#94 What is Business Process Automation?

Welcome back to another episode of the Process and Automation Podcast with the Automation Guys. Yeah, as always, with me here is Arno.

Hello, Sascha.

Hi, Arno. So, and yeah, together we will discuss low-code business process management— not more process management, process automation today. And yeah, and we'll look at it and see why it is very important for businesses to look closer to and what the benefits are. And yeah, so what low-code business process automation is all about. Because you probably heard intelligent automation, hyperautomation, but now what is business process automation? It's nothing really new, but I think we start talking differently about all these automation technologies, tools, areas from time to time. So you will see that low-code business process automation more and more going forward. So yeah, and that's the topic of our today's podcast. So yeah, in the age of sort of rapid innovation, we know all companies out there currently are adopting low-code business process automation more and more to meet the demand, to get their custom applications developed quicker, and to obviously react to the changing requirements in the market and get go-to-market quicker. So yeah, all these things make low-code business process automation very attractive. And yeah, and that's also resulting in that the market around low-code automation platforms is growing and it's growing a lot. So in the next year we will see even steeper growth, but in the last 12 months it has grown 25%. alone, which is huge. So yeah, with that business process automation, we will see lots of things happening. So in the past, as we know, software was mainly inflexible for large organizations. So We have noticed that one, and you always notice that one when there are crises out there. So COVID-19 pandemic really exposed that situation where these old software systems couldn't be changed quickly. So that was a really big disadvantage. So these business process automation platforms, they mean flexibility, and agility. So, and that's why we, we, we like keep talking about it. So all the low-code, no-code, agile software development, all these topics are very, really good to talk about and very important topics to talk about. So, yeah, let's look at some, some examples. I know what kind of areas could we, could we talk about when it comes to business process automation?

Well, yeah, I think the examples are obviously the ones that sort of provide color to the picture. But I think, you know, when we look at these examples, I think it's probably useful to sort of define what business process automation involves. And, you know, really this hasn't changed much. And I think this really, I think it's what we need to do is sort of just redefine what it is. And, you know, what we want to do is sort of automate processes with inside businesses and to minimize the need for human intervention. Obviously, we're gonna always have human input and judgment. And, you know, we can look at how software bots can actually take some of that away. You know, I'm looking at things like automate, you know, automation of repetitive tasks. So, so, so, so these are sort of, you know, from a business process automation perspective, if you look at the whole package, it's what we want to achieve with Insight, that sort of the outcomes of that. And then examples like you alluded to, which is good, is things like invoice processing, for example, when an invoice arrives, business process automation the system can actually automatically scan that. It could validate that, make sure the invoice is valid, it's got a valid purchase order, and then, you know, route that for approval. And again, this sort of eliminates the need for sort of manual intervention, manual data entry, and it sort of speeds up the whole sort of payment process, you know, for your invoice processing. Process. Another one, and again, you know, we've touched on this one in several podcasts in the past, is employee onboarding. And again, if you apply business process automation, you can streamline your onboarding process by automating the creation of user accounts, provisioning access to the various systems, you know, sending out welcome emails, to new hires. So, so all of the elements that you think in, in, in that sort of employee onboarding process, you can automate that using BPA or business process automation.

And then, yeah, such an important topic these days with all the crisis finding, finding employees, isn't it? Onboarding has to be spot on.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, and, and I think that's important because that's such a, a process that leans itself to sort of a rinse and repeat type, let's automate it, let's sort of get that digitized. And, you know, low-code business process automation is perfect for that sort of scenario because it is sort of something that's predictable. You know, it's not something that changes every day. It's perfectly orchestrated by using a low-code workflow platform, for example. You know, so again, a very, very good sort of candidate for automation. If you're new to BPA, I think it's becoming quite mainstream. And if you're still looking for scenarios or use cases, you know, with inside HR, I think onboarding is definitely a good candidate. And then, you know, customer-facing, you're looking at something like customer support ticket routing. And again, these are things like instead of manually assigning support tickets to different agents, business process automation can apply intelligence and route them on various factors like, you know, what's the issue, what's the customer priority, agent availability, you know, and these sort of factors. Inventory management as well. So for instance, BPA can track inventory levels in real time and sort of trigger reordering of stock and, you know, to reach predefined thresholds. Also things like data entry and data validation. Of course, you know, there's a lot of data that we capture these days, especially sort of areas like finance and healthcare. And when you apply business process automation, you know, you can automate these data entry tasks using robotic process automation. And again, you know, you're going to reduce the number of errors that you have with inside these activities, and that ultimately ensures data accuracy. So these are sort of just a few examples of where you can apply business process automation And again, the benefits of these, you know, of the application of this is quite numerous. But, you know, you look at sort of data accuracy, completion of processes, you know, with inside SLA. So, you know, customer retention, things like this is natural things that falls out of, you know, the sort of application of automated processes.

Yeah, there's so many. Yeah, basically everything what the company is doing is a process, right? So when you look around these processes, you find plenty of areas, high volume, maybe not high volume, but quite complex, but you still want to make sure it runs really, really safely end to end. So really, really pretty much everything what happens in the business you can look at or you should look at anyway and find things which can be automated. And yeah, there's one quote, isn't it? I actually don't know who said that, but was like, yeah, you should automate what can be automated, isn't it? So I think that's important. And yeah, it was business process automation. Yeah, plenty of things to do. And yeah, it was low-code and no-code. Yeah. You can get there much, much faster, sort of 20 times faster than sort of doing it sort of the old way, opening up your coding environment and get going. But even that these days is much quicker than it was when we started, Arno.

Yeah, exactly. And things like low-code platforms is used these days to implement business process automation. And again, it unlocks sort of sort of immense potential, especially sort of integrating with complicated new technologies like AI, you know, integrating that all into digital workflows, you know, and most of the leading low-code platforms obviously have fully embraced this AI capabilities that's on the market now, sort of OpenAI capabilities. And all of that really results in boosting productivity, activity for, you know, all the professional developers that's out there that develops these automation solutions and even sort of people like citizen developers that can take advantage of commoditized AI solutions and bring that into their processes. And, you know, and that all expedited the creation of, you know, all of these automated workflow solutions we see that's shareable and it's reusable. And again, you know, across all various industries, you know, regardless if it's sort of financial industry, you know, banking, manufacturing, retail, you know, teams are sort of engaged in this sort of the process of all of the change management to align themselves more with, you know, business process automation, digital process automation to ensure that, you know, their digital transformation projects are really successful and it sort of, it works with the progressive technologies out there. You know, there's so many things out there that could be trial. There's so many things out there could be used in a sort of environment where you say, you know, we're gonna actually experiment with this sort of AI technology. We're gonna plug that into our, business process automation initiative. You know, maybe we're not ready for that, or maybe this actually brings something that we feel is beneficial to our company. You know, again, if you look at a process that you automate, you know, there can be so many dependencies that you can say, well, you know, we when we automate this process in the past or a process like this, you know, we have to create excessive documentation, is prone to errors. You know, we've got technical debt because we've got so many other systems with that, that we need to deal with. And I think with the low-code automation tools, those things have come to the surface very quickly and you can understand, well, which things should we really choose and, you know, what path to take. And again, all of this sort of adds to the ability to really accelerate your digital transformation journey. You know, you've got these choices. You know, it doesn't have to be a sort of a 6 months or a year down the line and you feel, oh, this is not going to work. This is sort of, let's try it out, let's trial it, let's see if this is going to unlock the potential of automation. If it doesn't, let's move on. Let's, try and find something else to look at where we feel automation can be beneficial.

Yeah, it's definitely not just a one-off thing, isn't it, you do? So we have that again and again as a topic here and then for us from the community as well. But yeah, it is an ongoing process. It's a cycle. Trying out things, looking at it, adjusting, doing something else. And yeah, not just do a one-off thing and just expect everything to be great. But yeah, so when it comes to low-code business process solutions and platforms, there's a few topics we should ask. Or you should take as a checklist nearly when you look out for a platform like this. So does it have RPA integration? So has that platform you're choosing RPA capabilities built in, or will it be another platform you have, or will you have to do clunky manual coding? To integrate these tools, so your platform and another tool. So yeah, another question you should ask yourself is how about the availability of the platform? So can you offer functions you need from a single unified platform, or rather than asking teams to deal with multiple other platforms and solutions, so all these silos, different applications. You mentioned them, Arno. And yeah, and is it easy to use and is it reusable? So when we talk about easy to use and low-code, we talk a lot about drag-and-drop interfaces, visual designers. So does the platform come with those? Is it usable for any team member? You mentioned citizen developers earlier, so it can be technical sort of personal, not too technical person in the department maybe pick that up and build their solutions or start building their solutions. Yeah, and is there an option to reuse stuff done by others and on the platform, other components, user interfaces, integrations? Is it just easy to use? So if one department is building a great document component to do something? Can it be reused in another part of the company in another process in the same way? Yeah, all these things obviously are very important when your business progresses with business process automation. And yeah, does it have backwards compatibility? Yeah, will that low-code development platform keep us, keep up as new regulations and new standards emerge? And will it also deal with everything else in your system you have running and so you don't necessarily want to touch? So you need both of it, isn't it? You want a stable running core complex process, but at the same time you want to keep going What was the latest stuff you have out there? It was the latest AI technologies, latest data technologies, data fabric, all those kind of things. But yeah, you want the best of both worlds. So yeah, those kind of questions you should definitely ask when you look out for low-code business process automation platform and solution.

Yeah, and I think it's, you know, I think if it's, it, The question is, you might be looking at streamlining a complex process or optimizing workflows in your business, or, you know, your aim might be to enhance your customer or employee experiences. There is this synergy between low-code solutions and business process automation. And, you know, I truly think that propels, you know, your digital transformation ambitions to new heights because those, those two work really well in concert. And, you know, that provides really good end-to-end process visibility. You know, it automates obviously tasks with very high precision. It allows you to monitor process performance in real time. And, you know, in essence, it's sort of ensure this scalability and adaptability in your business landscape, especially in a sort of dynamic business landscape. And I think, you know, the sort of the endgame is where the payoff comes is where you have really great operational agility that helps you, you know, stay relevant because, you know, there's so many competitors out there, so many people that kind of goes digital. And, you know, this is something that you need to embrace. And it also future-proofs your organization against, you know, emerging future risks and any unforeseen changes. So, you know, the world we live in sort of changes rapidly. There's always rapid advancement of technology. You know, digital innovation is out there. There's so many choices. And all of this, it can be sort of an existential challenge. So, you know, it's imperative that if you look at sort of the future next year beyond that, you want to sort of harness the power of low-code business process automation. And again, what we mean by that is that you can automate business processes without running to IT departments. To actually implement those automations. You could really leverage low-code or rapid application development technologies to automate these processes. And, you know, that's what it's all about. You know, it's all about, you know, rapid application development, sort of being able to to push out these automations very quickly to where it matters and to be able to change it very quickly if it needs to, you know, changing business conditions and things like that. And that's what this is all about. You know, it's about that sort of agility to do these sort of things, you know, without having to wait a very long time to discover, well, IT can't do this because they've got a 6-month backlog of development. We have to win, you know, and it's crazy out there.

So still plenty of companies out there with spreadsheets. So with invoice processes not being fully automated or not even 25% automated, just dealing with spreadsheets and emails on a daily basis. So of course in these bigger companies This is what they hear, isn't it? Day in, day out. Yeah, you have to keep going with your really bad, you could say shitty, shitty way of working because that's what it is. Because the IT department has no resources and there are other priorities. And yeah, so there is no budget and those kind of things. But it needs that strategic approach going into 2024, see, okay. And the honest, honest view on the value of a platform like this, what does it bring. And we can see once it's established and projects starting first small and then growing, everyone gets it. And then, and there is the proof in these departments that it really had an impact. 70% increase of processing times or savings in the six figures, seven figures for some companies, and reducing processing from weeks to days and that kind of stuff. So it's really, really big, big change when these things are implemented. It doesn't need to be like the craziest process within the company, but when it produces value and enough value, everyone should have a platform like this and get everyone on it. It's just incredible what the results are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, you know, what we see is there is this— we sometimes challenge, you know, with low-code automation you know, what is possible using those technologies versus sort of conventional high-code technologies. And, you know, the platforms out there are quite sophisticated in that, you know, it solves or can solve so many normal business needs. You know, we're looking at case management systems that's got specifics around verticals. With Insight Insurance. And, you know, I look at sort of 10 years ago, low-code platforms would, would not be able to do that because there's such bespoke elements in, in those types of requirements that needs to be implemented. But these days, the platforms are so sophisticated that, you know, regardless if you look at those requirements and you pass that to a developer that does low-code solutions versus a developer does conventional kind of solutions. Both of those can solve the problems. But again, with low-code, that kind of, it's like 70% quicker because, yeah, you know, and it's almost like a no-brainer in terms of getting that solution out, getting that solution into the business, getting that live. Versus waiting, you know, potentially 70% longer for that. So the level of sophistication in these platforms are so, so high, you know, we kind of get to a point where it's sort of, it's on parity with what you can achieve with, with high-code. So we're almost at a point where it sort of, it makes that obsolete. Now, I'm not saying that high-code developments is going to disappear. I think that there's a place for that. But if you look purely speaking from a business solution, you know, I need this process, I wanted to do this, needs to follow these steps. That's what I need to do in order to satisfy my customers. These low-code platforms are perfect for that. And there's no need to actually code that with conventional coding. And, you know, spend 70% more on that, you know, rather use that 70% that you've got in there to actually refine that process and actually change it or, you know, introduce the almost the agility in that process to evolve it into what it actually should be. It's these incredible things that I see day in and day out and I'm thinking, with this sort of low-code business process automation type solutions, you know, the version 1, week 1 might look like this. 2 weeks later, it's totally pivoted away because somebody sort of got a new idea or they've realized there's a new compliance issue that they need to deal with. And all of that can be sort of implemented so fast and so quickly. And, you know, I think that's why it's really exciting. And you know, you couple this with all of the progressive things like the AI that's coming through, you know, it's really, really exciting times to sort of use these technologies and really sort of bring them into businesses.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So, yeah, low-code business process automation has lots of power. To fix plenty of problems within businesses. Obviously not all problems are technical, of technical nature, but can be solved technically. But if they can, I guess BPA will be a strong tool to get in next year. Or if you're already working on this, that's great. Do more with it. It definitely will be exciting to see all the results. So Yeah, so we, we are here on the podcast with another episode very, very soon. I hope this episode was insightful. If you like the episode, please give us a 5-star review on, on the platform wherever you listen to this podcast. And yeah, we will be back very soon. And until then, let's automate it.