10 Real-World Business Process Automation Examples

Gartner expects over 30% of enterprises to automate more than half of their network activities by 2026. All because of the lucrative benefits of business process automation (BPA), such as enhanced business efficiency, scalability, innovation, and employee satisfaction. The key point here is to automate repetitive workflows, saving time for more urgent and complex workflows. In addition, BPA is a certain way to minimize costs, simplify the onboarding of new human employees, and, possibly, even create a unique culture of innovation.

It is also important to note that business process automation is relevant to companies of completely different sizes. 

Whether it goes about large enterprises with a significant variety of workflows or about startups that need help with regular activities, such as handling invoices, BPA is here to help. In this article, we will discuss 10 real-world examples of business automation.

Without further ado, let’s explore real-world examples of business process automation across industries. While there may be many more business process automation use cases, here we provide an overview of the most common and relevant ones.

As long as we are focused on DevOps development practices, we believe automation for CI/CD pipelines and test coverage to be very important examples of automation. While not necessarily viewed as a business process, test coverage means a lot for business because it directly affects operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. We at AppRecode have a successful experience of ensuring efficient software test coverage through automation. In particular, our DevOps health check solutions, such as TestKube, allow companies to achieve a 90% reduction in testing time through automation.

Finance management often involves many time-consuming and repetitive processes. In particular, traditional approval of invoices can easily take days or weeks, which slows down transactions and financial reporting. Meanwhile, many companies of different sizes use automation solutions that enhance invoice processing. For instance, such software is provided by technology businesses like SAP and QuickBooks.  

Another common BPA use case is patient management in the healthcare domain. Basically, similar principles are applied across various industries in customer management. Here it goes about the automated processing of patient or customer requests, queries, and documents. AppRecode has experience with automating patient management. Our specialists worked on a healthcare management platform, providing it with an automated data processing tool that processes, summarizes, and visualizes necessary information to the client’s practitioners. Such functionality can boost many time-consuming healthcare workflows dramatically.

HR specialists and recruiters often need to spend a lot of time communicating with employees and potential candidates. BPA can help them enhance many processes, such as sending offer letters, setting up system access, and scheduling training sessions. Such automation features, whether AI-powered or script-based, can be frequently encountered in company-specific human resource management systems (HRMS).

Analytics and forecasting are other business-critical processes that involve many minor workflows regardless of the industry. Many of these workflows, such as dashboard management, predictive analytics, and data collection, can be automated. In particular, AI-powered tools like Tableau AI can streamline such workflows, providing businesses with the necessary insights that can be later interpreted by human analysts.

Customer support is one of the most common and evident examples of business process automation. Almost all websites and many social media pages use chatbots for processing basic customer queries. Some companies employ more complex AI chatbots to automate even more cases in customer communication. For instance, the use of AI chatbots helps online marketplaces provide users with 24/7 support for tracking orders and settling disputes over products.

Creating, storing, processing, analyzing, and managing documents are other time-consuming workflows that can be efficiently automated with the right approach. We at AppreCode have experience working on such a solution. You may check out  our business process automation case study where our specialists have developed a cloud-based tool that securely stores and organizes documentation while ensuring automated updates of documents. Such a solution ensures better compliance management and efficient document change tracking.

BPA is also widely applied in the domain of marketing. In particular, tools like HubSpot streamline email campaigns and social media posting. Enhanced with automated lead scoring, such functionality can significantly boost the efficiency of both marketing and sales teams. Such advantages, in turn, translate into greater conversion of marketing campaigns and other initiatives oriented towards enhancing the company’s outreach.

Many retail and manufacturing businesses face problems with managing inventory and the supply chain. There are just too many processes to control. Meanwhile, business process automation helps companies deal with such workflows more efficiently. In particular, retail giants like Amazon apply their custom BPA technologies to ensure smooth logistics operations. This applies to route planning, inventory tracking, and even business-critical vendor relationships.

BPA brings real value to the domain of HR management because such technologies can reduce HR managers’ manual work, minimize errors, and create a more comfortable environment for employees. As a business process automation example, we can mention Netflix. The company implements automated HR systems to streamline employee onboarding. This is especially relevant to HR teams of big companies that need to deal with a significant number of employees.

Business process automation can cover a wide array of processes, ranging from business intelligence to DevOps maintenance services. However, which workflows should you, specifically, prioritize? Here are some tips on how to choose the right use case for BPA:

1. Evaluate your existing workflows to identify bottlenecks.
2. Identify repetitive tasks that, basically, follow the same or similar patterns.
3. Consider business value to ensure BPA in areas that generate the biggest output from a business standpoint.
4. Evaluate your existing tech stack to ensure that your automation initiatives align with it and its specific demands.

An ideal area for automation is email categorization and auto-response. Automated systems, often powered with AI, can provide informed responses to regular questions and readdress only more complex or top-priority customer queries to human agents.

Behind each BPA success story, there is an extensive toolset that ensures different aspects of automation. Notable examples of automation in business are often based on the following technologies:

• Robotic process automation (RPA), which is ensured with tools like UiPath and Automation Anywhere. They are primarily oriented towards covering repetitive rule-based tasks.
• Business process management (BPM) suites like Nintex are meant to ensure end-to-end workflow automation.
• AI-powered automation platforms like Microsoft Azure AI services provide a variety of tools and algorithms that support informed decision-making and automated analytics.
• CRM and ERP systems like Salesforce, SAP, and Oracle that are designed to embed automation within customer and resource management.
• Low-code and no-code platforms like Zapier, Power Automate, and Integromat that help non-technical staff create automation workflows.

It is important to note that, regardless of their advancement level, Business process automation tools cannot replace human employees completely. All such solutions require supervision and configuration support from human employees.

That’s what our founder speaks of this question:

“Business process automation is not a way to replace people. Instead, it is a certain option for empowering them. It can help businesses eliminate repetitive work while focusing on more important and complex matters that can drive real value.”

Volodymyr Shynkar, Founder at AppRecode

LinkedIn

BPA solutions also make mistakes, and they lack human creativity and unique perspectives. That’s why human involvement is vital in almost all processes, at least when it comes to writing prompts for AI-powered BPA tools. So, the key to success is in striking the right balance between the use of BPA solutions and manual effort.

Business process automation drives innovation and efficiency across many industries. Some notable business automation examples include using BPA tools for HR management, automated test coverage for software systems, and many more.

The key point is to find the right area for implementing business process automation. After all, the future belongs to businesses that embrace intelligent automation. Here it goes about choosing the right tooling and striking the right balance between the use of BPA tools and human specialists. In such cases, you will have excellent chances of joining the list of the best examples of automation in business. AppRecode, a company with an extensive expertise in DevOps automation and a strong portfolio presented on Clutch is ready to help you.