Introduction
You’ve identified a business problem, and you want to solve it with automation. You know that automating your processes can help you increase efficiency and save time and money, but how do you go about doing it? The good news is that there are plenty of tools available to make things easier, but the bad news is that they don’t always work as advertised. Here are the five key components of a successful business process automation strategy:
Set the scope of your automation project.
- The first step in developing a business process automation strategy is to define the overall goals for your project. For example, does it need to increase revenue or reduce costs? Will it improve customer satisfaction or employee engagement? Defining these objectives will help you choose the right software and technology for automating your organization’s processes and ultimately make implementation more effective. In addition, you’ll want to identify which business processes across your company could be automated with software applications and then prioritize those that might have an immediate impact on improving productivity or efficiency.
- Once you’ve determined which processes should be automated based on their importance within the organization, define what constitutes “good enough” success for each one. Developing metrics like this will allow team members who were not involved in setting up initial goals (such as HR managers) to understand how they can measure progress toward meeting those targets over time. These metrics may also provide guidance on how long each process should take when executed manually versus how quickly it should run when automated via software tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) platforms like machine learning algorithms that enable software robots called chatbots
Define goals and create a timeline.
This step can entice you to skip it. After all, you’ve already identified your problem and you know what you want to achieve. But it’s important to not just dive into the solution without first laying out some goals. Define your goals clearly and use them as a compass for how you’ll measure success throughout the process of automating your business functions. For example, let’s say that one of your main objectives is saving time on internal processes by automating them—but in doing so, your team members find themselves spending more time on administrative tasks than they did before automation was implemented because they’re now more involved with making sure things go smoothly than they were with completing individual tasks themselves. Not quite what we had in mind, there!
In order to make sure we stay on track as we move forward, set specific timelines for when certain activities should be completed (and stick with them). For example: “Within six months after implementation begins”
Involve the right people from the start.
If your business is to be successful, it’s critical that you involve the right people from the start. In most cases, this means more than just your team members; it also means involving people who are not part of the team. These can include:
- People in other departments (e.g., marketing or sales)
- People from other companies within your industry/sector (e.g., competitors)
- People in other countries
Be prepared to adapt and change the course.
One of the most important aspects of an effective business process automation strategy is flexibility. It’s important that you be prepared to change course if needed and adapt to changing conditions. Automating a process doesn’t mean you’re done with it; rather, it’s simply one step in a long journey toward greater efficiency. If a new technology or workflow management system comes along that could help make your company more efficient, don’t be afraid to try something new out—whether it’s introducing drones into shipping logistics or using AI assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant at work (or both!).
Put a strategy in place for measuring success.
It’s crucial to have a strategy in place for monitoring success. A basic metric is time-to-market (TTM), which is the time it takes from when you start thinking about a process automation project until the first piece of code is ready to be tested in production. This should be your most important KPI because it reflects how quickly your team can develop business process automation software.
If you’re looking for more sophisticated KPIs that help you measure how successful your strategy has been over time and across different projects, take a look at our article on key performance indicators (KPIs).
A successful business process automation strategy is guided by a clear vision, input from the right people, and a way to measure results.
Helping your team understand why they’re doing what they’re doing gives them a sense of ownership over their work and improves the chances that they’ll be successful.
The first step in creating an effective process automation plan is to look at where your company is now and where it wants to go. You may have already identified some areas that would benefit from automation, if not start by identifying key processes that are time-consuming or error-prone and therefore cost you money and target those first. Once you’ve done that, determine how much time can realistically be dedicated toward automating each process so as not to overextend resources and create an overload for IT teams who will likely be working on many other projects at once (if not already).
Once these goals are established, start building out individual plans for specific processes based on who owns them: Marketing? Accounting? Customer service? Each department has its own perspective on what needs improving within their area(s) of expertise, so consider bringing them all together before deciding which solutions will work best for each problem area—and keep in mind that not everything needs automated!
Conclusion
A successful business process automation strategy is guided by a clear vision, input from the right people, and a way to measure results. Our free strategy guide might help you get started on your own plan.
