Manual business processes are slowing down your team and costing you money.
Not only are your staff buried in heaps of paperwork, they’re constantly backtracking to fix mistakes and chasing missing signatures, documents, and forms.
But what’s the solution? The answer to lengthy manual processing and endless errors lies in dynamic business process automation.
By digitizing and automating your business processes, you’ll find that you can improve every aspect of your business — from onboarding to financial processing.
Check out these six business process automation examples to see exactly how real businesses are streamlining internal operations with frevvo’s business process automation software.
This is a comprehensive guide. To head straight to the section that interests you most, click the links below:
- What are the Benefits of Business Process Automation?
- 6 Real-World Business Process Automation Examples in Action
What are the Benefits of Business Process Automation Software?
There’s a time and place for manual processing — and it’s in the past. Business process automation (BPA) is the future of operational efficiency in business.
Why? Because BPA software removes the friction and potential risks that come with manual processing.
Where manual processes are packed with physical paper trails, the potential for lost documentation, human error, and operational delays is high. Businesses still functioning in this way incur huge costs associated with remedial work and slow processing.
BPA, on the other hand, tackles the downfalls of manual processing.
To start, BPA reduces errors to the point they’re virtually eliminated. Thanks to automatic validation systems, database integration, and automated routing, all documentation is filled in correctly and routed to the right approver.
What’s more, a business process automation tool speeds up business processes considerably as repetitive tasks and approval steps are automated, saving valuable time.
Equally, without the trail of errors, you won’t experience the bottlenecks and delays associated with remedying problems. That means that business processes are completed on time every time.
The combination of these benefits leads to enormous cost savings.
Without slow, error-ridden paper trails, you’ll save the money you previously had to pay employees to fix problems and handle delays.
Since processes are automated and therefore speedier, you won’t have to pay for so many labor hours. Considering that a third of tasks in 60% of all job roles can be automated, you’re looking at labor savings of 20% or more.
And now that your staff are no longer bogged down with tedious data entry and time-consuming recurring tasks, they can focus on excelling in their main roles — instead of chasing paperwork.
6 Real-World Business Process Automation Examples in Action
How many of your business processes are unnecessarily complicated due to outdated paper processes?
Here are six solid examples of how you could streamline your operations and eliminate clunky manual processing.
1. Employee Onboarding Automation
Consider the onboarding processes in your human resources (HR) department.
No doubt they’re composed of piles of paper forms packaged for your new staff and passed from person to person to personnel department. Manual data entry, disconnected HR systems, and days spent waiting for approvals while paperwork sits buried in in-trays.
Business process automation software changes all that by automating the onboarding process for efficient end-to-end processing of new employees.
Imagine a system that automatically generates I-9s and W-4s and allows new staff to complete these forms digitally, directly from their mobile phones.
That’s how automated employee onboarding software works.
Automated employee onboarding software, like frevvo, allows you to create digital onboarding packages to walk your new hires through all the formalities swiftly on the first day.
Thanks to database integration and single sign-on, employees only have to log in once and forms are automatically populated — saving precious time on data entry.
Automatic routing and built-in tracking features mean that all forms are sent to the right approvers. Automatic notifications and reminders prevent late approvals by alerting approvers that a signature is needed.
The best bit? Your automated onboarding software connects directly with your existing HR tool to keep an automatic record. That way, you have a fully-compliant audit trail at all times without having to overhaul your entire HR system.
That’s how Living Innovations, a top healthcare firm, managed to cut onboarding time and costs in half, while eliminating errors and lost documentation.
By automating its onboarding processes with frevvo, the medical company was able to automatically generate digital onboarding documentation, such as W-4s, I-9s, and the Code of Conduct.
Thanks to sleek DocStar integration all onboarding processes are now fully paperless and faster than ever.
2. Education Automation
Educational institutions have the same business processing demands as corporate entities. However, a lot of the administrative tasks are being performed by academics instead of administrative teams.
Professors and students are spending vast amounts of time filling in, checking, and chasing paperwork — instead of teaching and learning.
But how can higher education workflow software take away this pressure? Consider the many areas where manual tasks are eating away at precious time.
In terms of student processes, higher education workflow software can improve operations such as:
- Student registration
- Internship applications
- Housing requests
- Absence records
- Transcript requests
- Class scheduling, and more.
For faculty members, school workflow software can streamline manual tasks, such as:
- Onboarding
- Vacation requests
- Time sheets
- Grant applications
- Expense requests, and more.
Plus, with a premium higher education workflow software, like frevvo, all automated workflows seamlessly integrate with SQL databases, Google Apps, and student information systems such as Banner, Colleague and Jenzabar.
This means increased efficiency without disrupting existing systems.
Take the University of Saint Francis, for example.
Every time a student wanted to apply for an internship, forms had to be completed manually and taken, by hand, to the student’s advisor. From there the advisor took it by hand to the dean who took it by hand to the registrar.
There are so many potential points of failure and delay within this chain of command.
Instead, by switching to frevvo forms, students can now fill in internship applications remotely, directly from their smart device. The forms are automatically routed to the right approvers, who can electronically sign these forms without manual hand-over.
As frevvo integrates directly with Jenzabar, it’s easy for admin to keep track of form statuses and keep an up-to-date audit trail.
What’s the result for USF? No more human error, faster data entry, and an easy-to-use automated workflow that everyone feels comfortable with.
3. Procurement Automation
The problem with manual procurement processes is that missed paperwork or incorrect data can cause delays in the transfer of goods — leading to empty shelves and failures in fulfillment.
Procurement automation software can cut out errors in your purchase orders (PO), procurement requests, and invoices by switching from manual to digital forms.
Thanks to automatic validation features in software like frevvo, your forms are always correct and compliant.
Equally, as procurement automation software integrates with financial systems and SQL databases, you can significantly accelerate data entry by automatically populating forms and instantly updating audit trails.
Just think about how easy vendor management becomes when you can automatically route purchase requests through the right approvers, while tracking documentation every step of the way.
Central Wyoming College knows the power of BPA when it comes to streamlining procurement.
The school’s multi-step PO process was extremely complex. Professors were spending hours filling in paperwork and seeking the approvals needed to procure the supplies they required for their classes.
Now though, thanks to frevvo forms, CWC staff members can automatically populate procurement forms which dynamically route to the appropriate approver in seconds.
No longer relying on paper processes, PO calculations are always accurate and lost paperwork is no longer a concern.
In fact, the built-in task list means staff can quickly review each PO to make sure audit trails are correct and complete.
4. Financial Process Automation
It’s time to move away from spreadsheets. It’s a headache working on complex financial processes in such a restrictive and visually-complicated program.
The rise of financial process automation software turns these complex tables into low-code automated workflows where financial requests can be documented, approved, and recorded swiftly and efficiently.
If you’re using spreadsheets for financial processes, no doubt they’re peppered with cells full of handwritten instructions directing users to manually route financial documentation.
Instead, comprehensive financial process automation software, like frevvo, integrates with financial applications and document management systems for seamless end-to-end financial workflows.
This means no more complicated manual instructions. Documents are autonomously routed through the right approval systems and filed automatically for fully-compliant audit trails within systems that your staff are already trained to use.
By changing to frevvo, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is reaping the benefits of financial process automation software.
Previously, the shipping company handled credit authorizations and cost allocations by printing documents, filling them out manually, and submitting them for approval by hand.
Desperate for a secure, easy-to-use, cloud-based solution, Hellmann now uses frevvo forms to automatically validate the accuracy of forms to prevent human error and duplicate data.
Supervisors can now electronically sign financial documentation from anywhere, approving requests directly from their smart devices.
Thanks to the built-in analytics systems, Hellmann can visualize and track misallocated costs to prevent wastage and save money across the whole business.
5. Sales Order Automation
Generating sales orders is tedious and time-consuming if you’re doing it by hand — especially if you’ve got lots of customers.
Instead, with sales order automation software you can create dynamic digital sales order forms that integrate with SQL databases, ERP systems, and other business apps to speed up processing.
With dynamic sales order forms, fields automatically populate using information from your databases. This saves significant amounts of time and cuts back on labor costs associated with manually filling out sales forms.
What’s more, your dynamic sales order forms automatically complete all calculations so forms are correct and compliant.
Want to accelerate and ease friction in payments? A high-end sales order automation software, like frevvo, links directly to your payment processor so that customers can instantly pay for orders.
Activ8 Solar Energies has seen impressive results from using frevvo to automate its customer order workflow.
Previously, installation teams filled out forms manually in customer homes. These forms were taken back to the sales office by hand and manually inputted into the system to generate a quote, which was emailed to the customer.
Long delays between quotations and payments leaves time for customers to talk themselves out of a deal.
Now the sales and installation team use frevvo’s business rules to generate accurate quotations in real-time. The team can work out if customers are eligible for a grant there and then, without leaving the customer’s home.
Read more: See this article for 10 other examples of business rules.
Transactions can be made instantly thanks to on-the-spot electronic signing and automatic linking to payment processors. Sales orders automatically generate and are immediately sent to the customer and the sales office to keep records up-to-date.
6. Automated Approval Processes
When you’re relying on manual approvals, business processes can take ages.
Imagine you need your expenses approved before you leave for a business trip but your boss goes out sick for a week. Do you go on the trip with no money? Pay out your own pocket? Delay the trip?
With approval workflow software, like frevvo, approvals processes are entirely electronic and completely automated. That way, approvals need not be such a hassle.
You can quickly generate electronic forms that auto-populate by pulling information from your databases. Upon submission, these forms automatically route to the appropriate approver who can electronically sign-off on these documents from anywhere.
With built-in notification and reminders, approval delays become a thing of the past.
Plus, in-built tracking systems allow you to monitor the progress of approvals to make sure everything is moving at the right pace and all stages of the automated process are recorded correctly.
That’s how Escondido Union School District managed to automate eight approval workflows in just three months — by implementing approval workflow software.
Before adopting frevvo, the school district printed forms, filled them out manually, and hand-delivered them to each approver along the chain. This was the process for travel reimbursement, budget transfers, state and federal reporting, absence records, and more.
Not only was the school district drowning in paperwork, mistakes and delays were commonplace.
Now faculty and staff can complete business processes far quicker as they no longer need to chase approvals in person.
Instead, documents are now automatically sent to the right supervisor and approved electronically. Supervisors can sign documentation from anywhere at any time from any device, so there’s no longer an excuse for late approvals.
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Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to automate your business processes so your staff can focus on their key roles, rather than wasting their time chasing and correcting paperwork.
With frevvo’s dynamic BPA software you can shave off hours wasted on inefficient manual tasks and significantly cut back on remedial costs.
Want to see just how much time and money you can save with business process automation software? Try frevvo for free today.
