YOU ARE AUTOMATING PROCESSES, RIGHT?
If not, you’re in the minority. In 2020, 66% of businesses surveyed reported planned automation solutions. 31% of businesses have already automated at least one function. (—netsuite.com) Business Process Automation/BPA is a field growing at lightning speed and it is due to the fact that data management has near-universal applicability. Anyone utilizing data or documents will be able to get much more cost-effective results by managing that data through an automated Enterprise Content Management/EMS system.
IT’S NOT TOO LATE!
Within the past several years, we have come to a place where the tools and resources available are affordable enough to enable in-house EMS solutions for anyone to create cost-effective and profitable automation solutions, provided they have a strong team of capable employees and the budget to acquire the necessary equipment.
The crucial element for success in automation is to choose the right challenge to solve with automation. When implementing automation practices, you face the daunting task of discovering where you’ll stand to gain the most—exciting, but scary!
It is often best to first look at the processes where you currently experience the most waste.
ESTIMATE CURRENT COSTS
For a good starting point, here are two helpful frameworks to use when considering your best candidates for automation:
- Find the job which has the highest LABOR COST relative to the REVENUE GENERATED. Automating this task will result in the highest gain in labor costs saved and, assuming an increased productivity, you will also see a rise in revenue generated.
- Categorize tasks by whether they require SKILLS or A PULSE. Automate first any processes which require only a pulse. This should free up employees to apply their skills where they can do the most good instead of wasting time fetching files and doing data entry.
COMPARE AUTOMATION OPTIONS
The next question to answer is, what kind of automation solution will fit best? If you already have a skilled in-house IT department, able to handle setup for BPA workflows including template onboarding, imaging, data extraction, indexing, validation and CRM/ERP database integration, you’re good to go. However, if you have all that you most likely won’t be reading articles like this one anyway.
Your best resource when it comes to setting up business process automation are detailed and honest conversations with BPA outsourcing providers. Because businesses are so diverse, most BPA outsourcing firms focus on a wide range of services to fit a wide range of potential clients. Request to discuss options including equipment sourcing, full-service team training, helpful reference resources and 24/7 technical support. If the company offers fully-outsourced automation solutions, have them price out a custom plan for your task.
In the end, the final word will always be the bottom line and whether updating your data management practices will raise it. Luckily for those of us in the business, the math typically works out!
For Over 63 Years – American Micro Company—Dedicated to helping organizations gain independence through transition from improperly stored documents to automated data management and workflow solutions.
