Digital process automation (DPA) is an innovative approach to business process management; a methodology that takes advantage of digitalization and automation technologies to optimize task, document, and information workflows. Strategically speaking, it emphasizes ensuring that the right things are done by the right people in the right sequence to get the right results. Tactically speaking, it enhances a whole variety of activities by handling otherwise-manual actions, reducing errors, and ensuring that deadlines aren’t missed.
For many of today’s businesses, digital process automation is an integral part of reducing costs and ensuring efficiency in workflow processes and everyday operations. And, to make it as easy as possible, they create digital automation solutions built using digital process automation software.
What is Digital Process Automation?
Digital process automation begins by using technology to automate a workflow, but it also includes digital and physical assets, people, roles, schedules, data, documents, and anything else that makes up a business process.
DPA evolved from more traditional business process management (BPM) approaches. It includes a focus on the aggressive leveraging of technology whenever possible and practical. It also borrows some principles from agile software development to focus on continuous improvement and shorter development/delivery cycles. But make no mistake – DPA is all about managing business process.
DPA software is a major efficiency driver, particularly within agile organizations that put a high priority on implementing and improving both core practices and elaborate orchestrations alike. With digital workflow automation, businesses are able to make sure that all relevant devices, tech stacks, and team members are on the same page – and that information accurately passes between them. In doing so, they’re able to eliminate a lot of error-prone rote processes, as well as develop smarter, better services for their clients.
Benefits of Using Digital Automation Solutions
There are many reasons why a business would choose to employ digital process automation software and other sorts of workflow automation solutions.
Workflow Adaptability
Businesses have to be flexible if they want to succeed. Rarely is the first effort to automate a process perfect, and even when it’s perfect at first, conditions have a way of changing – and demanding that solutions keep up with those changes. That requires being able and willing to adapt their workflow processes at the drop of a hat. The right kind of DPA software helps them do that, with built-in organizational adaptability for quick, seamless changes in response to both internal and external challenges.
Operational Cost Savings
The more efficient a business’s processes, the more efficient its spending. Digital process automation software frees up team members to focus on higher-value tasks, all while saving time and resources from being funneled in unnecessary directions.
Enhanced Customer Experiences
When building any customer-facing process solution, digital automation tools are there to ensure a better product, service, and experience. This almost always means faster results, but it often means better results, too. More input can be examined before acting – without requiring more work. Customized results can be achieved that match customer needs, expectations, and pain points.
Better Data Security and Compliance
Common to any approach to corporate security and/or compliance is the need to establish – and follow – best practices and established procedures. DPA software platforms exist to ensure that processes are created, followed, and examined to look for patters, anomalies, and options for improvement. The best security software is of little help if people engage in random work that bypasses processes and creates threat vectors. Following processes saves companies. Using DPA software to create solutions saves those companies without extra costs or extra manual steps.
Why (and When) Companies Need Digital Process Automation Software
Any company suffering from repetitive tasks, duplication of effort, forgotten steps, missed deadlines, and long wait times needs solutions built with DPA software. Any company that’s unsure of whether the steps they’re following – manual or automated – are actually achieving their desired goals really needs DPA software. Any company with multiple work streams that should be connected (to avoid duplicate efforts or extra steps) but aren’t really, really needs DPA software. And these assertions are doubly true if processes, goals, or external conditions change at any real pace.
A company, in a very real way, is the sum of its processes. Processes are what differentiate companies and separate market leaders from followers. DPA software, like business process management software before it, treats processes as strategic assets that need to be curated carefully.
As for when, if you’ve seen your company make a mistake that must never be repeated, that’s when you need DPA software. If you see someone do something wonderful and want to make sure it’s repeated, that’s when you need DPA software.
Digital automation solutions built with digital process automation software are designed for all of this and more. Making digital transformation take place requires more than acquiring great technology and hoping something magical happens. Digital process automation is how companies can ensure that digital transformation happens.
DPA software offers a smart and reliable solution for CIOs, business line managers, and board members who are on the lookout for ways to automate and optimize core business processes. And it does so while simultaneously improving the overall quality of services offered, which is a must for sustainable growth in the digital marketplace. Effective process optimization also results in tangible financial and business benefits, both of which are crucial when it comes to things like strategic development and the pursuit of market leadership.
It’s hard to overestimate the utility of digital automation for organizational workflows – not just as an operational efficiency driver but as a necessary tool for meeting the evolving needs and expectations of clients. The more reliant that businesses get on enterprise-grade IT systems, the more important it is that they have digital automation solutions in place that can increase efficiency and improve results. It can bring a company one step closer to becoming a fully paperless office when desired, and when that’s not possible, good DPA software helps them build solutions that applies digital tool to physical assets.
Digital Process Automation Examples
There is so much more to digital automation than meets the eye. Here are just some of the many ways that an organization can put digital process automation software to use for the betterment of their business.
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- Customer onboarding – Customers don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops when signing up for a new service, and they definitely don’t want to go through the trouble of manual onboarding. DPA takes care of both of these issues, providing an optimized workflow for onboarding and addressing any impediments to a successful sign-up.
- New product pipeline management – Launching a new product is an exciting time for businesses, but it’s also an unpredictable one. Digital automation solutions can be used to quickly aggregate metrics related to product interest and purchases, in turn cluing businesses in on what’s working, what’s not, and whether they need to scale production up or down. Most importantly, it will ensure that key steps aren’t omitted, that key personnel are involved, moreover, it can keep accurate records of what did and didn’t happen, both for managerial and financial audits.
- Quote and service approvals – Digital automation can bring a ton of efficiency to the approval process. For businesses that offer on-demand quotes for service, for example, DPA can be used to automate the quote process and get customers the answers they need in record time. Other types of approvals that workflow automation can benefit include loan approvals, marketing campaign approvals, and move-in requests.
BPM vs. DPA
Curious about how BPM and DPA compare? While they serve similar functions, business process management and digital automation solutions do differ in some key ways.
Most notably: while BPM tools like traditional business process automation software are largely focused on driving efficiency within a business’s internal processes, digital process automation tools are just as likely to be focused on optimization of the customer experience.
And while both BPM and DPA may utilize easy-to-integrate low-code delivery, DPA tends to place a higher priority on digital innovation and rapid results, bringing things like artificial intelligence and mobile compatibility to the forefront where they belong. Organizations not only get better access to the sorts of innovations they need to compete, but they also get everything they need to optimize associated workflow processes and ensure they’re ready to go for the end-user.
It might be helpful to think of DPA as the rightful successor to BPM, rather than as an entirely different entity. As the digital needs of modern businesses become more complex, digital process automation becomes more and more foundational, supporting not just widespread digital transformation but offering up many of the same benefits that were previously achieved solely through general business process automation software.
Choosing the Right DPA Software for Your Business
New technologies, changes, and innovations should be implemented responsibly and repeatedly, and that extends to DPA and BPM platforms. A single solution is a single success, but a means to deliver a consistent set of dozens of solutions is, well, truly transformative.
A lot of care should be taken to ensure that you’re choosing the right software for your needs and that you’re taking into account all relevant features and factors when making your decision.
Digital process automation based on the WEBCON BPS low-code application development platform enables your organization to embark on a successful journey towards comprehensive digital transformation. It all starts with small steps and quick wins, followed by further improvements and an expanded scope of solutions so that you can continue scaling without workflow disruptions or exorbitant costs.
The innovative digital transformation solutions provided by WEBCON BPS make the implementation of a digital strategy easy, seamless, secure, and fully effective for your organization. Meanwhile, the technologies and features offered by WEBCON BPS provide many more opportunities than traditional BPM and document management system suites combined.
Are you ready for your company’s digital transformation? Contact us to learn more about how the WEBCON DPA platform can help you save money, time, and resources while building out a flexible, data-rich solution for workflow automation.
