What is process automation?

Process automation is a way of optimising your business’ workflow to cut out wasteful practices through the implementation of intelligent, automation-focused software. This software comes in all shapes and sizes, and is completely customisable to your company’s size, industry and goals. Because of its scalability and tailor-made nature, how business process automation tools work for you will look completely different to how they would look somewhere else – the key is customising your automated processes to get the most out of them, which is where the team at Synergi come in.

Having worked alongside businesses of all sizes and sectors, our experts have hands-on experience optimising processes through the application of automation software. We take the time to get to know your business and its existing workflows, before applying our technical knowledge to plan, refine and implement a system that brings out the best in you and your team.

What is business process automation software?

Business process automation (BPA) software uses technological know-how, interconnectivity and powerful-processing to replace time-consuming manual practices with more efficient alternatives. Automation is increasingly seen in the modern business world as an absolute essential, but in contrast to simple automation solutions, a full BPA should be complex and intelligent enough to combine practices across a range of IT programs and be tailored to the existing flows of a business.

How can automation improve a business?

There is a common phrase associated with the proper implementation of automation in business, and that is ‘work smarter, not harder’. Processes are, naturally, at the heart of every organisation. Without them, nothing would ever move from concept to operation, but physical paperwork and over-complicated collaboration require hard work where smart work would suffice.

Through automation, processes that normally take hours or days to complete can happen in an instant. It’s through this speed that we see the main benefit of a well-tailored BPA system, as time previously wasted on chasing signatures, monitoring emails and submitting forms can be redistributed and spent on actions and tasks that actually contribute to your company’s growth and success.

What’s more, improved workflow and talent utilisation is only the start of what automation can do for your business. In fact, when properly deployed, the transformative benefits to your business are near endless. Just some of the applications which can improve your processes include:

Improve customer service

Maintaining customer satisfaction through continued and personalised communication is a key component of business growth. Not only does this play a part in customer retention and encouraging repeat business, but it can also lead to new business and sales opportunities through the collation of strong business reviews.

While customer service is an essential part of running a client or customer-facing business, the time it takes to do this well can outweigh the benefits – at least, that’s the case without automated processes lightening the load. Software such as Power Virtual Agents, which is part of the Microsoft Power Platform suite of automation tools, allows for the easy, code-less creation of chatbots that are capable of interacting with clients, customers and end-users to record complaints, answer questions and provide simple assistance.

Faultless risk mitigation

When working with complex processes and managing large volumes of data, human error is an unfortunate inevitability. No one can work at complete, faultless efficiency every second of every day, and no one expects them to. Fortunately, where data collation, analysis and reporting are concerned, automated software can take over to produce the same work in a fraction of the time, and with significantly less risk of mistakes. When combined with in-built regulation processes, compliance requirements can also be streamlined with confidence.

Seamless employee onboarding

The process of hiring new team members is time-consuming from the start, with time pressures affecting senior recruitment staff, as well as team members taking on additional work. Automation can assist in this, helping to simplify communications during the early stages, and create easily managed induction procedures once a candidate has been chosen. Learn more about the problems automation solutions can solve in our dedicated blog.

What software is used to automate processes?

At Synergi, we work with a range of partners, each of whom’s BPA software we’re confident in recommending to our clients. Our business process automation services cover everything from implementation all the way to training and maintenance to ensure that you get the most out of your software, whichever you choose. Our partnered automation solutions include:

dox42 – A fully integrable solution designed to generate and automate documents across all of your existing platforms to get the most out of your collaborative working practices.
Microsoft Power Platform – An all-in-one solution to improving productivity, this platform grants businesses access to a suite of useful tools from business analytics to workflow management.
Nintex – A platform with a simple, 3-step process for full process automation, Nintex lets you manage, automate and optimise your way to efficient time management and task completion.

Our business process automation services

At Synergi, we know that not every business has access to a talented team of IT professionals with extensive experience in working with complex code, nor do we think companies should have to rely on technical know-how to succeed in our increasingly digital world. Our services and no-to-low code solutions are designed to demystify automation in business and empower a non-technical workforce to design and remotely access apps, forms and workflows that boost productivity.

Our assistance falls into three main stages; process management, automation and optimisation. We remain involved with you every step of the way to make sure that we aren’t just designing a good automated system, but one that specifically works to bring out the best in your workflow, and eliminate inefficiencies that take the biggest toll on your business’s existing manual approaches.

Process Management

Define and manage your processes. Turn complex procedure documents and charts into simple process maps. Access everything from one location and use your personalised dashboard to edit and adapt processes, providing agility to meet changing business needs.

Process Automation

Improve compliance, input data on the go and reduce time in rekeying information by digitising your paper-based processes and automating repetitive, manual tasks. Add in elements such as e-signatures and you’ll boost workplace productivity significantly.

Process Optimisation

Leverage the data you create through your automation tools to gain insight into your existing processes. Analyse and display it in a visually engaging, easy to share manner, enabling you to optimise your processes.