take over repetitive tasks and all the rule-based digital work just like how a human would do. Some of the tasks are copying and pasting data, entering data on multiple forms, or it can be actions like opening files and other applications. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is often used in machine learning undertakings to deal and analyze with certain types of data. 

Difference Between a Regular Enterprise and a Fully Automated Enterprise 

Enterprise has more to offer you than a regular enterprise. If you are looking for a complete process transformation and improvement enterprise automation will aid you in achieving that. 

Fully automated enterprise automation has the power to hike the performance of your organization to a much higher level. An unlimited potential to drive the processes to the finish line is unleashed. With enterprise automation, you can

• Convert your vision to practical reality using digital transformation
• Strengthen the manual tasks and optimize them by assigning them to robots
• Develop the working experience of your workforce, making it more fruitful and enthusiastic
• Democratize your workforce and prioritize their development.
• Enables and improves the scope of implementing Artificial Intelligence across every arena in your organization.

Let us look at the comparison between a regular enterprise and an enterprise automation.  

How Does Automation Benefit a Business?

Enterprise automation solutions are incorporated into your business operations that give you an edge over your competitors. Doing so, enables you to plan, organize, and strategically streamline and manage these operations.

Most often the term “automation” is synonymously used with robots, but automation lets you achieve beyond that. It creates an impact on the business’s productivity, resource management, workforce efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

By eliminating the several drawbacks of the processes, enterprise automation helps your business organization in the following four ways.

Streamlining the Business Processes

Most of the time, organizations that already have achieved streamlining the processes fail to locate minor issues that have been left undetected for a long time. Sometimes, they even tend to overlook these issues that arise, later adding up over time and it becomes unresolvable. Automation is the solution that can help you detect these issues at an early stage. Finding these issues and fixing them can be done simultaneously without wasting many resources and energy.

Increasing Employee Productivity

Automation lets your workforce be more productive in the tasks that they perform. This is because the efficacy of the process is achieved and the employees are empowered to perform their tasks in a much better working environment. They are enabled to focus on more valued and important tasks and at the same time find themselves upskilling themselves. 

Improving Customer Experience

Customer experience is a crucial part of the business. Automating your enterprise catalyzes the process of improving customer experience. The customer experience is the determining factor of your business’s success. Automation enhances the experience of your customers where they can self-serve and get everything done faster. Due to this, their frustration is reduced and they become happy with your service.

Mindful Decision Making

Instant reporting and analysis is an important feature of automation. With instant insights into the performance of your organizational processes, you will be able to make mindful decisions based on it. Additionally, automation can combine all these insights and give detailed analyses faster. These decisions can be made on time which saves you from falling into pitfalls. This will help the company make better and more valuable decisions. 

Necessary Steps to Start with Enterprise Automation

Enterprise automation cannot be implemented without proper readiness from your organization’s side. A systematic approach must be followed before implementing enterprise automation.

Assess Readiness

The existing processes must be evaluated to identify the issues and the areas that can benefit the most from acquiring this solution. Some factors to consider are the complexity of the process, volume, and your expected ROI.

Determine your Goals

Determining goals is an important step when starting your enterprise automation journey. Knowing what you will achieve with this solution will determine the type and the features you are looking for. 

Audit Current Processes

After choosing the processes that you wish to automate, analyzing and auditing these processes to find out the drawbacks is ideal.

Prioritize Processes

The auditing must be followed by making a list of the chosen processes according to the priority. Prioritizing the right way will give you an advantage in planning the automation accordingly.

Find Vendors

Now you will be able to fix the right solution according to your priority list. It is ideal to not be in any rush and carefully compare the features with the cost. 

Change Management and Implementation

Change Management is an essential aspect when shifting to a different solution. Communicating the benefits, and addressing their questions, concerns, and suggestions is necessary. Proper training for using the solution is also essential. Once everything has been settled, the change can be initiated and the automation solution can be implemented.

How to Find the Best Enterprise Automation Software?

Analyzing the different options available according to your organization is an essential process. There are certain things that you need to keep in mind before you choose and finalize automation software.  A better plan of action is required to guide you and your workforce to land on the right tool that could help you build the right strategies.

Some of the important steps to find the best workflow automation software for your organization are as follows:

• Identify and list your needs
• Ready a list of potential software solution vendors
• Classify each vendor based on price
• Shortlist the most preferable one
• Interview them to know each of the shortlisted prospects
• Make the final decision and create an implementation plan 

Steps in Building an Effective Enterprise Automation Strategy

Implementing the right enterprise automation strategy is crucial to any business. Before finalizing and properly implementing an enterprise automation strategy, you need to understand what this does to your organization. Here are some steps that you can follow to help you understand and determine the type of automation solutions and enterprise automation tools that you need to adopt and implement. 

1. Determine the Value and Cost of Potential Automation Solutions

The initial step that you need to take is to scan and analyze the different processes of your organization. This will help you decide on the processes that need to be automated. This process can be done by creating a list of tasks to automate like the tasks that are repetitive and manually performed. For each of the tasks, the following can be considered:

• How crucial is it to complete the task quickly for a particular department? 
• The total time that a team member takes to complete the task
• Each team member’s payroll for completing the task in a stipulated period.

Based on these considerations, the department heads will be able to determine and rate each automation as “high value” or “low value” for respective departments. Once the process and value have been gauged, the cost can be assessed. For estimating the cost, the department managers can decide on the enterprise automation tools that are necessary to automate the tasks. The tools or solutions differ with whether the automation is “high value” or “low value”. Once the software is finalized, give a thought to the following pointers:

• The annual cost of the particular tool
• The total payroll cost of completing the task manually in a year

Finally, you will be left with two options. First, if the tool cost is higher than the payroll cost, the automation is “high cost”, and second, if the tool cost is less than the payroll, then the automation is “low cost”.

2. Ensure to Invest in High-value Automation

Prioritizing is the most essential part. Once you have evaluated the automation types based on the cost, you can prioritize the processes into four categories.

• Low-cost, high-value automation: These are the top priority projects.
• High-cost, high-value automation: These projects can also be a priority if the benefits of the long term overshadow the short-term cost.
• Low-cost, low-value automation: These can squeezed into and managed between the top-priority projects
• High-cost, low-value automation: These automation solutions are completely not worth it. It is safe not to invest in them.

3. Look for Integration Features in the Automation Tool

While investing in the right type of enterprise automation solutions, some of them also come along with integration tools. Having modern software as a service will aid in the integration process. A platform like Cflow, which is a SaaS-based product, will allow you to integrate other external applications with ease. With this integration feature, seamless working of the processes can be achieved. Coordination is brought between the different tools and effective communication is maintained throughout the process. 

4. Encourage Cross-Departmental use of Automation Tool

The integrating tool can also be implemented across the different departments as well. Cflow can effectively interconnect the processes across departments and the approving managers effortlessly. This elevates the process and makes it faster and more efficient.

Examples of Enterprise Processes to Automate

Some of the enterprise processes that can be automated are:

Examples of Enterprise Automation Systems

Some examples of enterprise automation systems include the following.

Professional Service Automation (PSA):

It is a type of software that helps businesses deal with and manage multiple sectors and their operations like marketing, human resources, accounting, and project management.

Enterprise Resource Management (ERP):

It is a type of management tool that aids businesses in managing their finance and accounting, as well as the supply chains.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

It is an automation system that is specifically used for the management of existing and potential customers.

Data Extraction/Collection:

Enterprise automation systems can collect data from different sources such as legacy software, any cloud platform, and websites.

Data Transformation/Migration:

The collected data can be transformed into any usable format and be used by other users or even these data can be migrated to a new location as well.

Data Processing/Manipulation:

Using pre-developed algorithms, the data from any source can be processed and manipulated. These can be then sent to a third-party application for further processing.

Report Generation:

Any type of enterprise automation system can generate reports using the collected data. These reports can be presented simply and understandably for non-technical business users. These reports can be generated and accessed easily. 

Cflow and its Approach to Enterprise Automation

Cflow is a no-code business process automation software that offers to streamline and optimize all enterprise operations effectively. Cflow guarantees an enhanced and empowered work experience beyond expectations. Our tool promises to easily transform and improve the efficiency of each task that you wish to automate.

Cflow is developed for business processes with cloud BPM and workflow automation. Whether it is a small, medium, or large business, Cflow can effortlessly offer all the automation solutions that you are looking for.

Integration is the key element that our platform gives you. Some important features that we offer are:

• Complete automation of business processes
• Easy workflow creation with zero code involved
• Automated and customized reminders and notifications
• Enhanced work experience for your employees
• Insightful reports and analytics can be acquired
• The approval process made instant 
• Enables integration with third-party applications

Explore more features on Cflow.

Conclusion

Enterprise business operations are a handful to manage. Only an effective solution like automation can free you from the hurdles of it. Enterprise automation is a potent strategy that has the potential to transform and heighten the efficiency of all business processes.

Finding the right software for this transformation will determine the success rate. Cflow is one such tool you can completely trust and begin your journey with. The flexibility that Cflow offers will drive you ahead of your competitors.

Embark on this journey soon. Sign up today!

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