In this article, FlowForma explores the ways in which construction businesses can reduce costs with process automation and adopting new automated tools
The most successful individuals and businesses have a ‘growth mindset’. A growth mindset is a method for continuously developing your skills and re-training your brain to achieve anything you want.
However, it can be hard to think about improvement when we have targets to hit, an increasing number of customers to serve, and smaller budgets to do our jobs with. In addition to a challenging environment, we are facing demands for our operations to be more ‘green’, customer-focused, and easy to access.
The societal changes due to the pandemic will have a lasting impact on every single business. Drastic changes to how we work, live and interact with others require powerful responses from businesses that want to remain successful.
To respond to the increasing demand for automation, AFJ Solutions partnered with FlowForma, the leading provider of Process Automation tools for Microsoft Office® 365.
Five ways of reducing costs whilst adopting new business automated tools
1. Digitising paper-based processes
Digitising processes saves substantial printing costs and is more environmentally friendly.
Changing paper-based processes into their digital twin can save thousands of pounds in printing costs. Adding to that, automated tools significantly reduce waiting times between process steps and reduces errors to a minimum.
Another benefit of digitising paper-heavy processes is that it supports your ever-increasing home-working staff. It is predicted that this year, 21% of knowledge workers will work from home most of the time, if not entirely.
2. Fast rollouts and the power of the citizen developer
The frustration of slow and heavy IT machinery can have an impact not only on current business but on employees’ morale.
No code technologies such as FlowForma Process Automation enable this paradigm shift, empowering business users to roll out new services quickly. For example, FlowForma and Forrester Research Inc. agree that Digital Process Automation (DPA) tools should provide new applications in days, not weeks or months; and Forbes reports that most enterprise software will be built using low-code platforms in 2021.
3. Integrating HR and IT processes improve employee satisfaction
IT and HR have traditionally had supporting roles in the organisation; the ‘back office’ that employees go to when they need help.
However, remote working has brought the efficiency of the two departments into the spotlight. Namely, the leading HR and IT disrupters have quickly adopted seamless joiner, leaver, and mover processes.
By using well-integrated solutions as advised by Forrester Research Inc., companies can realize value from their new employees from day one. Rather than waiting weeks for all the access rights and essential IT gear, new employees can start working and bonding with their new teams as soon as they join.
Modern, accessible platforms allow all users to interact with the process in their chosen way, paving the way for an equal workplace.
4. Automation of routine IT tasks can reduce staff
Whilst it’s never an easy option, reducing staff numbers will carry a huge saving. Some of the most popular manual tasks to be automated include adding users to groups, assigning users to licenses and restarting a virtual machine.
The roles of the staff that remain in the IT organization will change. They will effectively become managers of the systems with a strong T-shape skillset.
5. Supporting customers’ growth helps the business scale its operations seamlessly
Customer focussed industries are no longer limited to business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. With digitally native decision makers, customers expect to be heard and their requests responded to quickly.
For IT, these expectations can feel like unsurmountable demands unless the infrastructure can support agility.
Fortunately, tools such as FlowForma Process Automation allow customers to keep up to date with service availability, perform routine activities and engage with the right people on requests where human interaction is needed.
For traditional businesses, growth in revenue and the number of customers can mean an exponential increase in IT staff and resources. However, when done right, automation can be the driving force behind scaling the business.
An automated process can facilitate a step-change in the number of customers without reducing customer experience, wait times, or negative impact on staff.
Finally, by its very nature, automation will adhere to the current risk and compliance policies. The potential costs avoided due to proper risk and compliance management can add to a considerable amount.
FlowForma’s process experts can offer you a realistic and accurate reflection of what your processes would look like in a digital format and the time and monetary savings available by switching your business processes online.
