Automation is the new paradigm

Manual business processes are the dinosaurs of the global workforce. These dinosaurs have yet to go fully extinct, but we find their fossils in the automated business system software that more and more companies are utilizing to cut down on redundant employees.

There are many reasons for this trend—from saving money to reducing overhead to making employees more productive. In a world where workers are comfortable and happy, productivity rises, which is why it’s important for companies to keep their employees engaged with technology.

The best way to do that is through automation. Automated systems can make tasks like data inputting, file conversion, communication with customers, and more so much easier than they ever could be with a human being at the helm. The only issue left: some businesses still have manual business processes of their own that need attention.

 If you’re a business owner, you know that keeping overhead costs low is an important part of your success. You also know that automating repetitive tasks can help you do just that. At PerfecTECH, we’re helping businesses of all industries find ways to cut costs and boost their profit margins by helping to create custom software that automates their most repetitive and time-wasting tasks.

Business owners may often ask themselves: just how do companies automate more tasks to keep overhead low and reduce time needed from a human to input directions and information?

Read on to find out how you can automate your manual business processes!

Computer phone and notebook

Businesses are becoming more automated through the use of software specifically designed to handle repetitive tasks. Before you go custom, seek out tools that already exist for the services that you offer.

For example, let’s say your business makes use of a Mail Chimp email list. In addition to your Mail Chimp audience, you also like to keep track of your customers’ contact information in a simple Google Spreadsheet.  Without an automation solution, if you want to edit a customer’s information on the Google sheet, that means you’ll also need to edit their information within Mail Chimp.  This means that, if you wanted to edit a roster of 100 customers, you’d actually have to make each edit twice: once inside Mailchimp and once inside the Google Spreadsheet.

The solution is to automate the process.

If you have 1,000 or more customers whose info you want to edit, you’ll be wasting significant time completing this redundant task manually. Luckily, there are already automation tools that exist out there that can help you automate simple processes like the Mail Chimp/Google Spreadsheet example above.

Simple automation tools

If you’re looking for a way to automate communication between your different software platforms and eliminate the need for human intervention, Tonkean is the tool for you.

Tonkean allows for automated communication between software and platforms, minimizing the need for human touch. In their own words, “Tonkean reaches out to your team in the systems they use (Slack, email etc) and brings the data directly to your systems, saving everyone time and letting them focus on the work that matters.” 

Also check out tools like Zapier, automate.io, which allow different software platforms to communicate with one another. Like Tonkean, they allow different software platforms to communicate with one another; however, they don’t require any knowledge of computer science or code.

The downside of this is that these premade tools are somewhat limited in the tasks they can automate. If your business requires a unique set of tasks to be accomplished, you may need to hire professionals who can help you create software that can do exactly what you need it to (but more on that later).

More advanced pre-made solutions

 Automation is one of the best ways to free up employees’ work days to spend more time on complicated tasks that require critical thinking.

If an issue arises, let’s say, in Firewall that would potentially affect the security of a cloud-based application on which you are storing information, Resolve will indicate the issue to the appropriate individual at your company responsible for that security.  A platform like resolve can help reduce the amount of time your IT guys (or girls) spend on tasks that can (and should) be taken care of by a computer.

Identifying processes to automate

Software and computers are literally designed to do repetitive, mundane tasks, so there is little reason not to automate the manual process of things like invoice creation to a system that is designed for it.  It is difficult to create or implement a front-to-back system that will completely streamline business processes, but if processes are broken down into specific tasks the opportunities for automation become more apparent. 

When reviewing your company’s workflow for the purpose of greater automation, it may help to not look at ‘the big picture’ and focus on the smaller tasks.  Building or implementing an automated process for a small task is easier than it is for complex ones, and the solutions can be expanded upon over time to include more parts of the entire process.

The Holy Grail of automation: custom software

Once you’ve determined the processes your business needs to automate, AND you’ve determined that the aforementioned automation tools simply won’t do what you need them to, there’s only one more place left to go: custom software.

If you’re a business owner, you likely have a long wish list of things that could be done at the snap of a finger. Maybe you’re currently paying employees to do these things so you don’t have to.

But hiring employees at $50,000+ annually can quickly drive up your overhead. And with a custom software platform, you can create a tool that does the work of 100 employees and will cost less than a single employee annually.

Your automation workflow won’t be built in a day

(but it can be built!)

 Do you have a business that is trying to automate processes? Are you considering going fully remote for your workforce?

If so, you’re not alone. More and more businesses are realizing that they can save money by automating their workforces. 

Automation allows companies to save time, money, and resources by allowing certain tasks to be performed by software or algorithms instead of humans.  This can be particularly beneficial for companies that need to scale quickly or have limited resources. 

The good news is, automation isn’t just for big corporations anymore. Even small and medium-sized businesses can benefit from the process—and some of those benefits might surprise you!

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