Intelligent Task and Process Automation

Check that your processes already have the necessary metrics to carry out their evaluation, if not, add them. In this way you can measure how long the tasks last, what effort they need, what resources they consume, etc. Include suppliers and customers in your processes, to have greater visibility.

When measuring process metrics, pay special attention to the key indicators, the KPIs, which are what inform us of the degree of compliance with our objectives as a company. The most important are usually the consumption of time, resources and money of each process.

Analyze which processes (or which parts of a process) can be improved: which tasks can be eliminated or reduced, which steps can be carried out automatically, etc. In this process you can rely on the best practices in your sector of activity, comparing the details of your procedures and taking note of those that are furthest from market standards.

Eliminate duplicate tasks, many times it is enough to substantially improve a business process. To do this, it is best to represent your processes in a BPMN diagram and analyze them carefully. You will surely find some identical or very similar tasks that can be eliminated, thus improving the quality of the procedure.

Simplify or eliminate sending information: Implement a collaborative work environment, for example the cloud, so that all users have access to all documents and sending them by mail or any other method is unnecessary.

It is also important to introduce efficiency into our processes. For example, we can try to generate tasks that are reusable at various points in a process, or build sub-processes that have multiple uses: a validation of information, for example, that accesses our databases, can be used at many points in our processes. In this way we will achieve our objectives by making optimal use of resources.

We can automate a large part of everyday workflows. Today there are many computer tools, free or very low cost, which can be incorporated to automate repetitive tasks as much as possible.

For example, we can have the registration of an opportunity sent to the appropriate sales representatives automatically and all the necessary tasks are generated in the corresponding agendas.

We can also automate our publications on social networks, so that if we publish a post on one of them, it will automatically be published on the rest of the networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Another example would be to automate the sending of emails to our clients every time they interact with our website: when they register, when they post a comment or note on our website, etc.

If we want to change our business model just a little, that is, if we simply want to incorporate some new capacity, then it is best to expand and improve existing processes (incremental improvement).

When we want a more important change, then it is best to carry out a process reengineering, especially for an aspect that is not usually taken into account: it is not only about incorporating new processes and tasks, but it is also necessary to assign them the adequate staff, often carrying out a reorganization of the company.

You must look for the business processes, within your area of activity, that demonstrate the best practices.

You have to start your search with the leaders in the sector, but not be reduced to them, since in many cases it is small companies that work with a higher level of excellence.

Next you must study them and acquire the necessary knowledge to try to apply them to your own processes. Be careful, it is not about spying on the competition and copying their way of working, but about deducing the principles and criteria that inspire these processes to incorporate them into your procedures.

It can be very useful to investigate within our own company, in case there is a department other than ours that works with processes of a high level of quality. In this case, we can not only learn from these processes, but we can also directly ask those responsible for help.

Sometimes the improvement of a process is limited to the detection and elimination of a duplicate task. Normally the task is located at remote points of the process and that is why its duplication has not been detected before, but with a small correction of the flow we achieve a more efficient process.

Another step that we can most easily eliminate is sending information. If we work in a collaborative environment, either in the cloud or in any other environment, all users have access to all documents, so it is totally unnecessary to send them by mail or any other method.

In addition to reducing the number of steps, we must try to introduce efficiency into our work procedures, that is, try to achieve the objectives set by making optimal use of available resources.

We can automate a large part of our daily workflows. Nowadays, there are many free or very low-cost software tools that can be used to automate repetitive tasks as much as possible. A clear example of this is CRM systems that automate these tasks through BPM (Business Process Modeling).

For example, we can automate all our social media posts, so that if we publish a post on one platform, or in a specific application, it will automatically be published on the rest of the networks: our Facebook page, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., without us having to do anything else.

We can also automate sending emails to our customers: For example, when they register on our website or when they post a comment or note on our site. Or, for example, when exactly 5 days have passed since one of the previous ones.