What is Workflow Automation? - A Complete Overview
Manual tasks in workflows drain time, introduce errors and drive up costs. By automating workflows, you streamline processes, enhance accuracy, and reduce expenses. Discover how workflow automation transforms operations, delivering speed and precision that manual methods can't match.
What is workflow automation?
Workflow automation is defined as the use of software to perform tasks and processes without the need for human input. It makes work faster, easier, and more reliable. Companies implement workflow automation to minimize manual works and repetitive tasks.
Tired of IT bottlenecks? Discover how workflow automation can transform your IT department:
Chief Information Officers
Strategic IT planning: Automate the tracking and managing of IT initiatives and align them with business goals.
IT governance: Implement automated workflows for policy compliance checks and audit trails to ensure adherence to governance frameworks.
Resource allocation: Use automated processes to allocate IT resources effectively based on project priorities and availability.
Chief Digital Officers
Digital transformation projects: Streamline the approval and execution process for digital transformation initiatives to ensure timely completion.
Innovation management: Automate the idea collection, evaluation, and implementation workflows to foster innovation within the organization.
Customer experience: Implement automated workflows to gather, analyze, and respond to customer feedback, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Business Transformation Heads
Change management: Automate change request approvals and tracking to ensure smooth transitions during business transformation efforts.
Performance monitoring: Use automated dashboards to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure the impact of transformation initiatives.
Stakeholder communication: Streamline communication workflows to keep all stakeholders informed about the progress and outcomes of transformation projects.
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IT Managers
Incident management: Automate the reporting, tracking, and resolution of IT incidents to minimize downtime and enhance service quality.
Service request fulfillment: Implement automated workflows for handling IT service requests to ensure prompt and efficient service delivery.
Capacity planning: Using automated processes to forecast and manage IT capacity needs ensures optimal resource utilization.
Directors of IT
Project management: Automate project planning, scheduling, and monitoring to ensure timely delivery of IT projects.
Budget management: Implement automated workflows for budget approvals and tracking to maintain control over IT expenditures.
Vendor management: Use automated processes to manage vendor relationships, contracts, and performance evaluations.
VP of Applications
Application development: Streamline the development lifecycle with automated workflows for code reviews, testing, and deployment.
Application maintenance: Automate routine maintenance tasks and updates to ensure application stability and performance.
User feedback integration: Implement automated workflows to collect, analyze, and act on user feedback for continuous application improvement.
Heads of IT
IT strategy execution: Automate the execution and monitoring of IT strategies to ensure alignment with business objectives.
Security management: Implement automated security checks and incident response workflows to safeguard the organization’s IT infrastructure.
IT performance reporting: Use automated dashboards to generate real-time performance reports and gain insights into IT operations.
Learn more: Benefits of automation workflows.
Workflow automation statistics
Here are some key figures of industries that benefited from workflow automation:
- 417% increase in revenue: Process and marketing automation yields a 417% increase in revenue.
Read how Annuitas Group increased their revenue. - $270 million annual savings: Cisco Systems automated its CRM process, eliminating 75,000 customer calls per month and saving over $270 million annually in operating expenses.
Read more about annual savings here: Business Process Management Journal.
Key Areas of Anticipation: Businesses anticipate workflow automation in three areas: managing cost efficiency, improving time to market, and optimizing customer self-service.
How to automate workflow processes?
A workflow automation process begins with a clear objective and ends with a process evaluation.
Here are 5 steps involved in carrying out a workflow automation plan.
1. Identify a repetitive process
Zero in on a process that could benefit from automation. Ask questions such as ‘Is it mature enough to be automated?’ or ‘Does the team approve of or insist on automation?’.
2. Define goals
The benefits of automation can be varied - increased ROI, faster time-to-market, and increased team productivity. Clearly articulate your team’s expectations from automation.
3. Train the team
The success of workflow automation depends on the willingness of its stakeholders. Communicate its benefits to the process owners and encourage their feedback.
4. Design the workflow
Build the process in the workflow management tool. Create a form, define the workflow, and assign permissions and rules for each step and stakeholder.
5. Measure KPIs and ROI
The purpose of automation is not fully achieved until your business compares the difference it has made to the pre-existing processes measured through reports and data analytics.
Tailored workflow automation for your business
Tired of bottlenecks slowing you down? Kissflow transforms your complex processes into streamlined operations. Our intuitive workflow automation software turns your ideas into powerful, custom solutions — without a single line of code. Watch productivity soar as tedious tasks become automated victories.
