Automating processes to enhance efficiency in daily operations
The digitisation and automation of business processes enhance the overall efficiency of an organisation by delivering cost and time savings, transparent workflows, fewer errors and relief for employees from routine administrative tasks.
How process automation enables smooth workflow management
Given increased data volumes and the need to be more agile than ever, companies are turning to process automation to succeed against the competition. nscale Process Automation Platform (nscale PAP) is one of the modern tools helping businesses put business process automation and workflow management into action.
Companies find themselves juggling more information and documents with workflows that are ever-increasing in complexity, involving more departments and data sources than before. Things are further complicated by a growing number of applications and systems. It’s therefore increasingly difficult to maintain analogue processes. Process automation removes the need for human intervention across process steps to provide a remedy.
Using process modelling to automate business processes
Process modelling forms the basis of efficient business process automation. It represents an entire workflow from start to finish in diagram form. However, true value is unlocked when annotations – i.e. textual or graphical additions – are added to the diagram to provide additional information to understand a process, but without directly impacting its flow. This ensures that, regardless of the complexity of process models, employees and any integrated software can easily analyse them and identify potential improvements to optimise workflows.
What is process automation?
Process automation involves digitising and automating routine tasks in daily operations to enhance efficiency and minimise errors, requiring minimal human intervention.
Why process automation?
The key rationale for business process automation is to make workflows more efficient. Ideally, all process steps will run digitally and automatically, eliminating inefficient manual processing steps. In addition, the automation of business processes guarantees that processes run without inefficiencies and interruptions, resulting in an extremely low susceptibility to errors. Thanks to comprehensive documentation and logging, users always have an overview of the status of the process and the processors involved. They can make well-founded operational decisions based on this.
Central storage also ensures that information or documents can be found without time-consuming searches, preventing loss and resulting in significant time and resource savings, alongside reduced costs. Employees, customers and partners also benefit from process automation. From being relieved of time-consuming manual tasks and accessing information more easily to spending more time on value-adding core tasks and faster decision-making.
Indispensable: professional process automation software and tools
The high configuration standards and range of preconfigured workflows offered by professional process automation software such as nscale PAP facilitate intuitive and efficient process design. In addition, simply designed layouts and clear user guidance mean processors are guided quickly and reliably through all process steps. nscale PAP is therefore the perfect solution for cross-company and visualised process automation. Alongside this, it provides all the information required for task management and processing so that workflows can be continuously optimised and adapted. Ultimately, the PAP offers companies everything they need to digitise and automate business processes.
Examples of process automation: BPMN and DMN in practice
Modern and powerful process automation software offers standardised methods to efficiently model digital processes. Ceyoniq’s nscale PAP solution is based on the leading Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard. But what makes it special? A low-code approach and an intuitive interface mean that even employees without programming knowledge can model process automation by dragging and dropping individual workflow elements into a corresponding diagram, linking them together and adjusting them until their visualisation corresponds to the real workflow.
Decision rules can be integrated using Decision Model and Notation (DMN). This is an internationally established standard for decision tables that enables precise documentation of complex decisions and traceability of all processes, for all process participants, through transparent and easy-to-maintain responsibility regulations.
The individual steps of process automation
Companies that want to advance the automation of their business processes must plan carefully and develop a long-term strategy for digitisation that ensures competitiveness.
Indispensable: professional process automation software and tools
As a first step, companies should analyse their existing processes (both analogue and digital) and process modules as part of process mining and identify potential areas for automation. Process mining is important because it is often not immediately apparent where the potential for process automation lies – and how it can be acted on. This is particularly true for complex workflows that involve several departments, company locations and even external stakeholders. In addition, companies should consider whether an analogue process is necessary, well-organised and error-free when deciding whether or not to digitise that process. Otherwise, companies run the risk of a GIGO scenario (garbage in – garbage out), where bad analogue processes become bad digital processes.
The industry association for the German information and telecommunications sector (Bitkom) has developed a maturity model that companies can use to assess their digital business processes without huge effort. The model is based on four dimensions to measure the maturity level of workflows:
- Technology: the technological environment in which the processes take place (IT infrastructure, compatibility, etc.)
- Data: data handling within a workflow (provision, analysis, etc.)
- Quality: the quality of processes (correct description, legal conformity, etc.)
- Organisation: the organisational framework conditions under which process management is organised (employee skills, support for digitalisation projects in the company, etc.)
Define workflows to be automated
The results from the process mining inform the next step for automating business processes: defining the workflows to be automated. As much as possible, these should first be standardised and simplified company-wide. Companies should also define clear objectives for specific process automation, weigh up the costs and benefits and consider broader company-specific requirements before embarking on process automation.
Modelling and automation of processes
Modelling and business process automation can then begin. It is advisable to proceed step by step and automate individual workflows one by one. Before pressing ahead, organisations need to bear in mind that relevant employees need to be trained. Ideally, they should be able to model simple workflows independently and implement them in day-to-day business while working safely and efficiently in the redesigned digital process environment.
Workflow monitoring and continuous process optimisation
After process automation comes process optimisation! Companies should continuously monitor their automated workflows to identify room for optimisation and achieve maximum efficiency levels in the automation of business processes.
When is it worth automating processes?
Whether process automation is worthwhile depends on several factors. Before implementation, companies should carefully evaluate the extent to which their workflows are already digitised and automated, plus which processes lend themselves to automation. Financial considerations also play a role since specialist tools and interfaces are usually required to implement company-wide process automation. Whether process automation is worthwhile from a financial perspective, you should, generally speaking, consider how repeatable it is. The more repeatable the process automation, the more it saves resources and improves the database quality.
Which processes can companies automate?
In principle, companies can automate all operational workflows. Examples include data entry and transfer, information forwarding, document keywording, rule-based data analysis, business processes such as quotation approvals or contract reviews and other repetitive processes.
What types of process automation are there?
The most important types of process automation are simple, rule-based and intelligent process automation. Companies can choose the right option for automating processes based on their unique requirements.
Simple process automation: One defined process for automating tasks.
Rule-based process automation: A dynamic process that can follow different paths depending on pre-defined variables and decision scenarios.
Intelligent process automation: For processes with exceptions that cannot be processed (conclusively) within a set of predefined rules, artificial intelligence and robotics process automation (RPA) is used to automate processes.
What are the requirements for process automation?
As already indicated, it does not make sense to automate all business processes. Automation is particularly useful where processes…
- Are currently manual but could be more efficient if they were digital
- Are repeatable
- Can be standardised or rule-based
- Require a high volume of data processing or transactions
- Require high process quality ensured in accordance with the maturity model.
Get in touch.
"*" indicates required fields
Ceyoniq Technology GmbH is a group company of Kyocera Document Solutions.
Ceyoniq Technology GmbH
Boulevard 9 | 33613 Bielefeld
Together we develop strong ideas and implement tailor-made and individual solutions for companies and public administrations – contact us, we look forward to hearing from you!
The digitalization platform: control center of the digital transformation
A digitalization platform is the control center of a company’s digital transformation.
News from our blog