Smarter business owners and executives are continuously looking for new methods to improve the efficiency of business processes and cut down costs. One of the ways to do so is to implement workflow automation software that reduces wasted time, money, and opportunities.
Process inefficiencies are estimated to cost unaware businesses between 20% and 30% of their annual revenue at least. Therefore, automation software can be a very wise investment for a business.
The question is always, how to determine if my business needs to implement a workflow automation tool or not? And that is the question we are answering here with clear signs that if you find, you should definitely and quickly consider an automation software.
Signs you need to implement workflow automation software:
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Data is entered through multiple systems or more than a time
If your employees enter the same data twice, then you need no more signs to consider inventing a workflow automation software.
Entering data more than once and through multiple systems is an incredible waste of resources and is definitely making your business lose time and profits.
Not just that, having your data undamaged and not in one place, means harder access and even more wasted time to handle information when you need it. Not just time, but also your business can be already unaware of very helpful insights that your competitors are benefiting from.
Collaboration also becomes frustrating with this inefficient data handling. It can even become more than frustrating in some cases. This is for clear reasons as there are multiple sources, multiple people responsible and multiple people wanting data access.
A workflow automation software can make data entry be done one time, with a unified system where data is managed efficiently and everyone needing access can collaborate in the best possible way.
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There is much paperwork and Microsoft office documents exchanged manually
Paperwork offers you nothing more than a wide range of problems. These problems include wasting time for you and your employees, not knowing who is responsible for data, getting data lost and surely, and increased risk of errors that are hardly and slowly corrected.
With those many drawbacks of paper, ditching paperwork is not enough either. If you are still using Microsoft Office files at work and letting your employees do so, then you may have solved many problems of paperwork, but still far from the best of what you can achieve.
Microsoft office files are good when someone is working alone, but when it comes to collaboration, which is what you and your employees do, it is far from being a good solution.
Implementing workflow automation and management software facilitates collaboration on projects and files, instead of sharing documents and sheets manually through emails.
There are already many project management platforms to help you in addition to services like G Suite and Office 365 that let you collaborate efficiently while working on documents and sheets.
However, a full custom workflow automation solution can bring you many more benefits that fit your own business needs and processes.
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Anything takes ages to be finally approved
If things are taking forever to be approved, it can be not just normal and not a problem with the employees. It can be a problem with your processes.
If the finance employees, for instance, create spreadsheets from scratch, gather data manually, share sheets through emails, get edits and collaborate manually, and so on, then you shouldn’t expect things to become faster.
When something is really getting done and more than a department is working on it, the whole thing can become a long nightmare that you are just accepting. But this nightmare is affecting your business and employees, and wasting your time and money.
Implementation of workflow automation software can easily solve all of this. These tools help approvals become incredibly faster than traditional ways, with clear privileges for every employee or executive, and with many traditional time-wasting processes eliminated.
Implementing a workflow automation software that is custom designed for your company means bad processes will be redesigned, bad timing or weak communication will not become a thing and employees can be trained easily and once on dealing with the system.
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There are situations where no one is responsible
No one can deny that within the uncountable deliverables, emails, documents, and meetings, there are mistakes that happen. Some of these mistakes can be missed opportunities that will never come back.
The problem gets bigger with no one responsible for these mistakes. The work processes are always complicated and they involve many levels that make it nearly impossible to know who is accountable for what.
Automation once again solves this problem with everything going through clear redesigned processes that are much more efficient. With implementing automation software, management is also easier and tracking can be done like never before.
Bottom line
Automation offers many benefits that are the answers to many problems businesses have. Processes going without automation have proven much less efficient.
When business implement workflow automation software, especially custom ones designed for their needs, they can save much money, time and have more powerful insights
