Unlike the automation revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which were largely limited to manufacturing, today's advances in automation technology are leaving few industries untouched.

Thanks to the evolution of digital bots and RPA development, many routine tasks that were previously carried out by human workers are now able to be fully or partially automated. The umbrella term for this; "business process automation", refers to the application of technology to streamline otherwise labor-intensive business processes.

What Is Business Process Automation?

A business process is more than just a task, it's closer to a set of tasks that consistently need to be carried out in a routine or predictable manner. The routine nature of many business processes makes them ideal candidates for automation.

By first codifying, and then programmatically carrying out business processes, automation technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) mobilize software applications to automate diverse workflows, saving companies time and money.

Business Process Automation (BPA) can generally be divided according to a front office vs back office distinction.

Front office BPA tends more towards augmentation than full automation, using attended bots to enhance the efficiency of human workers, for example. Front office BPA options are popular tools for assisting client-facing staff such as sales of customer support teams.

Back office BPA on the other hand is more likely to involve processes that can be initiated with minimal human prompting and then run quietly in the background. Unattended bots are an example of back-office BPA.

Cloud-Based Automation

In recent years, we have witnessed the normalization of cloud-based solutions to business challenges and the application of cloud infrastructures and services across a range of business processes. 

It is thanks to the accessibility of automation through the cloud that small businesses are increasingly investing in RPA. Rather than having to develop their own automation software at great expense, companies are now able to enlist the help of dedicated RPA platforms without the need for any specialist knowledge or equipment.

Cloud-based automation outsources provision and basic maintenance to an external provider. It provides a set of BPA tools that require minimal training to be able to use and can typically be accessed through any web browser.

Four Advantages of Cloud-Based Solutions

1.    Cost Reduction

While curtailing expenditure on labor and boosting employees' productivity is a benefit of AI and RPA, cloud-based applications of these technologies for BPA have some extra cost-saving potentials.

Firstly, because it doesn't require you to operate any software on your own servers, cloud-based BPA can generate massive savings on purchasing and running expensive hardware.

Secondly, cloud-based automation solutions tend to work on a software as a service (SaaS) subscription model. Businesses that employ a SaaS automation platform only pay for the service that they use, saving them money on the upfront license costs associated with purchasing software packages outright.

2.    Limitation of Human Error

It would be a drastic oversimplification of the facts to say that computers don't make mistakes. Nevertheless, it's an accepted truth that the right digital tool can massively reduce human error.

The advantages of automation are especially prominent when it comes to mundane and repetitive tasks like data entry, data integration, and transcription.

With the rise of cloud-based BPA solutions, the possibilities available for businesses to minimize the volume and impact of mistakes are greater than ever.

Slip-ups, miscalculations, and oversights inevitably arise when human workers have to deal with large or monotonous workloads. Because of its accessibility and amenability to teamwork, cloud-based BPA removes the risk of human error even if workers are separated from their company's central IT infrastructure.

3.    Increased Productivity

It could be argued that the effective application of automation technology has been the single largest boost to workplace productivity to emerge in recent years.

For example, no matter which side of the agile vs waterfall debate they fall on, software developers across the board have benefited from the automation capabilities of contemporary project management platforms. Used correctly, these can significantly reduce time wasted by automatically discovering and amending low productivity in schedules and workflows.

When the streamlining capacity of automation tools is transferred to the cloud, interacting with them becomes easier and more flexible.

On the one hand, attended bots provide powerful tools for tackling any number of activities that workers might face in their day-to-day lives. On the other, unattended bots that operate quietly in the background are automating entire business processes from end to end. This means that time otherwise spent carrying out routine tasks can be used more effectively to tackle higher-level challenges.

4.    Facilitation of Remote Working

It's hard to overstate the effect that the migration of many business functions to a cloud-based tech stack has had on remote working.

These days an ever-increasing number of the digital tools we use to work are accessible without having to be in a specific location. Often, an internet-connected mobile device is all that's needed to use modern cloud technologies.

In the new remote work paradigm, the advantages of cloud-based approaches can be extended to the sphere of BPA, multiplying remote working opportunities for staff that work with automation tools.

What's more, because leveraging cloud-based BPA requires no specialized equipment of a centralized IT team, it also generates new automation possibilities for small businesses, who often depend on a distributed workforce and remote employment model.

Why Wait to Enlist Cloud-Based Business Process Automation?

As companies the world over increasingly turn to cloud technologies to streamline their business processes and make the most of our hyperconnected digital infrastructure, the way we organize those processes is changing.

Cloud-based approaches are making BPA more accessible, more flexible, and more applicable to a greater number of the challenges that modern businesses face. Whether you already employ BPA tools or not, don't get left behind and start your journey with cloud-based automation today.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tammy Wood - Director of Global Technical SEO

Tammy Wood, the Director of Technical SEO at Automation Anywhere, an RPA company that specializes in call center automation. She has 20+ years in the SEO industry, often attending industry conferences world-wide. In her opinion the best part of SEO is always the constant learning.