The world is changing at a rapid pace. Digitalization has taken off and it’s extending from just gadgets to business processes as well. Companies are leveraging digital technologies like cloud, mobile apps, and artificial intelligence to improve the end-to-end customer experience and digitize their working processes.
Business process automation (BPA) or low code BPA is one such example of how digitalization is changing the way businesses operate. Business processes have been an essential part of any successful organization over the years. They help streamline operations to make them more efficient and reduce operational costs while also improving end-to-end customer experiences.
They also help companies scale their businesses by automating repetitive tasks via software programs like BPA so that only core staff members are required for running business processes.
What is Low Code Business Process Automation?
Low-code BPA is a software development methodology that uses low-code tools and frameworks to create business-process-based applications. The idea behind low-code BPA is to create low-code applications that can automate a business workflow and assist users in completing their day-to-day tasks.
Low-code BPA applications follow a workflow model, where each step acts as a trigger that initiates other actions within the system. You as a business owner can choose the low-code framework/tool based on your business needs and then create the workflow model in that low-code application.
Next, the application will try to execute the workflow model based on the triggers defined in the workflow model and finally track the results to feed into other analytics tools and systems.
How Low Code Business Process Automation Helps Your Business Operations?
Low-code BPA can help your organization scale its business operations by automating day-to-day tasks and eliminating the need for staff members to perform these tasks manually. The workflow model can be used to automate common tasks such as order processing, service management, inventory management, and human resources.
If a company has a large number of low-code applications, BPA can be used to create a business process that can automate these tasks across different applications. Low-code BPA can be used to create digital processes that enable companies to conduct business with minimal friction.
It can also help improve internal operations by eliminating manual processes across the organization. For example, low code can be used to create a digital process that enables HR professionals to perform onboarding and staffing.
Business Process Automation For Your Business
Automating Administrative Tasks
You’ve got the information about your customers and prospects in a CRM system, and now you want to follow up with them and close the deals. Great. You can easily automate the follow-up process in a few ways.
First, set up a workflow in the CRM that automatically fires off emails and other messages as you add new customers to CRM or as you add new leads to Salesforce. Second, use a service like Zapier that automatically triggers off any changes in your CRM to trigger other apps, like a Slack channel or your email marketing service. Automating CRM workflow means that you can streamline sales processes, achieving the same result with less effort.
If you have a CRM that can handle a lot of data, you can set up rules for certain criteria in the CRM to trigger emails and other messages. For example, if a certain lead is assigned to a certain rep, then you can set up a rule in the CRM that automatically fires off a message.
Automating Customer Support Tasks
Automating customer support tasks lets you employ a fully-staffed call center with minimal human intervention. A CRM can track customer support tickets, letting you manage customer service issues from a centralized location. That lets you respond to customer issues as they come in, and it also lets you create tickets for service requests that haven’t been resolved yet.
Other handy CRM features include a contact management tool that lets you manage multiple contacts per user and a convenient way to send marketing emails. You can also use a CRM to create a marketing automation system that helps you nurture leads with drip campaigns and other types of marketing content.
Automating customer support tasks involve setting up rules in the CRM to trigger emails or other messages as tickets are created or as tickets are resolved. You can also set up rules to notify you when customers place new tickets or resolve tickets. You can then use the CRM to help you manage support issues by responding to tickets, creating tickets, or archiving them.
Automating Financial Tasks
One of the key benefits of business process automation is the opportunity to automate manual financial tasks. This means using the power of artificial intelligence to automate the broad sweep of accounting, finance, and auditing tasks. That can cut costs and also speed up the process of receiving approvals for funding and growth projects.
Let’s say, for example, you own a restaurant. You have a customer with a lingering food allergy who is a regular at your restaurant. Every week, the customer brings a new allergy-related complaint against your wait staff. You don’t want to fire the wait staff, but you also don’t want to let the customer ruin your business.
You could set up a rule in your CRM that automatically fires off a message to your assistant manager or another manager when a new complaint is filed against a customer with a specific food allergy.
Benefits of Going Low-code
The main reason why many companies choose to go low-code is to achieve cost savings. Low-code BPA enables businesses to cut costs on development and IT operations by not requiring the use of expensive development tools and by reducing the time taken to create new applications.
Low-code BPA applications can be created with low-code tools that enable the users to create their applications without having to understand the generic programming language. Low-code BPA applications can be created by non-developers who have a basic understanding of business processes. This can enable your organization to scale its operations by creating low-code BPA applications.
Low-code applications can be created with a low amount of time and effort as it involves less code. The applications built with low code can be customized to meet the unique requirements of each business.
Steps to Take Before Implementing BPA
Some of the key steps that you need to take before implementing BPA for your company are as follows:
Research
Research the various BPA tools and frameworks available in the market and assess their suitability for your organization’s needs.
Strategy
Identify the business process that can be automated using low-code BPA. Based on the identified business process, create a strategy regarding how you can implement low-code BPA in your organization.
Implementation
Choose the low-code solution and create the low-code BPA application based on the framework/tool that you have selected.
Optimization
Optimize the low-code BPA application based on the data received from the system. – Support – Utilize the support services provided by the low-code BPA application to resolve issues related to your application.
Key Challenges
The key challenges that you are likely to face while implementing low-code BPA for your organization are as follows:
Lack of Understanding
The main challenge that you are likely to face while implementing low-code BPA for your organization is that you need to have a detailed strategy for how the business process will be automated.
Code Complexity
The other challenge that you are likely to face while implementing low-code BPA for your organization is that your low-code applications will be very complex.
Time
The third challenge that you are likely to face while implementing low-code BPA for your organization is that it takes a significant amount of time to implement low-code BPA.
Conclusion
Business processes are undergoing a major transformation with the advent of digital technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain. Business process automation (BPA) is one such transformation where businesses are leveraging digital technologies like cloud, mobile apps, and artificial intelligence to improve the end-to-end customer experience and digitize their working processes.
Low-code BPA is one such example of how digitalization is changing the way businesses operate. Now, low-code BPA enables organizations to automate day-to-day tasks and eliminate the need for staff members to perform these tasks manually.
Low-code BPA can be used to create digital processes that enable companies to conduct business with minimal friction. It can also help improve internal operations by eliminating manual processes across the organization. These are some of the major advantages of implementing low-code BPA in your business.
Articles You Might Want To Read:
Learn How to Get Started With Low Code Automation Tools
The Benefits of Having a Low-code Automation Software
The Impact of Low Code Automation Tools on Different Industries
