What is Business Process Automation (BPA) and how to utilise it in your business

As a small business in the UK, automating your processes can help you reach your full potential while reducing costs.

Business process automation streamlines repetitive tasks, helping you complete work faster and with fewer errors.

In this article, we've outlined everything you need to know about business process automation (BPA) from what it is to why it matters, and the key challenges to watch for.

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What is business process automation (BPA)?

Business process automation (BPA) involves using technology and software to automate recurring business tasks and processes in an organisation instead of executing them manually.

The main objective of business process automation is to improve efficiency and streamline your day-to-day business operations, thereby making them run smoothly.

In this context, a business process is a series of tasks or activities performed by a group of stakeholders, usually in multiple departments, to achieve a specific goal in an organisation. Fully or partially automating this process implies that this series of tasks is executed in a sequence instead of each stakeholder doing it manually.

One major differentiator that sets business process automation apart from other automation is that it involves multiple IT systems, including business process management (BPM), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics process automation (RPA), cloud platforms, and more.

Why is business process automation important for businesses?

There are many ways your business can benefit from business process automation. Whether you are running a design agency, an automobile repair shop, or a startup, here are some ways automating your business processes can be beneficial to your business:

Increased productivity

Automating your business processes is a great way to make your team more efficient. Your team could accomplish more in less time by using automated workflows. This can help them complete repetitive day-to-day business operations efficiently, rather than doing them manually.

Save time and resources

One of the major benefits of automating your business processes is that it frees up time that would have been spent on mundane and repetitive tasks. Your team can use this free time to focus on working on high-value tasks.

Reduce human error

Humans are bound to make errors; however, in business operations, these errors can hurt a business. Business process automation provides a remedy to this because it reduces the need for human input, which minimises the likelihood of errors.

Ensure compliance

Compliance-wise, business process automation makes it easy to document and record every aspect of your business processes. These records are useful during compliance, where you might submit up-to-date records about your business operations.

How does business process automation work?

Automating your business processes involves multiple steps. It typically involves identifying recurring tasks that need automation, determining which aspects of the business process require automation, and creating a workflow outline showing how one step follows the other.

Here is a walk-through of how you can automate your business processes in your organisation:

Identifying processes for automation

The first step in automating your business processes is to identify tasks or activities that would benefit the most from automation. Tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and follow a recurring pattern are usually ideal for business process automation.

Below are some of the key criteria to look out for when considering automating business processes:

• Tasks that require transferring high-volume data from one system to another. For example, syncing 7,000+ customer details daily from an e-commerce platform to a CRM system.
• High volume and repetitive tasks that followed a particular structure or workflow, such as processing 125 employee expense reports monthly through the same approval process.
• Tasks that involve manual data entry. For instance, copying 300+ customer order information from emails and text messages to an order management system daily.
• Compliance-heavy processes that require strict and updated documentation, such as maintaining audit trails and documentation to separate client money to meet the FCA's safeguarding requirements.
• High-volume and time-intensive tasks, such as payment reconciliation and invoice matching for procurement, involve managing approximately 3,000+ products for an automobile repair company.
• Processes with clear rule-based decisions. For instance, accounts receivable approval processes are based on credit scores or income levels.

Designing and implementing automation workflows

Before designing and implementing automation workflows for the business processes you want to automate, you will need to choose an automation tool.

When selecting an automation tool, it’s advisable to choose one that’s easy to use (low-code or no-code), can support your business as it grows, and integrates seamlessly with your existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relations management (CRM) platforms.

Once you’ve picked an automation tool, start by highlighting each step of the business processes you are automating. You should also outline each stakeholder involved in this process and what their key responsibilities are. After completing this step, create sequences for the task, rules, and notifications in your automation tool.

Make sure you also integrate your automation tool with the existing app and data sources it needs. For instance, if your automation tool requires data from both your invoicing management tool and financial management solution to automate payment reconciliation, you must grant it access.

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Monitoring and optimising automated processes

After implementing your automation workflows, run a pilot test to verify that your sequences are working correctly. You can refine your workflows to ensure that they’re running smoothly before deployment.

Monitor performance metrics and gather feedback from your team to assess the effectiveness of these workflows. Some of the key metrics to look for are error rates, cost reduction, and task completion time.

Common examples of business process automation

There are numerous instances where business process automation (BPA) can be applied within an organisation. Below are some of the common use cases of BPA:

Finance and accounting

Automating financial tasks enables your finance and accounting team to be more strategic and efficient. With BPA, your finance team can accomplish tasks, such as sending invoices, data entry, invoice matching, extracting data from invoices, accounts receivable collections, and expense management.

Finance teams can also use automated tools to extract financial data from different sources and consolidate it in a dashboard.

Additionally, finance and accounting teams also deal with a high volume of transactions. Automating data handling and calculations is a good way to minimise errors and ensure that your team's financial data is accurate, audit-ready , audit-ready and reliable.

Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing teams can automate the process of capturing leads and routing them to the appropriate sales reps using predefined rules. Another effective use of business process automation for the marketing and sales teams is to score leads based on criteria and prioritise high-quality leads for follow-up.

Sales and marketing teams can also leverage automation tools to streamline tasks like scheduling emails and social media posts, segmentation and targeting, and collecting and analysing marketing data.

Human resources and onboarding

Human resources (HR) teams can leverage technology to automate the onboarding of new hires. It can be used to build a workflow of a series of actions, like setting up a new account for new hires, sending digital forms to them, and sending them training materials.

Business process automation can also be used for other HR administrative tasks, such as managing and processing payroll, tracking employee performance, and managing leave requests.

Supply chain and inventory management

With business process automation, you can automate your purchase orders and trigger a procurement request when inventory drops below a certain threshold.

With business process automation, you can automate communication with your suppliers. Instead of manually checking your order status or delivery updates, you can automatically send reminders to suppliers to follow up.

Customer service and support

The customer support team typically handles high volumes of tickets, resulting in slow response and resolution times. Implementing BPA can help a customer service team automate routing customers' tickets to the right agent and send a reply acknowledging customers’ requests.

Companies can also leverage business process automation to deploy AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants that address frequently asked questions.

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Challenges and considerations in BPA implementation

Although business process automation offers significant benefits to businesses, it also poses some major challenges.

Not having clear end goals

Many companies dive into automation headfirst without clear priorities or a roadmap of how automation can bring real business value. Without knowing what the end goal is, it’s possible to optimise processes that might not align with your business values.

To avoid this, ensure you identify major pain points that automation can solve. This could save time or minimise manual input and errors. Your organisation should also have key performance indicators that help it define what success looks like.

Employee resistance to change

There could be pushback from employees about implementing automation. This often stems from employees' fear that introducing automation might render their jobs obsolete.

To improve adoption, position BPA as a tool that helps them work more efficiently, rather than replacing them. Also, consider investing in training your team on how to use automation tools for their day-to-day operations.

Integration with existing systems

Many organisations use legacy systems that were never designed for automation. This system's lack of a REST API and webhooks makes it difficult to connect to other modern automation tools.

A workaround is to use middleware/integration platforms such as MuleSoft and Dell Bombi that act like a translator between your legacy systems and modern automation tools. Also, consider choosing BPA tools that integrate with your existing software.

Loss of human oversight

While automation can help businesses streamline their processes, over-automating without human oversight is problematic.

Excessive automation leaves no room for exceptions. For instance, if a customer needs to speak with a support agent to resolve their issue but no such option exists, they'll likely become frustrated.

A better approach is to maintain human oversight where it matters most. In the customer support scenario, this could mean offering customers an easy way to reach a live agent when automated solutions fail to address their needs.

The Future of Business Process Automation

The future of business process automation (BPA) generally centers around hyperautomation, which combines machine learning (ML), AI, robotic process automation, and low-code/no-code platforms. The combination of these technologies enables faster and more accessible automation of your business processes, particularly for non-technical users.

Below explains in detail how hyperautomation is shaping the future of business process automation.

Hyperautomation and Intelligent Automation

Hyperautomation involves automating everything that can be automated in an organization. This approach to automation helps companies automate as many repetitive processes as possible. This way, they can reduce the time spent on manual tasks while increasing their productivity.

Intelligent automation combines AI, machine learning, and automated systems to handle sophisticated workflows, improve precision, and give organizations the adaptability they require to respond quickly to change.

Traditional business process automation involves setting up well-organized workflows that follow predefined rules. However, it lacks intelligence and flexibility and can’t mitigate anything that happens outside these predefined rules.

Shifting Skillsets and Workforce Adaptation

The workplace is evolving, requiring employees to focus on more strategic work while automating routine and repetitive tasks. Many companies are investing in training to prepare their employees to work alongside automation systems.

Additionally, the adoption of low-code/no-code platforms has also made setting up workflows and automation processes accessible for non-technical users. Employees with little to no technical skills can build and manage their own workflows, eliminating the need to rely on their IT departments.

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Business process automation can help you streamline operations, save time, and boost productivity. However, implementing it correctly is crucial to maximise these benefits.

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