What is Business Process Automation?
Business process automation is a technology-enabled automation of processes, activities or predefined services that are meant to accomplish a specific and clearly defined function or workflow. Business segments such as human resources, supply chain or operations help determine business processes.
Business processes are often started by a specific trigger – for example, the filing of an expense report – which will initiate a series of predefined workflow processes that will, at the end of it all, conclude whether an employee should receive reimbursement or not. The main goal of business process automation is not only to automate business processes, but also to simplify and improve business workflow. It can be a standalone initiative by the organization or be part of a larger, overarching business process management strategy that will be in play for a specific period of time.
Automated business processes can be managed collectively to enhance an organization’s overall workflow to achieve increased efficiency, reducing human error, helping the business to adapt to changing business needs and clarifying employees job roles and responsibilities. Business process
automation is itself a subset of a core business practice known as infrastructure management which maintains and optimizes organizations’ main operational components including equipment, data and processes.
Whatever the business process may be, it is meant to be a complete and a coordinated set of collaborative and fully transactional activities that should deliver value to customers in a positive manner. Automated business processes should be characterized by being large and complex. They should involve the traditional end to end flow of business materials, information or even business commitments. They should also be dynamic, a characteristic that should enable them respond to various customer demands and also to changing market conditions. They should also be automated in performing routines or activities using computers, whenever possible, to increase speed and reliability. They should be difficult to make visible; that is, they should neither be cognitive nor explicit. Finally, they should be dependent on the intelligence and support of humans. This is because humans perform tasks that are normally unstructured and those that require personal interaction between them and customers.
Insulated efficiency gain, collaborative efficiency gain and universal efficiency gain are the steps that are used to measure the efficiency of business process automation, and the focus of business process
automation is normally centered in the first and second steps. Some of the key benefits of business process automation are: improved efficiency, better process control, flexibility, business process improvement, improved procedures and the overall improvement of assignments.