Which Processes Should Your Company Automate?

Especially now, as businesses may have fewer employees to accomplish more work and customer expectations are high, it’s a great time to look at your business processes and determine what you might be able to automate.

Automation allows you to spare your employees from the burden of menial, repetitive tasks and frees them up to spend more time being innovative or driving revenue. Automation can reduce costs, increase efficiencies, improve morale, and boost productivity. It can also increase customer satisfaction rates. But how do you know which processes your business should automate?

1. Talk to your employees – What processes do they think are too complicated or time-consuming? What tasks do they have to repeat over and over again?
2. Eliminate manual tasks that connect software – For example, are people taking data from one platform and entering it into another? Any time a person is acting as a bridge between different software programs is usually an opportunity for automation. Integrate technologies so they “talk” directly to each other.
3. Facilitate communication between departments – If your departments are siloed, or employees are dropping the ball when they are supposed to be sharing information, you can use automation to share new information or prompt action.

Some areas that would benefit from automation at most businesses include:

1. Notifications management – so employees aren’t bogged down with unnecessary notifications and that all notifications are located in one central place.
2. File management – automatically back-up files, create new folders/templates when a new project starts, or download and file email attachments.
3. Task management – automate project to-do lists, due dates, and keeping teams informed of progress.

Literally every department in your company can likely benefit from some form of process automation – accounting, sales, marketing, HR, reporting and analytics, and IT and tech support. A recent Zapier survey showed significantly more growth and resiliency in businesses using automation software, with employees reporting higher productivity, increased bandwidth for creative work, less stress, and higher job satisfaction.

If you’re not sure which processes you should automate, which automation software to use, or how to properly set up your workflows, we can help! At RevTide, we’ll audit your business processes and systems and help you come up with a plan to successfully implement automation across your company. To learn more, visit our website or contact us today!.