An IT Leader’s Guide to Enterprise Business Process Automation

This blog post discusses how IT leaders can use Business Process Automation (BPA) to achieve business goals. BPA can help improve efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction across healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services.

We list some fundamental rules IT leaders should consider, including testing minimum viable versions of new initiatives, moving from a CapEx to an OpEx model when purchasing software, and being able to serve business goals and work collaboratively across functions.

The article highlights the importance of identifying the right processes to automate, involving stakeholders from the implementation process, testing and monitoring the BPA solution, and designing it to be scalable, flexible, and integrated with other systems and technologies. Finally, the article recommends AgilePoint, a low-code development platform, to develop, deploy, and manage BPA solutions sustainably.

For IT leaders, business process automation (BPA) is akin to a Swiss army knife, offering a versatile platform you may utilize for various purposes, such as process automation, development for both greenfield and brownfield projects, and integration use cases.

"The best way to make a case for investment in automation is to identify the most important business goals for the organization and then cascade it down to how automation can help the business meet those goals," Yinuo Geng, VP of Technology, Gartner.

As an IT leader, regardless of whether you hold a strategic, functional, or hybrid role, there are some fundamental rules that you should consider. These rules have become the new normal for IT leaders, and they include the following:

• Testing minimum viable versions of your new initiatives, whether modernizing legacy systems or launching new products and services.
• Moving from a CapEx to an OpEx model when purchasing software, as committing millions of dollars in licensing costs before seeing any return on investment, is not desirable.
• Being able to serve business goals and work collaboratively across functions.

By keeping these ground rules in mind, you can tackle any challenge, from partnering with executive leadership to define the technology strategy to identifying and implementing technology solutions that meet current and future IT needs. You can also effectively manage annual IT staffing, purchasing and operations, and capital budgets.

Why Should IT Leaders Leverage Business Process Automation?

To begin, the company or industry to which you belong determines a lot as to how business process automation can help you achieve business goals.

For instance, organizations can improve efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction in healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services by leveraging business process automation. It also helps them reduce the cost of operations, stay competitive in their respective markets, and launch new solutions and apps.

Healthcare: In healthcare, you can automate patient data management, appointment scheduling, and insurance claims processing to increase patient intake and service quality. It can lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis, a reduction in wait times, and improvement of patient outcomes.

Manufacturing: For IT leaders in manufacturing, automating processes such as inventory management, order processing, and quality control can increase efficiency and reduce errors. It can improve production timelines, increase output, and enhance product quality.

Financial Services: Banks and (re)insurance firms use BPA platforms to automate processes such as loan processing, claims processing, account opening, and regulatory compliance to improve operations and service accuracy. It results in faster loan approvals, claims settlement, better customer service, and reduced risk of compliance issues.

Candidate Processes for Automation

Manufacturing

• Inventory management
• Order-to-cash
• Quality control and Compliance reporting

Healthcare

• Patient data management
• Appointment scheduling
• Insurance claims processing

Financial Services

• Account opening
• Loan and claims processing
• Regulatory compliance

Hence, BPA technologies help in providing strategic process capabilities across:

• Functions
• Industries
• Strategic transformation initiatives

Also think of your automation needs in terms of:

• Long-running processes
• Mid-running processes
• Short-running processes

For example, if you are automating a process that requires pausing at any stage and awaiting external input, such as an event or human task, then you should look for BPA platforms that can elegantly handle long-running processes (from a month to a few years). BPA is a better technology for handling mid- and long-running processes.

Taking healthcare, manufacturing, and financial service as reference industries, below is a sample list of long-running processes you can automate using a modern BPA platform.

Long Running Processes

Healthcare

• Drug approval and clinical trial reporting
• Patient diagnosis and treatment planning
• Electronic medical records management

Manufacturing

• Product research, prototyping, and testing
• Supply chain management
• Quality assurance and control

Financial Services

• Loan approval and processing
• Risk management and compliance
• International trade management/risk assessment of certain entities

Best Practices for BPA That IT Leaders Should Know

One of the critical factors in the success of BPA implementation is identifying the right processes to automate. We’ve listed the most and least automatable processes based on research by IBM Institute for Business Value research and the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC).

Some of the most automatable processes include:

• Payroll process
• Perform revenue accounting
• Process accounts payable and expenses
• Deliver/support information technology services
• Customer service contracts management
• Product recall and audit management

You can read more about these processes in “A Quick Start Guide to Business Process Automation.”

To implement BPA solutions successfully, IT leaders must collaborate closely with business stakeholders. They should identify the processes that will benefit the most from automation and assess the impact of automation on organizational goals.

IT leaders should involve stakeholders from the start of the implementation process. Testing and monitoring the BPA solution are also critical for success, and IT leaders should establish a testing and monitoring framework to promptly identify and address any issues.

Lastly, the BPA solution should be designed to be scalable, flexible, and integrated with other systems and technologies. It helps adapt to changes in the business environment, such as new regulations, process changes, and technological advancements.

Business Process Automation Made Easy With AgilePoint

AgilePoint is a low code / no code development platform that has helped IT leaders to develop, deploy, and manage Business Process Automation (BPA) solutions quickly and efficiently.

As a complete hyper-automation stack, AgilePoint has all the technology needed to deliver cross-functional automation and digital transformation for the modern enterprise.

AgilePoint's advanced features for Business Process Automation, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Event-Driven Software Architecture, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPM), and Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), help organizations automate complex business processes easily, improve process efficiency, and enhance productivity leading to better business outcomes.

With its collaboration features, including shared workflows and real-time notifications, AgilePoint can fill gaps in communication and collaboration among teams. AgilePoint is an excellent solution for businesses that want to ensure compliance, minimize risk, and reduce errors by improving their governance and controls.

Moreover, AgilePoint's multi-tenancy, flexible deployment options, and value-based pricing allows IT leaders to scale their automation efforts as their business grows, staying ahead of the competition and responding to changing business needs.

Working With AgilePoint

Whether it's HR onboarding, procurement, customer service, or any other business process, AgilePoint can help organizations automate it easily.

General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists (GC-SDA), the authoritative body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church used AgilePoint to streamline its intricate HR workflows and processes. The platform facilitated communication and integration with all the other GC-SDA systems.

The company catered to its complex HR business process automation requirements since 2011. It has simplified the recruitment process, previously handled by multiple entities across the globe. AgilePoint also provided custom salary calculations, emergency evacuation instructions, and self-service reports to meet the specific needs of GC-SDA.

Johnson Ram, an IT department member at GC-SDA, shared his experience with AgilePoint. He appreciated the platform being innovative, empowering, and budget-friendly. Johnson also mentions the exceptional support provided by AgilePoint throughout their collaboration. Aside from the GC-SDA, AgilePoint also helped the Salvation Army modernize its infrastructure while keeping costs low.

As a global non-profit, The Salvation Army serves millions of people worldwide while operating on a tight budget. With outdated Lotus Notes infrastructure, the organization moved to Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint. However, using Microsoft technologies alone was not a cost-effective way to build applications that met the organization's diverse needs.

To meet their needs, The Salvation Army turned to AgilePoint to build a wide range of applications, from simple apps for internal use to complex ones for external use, through the help of citizen developers. It helped the organization move forward with its digital transformation efforts without blowing its transformation budget.

Get Started with BPA and AgilePoint

Low-code solutions like AgilePoint allow organizations to innovate and remain competitive without extensive technical expertise, making it a smart choice for organizations of all sizes. To get started, request a personalized demo of AgilePoint Business Process Automation software today and experience how it can help your business achieve its automation goals!

‍