It is a growing awareness among businesses that the human element of the workforce should be given a chance to work on more valuable activities. Thus, the possibility of automating manual, repetitive tasks is something worth looking at. With intelligent automation coming into the picture, we are seeing a lot of office functions getting automated gradually.
McKinsey & Co. conducted a global survey of business leaders in various industries and found that 66% were already using business process automation solutions to automate at most one of their business processes.
This statistic is particularly relevant to the financial services and banking industry, which are among the most data-driven segments of the economy. This highly-regulated market handles large amounts of data. This is why digitization is crucial to gaining a competitive edge.
Business process automation real world examples and use cases
Here are some of the most regular tasks in finance and accounts which are ideally suited for automation and their ideal use cases from the implementations that we have done for our clients at Advaiya.
1. Purchase approvals
Many businesses find the purchase approval process fraught with a series of expensive specters that sap productivity and efficiency.
- Rogue spending: Rogue spending is a form of "maverick" spending. This occurs when staff doesn't have formal purchasing procedures to stop them from buying products and services from sub-optimal or non-approved suppliers. These purchases are often "invisible" as they may not be entered into the official procurement or accounts payable systems. This results in a distorted financial system that affects everything, from cash flow to budgets and financial reports to forecasts.
- Human errors: This includes data entry and lost paperwork errors, as well as routing mistakes.
- Insufficient transparency: With a manual paper-based process, approvals can sit in unattended mailboxes waiting for the appropriate approver to return from vacation or get lost in the shuffle among departments. These delays can lead to critical shortages in production goods, which could cost your company shipping discounts or cause additional costs through rush order fees.
Business process automation services help drive out these dark spirits by automating the process and providing transparency of spend. With BPA, it's easy to track approvals and make sure they are signed on time. This will allow you to keep your production running smoothly. Process automation removes the human factor from data entry by automatically storing vendor and product information so that forms can be filled in with just a few clicks.
2. Invoice processing
Invoice processing, like approvals, can lead to inefficiency and unnecessary expense.
- Fraud: Fraud can be described as the darker brother to maverick spending. It's easy for scammers to create invoices and get paid without matching documentation. Staff can also become thieves of the gaming system.
- Human error: Again, related to data entry, routing errors, and invoice exceptions.
- Inefficiencies in the process: If you don't have an easy way of tracking or verifying invoices, they can linger in your system for so long that you are liable for late fees and penalties rather than receiving early payment discounts. Slow payments can cause damage to relationships with key vendors and make it difficult for you to negotiate the best pricing and terms.
Business process automation software allows you to create automated workflows that reduce delays, fraud, and errors and improve accuracy. It enables you to process invoices faster, which means you can get your vendors paid more quickly. You will be able to get more discounts and build stronger relationships with your vendors.
3. Supplier management
Are you able to make your supply chain more efficient and lean? Do you struggle to find the right vendors to deliver essential goods and services on time and at a fair cost? Do you worry about the additional risk of suppliers who lack effective business process management and create unsafe working conditions, legal violations, or questionable social responsibility?
Effective supplier management can be a crucial component of your BPA strategy. This can be done by connecting your vendors to your system via a vendor portal. You can then evaluate your existing vendors and add new vendors that meet your pricing, compliance, and operational requirements.
Integrating vendor risk management (VRM) can build strong relationships with your trusted vendors and create contingencies to protect you against unforeseeable disasters.
Final words:
Business process automation has now become one of the cornerstones of digital transformation initiatives.
Various industry verticals are implementing business process automation solutions because it streamlines business processes and makes organizations more adaptable to changing industry demands. BPA reduces human error and redefines job roles in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
BPA solutions can manage various financial and accounting aspects, including sales, planning, compliance, customer relations, and workflow.
Business process automation tools can be more than a data management system. It can also become extremely sophisticated software when used correctly.
Advaiya: The leading business process automation solutions provider
Automation is a key component of most organizations' digital transformation strategies. However, for automation to have the greatest impact on your business, you need a BPA partner with skilled and experienced technology experts.
Advaiya's core competencies are centered around the needs of the business service sector.
Our experts have helped numerous service-focused companies digitize their processes and introduce automation to improve their customer experience, reduce repetitive tasks and increase their competitive edge.
If you are looking for an experienced team of professionals who can successfully implement business process automation, consult us.
Ankit Panchal
Ankit Panchal is a Consultant in the Biz App Development team at Advaiya. He is an expert on business process automation. He is Microsoft Certified professional keen on building solutions using Power platform, Office 365 and SharePoint and has over 5 years of experience in IT and various Microsoft technologies.
Posted by Advaiya
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