Tips to choose the best workflow automation software

Missing emails, forgetting to forward documents, or not getting the documents approved on time are some common issues that organisations handling their workflows manually, over back and forth emails often face. Such manual handling could even make it difficult to get a clear idea on where things stand, which could create unnecessary frustration and sometimes, even mistrust among people. However, the real problem isn’t about the people handling the tasks. Rather it’s the lack of an efficient system to streamline the workflow. If your organisation too has been facing such problems and looking for effective document workflow solutions, investing in the best workflow automation software would be a wise decision.

For standard, low-risk tasks or those that consist of repetitive steps, you can use automated document workflow solutions to make it easier to manage your business processes. When you need to populate a form with standard text, generate templates, or delegate tasks, among others, a workflow automation software can do the job quickly and efficiently for you. Thus, such software could be a great tool to streamline standard, time-consuming, and repetitive low-risk tasks. However, to enjoy these benefits, you’ll need to choose the workflow automation software that suits your needs the most. If you’re not sure how to go about it, here are some tips that can help you make an informed choice.   

1.   Understand your workflow automation needs

Before choosing any automated document workflow solution, you need to identify the areas of your workflow processes that could benefit from automation. It could be a core process of your business that’s spread across the entire organisation or something comparatively lightweight, where team leaders leverage the power of automation to deal with processes on their own. Thus, whether it’s about document workflow solutions, data workflow solutions, or any other, you need to know what exact automated solutions you’re looking for.

Identifying which flow of documents, tasks, and work-related activities you need to automate according to certain defined business rules is important to enjoy the optimal benefits of your chosen automated solutions. When trying to identify your workflow automation needs, you’ll also need to keep certain criteria in mind such as:

• If the task at hand is repetitive.

• You need to get the task completed accurately, without any possibility of human error.

• It’s a series of simple tasks, which can be handled more efficiently if you automate the entire series.

You could be looking to benefit from workflow automation via cost savings, better visibility into the workflows, or improved work efficiency by letting your employees work on non-automated tasks. But whatever your goals are, your first step will be to understand your automation needs with utmost clarity to choose the most suitable solution. Also, you’ll need to remember that what’s the best workflow automation software for someone else may not be the best for you because every business has unique needs and processes that differ from others. Thus, identifying your processes suitable for automation and then finding the right automation software is crucial to benefit the most from it.

2.   Check the features

When trying to find the best workflow automation software, you’ll need to look for the features it offers. While some features would be non-negotiable as your business must have them, others could be slightly negotiable. Most workflow automation software is somewhat similar at their basic level. However, they come equipped with some distinguishing features that can let you decide which ones are the best-suited options for your business.

For example, if you’re looking for no-coding automation software, opting for one that comes with a graphic user interface to let non-technical users use the drag-and-drop tool to create workflows is much better than choosing one where you’ll need to type commands. When your non-technical users will be using the software, choosing a no-code one that’s easy to use and needs no to minimal training would be more efficient and even help save time. Click Here

Some other features you could check are on-premise hosting of your chosen workflow automation software, the level of in-depth reporting it can help you with, if it offers role-based access control for users, and automatic notifications of tasks assigned, updated, or changed. You may even check for features, such as SLA indicators that display which tasks are on track and the ones lagging behind and needing urgent attention, real-time reporting and task visibility, and mobile access to multiple users simultaneously.

Depending on the type of the workflow automation software you choose, their features can vary. For instance, if you want to customise your software to meet your operational requirements, you can opt for feature-based automation software. However, if you need your software to integrate with other platforms that you’re already using, choosing software with an integration-based model would be more suitable. You could even select a technology-based model if you want to take into account the technology services available to create your needed workflow solutions, such as document workflow solutions, data workflow solutions, etc.

3.   Don’t forget the KPIs

It’s important to focus on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your chosen workflow automation software to ensure it meets all your business needs. From its average process completion and task completion time to the percentage of completed processes within a particular period and its error rate, you need to know what the KPIs of your automation software are.

4.   Others

Whether the chosen workflow automation software is scalable and capable of supporting your business should your demands increase is crucial to check. Additionally, you should emphasise on an automation software that has high usability. Such a checkbox legal automation software

would be easy to use and require lower time and money to train people how to use it, thus letting them focus better on more critical tasks. If your business needs a cloud-based application to ensure easy and faster accessibility from anywhere to reduce downtime and decision-making delays, checking if your automation software offers a cloud-based delivery model is also crucial. 

So, use all the tips mentioned above to make an informed choice when buying the best workflow automation software to automate your business tasks and processes and enjoy enhanced work efficiency.

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