What is business process automation?
Automation is referred to as the replacement of manually performed, repetitive activities with patterns of action, controlled using sophisticated information systems. Automation primarily involves processes that are key to the company’s operations, and is aimed at streamlining operations, increasing company profits, as well as the comfort of employees.
The acronym BPA is often used in relation to business process automation – it comes from the English term Business Process Automation.
BPA (Business Process Automation) – An investment in the future
Replacing tedious, manual processes with modern, fully automated action sequences is a task that requires the resources and expertise of implementers. This is handled by companies with specialists in the field. automation. Although the cost of implementing complex IT systems can be large, once an automated business process is in place there are many benefits. This is why the automation process should be treated as a long-term investment.
There wouldn’t be so much going on around BPA if it weren’t for the fact that it has a number of specific benefits. Companies are increasingly willing to invest in automation, as evidenced by the responses of respondents to the State of Process Orchestration (2023) report – as many as 91% of respondents said their companies intend to increase investment in automation in 2024-2025. A year earlier, 88% of those asked answered a similar question in the affirmative. The growing interest comes not from a desire to try new technologies, but from pure calculation – automation produces results.
You are eligible for the startup relief if you meet all three conditions:
- you are operating a business for the first time, or you are opening a business after at least 5 years after suspending or closing a previous one,
- you are an individual – you are a sole proprietor or a partner in a partnership,
- you do not work for a former employer with whom you worked on a full-time basis in this or the previous calendar year.
Conditions met? That means you can take advantage of the Startup Tax Credit, which brings a number of benefits to new entrepreneurs.
Important!
Along with the term business process automation – there is often another one – business process orchestration. You will find many definitions of these terms on the web, but the most common difference between them is that automation is called streamlining individual tasks that make up a larger process, while orchestration focuses on optimizing and synchronizing automated processes. In a nutshell, then, orchestration can be considered the next step – after automation – in the process of optimizing a company’s operations.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
In English, we also encounter the abbreviation RPA – Robotic Process Automation. It is often translated as robotic process automation. The term refers to the programming of digital robots that are responsible for performing specific, individual tasks in a human-like manner. Bots replicate the behavior of employees, using the same tools – apps, management panels, etc. As a result, RPA is generally cheaper to implement – it does not require the creation of systems to operate, since it uses the ones the company has used so far.
What are the benefits of business process automation?
Shorter
Simplifying complex activities makes them take less time to complete – a benefit that is usually observed first. Issuing an invoice in 5 seconds instead of a minute is impressive, but it only gets serious when you multiply this result by the number of invoices issued each month.
More efficient
A well-planned process, subjected to automation, will avoid bottlenecks, i.e. situations that cause work stoppages. What’s more, machines – for example, on a production line – can work longer and more intensively than people, and it is unnecessary to have such a large crew to supervise them. In extreme cases, robotization makes it possible to perform some activities without interruption – including at night and on weekends.
More correctly
Shorter time for certain activities is followed by other benefits, such as a significant reduction in the incidence of the so-called “incidents”. human error. By putting the process of completing documents in the hands of machines, as long as they have the correct data and no human error was made at the system programming stage, they are able to reprocess the data faster and without mistakes. This frees up time for employees, who can thus attend to other, more important tasks in their daily work.
One of the – ultimately mandatory – methods of automation is the National e-Invoice System, which has been announced for several years. Although it is already formally operational and willing companies can use it, its nationwide launch has been postponed from January 2024 to an as yet undetermined date in the future.
Better-performing activities associated with repeatable processes and automated quality control can also reduce the number of returns and complaints and contribute to a better perception of the company by customers.
Better for employees
Implementing automation does not necessarily mean that the company will start laying off employees en masse. Instead, organizations will be able to unleash the potential of their teams by ensuring that employees don’t have to keep doing boring, tedious and time-consuming tasks. In their place will be more interesting tasks that will also affect the satisfaction felt from daily work.
Should every company automate processes?
The answer is simple: yes, if it struggles with repetitive, time-consuming and optimizable processes in its daily operations.
While it is impossible to automate the process of providing psychological counseling (each case is unique), there is nothing stopping you from trying to automate processes, related to patient care (serializing messages, cataloging records in the cloud).
We will successfully apply automation:
- in production processes – machines have been assembling product components or conducting preliminary quality control on production lines for years,
- In warehouse processes – checking order completeness, labeling, sorting,
- in recruitment processes – sorting and cataloging applications, making recruitment appointments (online calendars), creating surveys for preselection of candidates,
- in sales processes – issuing and sometimes printing invoices and other documents, updating inventory and prices, initial handling of complaints,
- in processes related to data analysis – bumps in markets, significant changes regarding – for example – availability of materials and the like. Information systems can continuously search the web for selected topics or key phrases. They are then able to prepare reports that contain key information that can determine gaining a competitive advantage.
Summary
Automating business processes not only speeds up a company’s operations, but also makes it easier to make ambitious long-term plans for the future. Even one fully automated process is capable of saving thousands of man-hours, and the scale of savings (and increased efficiency) grows with the subsequent processes we choose to streamline.
In the coming years, automation will certainly prove to be a trend that most companies will not be able to ignore – if only because the competition is unlikely to wait.
