Maximizing ROI with Business Process Automation: Tips and Strategies

For a moment, imagine one of the business challenges you faced in a prior role; despite your best attempts, you never figured out a way to prioritize and address.

If you are a CFO, it may be one of those financial processes that could be characterized as “death by spreadsheets.”

Even being a VP of sales, for example, you might lament that after rolling out a CRM system, you never got a 100% buy-in, let’s say around 50% — despite knowing there was a way to automate those processes.

In business, we often get a fix on the processes and bottleneck challenges standing in the way of our revamping the business process; still, we do little to solve these challenges. Now and then, we think we have good reasons:

• The time is not right to invest in the area.
• Our client’s needs must come before our business needs.

But at the end of the day, these are mere excuses! Excuses that stand in the way of businesses maximizing ROI and achieving excellence.

Here are six simple steps to help you commence with business process improvement and maximize ROI with automation along the way.

Also, we’ve handpicked some process improvement tricks to inspire your own. But, firstly, let’s explore the reality of automation benefits.

Are You Automating the Right Things?

What explains the subtle difference between the promise and the realism of maximizing ROI with business process automation? To analyze this gap, let’s shed light on what happens after you decide to inch ahead with an automation proof-of-concept project or a complete integration.

Once you decide to move ahead with automation, the next thing is to ask operational leaders and their teams to decide which tasks or processes should be automated.

While participation is encouraged, this type of decision-making leads to suboptimal choices in choosing automation candidates in some scenarios. There are a handful of reasons for this:

• Team leaders have a “narrow field of deep vision,” meaning they understand their processes and tasks well but might not be familiar with the ones they don’t participate in often. This outlines the fact that they can identify suitable automation candidates within their scope of work but not, importantly, within the complete organization. Factors like “I want my process to be selected as the top prioritized automation candidate” can also come into the picture.
• Sometimes, choosing an automation candidate is driven by matching automation features and potential instead of the value of automation. A common myth is that any task comprising activities like downloads, folder moving, calculations, email, etc., is automatically an ideal candidate for automation. And, if automating such repetitive tasks doesn’t bring value to the organization, they are not the right candidates.

So, what do you do to make sure your automation implementation nurtures the ROI you desire? Take these () steps up front:

6 Tips to Maximize ROI With Business Process Automation

These 6 tips will help you confidently manage business process automation and maximize ROI. Let’s start!

Tip 1: Craft a Process Map

The first and foremost step in maximizing ROI is understanding your process better.

Process improvement starts by understanding the current process, i.e., what’s working and what’s not. One of the best ways to get an insight into an ongoing process is to create what’s termed a process map.

“A Process Map” is a graphical representation of the steps included in a business process, portraying how activities and tasks are related together. So, crafting a process map brings everyone on the same page, allowing everyone involved to have a shared understanding of the process, eventually leading to an improved bottom line.

Related Read: 10 Key Benefits of Business Process Automation

When you imagine a business process map, you probably conceptualize something like what you see below.

This is also termed a process flowchart, as it seems like a flowchart that visualizes a process. This is among the simplest types of business process maps and is an ideal choice for teams who have just taken baby steps to map their processes.

Furthermore, many different kinds of business process maps may be more or less ideal for your business process. For instance, a business process model diagram, like the one mentioned below, is a recommended map style for complicated processes requiring collaboration amongst several teams and levels.

Other types of business process maps you can choose on:

• Swimlane diagrams
• Data Flow Diagram
• Value Stream Map
• SIPOC Flowchart

Recommended:

Pick the right business processing map tool. A good mapping tool helps users draw and alter diagrams, collaborate with others, ensure everyone is on the same page, and track real-time progress. If you are wondering which one to choose? Here’s a quick rundown to assist you:

• Draw.io — A great mapping tool for drawing complex business processes.
• Lucidchart — Its drag-and-drop feature makes it a great option to create business process maps quickly and effortlessly.
• Miro — A recommended mapping tool for drawing collaborative business process maps.

Tip 2: Analyze the Process

Do a little more than simply document your current process.

Undoubtedly, effective business process management needs a little more than simply documenting the ongoing processes. So, it’s important to analyze your processes and identify opportunities for improvement.

This analysis starts by reviewing your process map first, then by scheduling interviews with the ones part of the process and reviewing software usage data. Carrying this activity will give you a well-rounded outlook on the performance of every ongoing process. During the review, the team should look for:

• Look for Unnecessary Steps: Find the steps in the process that are merely gushing time and resources while not giving any direct value. This can be easily achieved by analyzing the performed tasks and activities and determining whether they are truly needed for the process’s success.
• Opportunities to Automate Processes: Look for opportunities to automate a little to some portion of the process. This eclipses everything from using software to automate some specific tasks to eliminating manual steps from conventional processes. This way, businesses increase efficiency and help in minimizing errors.
• Process Challenges and Dependencies: Identify process challenges by evaluating the data flow, goods, and services and identifying the actual holdup in the process. Look for quick fixes to eliminate these obstacles and build more streamlined and effective processes.

Moreover, it’s equally important to identify any dependencies between the processes and systems within your organization. This includes identifying any upstream or downstream processes that have an impact on the process performance.

• Identify High-Cost Processes: Find points in your process that cost you money. Many times, this could be points where your goods are being held in storage that you’re paying for, being transported back and forth unnecessarily, or sometimes where you are paying for manual efforts that can be automated.

Recommendation:

During the analysis, don’t be ultra-specific; indeed, have an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to identify opportunities for improvement. Be open-minded and let everyone brainstorm and bring their ideas to the table to improve a process or build it from scratch.

This way, you’ll get a comprehensive overview of opportunities and skip being focused on one kind of optimization.

Tip 3: Define Specific Improvement Goals

As you have already done the homework, you have a ballpark idea of where the opportunities lie for process improvement, right? So, it’s time to define specific improvement goals.

Start by taking a close look at your business KPIs. Consider how business process automation can help you achieve your business KPIs. Look to improve the quality of your deliverables. Save on process time and money.

Choose a few objectives and align them with business process KPIs, such as:

• Error Rate — The process percentage that has errors or is not able to deliver the required standards.
• On-time Completion Rate — The percentage of completed processes within the committed time frame.
• Cost — Savings — The amount of cost saved by automating a particular process.
• Customer Satisfaction — The degree to which clients are satisfied with the completion of a particular process.
• Profitability — It’s a measure of the profit generated by a specific business process with respect to its operational cost.
• Quality — The extent to which processes are meeting the required standards and specifications.
• Resource Utilization Time — This term refers to the percentage of the resource used for a particular process.
• Throughput — This is the total count of processes that have been successfully completed in a given time frame.
• Cycle-time — This term defines the time taken to complete the entire process from conceptualization to completion.

Adhering to these objectives will help you succeed more during business process improvement integration.

Recommendation:

Define SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to make sure you have a simple and clear path for achieving the desired result.

Tip 4: Decide on the Methodology

Once you have mapped your processes and defined improvement goals, it’s time to pick a methodology for integrating process changes. Doing so will help lay a strong foundation and a framework for change integration.

Here are a handful of business process improvement methodologies to choose from:

• Six Sigma — This is a data-driven methodology used to minimize variation, maximize efficiency, and improve processes. It is rooted in the DMAIC process, meaning Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control:
• DEFINE — Identify the process to be improved along with project objectives.
• MEASURE — Collect data and look for improvement opportunities
• ANALYZE — Analyze the processed data to find the root cause of challenges.
• IMPROVE — Build and implement solutions to solve the root cause.
• CONTROL — Integrate process controls to keep track of and establish process improvements.
• Lean Manufacturing — This approach focuses on optimizing processes and removing waste, plus it sheds focus on the importance of speed, efficiency, and precision throughout the production process.

The right approach for its successful implementation is to identify and analyze every step of the process keenly and identify where waste can be minimized. Start by identifying the areas where automation can be implied, for:

• Minimized inventory hassle
• Improved communication between teams
• Optimized transportation and production
• Eliminate data errors
• Reduced bottlenecks
• Kaizen — “Kaizen” is a Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “improvement”. In the business world, it’s a philosophy that motivates minor yet continuous improvements in every business vertical. In its traditional integration, it:
• Depends on teams being ready to embrace change.
• Emphasize the importance of continuous improvement.
• Focus on making business processes better through collaboration and teamwork.
• Total Quality Management — Total Quality Management, popularly known as TQM, is a comprehensive management approach that focuses on constantly improving processes and products. Plus, it focuses on the importance of customer satisfaction and quality assurance. This methodology focuses on:
• Integrating a culture of accountability, where employees own the responsibility for their work and results.
• Motivating employees and nurturing an ambiance where everyone works together to identify and solve challenges.
• Make sure your team has access to the tools, resources, and training required to do their jobs.
• Establishing standards and processes to monitor and improve the products and services quality continuously.
• Welcoming customer feedback to identify areas of improvement.

Recommendation:

When choosing an appropriate approach for business process improvement, it’s crucial to consider the business type, the processes you are trying to improve, and the available resources.

Moreover, remember that every methodology has its own strengths and challenges, so weigh your options mindfully and pick the one that fits your needs.

Tip 5: Implement Your Process Changes

The next step after choosing the right methodology is — “Implementation.” But, importantly, recognize some of the challenges that come with business process improvement. Firstly, your team may have some resistance to changing the processes. Next, the process changes don’t offer assurance to deliver results as expected.

All you need to do is to be ready to be flexible and adjust improvement strategies down the line.

Keeping this in mind, craft a formal draft that outlines the goals, timeline, and resources required for the business process improvement project. Ensure you include details like who will be responsible for each task, what tools and methods will be adopted, what changes will be made and why, and which teams will see the repercussions.

Here are some tips to help you:

• Integrate Standard Operational Procedures and Training Processes — Adopt this trick to ensure improved processes. Don’t skip the training and staff enablement for successful and seamless adoption.
• Establish a Cross-Functional Team — Establishing a cross-functional team leads process betterment efforts. So, including members from each team can help prevent change resistance and ensure everyone’s needs are met.
• Embrace a Culture of Continuous Improvement — This is important as it builds systems for employees to find and report process betterment ideas in the future.

“Appreciation is the Antidote to Fear and Try”

• Celebrate Success and Appreciate Team’s Effort — Remember to appreciate teams’ and employees’ efforts for process improvement. Though it may seem unnecessary, this can surely go a long way.

Recommendation:

With perks, consider the downstream effects of your process automation. Ask yourself these questions to get a better understanding:

• Do other processes need to make adjustments?
• Will other teams have some repercussions?
• Do training materials or documentation need to be updated?

Tip 6: Weigh, Analyze and Improve

Congratulations! Changes implemented successfully. Now, you need to weigh and analyze the outcomes. You can continue refining the process from there — then repeat the steps to ensure undefeatable success.

• Weigh — Here, “Weighing” means gathering data on how the process functions. This data should be collected over a sufficiently long period of time as it will track the process-identified KPIs.
• Analyze — Compare the data against the old processes. See what improvements are done or what areas still have chances of improvement. Look for any areas of unexpected impacts. Plus, this can be a good time to interview team members to ask about the changes made.
• Improve: There is no shortcut to success. So, remember to refine until there is an opportunity for further revision.

Recommendation:

Repeat this cycle until you are satisfied with the performance of the automation integrated into the business process improvement process.

Automation is the Key To Unlock True Value of Business Growth

As you continue with your automation journey, you’ll be able to see the true value of the automation solutions established in your business process. And, as your business grows, you need to be armored with the right tools that help you scale your digital workforce, allowing you to reap more value and benefits from this revolutionary technology.

Maximize ROI on the investment while staying ahead in the competitive curve by following these tips and tricks.