A Guide to Business Automation for Small Businesses

In today's fast paced business environment, efficiency is paramount. Imagine reclaiming hours of your week by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up your team to focus on strategic growth. Business process automation (BPA) is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) aiming to thrive. This guide will walk you through the essentials of BPS, from understanding its benefits to implementing practical solutions.

What is Automation and Why do I need it?

Automation uses machines or software to reduce human involvement in tasks, saving time and effort. While applicable across various sectors, including manufacturing and agriculture, this post focuses on automating business processes to boost productivity.

Small businesses need automation primarily to simplify work and reduce time intensive tasks. Automation minimises repetition, leading to a more efficient workflow. Moreover, it can empower individuals who, due to physical limitations or illnesses, might find certain business operations challenging.

How to Handle the Disadvantages of Business Automation?

In the age of artificial intelligence, automation is crucial for achieving efficient results. Adaptation is key, not just for workers but also for managers.

However, without meticulous setup and customisation, automation can yield unexpected side effects. For example, an improperly configured email automation could send incorrect information to clients, or a flawed data entry could corrupt a database.

Because business automation operates with minimal human input, unforeseen issues can arise. This underscores the importance of comprehensive documentation. When creating any new automation, we document every step, including triggers and actions. Consistent monitoring allows you to fine tune even the most complex processes, ensuring they benefit your business.

Another disadvantage is the cost of implementation. You need to calculate your Return on Investment (ROI). Calculating ROI for automation involves comparing the costs of implementing and maintaining the automation with the benefits it provides.

Calculating Costs

• Software/Hardware Costs: Purchase price of automation software, tools or equipment.
• Implementation Costs: Expenses for installation, configuration and integration with existing systems. This includes IT support, consultant fees, and any custom development that is needed.
• Training Costs: Expenses for training employees to use and manage the new automated systems.
• Maintenance Costs: Ongoing costs for software updates, technical support and repairs or replacement hardware.

Calculating Benefits

• Labour Cost Savings: Calculate the reduction in labour hours due to automation. Multiply the hours saved per week/month by the hourly wage of the employees performing those tasks.
• Increased Productivity: Estimate how much more work can be accomplished with the same number of employees. This might be measured in terms of increased output, faster processing times or more transactions completed.
• Reduced Error Costs: Estimate the cost savings from reducing errors. This includes costs associated with rework, wasted materials, customer refunds and potential compliance penalties.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Quantify improvements in customer service. While harder to measure, this can be estimated through increased customer retention rates, higher sales from repeat customers or positive customer feedback.

What is Business Process Automation Software?

Business process automation (BPA) software provides organisations with modern, efficient ways to automate their workflows. BPA software is commonly used to automate their workflows. BPA software is commonly used to automate and optimise employee tasks.

The benefits of using BPA software include increased productivity, higher efficiency, reduced costs, improved data accuracy, enhanced customer service and more. To effectively utilise BPA software, you need a reliable solution that supports your organisational needs.

What are the Types of Business Processes You Can Automate?

Automation is key to achieving more with consistent quality in less time. Numerous business processes across various departments can benefit significantly from automation. Here's a breakdown of some key areas and examples;

Customer Service and Support

• Chatbots: Provide instant answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), handle basic inquiries and route complex issues to human agents.
• Ticket Management: Automatically create, assign, prioritise and track support tickets, ensuring no customer request is overlooked.
• Automated Responses: Send automated email or SMS replies to confirm ticket receipt, provide updates on resolution progress and gather customer feedback.
• Knowledge Base Population: Automatically update and maintain a customer facing knowledge base.

Marketing and Sales

• Email Marketing: Automate email sequences for lead nurturing, onboarding new customers, sending newsletters and promoting special offers.
• Social Media Management: Schedule posts, track engagement metrics and even respond to comments and messages automatically (with appropriate safeguards).
• Lead Sourcing and Routing: Automatically score leads based on their behaviour and interactions, routing the most qualified leads to the sales team.
• CRM Updates: Automatically update customer relationship management (CRM) records with data from various sources, ensuring accurate and up to date information.
• Advertising Campaign Management: Automate bidding, targeting and performance tracking for online advertising campaigns.

Human Resources (HR)

• Recruitment: Automate job postings, applicant screening, interview scheduling and background checks.
• Onboarding: Automate the onboarding process for new hires, including paperwork, training assignments and access provisioning.
• Payroll and Benefits Administration: Automate performance review reminders, feedback collection and goal tracking.
• Leave Requests: Automatically process employee leave requests, track balances and update payroll accordingly.

Finance and Accounting

• Invoice Processing: Automate invoice generation, sending and payment reminders.
• Expense Management: Automate expense report submission, approval workflows and reimbursement processing.
• Financial Reporting: Automate the generation of financial reports, such as balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.
• Data Entry: Automate data entry from various sources into accounting software, reducing manual effort and errors.
• Bank Reconciliation: Reconcile bank statements with accounting records.

Operations and IT

• Workflow Management: Automate workflows for various tasks, ensuring consistent execution and timely completion.
• Data Backup and Recovery: Automate workflows for various tasks, ensuring consistent execution and timely completion.
• Server Monitoring: Monitor server performance and receive alerts for potential issues.
• Software Updates: Automate software updates and patching to ensure security and optimal performance.
• Inventory Management: Automate inventory tracking, reordering and stock level alerts.

Project Management

• Task Assignments: Automate the assigning of tasks to team members.
• Due Date Reminders: Automated reminders that are triggered when a deadline is approaching.
• Meeting Scheduling: Automate the checking of team calendars to find suitable meeting times.

This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a comprehensive overview of the many business processes that can be streamlined and improved through automation. Consider automating your workflow management system or call centre software with an automated solution to get started today!

How to Choose the Best Software for Your Needs?

Selecting the right software requires a clear understanding of your needs and budget. Define specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you want to improve. For example, are you aiming to reduce customer support response time, increase lead conversion rates or minimise data entry errors?

Consider the number of employees who need access/ A company with many employees might require an Enterprise edition. In contrast, a smaller company might find a free version sufficient if features like security audits or data input automation are unnecessary.

Scalability is also crucial. Choose software that can grow with your business, adapting to increased workloads and evolving needs.

Options for Automation Software

Business process automation software falls into three main categories:

• General Providers: Connect multiple sources, offering a vast array of automation possibilities.
• Specialist Providers: Focus on a specific niche, often excelling in that area.
• Custom Providers: Require a higher level of technical expertise, often involving a developer to create a cloud based application tailored to specific circumstances.

Below is a selection of providers available to build automation for small businesses:

General Automation Providers

• Pipedream
• Make
• Zapier
• IFTTT
• ClickUp

Specialist Automation Providers

• Capsule CRM
• Manychat
• Brevo
• Reclaim.ai

Custom Automation Platforms

• Google Cloud Functions
• AWS Lambda Functions
• Cloudflare Workers

Please get in touch with us to discuss how we can help you implement the best solution for your business.

Use Cases: How We Use Automation

Wessex Digital Solutions New Client Onboarding

We aim for an exceptional onboarding experience for new clients. When a client accepts and signs a proposal through our secure e-signature provider, the following automation is triggered:

• Google Drive creates a new folder structure and adds generic files, enabling our team to get started quickly.
• An email is sent to the client with useful project information.
• The client is added to our custom client portal, allowing them to monitor project progress and interact with our team.

How to Start Implementing Automation Solutions in Your Company Today?

The rise of automation necessitates new skill sets within the workforce. While larger organisations have begun adapting, many smaller businesses are still catching up.

Introducing automation complexity requires commitment and a multi faceted strategy. However, you can start small, focusing on a single, simple task. Identify opportunities for streamlining within your business. Businesses that embrace these changes now will be better prepared for future growth and resilience.