In the fast-paced world of business, companies of every size need effective strategies to improve their agility in the marketplace. One of the most important business skills to have is the ability to make smart decisions quickly, based on the most current data. But this is exactly where many companies get bogged down. Often, data is hidden in work orders, specifications, contracts, patents, sales documents and more. These documents are scattered across different systems or stored in file cabinets stuffed with manila file folders.
Fortunately, companies now have a host of potential options for quickly sorting through, finding, managing and using their documents. The question is, what elements should a business process automation software solution have to help businesses realize the benefits of saving time, saving money and getting the competitive agility edge over the competition? Let’s take a look:
1. An Easy Interface Can Save Time and Improve Productivity
The ideal document workflow solution is easy for any technical or non-technical employee to use. A system with an intuitive interface offers seamless user adoption without the need for training to get started. The best business process automation systems are browser-based platforms that enable users to map the lifecycle of documents for easy search and retrieval from anywhere at any time. Accessible yet secure, documents will follow a logical process workflow—visible only to the employees who need that information. Establishing user permissions and managing the document path should take no more than a few minutes.
In addition to these time-saving features, a document workflow automation system keeps users in the loop about where any document is in its lifecycle at any given moment. Automatic email notifications are sent whenever changes are made, enabling key players to be informed of any document actions while keeping the workflow moving.
2. Smart Business Process Automation Reduces Costs
Business process automation enables decision makers to save time. By implementing a complete suite of document management solutions, these decision makers can then use that extra time to employ smart document workflow tools. One of the most sought-after workflow automation features is analytics reporting. By making the most current data available with automatically generated reports, any company can clearly see where they can streamline current workflow processes. Having the ability to analyze data quickly empowers decision makers to make smart business moves to solve and prevent bottlenecks in productivity.
An ideal business process automation system will also help ensure that critical business rules, quality regulations and laws that impact the business are followed. This can save a great deal of money by preventing the risk of fines due to misfiled paperwork or missing business data.
3. Secure Business Process Automation is Critical to Success
The right business workflow automation system will offer top-of-the-line security with several layers of protection against theft, misuse, data loss or malware. A secure process automation software will also enable employees to access essential documents from mobile devices with peace of mind. This is an essential balance that most companies require today. Businesses make partnerships with other businesses and allies across the globe to increase their competitive advantage. So, the system must allow traveling decision makers to access documents anywhere and be able to share them with authorized parties quickly and easily, while also keeping those documents secure.
The Competitive Advantages of Business Process Automation
There are few solutions that fill the needs for all businesses, large and small. Implementing a smart, secure and time-saving document workflow automation solution can be an absolute revelation for companies that struggle to manage business information effectively. Making the jump to software-based business solutions isn’t as complicated as it once was, and these solutions are exactly what a company needs to get an agile advantage over the competition.
