5 Easy Steps to Business Automation

If taken broadly, we understand automation as a specified set of actions shifted to be performed by a certain mechanism, for example, by specific software. This approach allows freeing up human resources from performing mainly routine and monotonous tasks and redirecting them to the work that provides greater return and efficiency for the company.

We have an article on business process automation on our blog, providing more detail on this topic. Please read it to see examples and learn about the benefits that companies get, implementing such solutions in practice.

Automation is not an inexplicable thing and does not require colossal costs to be implemented. It is just the process of selecting or developing software to efficiently solve problems that a particular company may experience.

In this article, we will dwell on the main steps to be taken by the company’s owner or management on the way towards business automation.

Step 1. Problem Awareness

If you do not comprehend or clearly identify the problem, you will have no idea of what exactly needs to be analyzed to take steps to automation.

Let us mention the most common issues:

• Customers abandon the company;
• Work information is lost;
• Your employees waste too much time to perform a lot of routine tasks;
• You feel you lack a systematic approach and control over projects;
• Your effort to analyze both department efficiency as a whole and each employee’s professionalism in particular come up short.

You can address all these issues (in whole or in part), using specific automation tools. However, to do so, you have to try to understand the problems clearly, determine the objectives you should achieve, and develop a plan to put everything into practice.

Step 2. Setting Goals

So, you have realized you have a problem to solve and decide to take such a large-scale step as automation. Where can you start? The first thing to do is to set a goal of what exactly to automate and comprehend what results should look like. If you fail to do so, the transition process may take longer, and you might not get what you anticipated.

While analyzing the processes you plan to automate, you draw up technical requirements for your future project, for example, for a software product.

You do not have to do it on your own. You can outsource this task to a company engaged in software development professionally.

Step 3. Identifying the Resources Required

To solve any issue, you should use particular resources. To automate your business, it is necessary to understand:

• what team you should involve in implementing the project. You can find the necessary employees or hire an IT outsourcing company.
• how much money you will have to allocate or what kind of budget you need.
• that both the development from scratch and the use of the ready-made product takes time, as it is necessary to integrate it and to train employees to use it. How long will it take you?

Step 4. Describing the Processes to be Automated

You should slice and dice, as well as describe, all the processes your company plans to automate. Then, you have to find weak points in them and think well about how to optimize them.

Both your company’s employees and third-party contractors can conduct a comprehensive audit of your business processes, as well as document and analyze their optimization aptitude. While working with third-party contractors, you will benefit from their technical expertise and simplify the task of drawing up technical specifications.

Step 5. Selecting a Team to Implement your Project Technically

By no means all companies can develop and properly implement a business process automation program on their own. That applies to a ready-made system as well.

If you do not plan to use ready-made tools (CRM, etc.), you should find a team to develop the product from scratch, taking into account your business’s individual needs and its current capabilities.

There are many criteria to consider when choosing a contractor. You have to take this decision especially carefully. Please read more about that on our blog: “9 Tips for Choosing the Right Software Development Company.”

We hope this article was useful to you, and you understand now that preparations for business automation take time. However, each of the listed steps is important in its own way, and you have to pay enough attention to all of them.

The Lvivity team boasts extensive experience in developing business automation solutions in various industries, and we are ready to help you implement such a project for your business as well. If you are looking for a reliable technology partner, please contact us and let us discuss the details.