Workflow Automation Software

According to Gartner, workflow automation is:

"A set of software products and services that apply workflow structure to the movement of information as well as to the interaction of business processes and human worker processes that generate the information. Workflow automation streamlines and transforms crucial business processes and thus can improve results and performance."

The modern workplace is very different compared to even a few years ago. Covid-19 made this transformation even quicker than anticipated.

The workforce is more connected than ever before. However, we are increasingly no longer in the same physical workspace or office. We have an ever-increasing amount of distribution channels, faster turnaround times, strict brand, corporate and regulatory compliance alongside increased data security requirements due to corporate ransomware and hackers.

Organizing the workforce to accommodate all these requirements efficiently and transparently to the rest of the business without any workflow automation tools would be impossible.

A good workflow automation system should allow you to implement your business processes and help you manage, automate, monitor, and streamline your business process across a single team, department, or global organization.

Check out our blog "What is a Workflow? | Definition & Guide of Business Workflows" to better understand the process.

Aproove have many blog posts on the benefits of Workflow Automation. A good example is "What is Project Management Workflow and why is it important?" 

In a nutshell a workflow automation systems offer a vast amount of benefits including (but not limited to)

• Automation of un-billable and repetitive tasks
• Elimination of human error 
• Full audit trail 
• No way to skip vital compliance steps and legal checks
• Workflow complexity is fully hidden from the users
• Managers have a holistic dashboard view of all ongoing and completed projects
• Ability to see exactly where projects are in the lifecycle even if they are in a different department
• Reports can be generated for many different reasons eg. for billing, identifying bottlenecks, progress etc. 
• The system runs 24/7 365 days a year

Implementing a workflow automation platform requires the organization to fully commit to the process while including all the key employees and departmental heads to understand the objectives fully. 

Aproove has many blog posts around this topic, including "How to Implement Work Management & Improve Your Company's Productivity."

The organization must map out all the existing processes to determine how things get done in the current state before documenting the ideal workflows once inefficiencies and bottlenecks are identified.

Often it is also beneficial to involve a 3rd party company who are industry experts to assist in the mapping current and future state operations. A 3rd party company can operate without emotion and question processes across departments. They can also shadow key workers who often feel management does not understand the finer details of their daily procedures.

Aproove can help map and implement your workflow automation software with our impartial Professional Services Team. The Aproove Professional Services Team helps with both pre and post-deployment. Aproove's Professional Service offerings and procedures are documented here. 

The time it takes to deploy a Workflow Automation System can vary depending on many factors such as;

• Size of organization
• Time to document current processes
• Staff availability
• Vendor availability
• Employee "change management."
• Budget and sign off
• Management enforcement
• Full UAT process

From experience, Aproove recommend that any organization consider the following points;

• Size of deployment (Is it company-wide or for a specific team/department)
• Can the project get phased, e.g., bring in more departments/users in a structured time-frame
• Are you aligned, e.g., do your critical departmental heads and users understand and support the objective?
• Do you have a budget, and are you realistic that your requirements support that budget?
• Never cut corners; by trying to save cost, you could increase the cost further into the project, or worse, make it unsuccessful. (do not start building without architect plans!)

From experience, the length of the project is often not determined by the software vendor. The longevity of a project is frequently determined by the availability, organization, and planning of the adopting company. The software company can help with all those things. However, the adopting company's management team must ultimately be determined to prioritize the implementation without cutting corners on the process and ensuring key players are available when required.

A typically Aproove Enterprise Deployment can vary from 2 weeks to 2 months.