With companies taking steps toward digital transformation, numerous business process automation tools exist to streamline business operations. Automation offers many possibilities but it can be overwhelming to consider all the options. Deciding where to start when implementing an automation tool may seem daunting.
In implementing automation, each business has unique needs that greatly depend on the size of the company and the industry. With that being said, there are some common automation tools that most companies can consider as their first steps toward automation. First, let’s cover what business process automation tools are.
Brief Overview of Business Process Automation Tools
Business process automation tools take over repetitive tasks, streamline systems, increase accuracy in processes, and perform these processes more quickly. These tasks range from sending customer service emails to manually editing a healthcare claim. Automation tools step in and complete these daily operations thus freeing up employees' time to focus on more strategic or creative projects.
Also, most automation tools come with an auditable trail allowing leaders to find possible inefficiencies or bottlenecks. This visibility makes it easier to determine problem points the company may be facing.
Automation tools often can provide invaluable data that teams can use to make more informed decisions. So business process automation tools take control of repetitive tasks, offer visibility into the workflow, and often provide data into the operations.
Systems to Automate First
While each company will have different needs, there is one specific automation tool that is applicable to most businesses and that is paper digitization. One study by the Statistic Research Department shows that 6.78 billion US dollars will be spent on document management systems by 2023 worldwide.
Documents are ubiquitous in almost every business whether it's HR onboarding documents, important client information, or contracts. Not only does digitizing paper free up office space, but it also cuts down on the time that employees use to find these physical documents and offers a more secure way to store them.
There are a few ways to begin paper digitization. Various departments may use paper for different reasons so leaders need to decide what they'll be digitizing first.
Digital Mailroom - Digitizing Inbound Mail
With solutions like Exela’s Digital Mailroom (DMR), many documents can be transformed into digital documents including inbound mail, check deposits, and resumes. This is a great way to start the digitization process, especially with companies that have remote workers. Digital Mailroom offers an easy way for employees to access their mail and other documents regardless of where they’re working.
DMR takes physical mail and turns it into a digital asset that can be stored securely and sent to the recipients with ease. This cost-effective solution is significantly more convenient than the recipient needing to retrieve their mail from a specific location or having a courier deliver it to them.
Digital Mailroom integrates with other systems including automatic check deposit and invoice management, accelerating downstream processes. With a solution like DMR, companies significantly cut down on time-consuming processes such as sorting through mail, confirming the right recipient receives it, and storing or destroying it.
Paper Digitization
Along with digitizing mail, another great first business process automation tool is document management. For companies that house and store multiple physical documents, Backfile Scanning may be just the solution they need.
Documents are scanned, digitized, and can be stored in a secure web portal for employees to easily access. Many of these document management systems include the ability to grant or deny access to certain people to ensure the document remains secure.
Physical documents can become damaged or lost and employees can spend a significant amount of time searching for physical documents that could be spent elsewhere. Digitizing and managing documents by using a business process automation tool makes it easier to share, edit, and store documents.
Industry or Business Specific Needs
From here on out, selecting a business process automation tool comes down to the industry and specific needs of the business. Here are some examples of systems that different businesses may want to incorporate as their first steps in digital transformation.
Healthcare - Claims Processing
Claims processing is a tedious and complex but extremely important task in the healthcare revenue cycle. Because of this, it is a process that cannot be overlooked and each error or slow processing time could result in delayed or inaccurate payments.
A business process automation tool such as Exela’s PCH Global solution can streamline the claims processing operations. PCH Global can identify certain-to-deny claims speeding up the process of comparing claims to the benefits of coverage requirements.
With its suggested edits, PCH Global can improve the first pass rate before a claim is submitted. Companies using PCH Global can experience a 35% reduction in administrative costs and at least a 25% reduction in denials and rejections.
Finances - Procure-to-Pay
Procure-to-pay (P2P) is the process of procuring goods and paying for the goods hence the term procure-to-pay. P2P is frequently automated using business process automation tools such as Exela’s P2P solution. A business process automation tool can streamline the P2P process helping to manage every step of the process from the purchase to receipt to invoice approval and payment. Exela’s P2P solution reduces non-PO spend and procurement errors while improving turnaround times and has reduced internal costs by 40%.
A P2P solution provides companies with AP automation which allows easy collaboration between buyers, suppliers, service providers, and financial institutions. While reducing costs and improving cash flow, it also creates increased visibility into the AP process.
Exela’s P2P solution captures, organizes, and refines data for buyers and suppliers that includes audit trails, transaction logs and authentications. It can also automate ordering, invoicing, approvals, and payments.
Marketing - Data Reporting
Many companies choose to start their digital transformation process since business process automation tools for marketing can increase the ROI significantly. Nucleus research discovered that for every dollar spent on marketing automation, companies saw a return of $5.44.
By using automation tools like Exela’s Predictive Modeling and Data Analytics, a component of Exela’s XME solution, companies can refine their target messaging and enhance customer experience. Marketing automation tools can collect and aggregate data, perform sentiment analysis, and help with customer segmentation and prediction.
Marketing automation solutions often use AI to continually learn and improve their predictions. Exela’s XME solution offers even more including cross-media marketing campaigns, print and promotional item management, and marketing operations support.
Final Thoughts
Business process automation tools make daily operations quicker, more efficient, more accurate, and reduce costs. In our current digital-first era, businesses that don't implement digital solutions fall behind. If you're still feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities that business process automation has to offer, consider reaching out to Exela to learn more about how automation and technology can improve your business processes.
