The word ‘automation’ elicits different responses. Some people may see it as the solution to finally breaking a production barrier. Others might fear for their jobs when they realize a computer can do exactly what they are doing now, but better and faster.
But of all the applications of automation, the one that makes the most immediate difference, and the one that best unites humans and machines, is workflow automation.
What’s Wrong With Manual Workflows?
Manual workflows expose the major weaknesses of humans in the workplace.
They make errors.
When you are doing the same work every day, it’s easy to miss one thing, or forget to attach something.
They don’t transfer things very well.
Humans are not good at copying a thousand records to another platform without missing a single digit.
They forget things.
Humans may not remember who needs to sign something next, or forget to update an item in a tracker.
"They tend to shirk responsibility. It’s easy for humans to transfer blame for a failure onto someone else."
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Humans bring a lot of other value to workflows, but the manual nature of passing items back and forth with paper forms or email just exposes these weaknesses more. Thankfully, machines are great at all of these four items, and can allow humans to do what they are better at.
A recent study from Cognizant found that 20% of organizations that use workflow automation reported at least 15% in cost savings. More than half of the organizations that use workflow automation reported a significant improvement in their systems in three to five years.
Low-Code and Workflow Automation
But implementing programs and applications for workflow automation can be difficult, even if you have a dedicated team of developers on staff to implement these automations.
This is where low-code comes into the picture. With low-code platforms, application building is up to 78% faster. Technologies like low-code make programming faster than it would be possible through traditional methods. Instead of having to wait weeks or months for a single application, low-code platforms reduce the wait time to hours and days.
You could also use a no-code platform like Kissflow which lets any business user create their own automated workflow without needing to know coding at all.
With easy development and huge time savings, your development staff can work on additional workflow automation around the office. They can also work on other projects that demand their attention and expertise. Plus, your business staff don’t have to spend time on tasks that aren’t worth their time.
The rapid decrease in the time taken to achieve implementation of workflow automation wouldn’t be possible without low-code.
Why Workflow Automation Is Worth it
Workflow automation offers more benefits than cost cutting and time saving
Tasks are managed efficiently
With workflow automation, your employees don’t need to rely on sending emails to flooded inboxes, attending drawn-out meetings, or chasing each other down during coffee breaks to get their requests completed.
Multiple processes are handled easily
Handling one workflow manually can be quite the chore. With workflow automation, it becomes effortless. Automation gives you the bandwidth to handle multiple processes in the office simultaneously without losing track of them.
The experience is user-friendly
By integrating with third party services and applications and providing a user-friendly interface, workflow automation makes training for these applications less of a mandatory requirement. There’s additional cost saving here, because training staff does take a considerable amount of resources.
Conclusion
Handling workflows and processes through emails and meetings can be a hassle. But when you combine low-code and workflow automation together, they make an effective team that can tackle office confusion and chaos.
If you’re looking to automate your office workflows through low-code, give Kissflow a try. It’s a low-code workflow automation platform which lets you build your own business workflow apps, even if you don’t know how to code. If you’re interested in learning more, try Kissflow for free and experience the power of low-code and workflow automation today!
