Process Automation
Release the brakes on your business by automating key processes
Any repeatable process within your business can generally be streamlined and automated,
at least to a certain degree, through the use of technology.
Create more efficiency and scalability within your business with process automation.
What is process automation?
Process Automation is to the information age what factory production lines were to
the industrial age.
Put simply, it is the full or partial automation of definable and repeatable business
process, through the application of interactive technology. Take
a look at some examples.
Key Benefits of Process Automation
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Scalability
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This is a big one. Especially for smaller businesses. If your business can't scale,
it can't grow. Conventionally scalability in a business is developed by employing
more people, buying more capacity, building a bigger factory etc. In modern knowledge-based
businesses though, massive scalability can be achieved through sensible and effective
use of technology, without requiring these conventional methods of expansion and
growth.
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Efficiency
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As Henry Ford was all too aware; automation of any kind improves efficiency, if
applied correctly. You can drastically reduce administration overhead by reducing
the need for human intervention in as much of the process as possible (without causing
detriment to the value of the process or its outcomes). We're not talking about
replacing staff with computers; we're talking about freeing up valuable time
and man-power for other things by automating repeatable tasks that can just as easily
be performed by a "system".
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Business Rules and Validation
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The ability to introduce and enforce business rules within an automated system is
immensely valuable. Remove the scope for human error by implementing rules that
prevent actions from being taking without mandatory requirements being completed
first. Data input can be checked for validity from basic formating requirements
to complex validation like post-code lookup, cross-referencing to a HR database,
credit card validation, mathematical checks and so on.
Workflow features such as managerial approval/sign-off procedures and automatic
notifications for key "checkpoints".
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Reporting
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Any data that exists in a technology "system" can be searched, queried and visualised
in a report in seconds. The automation of any process using technology provides
immediacy of reporting on any and all aspects of that process, and at any level.
Weekly management overview reports will start arriving in your inbox and you won't
know how you survived before without such a system!
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Accountability
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All actions, events and processes can be tracked, recorded and audited. Users have
unique identities in the system and even physical identification, with biometrics
or RFID tagging can allow tracking of "who did what", with all the benefits of immediate
searching and reporting as described above. You'll always know who last spoke to
that client, who shipped the order, who closed the project, who checked the quote,
who hasn't completed their assessment.
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A few examples:
Web-enabled Performance Management Process
The web-enablement of a corporate-wide (and traditionally paper-based) performance
management process which allows company employees to complete assessments and appraisals
fully online with consolidated reports automatically generated and sent to key stakeholders
in the business.
Automated Insurance Quote System
An automated customer quote engine for an insurance company which takes a series
of parameters and uses pre-defined internal logic to generate a complex quote document
and email it to the prospective client.
Integrated RFID stock tracking/fulfilment system
An integrated stock tracking and fulfilment system using RFID tags linked to a database
system to track the presence and movement of stock in a warehouse and send tracking
information to customers and partners, order replacement stock from suppliers and
provide live management information to directors.
"Eating our own dog-food"
At Totalblue Interactive we don’t mind admitting to being a little fanatical about
Technology Enablement and Process Automation! We are constantly developing and innovating
new internal systems to provide efficiency and scalability to our own business and
as a means of testing new technologies and concepts which eventually make their
way into our clients’ solutions.
We're currently in the final testing phase of a custom developed in-house accounting
and business management system which does everything from automated invoicing, filing
bank account transactions automatically into our accounts package, sending payment
reminders for overdue invoices, (and advance warnings of repeat invoices soon to
be raised), credit card processing, cashflow forecasting, document management and
a lot more!
Internally, we do take automation to the extreme, but rightly so. We are aiming to create the
scalability of a much larger business while keeping our actual physical size small
and our overheads low.
We would like to help you do the same.