Paperwork is part and parcel of any organization. It takes a lot of work and a lot of space in storage. It is necessary and cannot be neglected.
But are your employees constantly buried in paperwork?
Is it affecting your overall productivity and causing your processes to get stuck?
If yes, then you should consider replacing paperwork with automation. With workflow automation software, you can easily manage your workflow, business processes, and storage without having to bury yourself in paperwork all the time. It also gives you ample time to focus on other important things than just the operations of your business. All of this comes together and brings positive overall changes to your efficiency and productivity.
Automating your business processes also gives your company an edge over your competitors. It saves your time and money and also helps you adapt to the ever-changing business landscape. More and more businesses are moving towards automation and digital workflows. They make use of processes and devices that save their time and also make their processes more efficient and productive.
While most organizations today understand the importance of a paperless environment and automation, one thing that they worry about is the transition process. They are not sure how to move from an environment where everything is done on paper to an environment that is essentially paperless. If you are also stuck in this same dilemma, then here are 4 simple steps you can take to ease your way into automation.
1. Document Your Workflow
The first step of workflow automation is to figure out what your processes really are. Start by evaluating and documenting how things are done at the organization presently. You will need to go through every process in your organization and create a workflow for each of them. Jot down what happens at each step and explain everything in detail. You may use diagrams to explain the processes better.
Figure out all the documents that arrive at each stage of the processes and what happens to them. Mention where they are sent for approval and signatures and how long the approval process takes. In addition, find out and mention how many people have access to these documents. Anything and everything related to each document need to be mentioned in the plan.
Once you have figured out everything about each document, you will be left with a mess. But don’t worry. It will all become clear later.
2. Design Your Ideal Workflow
Now that you have a rough plan of what the actual workflow in your organization is like, the next step is to create a plan about your ideal workflow. It is time to untangle the plan that you just created. Remove any redundancies you see in the processes. Take time to streamline the processes and devise a way so that none of the documents will get lost during the process. You also need to devise a plan to reduce the chances of important documents getting corrupted during multiple transfers.
The only best solution you can find for these problems is an automated system. An automated system with an e-sign portal allows you to know who is accessing the documents. Anyone who needs to assess or sign the document can do it digitally. There is no need to send paperwork around the office which increases the risk of the papers getting lost or corrupted during the process. Once the concerned personnel have signed the documents, they can be sent digitally to the other party.
Once you are done with this step, you will have a clear plan about your needs when it comes to process automation.
3. Start the Migration Process
This is the process that most business owners are worried about. However, there isn’t much to be concerned about if you are following the best practices and have an experienced automation service by your side.
It will take some time and effort to move to automation. You need to be patient and give it time. Don’t rush things as doing so will only jeopardize the process. Just keep in mind that you cannot neglect two things while moving your organization towards automation: user experience and data quality.
Manual data entry may seem like a tedious task but it also gives you an opportunity to catch any errors before the files and paperwork are fully automated. Once the transition process is complete, you will notice increased user satisfaction. It is a difficult and time-taking task but the results are phenomenal.
4. Test and Tweak
Now that you are ready to deploy and install the new automation workflow system, you must test it. The best way of testing the new system is to make a small group of internal and external users and test the new automation processes on them. This will allow you to find out any issues in the workflow automation system and make the necessary changes before deploying the system organization-wide.
Once you are satisfied with the results, you can implement the system in the organization. You must also consider training your employees on the new system. Give them time to understand and get used to it. Collect their feedback and see if you can do anything to improve the system. The system will ultimately be used by your employees. Therefore, their feedback and comments must be given attention.
With workflow automation, you will be able to exercise complete control over your organization. You can also expand automation it to accounts payable, accounting, HR, finance, contract management, and governance. In short, it can be implemented in all areas of your organization.