Enterprises of any size often lack the time and internal resources for development. This affects the competitiveness and profitability of the business. Automation tools come to the aid of companies wishing to improve their efficiency.
While specialized programs, technologies like
https://servreality.com/technologies/ and services perform monotonous repetitive tasks, employees can engage in strategic business development. Automation increases the productivity of staff and with it the speed of service. All this increases the degree of customer loyalty and accelerates the growth of sales per unit of time - after all, with the modern development of technologies, everyone expects a high speed of processing requests.
An additional benefit of automation is the ability for in-depth analytics and control. These features are offered by virtually every digital service targeted at business users.
With all the benefits of automation, many companies still postpone the integration of custom software. This slowness is due to a lack of understanding of what and how to digitize. This article will dispel the fog and clarify the business automation process.
Proven business automation life hacks
If you don't know how to improve the efficiency of work processes, take advantage of the best practices of those who have already gone this way. The recommendations are completely universal and will help businesses from any niche and field of activity.
Digitalize document preparation and workflow
The ambiguous 2020 and the massive transition to remote work became another impetus for the acceleration of the pace of business migration to the digital environment. The introduction of electronic document management systems (EDMS) is not a matter of saving paper or looking for opportunities to reduce staff, but a way to survive in the face of widespread digital transformation. Companies constantly interact with contractors and suppliers remotely, and therefore the preservation of material carriers and contracts with a blue seal slows down all business processes.
To create a convenient electronic document flow, you need to work out the infrastructure and interfaces for different classes of users. Particular attention should also be paid to ensuring the security and stability of the entire system since even 15 minutes of downtime can result in serious losses.
You can automate not only document flow, but also the process of preparing documents: model contracts, instructions, and so on. Using special online systems and software packages, you can customize and edit templates, ensure joint work on them, which will increase the speed of solving internal problems.
Use cloud boards and task trackers
In any business where there is a constant stream of tasks, the issue of effective project management plays an important role. This is true for IT teams, marketing agencies, logistics centers, and construction companies.
Kanban methodology will help to minimize multitasking. The solution itself cannot be called new, but it came to the digital environment relatively recently. The goal of the methodology is to increase the speed and quality of work, as well as to optimize the use of internal reserves.
Cloud Kanban boards offer the following capabilities:
1. Joint planning of work processes.
2. Remote monitoring of progress.
3. Breakdown of tasks into subtasks with an assignment of responsible persons.
4. Collect statistics to analyze the performance of individual employees and the entire team.
Such a task tracker can be paid or with free access. When choosing a suitable scheduler, pay attention to its functionality, as well as the usability of the interface, the degree of visualization of statistical data. It is also important to consider the allowable number of users, technical requirements for the platforms, operating systems, and devices involved.
Jira
The software is suitable for working on the principle of Agile project management. This is ideal for large development teams. Jira allows you to plan tasks in a single environment, assign responsibility, prioritize and track implementation progress while maintaining complete transparency. For non-Agile companies, this tool is less appropriate.
Connect the integration of online services
The problem with most enterprises that are slow to digitalize is that they use numerous services that are not related to each other to solve business problems. This degrades performance and makes it more difficult to analyze disparate data. The programs that are responsible for integrating online services into a single network and summarizing information from different applications will help to correct the situation.
ApiX-Drive
This online builder will help you integrate various online services via API into a common environment. With the help of ApiX-Drive, data is transferred from one application to another, and this does not require the involvement of developers and IT specialists.
Microsoft Power Automate
This platform is well suited to create business logic for automating workflows. A simple designer will allow you to independently model flows using data from connected services and sources without programming skills. Power Automate integrates with thousands of diverse applications, giving you total flexibility.
Digitalize accounting
The digitalization of the company's financial issues is a justified necessity. By purchasing special software, the manager will have the opportunity to always be in the know, and will also be able to optimize the staff, improve their quality characteristics.
Automation should take place together with the preparation of accountants for the use of new services, and when choosing programs, it is important to take into account the specifics of the business, its scale, and the current taxation system.
Adesk
This service is designed to automate management accounting and is more suitable for small businesses. It can be used to combine cash and non-cash payments, monitor them remotely, and analyze the effectiveness of various business areas. Adesk supports integration with banks and allows you to configure different access rights for individual users.
Automate customer contacts
CRM systems will help to build effective communication. With their help, it is easy to manage marketing communications, mailings, loyalty systems. CRM systems collect all customer data and store detailed information on the history of interaction with each of them. Check online for
comparing CRMs to see which one is best for your business.
For the user experience to be as positive as possible, it is important to respond quickly to incoming requests. Chatbots will help you with this. The programs work using artificial intelligence, which allows them to learn while communicating with customers.
Automation of contacts will expand the reach of the audience, increase the loyalty of existing customers and solve a number of other marketing problems. This purpose is served by e-mail newsletter services, auto-posting systems in social networks. They will take over the solution of routine tasks and save time for the development of high-quality creatives.
Zendesk
Zendesk is a platform that simplifies customer interactions. It helps improve customer service by working with customers via phone, email, social media, and more.
Iterable
The system generalizes disparate communication channels, creating a single network from them. The digital footprint of each user is analyzed using artificial intelligence, and its behavioral and demographic parameters are assessed. Based on the collected data, the system suggests the best channel, time and frequency of communication with each client.
Examples of Successful Business Transition to the Digital Environment
Many companies are wary of automation. However, the abundance of positive examples from different industries suggests that the transition to a digital environment can be carried out regardless of the specifics of the enterprise, and this will give tangible benefits.
Among foreign market players, it is worth highlighting the BMW factory, which uses robotics and augmented reality technologies.
The introduction of modern technologies is necessary for all areas of activity. The B2C and B2B spheres use them to improve customer experience, conduct analysis of behavioral characteristics, and solve marketing problems. In manufacturing, IT services help to collect and analyze a huge array of data from instrumentation, optimize the development and production processes.
Conclusion
Business automation is an urgent need for enterprises of all sizes. Software and online services will help maintain vitality in the digital age.
With their help, you can solve a wide range of routine tasks: from editing documents and contracts to contacting customers on popular requests. Ignoring automation systems, on the other hand, will slow down the pace of business development and make it less competitive.
Experts recommend that companies of all sizes not discount the possibilities of digitalization and launch mini-projects for early adaptation that will help assess the prospects and complex places of the automation process.