What Is Business Process Automation?
Put simply, business process automation (BPA) means there’s no more need to dedicate manual labor to the same old tasks; let technology handle it. Instead of more hands on deck, you implement digital workflows that are smarter and more efficient. Automation frees up the time for businesses to ponder over more productive aspects and decisions for strategic growth based on the market. These repetitive tasks don’t even make the cut.
For instance, BPA can be used to automate invoice processing and pdf generation. If done manually, invoice processing requires handling and tending to a vast amount of data. However, automation takes all this away and simplifies the process to just a couple of steps.
As of now, AI-powered BPA solutions have replaced manual customer service with automated chatbots that are at least as much, if not more, helpful than dedicated respondents. They’re also adept at predictive analysis and processing large datasets that allow businesses to study the trends and optimize their operations.
The supply chain management has also gained a major upgrade thanks to BPA. AI-powered BPA solutions have eliminated the need to allocate different employees to each step of the supply chain, including inventory levels, demand prediction, and processing orders.
How You Can Implement a BPA Within Your Organization
Now, it’s time for you to have a look at the major steps for BPA implementation in your organization. Here are the key steps to follow:
1. Determine What Can Be Automated
First things first: you need to conduct a business process analysis to determine what your business excels at, and what it's lacking. This will help determine the major bottlenecks, room for improvement, and identify which tasks are best suited for automation. For instance, you’ll notice that most recurring, mundane tasks are prone to human error. These are the perfect targets for AI-powered enhancements.
2. Make the Right Choice: Tailored BPA Solutions
Now, you know what to automate. However, how do you actually actually automate it? It all comes down to choosing the right custom BPA solutions. Off-the-shelf tools might solve part of the problem, but custom software ensures that every process is optimized to meet your specific needs, eliminating bottlenecks without compromise. At BNMA, we provide custom software solutions that take care of workflow automation to AI-powered enhancements that turn the trajectory curve for your business upward.
3. Integrate and Test BPA Tools With Existing Systems
We’re already at integration and testing. Let’s talk about integration first. With custom BPA solutions, integration with your existing systems—like CRMs or ERPs—is designed from the ground up. This ensures a seamless fit without the limitations that off-the-shelf tools may impose. Custom solutions allow you to optimize every system integration, ensuring complete compatibility and efficiency.
4. Obtain and Use Result-Oriented Data
If you want to get data that’ll help with decisions in the future, it’s effective to measure it based on key performance indicators (KPIs). Some evergreen KPIs include:
I. Time Saved
• Why it matters: One of the primary goals of BPA is to reduce the time spent on manual, repetitive tasks.
• How to measure:
- Track the time it took to complete a task manually vs. the time it takes after
automation. - Use KPIs like "process completion time" or "average task time" to measure this reduction.
II. Cost Savings
• Why it matters: Automation typically reduces labor costs and resource wastage.
• How to measure:
- Compare operational costs before and after implementing BPA.
- Measure the reduction in staffing needs or manual hours dedicated to a process.
- Calculate return on investment (ROI) by comparing automation costs with long-term savings.
III. Error Reduction
• Why it matters: Human errors can be costly and time-consuming to correct. Automation can significantly reduce these.
• How to measure:
- Monitor the frequency of errors before and after BPA implementation.
- Use metrics such as "error rate" or "defects per task" to quantify improvements.
IV. Process Throughput
• Why it matters: BPA should increase the number of tasks completed in a given period.
• How to measure:
- Track how many processes or tasks are completed within a specific timeframe before and after automation.
- Use "throughput rate" to measure productivity increases.
V. Employee Productivity
• Why it matters: By freeing employees from mundane tasks, BPA should allow them to focus on higher-value work.
• How to measure:
- Measure the output or performance of employees assigned to more strategic tasks post-automation.
- Use productivity metrics such as "tasks per employee" or "hours spent on high-value tasks" to assess changes.
These KPIs will help you make better, more calculated decisions.
Best Practices for Business Process Automation
Now that you know how to implement BPA, let’s explore the best practices to ensure BPA success:
1. Start Small and Scale Gradually
When implementing custom BPA solutions, it’s essential to begin with a focused approach. Instead of automating every process at once, start by automating smaller, high-impact areas of your business. This allows you to refine the system, troubleshoot any issues, and see immediate results. As your processes become more streamlined, you can scale up the automation to include more complex workflows and additional departments.
• Why custom matters: Custom solutions allow you to design a system that scales naturally with your business. Starting small ensures that the solution grows with your organization’s unique needs and handles increased complexity without sacrificing performance.
2. Design for Scalability
Custom BPA solutions can be designed to evolve with your business. When building automation software, it’s crucial to design with future growth in mind. Your custom solution should be flexible enough to accommodate new workflows, increased data, and the introduction of additional systems or technologies as your business grows.
• Why custom matters: Unlike off-the-shelf tools that often struggle to adapt as businesses grow, custom software is built from the ground up to match your specific long-term needs. Whether you’re adding new departments, handling more data, or expanding operations, a custom solution can grow effortlessly alongside your business.
3. Involve Your Team Early
One of the biggest advantages of custom BPA solutions is that they can be tailored not just to your business processes but also to how your team operates. Involve key stakeholders early in the development process to ensure that the solution meets their needs and complements existing workflows. Educating your team and getting their buy-in ensures smoother implementation and higher adoption rates.
• Why custom matters: With custom solutions, you have the ability to build automation that aligns with the way your team works. By involving your team, you can gather critical feedback to create a user-friendly system that everyone is excited to adopt.
4. Monitor and Optimize Regularly
Custom software allows you to continuously improve and refine your BPA processes. Once automation is in place, it’s important to set up regular monitoring to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time saved, cost reduction, and error rates. Use this data to make informed decisions and fine-tune your automation as business needs change.
• Why custom matters: Custom solutions give you the flexibility to adjust and optimize workflows over time. You can make changes as your business evolves, ensuring that your BPA processes stay relevant and efficient without being limited by the constraints of a pre-built tool.
5. Leverage Data-Driven Insights
With custom BPA solutions, you can design the system to gather specific data that’s relevant to your business. From process performance to employee productivity, custom software allows you to collect and analyze the data that matters most. Use these insights to make more informed decisions, continuously improve processes, and achieve greater efficiency across your organization.
• Why custom matters: Unlike off-the-shelf tools that may offer limited reporting or irrelevant data points, custom solutions give you full control over what data is captured and how it’s used. This helps you make data-driven improvements that are specific to your organization.
Let’s have a look at some real-world examples of BPA solutions transforming business processes and determine how they can help your enterprise.
LPL Financial Case Study: Automated PDF Generation
At BNMA, we pride ourselves on our dedication to delivering BPA solutions that not just improve but transform your business. One of our successful projects is concomitant to LPL Financial, which needed help overhauling its outdated systems.
They required us to automate various business-intensive processes and streamline some major business processes to optimize operational efficiency. Let’s put a microscope on what we did for them and how.
The Problem at Hand
LPL Financial was facing an expense of around $4 million annually due to its outdated PDF generation system. The company was using manual paperwork and emails to handle the majority of its business processes, including Rep List Maintenance, Advisor Onboarding, and New Account Review.
The potential for errors in all this manual work was capping their efficiency and costing them a significant amount of money. Seeking to remedy this situation, they looked towards solutions, and got in touch with BNMA to optimize their operations and reduce the extra, recurring expenses.
The Solution We Provided
We took over the automation reins for LPL Financial in collaboration with their in-house development team to determine the perfect solution for their problems.
As the first step, our team helped them move on from their outdated PDF generation system and introduced a more efficient, error-free, automated PDF generation solution.
The next steps that followed were:
Rep List Maintenance: Since they were having a hard time managing representative lists, we helped create a new automated system to deal with it.
Advisor Onboarding Tools: No paperwork, no mistakes; that’s what our digital onboarding process helped them achieve.
New Account Review: To get rid of the human errors in the account creation and approval system, we completely replaced it with an automated review system.
That’s not all! We took care of other relatively minor tasks, such as task tracking and project management as well. In short, we took out anything that was wasting their time and money.
The Results They Got
Our efforts helped LPL Financial experience nearly $40 million in cost savings. Our business process automation solutions helped LPL Financial eliminate outdated working systems and future-proof their company with a much more efficient and smoother workflow.
Moreover, these applications are now used by thousands of advisors across the nation. Check out the entire case study here.
Retail Company Case Study: Automating Order Processing and Streamlining Customer Communication with AI
BNMA was approached by a retail company seeking to overhaul their operations by automating critical processes and leveraging AI to improve customer service. Our goal was to build a custom solution that would streamline their order processing, integrate AI-driven communication, and provide actionable insights through custom reporting.
The Problem at Hand
The retail company faced several challenges that were hindering their ability to scale and efficiently manage operations. Their manual order processing was time-consuming, and they struggled to keep up with the volume of customer inquiries. Additionally, they lacked comprehensive insights into sales trends and customer preferences, which made it difficult to optimize their marketing strategies.
The company needed BNMA to:
Automate Order Processing from Shopify: They required a system that automates the entire order flow from Shopify to their website while integrating with various third-party services to streamline fulfillment.
- Streamline Communication with AI Chatbot: They wanted an AI chatbot that could handle customer inquiries related to product information, order status, and general customer service issues, reducing the need for additional staff.
- Generate Reports for Sales and Trends: The company needed a custom reporting system to track key business metrics, helping them make more data-driven decisions.
The Solution We Provided
BNMA delivered a custom automation solution designed specifically to meet the needs of the retail company:
Automated Order Processing from Shopify: We developed an integrated system that connected their Shopify store directly to their website, automating the entire order processing workflow. The solution seamlessly handled data synchronization between Shopify, third-party services, and their internal systems, ensuring quick and error-free order fulfillment.
AI Chatbot for Customer Service: We implemented a custom AI chatbot that integrated with their website to handle customer inquiries. The chatbot provided instant responses to questions about product details, order status, and more, dramatically reducing the workload for their customer service team. This allowed the company to scale without hiring additional support staff.
Custom Sales and Trend Reporting: BNMA created a powerful reporting system that pulled data from their Shopify store and other integrated services. This provided detailed insights into sales performance, customer preferences, and emerging trends. The reports allowed the company to make well-informed decisions that directly impacted their marketing and business strategies.
The Results They Got
BNMA’s work drove significant improvements across their operations:
Faster Order Processing and Increased Customer Satisfaction: By automating order processing, BNMA reduced the time required to fulfill orders, resulting in faster deliveries and happier customers. The streamlined process also led to fewer errors in fulfillment, improving overall customer satisfaction.
Cost Savings with AI Chatbot: The custom AI chatbot allowed the company to handle a high volume of customer inquiries without hiring additional staff. This not only saved costs but also ensured that customers received immediate responses, improving their experience and loyalty.
5x Revenue Growth: The insights provided by the custom reports helped the company refine their marketing strategies and focus on products that their customers loved. These data-driven improvements contributed to a 5x increase in revenue within just a few months. This growth ultimately led to the successful acquisition of the company, which further validated the effectiveness of BNMA’s custom solutions.
Looking to Automate Your Business Processes? Here’s How BNMA Can Help!
At BNMA, we help your organization unlock its true potential through our uniquely strategic and holistic approach. Here’s what we do:
I. Initial Consultation - We work closely with your team to understand how your business works and what your aim is for this collaboration. This gives us an idea of where we can implement BPA solutions for you.
II. Custom Strategy - Next up, we come up with a strategy that determines what needs to be done with regards to the technology to use, business processes to automate and the outcomes to achieve.
III. Agile Development - We’re agile, and we use agile methodologies to implement and integrate our solutions with your business processes.
IV. Testing and Validation - Before the final go, we test to see all functions up and running. Yes, we keep your team in the loop the entire time, in case you have any changes in mind.
V. Training Offered - We provide you with detailed training sessions that cover everything from the basics to advanced concepts. You’ll never be in the dark with us by your side.
And that’s not all; we monitor your processes closely and provide continuous improvements and enhancements. Our custom business process automation strategies are built specifically for your business, ensuring that you get the perfect fit and the flexibility to grow. No cookie-cutter tools—just solutions designed to meet your specific needs. You can have a detailed look at our approach to business automation on our official website.
The Perfect Business Process Automation Solutions Awaits
Let’s help you prevent any further financial losses and optimize your business processes through automation.
Contact us today for a free consultation with our team that has dedicated 19+ years to helping businesses unlock their true potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Business Process Automation?
Business process automation is a means of replacing daily, repetitive tasks through technology. Examples include chatbots, automated responses to business queries, invoice generation, etc.
What is the difference between RPA and BPA?
While BPA is the overall handing over of repetitive tasks to technology and automation, RPA uses specific software to automate “robots” that perform basic tasks based on strict rules.
What is an example of process automation?
The most common examples of business process automation include form submission, employee onboarding, email campaigns, purchase management, and so on.
Why should I choose custom BPA over off-the-shelf tools?
Off-the-shelf tools can be limiting because they aren’t designed for the specific needs of your business. With custom BPA solutions, everything is built around your exact requirements, ensuring better performance, seamless integration, and scalability as your business grows.
