To keep your business running smoothly, you have to pay attention to how its underlying processes are being managed. How do you accomplish this? Through business process automation (BPA).

I’m not just talking about the general processes. You have to automate those simple tasks even in the areas of billing, sales analysis, financial close, order-to-cash, and other key processes to avoid delays and errors – and most of all, of course, to help you achieve your organizational goals faster and easier!

BPA is the process of executing any specific business function within a company by using Information Technology without human intervention. Through technology-enabled automation, an organization can integrate different office applications, restructure labor resources, and redefine the overall workflow steps to achieve the desired outcome.

BPA is not just about automation of common business processes – it enables the organization to simplify its core operational movements as well as improve the effectiveness of the system. In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, companies must utilize BPA to minimize operational costs, maximize productivity, improve client relations, and enhance their ROI.

Where does document management come into play?

With the availability of document management technologies and services, any paper problems encountered can be eliminated. Automated paperless solutions systems can also let a business identify redundant or unnecessary steps that do not help finishing the entire process quickly and efficiently.

What are the steps you need to take

• Automate existing processes. Along the way, you will find out where the bottleneck problems are located, which leads you directly to the problem.
• Evaluate existing processes. You can do this by analyzing how rules and regulations affect your entire process, which could help in finding a customized redesigning solution.
• Find the best automated system (document management) partner. Automating your business processes can only be successful by working with a workflow solution that will answer to your specific needs and expectations. Make sure that your workflow provider fully understands your business process and can implement a customized solution to your critical business issues.

What’s in it for you

 Of course, you don’t just save time and money which inherently gives you a competitive advantage over other businesses. When you apply BPA in your document management, you gradually notice these benefits:

• Your staff has more time and energy to focus on more productive work.
• Complete transparency over all your transactions and across your business is enabled.
• Human error is greatly reduced and potential eliminated.
• Your business efficiency is greatly improved, allowing for maximum growth.

Trust me – once you go workflow you never go – well, you get the idea.  Good luck in your business automation endeavor.

About the Author:

Steve Harnden is the Director of Marketing with Computhink. He’s been solely dedicated to Enterprise Content Management space for over six years, and is passionate about lean, document management software marketing. He can be reached at sharnden@computhink.com or on LinkedIn.