What is Business Process Automation (BPA)?
Business Process Automation (BPA) is a broad term that includes various types of digital process automation software. What these applications all have in common is they help companies achieve business objectives that go far beyond the IT department.
Gartner defines BPA as "the automation of complex business processes and functions beyond conventional data manipulation and record-keeping activities, usually through the use of advanced technologies. It focuses on “run the business” as opposed to “count the business” types of automation efforts and often deals with event-driven, mission-critical, core processes."
Learn more in our complete guide: What is Business Process Automation?
What is the Difference Between BPA and RPA?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a specific type of software that uses robots, or agents, to complete individual tasks. RPA software can power BPA as the tool that automates parts of an entire business process. BPA takes these pieces and brings them together in one central location to automate an entire business process. When you use BPA, each step in your process automatically triggers the next, allowing you to create entire workflows for critical functions of your business.
Learn What Process Automation Means in Business
For organizations around the globe, flexibility and efficiency are key to meeting ever-changing customer and market requirements. BPA gives you ultimate flexibility because you’re able to leverage it to automate any process. With process automation software, you’re able to achieve new levels of productivity and reduce the costs and errors associated with manual tasks. Introducing workflow automation brings efficiency to processes across your business and is the key to maximizing valuable employee time, particularly in areas where resources have more projects to complete than hours in the day.
Native Automation vs. Business Process Automation
Some processes can be automated within software you’re already using, which is called native automation. Then there's software developed specifically for business process automation, like Automate. This powerful automation solution replaces routine, time-consuming tasks with automated processes so you can focus on strategic initiatives that require a human touch and reap the benefits of BPA. Automate solutions can be deployed on premises or in the cloud and can connect to and centralize your systems and applications.
What Are the Best Business Processes to Automate?
Discover the many ways you can use digital process automation on all types of business processes at your company in Twenty Ways Automate Solves IT and Business Problems: The Automate Use Case Guide.
BPA Software Capabilities
When evaluating business process automation tools, there are certain features to specifically look for in a solution. Look for a BPA tool with the following capabilities:
No-Code Automation
No-code automation makes it easy for business users and citizen developers—to build powerful automation to streamline the processes they know best.
No-code automation makes it easy for business users and citizen developers—to build powerful automation to streamline the processes they know best.
Step Recorders
Recorders easily build, update, and create robust recordings of web and desktop user interactions to create powerful BPA workflows without code.
Recorders easily build, update, and create robust recordings of web and desktop user interactions to create powerful BPA workflows without code.
Native Actions
BPA solutions should offer native actions to common applications—like Microsoft, cloud apps, and more—with drag-and-drop development.
BPA solutions should offer native actions to common applications—like Microsoft, cloud apps, and more—with drag-and-drop development.
API Integration Kit
API capabilities allow users to easily connect to critical business applications to build stronger automation for BPA workflows.
API capabilities allow users to easily connect to critical business applications to build stronger automation for BPA workflows.
Machine Learning and AI
Get the ability to expand BPA processes where more critical thinking is needed and make structured and unstructured data more usable.
Get the ability to expand BPA processes where more critical thinking is needed and make structured and unstructured data more usable.
Transform Your Business
Talk to an automation expert for a personalized demonstration of our BPA solution to see how you can transform your business processes with Automate.
How to Know if Your Business Can Benefit from Business Process Automation
Simply put, BPA software will transform the way you operate. Organizations that implement business process automation are often amazed by the time they can get back for their teams and are eager to expand the reach of automation across their organizations. With BPA software you gain:
Efficiency
Flexibility
Scalability
Versatility
Can Small Businesses Benefit from BPA?
Scalable processes are key to running a small business efficiently and sustainably, and automation helps scale processes beautifully. Small business automation not only makes current processes more efficient, it sets the company up to automate future processes they don’t even know about yet as they continue to reap the benefits of business process automation.
Why Automate Your Business with Process Automation Software?
BPA software exists to streamline processes and reduce the complexity of managing them all simultaneously. When implementing business process automation software, each step in the process triggers the next instead of just automatically handling single steps, allowing you to create entire workflows for core parts or your business. When you automate your business, you can achieve:
Cost Savings
Increased Productivity
Improved Accuracy
Reduced Errors
Learn what problems business process automation can solve and start reaping these benefits.
Challenges of Business Process Management
Many businesses can become overwhelmed by all the ways workflow automation can improve everyday workflows and struggle with where to begin their journey. The key is to take stock of your routine, time-consuming tasks and identify which can make the most immediate impact through a business process analysis. Not only will this save valuable time for key resources, but it will also enable you to demonstrate to management the value and savings automation brings to real-world scenarios. Using BPA resources can help you understand how to overcome the challenges.
Many people also worry that BPA will eliminate jobs. While it’s certainly possible that streamlining numerous tasks with an increased level of automation could warrant staff reductions, many businesses use the benefits of automating business processes for more productivity to get to value-added projects more quickly—and free time-strapped resources from the strain of repetitive work they may not enjoy.
