If you’re working in the insurance industry, you will probably have felt the winds of change in the past few years. The industry is evolving fast, with new young insurtech players entering, and traditional insurance companies pivoting their strategy, tone, and products to better fit the needs of consumers. A lot has been happening. 

To be able to keep up with all of that, focus is required. Companies in the insurance industry have to find ways to be able to zoom in on customer service and strategy and let go of as many repetitive tasks and slow systems as possible. The answer to all of that is automation. In this article, we’ll dive into why it’s such a crucial step to take for these companies and explore ways they can leverage the power of automation, AI, and Machine Learning. 

Too busy to read? You should consider automating some things. But in the meantime:  

TL;DR 

• Automation is revolutionizing the insurance industry, streamlining processes like underwriting, policy servicing, and customer queries. 
• Surprising uses of automation in insurance include fraud detection, improved customer service with chatbots, and predictive analytics for informed business decisions. 
• Future developments include hyper-automation, personalization of policies at scale, and automated compliance with regulatory standards. 
• Claims processing is being streamlined using automated systems for quicker evaluations and improved customer satisfaction. 
• Automation aids in customer outreach, providing timely reminders, payment alerts, and personalized policy recommendations. 
• Automated underwriting systems enhance risk assessment and premium calculation, leading to more competitive rates. 
• Automation significantly contributes to data security by continuously monitoring network activity and applying patches and updates automatically. 
• Insurance companies must prepare for the automated future by reskilling and upskilling their workforce, integrating automation technologies, and fostering an innovation-friendly culture. 
• The shift to automation is not just technological but also about creating a more efficient, resilient, and customer-focused industry. 

Why the Insurance Industry Needs to Prioritize Automation  

Companies that are standing still in the sense of technological innovation might as well be moving backward. It’s not just about keeping up to speed with the latest tech though. Automation Technology is becoming increasingly crucial for improving efficiency, but also for remaining competitive in a hyper-dynamic market. Here’s what’s happening.  

1. To survive in a competitive, changing landscape 

Insurtech is changing the insurance space. These new entrants are often lean and flexible start-ups who can move quickly because they have embraced technology from day one. They’ve built their operations on them and can benefit from AI-driven processes. This allows them to provide better, seamless, and personalized customer experiences. Yes – technology is making industries more human than ever before.  

Traditional insurers may find themselves struggling to compete with these insurtech companies – especially if they’re missing the mark with millennials and Gen Z. To give you an idea of just how quickly the landscape is changing:  worldwide, the InsurTech market size was valued at a whopping USD 5.45 billion in 2022. Not only that: predictions are, that it will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 52.7% from 2023 to 2030. 

So if you find yourself working for any of the more traditional, somewhat sluggish players – it’s time to step up your game and create focus. By automating manual tasks and routine processes, these companies can focus their resources on strategic initiatives, such as improving their digital platforms, developing new products, and enhancing customer engagement strategies.  It can help bridge the gap that’s growing bigger.  

2. To keep up with a shift in customer expectations 

Consumers are expecting different things from their insurers now – and they’re more vocal about it, too. With more players to choose from, they can become pickier, and clearly define their demands.   

They are more tech-savvy and better informed than ever. What they want more than ever is transparency, speed, and convenience.  

Traditional products and ways of selling and handling insurance are no longer meeting these evolving expectations. The modern customer wants their insurance to be personalized. They want to set it up quickly, with a hassle-free service, and they want the ability to easily interact with their insurer. In other words: they want a great digital app and a smooth web and customer service experience.

Automation and digital platforms cater to these preferences. For instance, chatbots can provide 24/7 customer service, AI-driven underwriting can enable instant policy issuance, and mobile apps can allow customers to manage their policies and file claims at their fingertips.  

3. To drive innovation  

As we said before: automation isn’t about substituting human effort – it’s actually about augmenting human capabilities. 

By freeing up the time and headspace of your team, they can work on other areas that require human ingenuity. They could be developing more and better insurance products. They could have the time to come up with truly creative marketing strategies. And they could build solid customer relationships.

By relieving them from their mundane tasks, automation allows them to create something new and unique much easier than ever before.

Ways Automation is Being Used in the Insurance Industry 

Ready to explore all the ways automation is changing the insurance industry? Here’s how it is being used.  

1. Insurance automation is taking over fraud detection 

One of the most obvious ones is fraud detection. In the US, the total cost of insurance fraud, excluding health insurance, is gauged to be more than $40 billion per year.

With automation and AI, insurers can identify suspicious activities and patterns much more efficiently, letting the machines dig through the piles of data. For them, it is much easier to identify unusual behaviors or inconsistencies that may hint at fraudulent activity. 

2. Automation is enhancing customer experiences 

With the help of chatbots and virtual assistants, insurers can provide 24/7 customer service. These automated tools can handle routine queries, provide policy information, and even assist in filing a claim. This not only increases customer satisfaction but also frees up staff to handle more complex inquiries. 

But it can also help people find the right fit for their insurance needs quickly. Let’s say someone is trying to insure a log truck. With automation, AI, and personalization, insurance companies can not only give better recommendations – but they can also predict needs and upsell useful products in addition.  

3. Automation is predicting the future – sort of 

In those vast amounts of data that insurance companies are collecting, they could find a lot of patterns. If only someone had the time and brain power to go through all of it and find them all. 

It’s incredibly helpful to let automation tools do the job. It enables insurance to analyze historical data, predict future trends, and make data-driven decisions. For insurers, this means predicting potential risks, customer behaviors, and market trends, ultimately leading to more informed business decisions. 

4. Claims processing is being automated 

It’s time to reimagine the claims processing operation. This traditionally requires significant time and resources, and it famously frustrates customers. 

That no longer needs to be the case, as insurance automation is revolutionizing the process. Automated systems can quickly evaluate claims, validate policy details, and even process payments, dramatically reducing processing times and increasing customer satisfaction. 

For example, some insurers have introduced mobile apps that allow policyholders to submit claims using just their smartphones. The app uses AI algorithms to assess the damage from uploaded photos and calculate the payout amount. This form of automation brings transparency and speed to the claims process, which were often major points of concern for customers. 

 5. Customer outreach is being automated 

Nothing is more frustrating than getting delayed messages and reminders on your policy. Maybe there is something worse: if the messages are vague and hard to understand.

With a combination of insurance automation and AI, send timely policy reminders, alerts for payment due dates, and personalized recommendations based on policyholders’ profiles.   

Automated email marketing campaigns can provide customers with relevant and personalized content, driving engagement and improving retention rates. The AI can be used to translate text-heavy documents and contracts to easy-to-read lists, making sure customers know what is happening. 

6. Insurance automation of underwriting and risk assessments 

Another slow, yet critical process in the insurance world is underwriting. Automation can make a significant impact here, and drastically improve the relationships with your customers at the same time.

Traditionally, this process of underwriting and risk assessment involved manual data analysis to assess risk and determine premiums, which is time-consuming and very prone to human error. 

Today, automated underwriting systems can quickly analyze large volumes of data, including information from third-party databases, to calculate risk and set appropriate premiums. Not only does this reduce underwriting times and improve accuracy, but it also enables insurers to offer more competitive rates. 

What will Automation do in the Insurance Industry in the Future? 

Imagine hyper-automation, personalization, and even compliance at scale – it will be there sooner than you think. Tools like Comidor’s Low-Code Automation Platform will allow insurers to automate even the most complex processes, offering an all-in-one solution for streamlining operations and improving efficiency. 

Data security, automation, and insurance information 

It’s all looking great for companies ready to adopt automation. However, it is necessary to stress the importance of data security when we’re talking about automation and insurance. Insurance companies are dealing with large amounts of personal information, so data security is key. Keeping up with the latest rules and checking your systems is crucial. Luckily, AI can also help you keep your cybersecurity strong. 

Prepping for an automated insurance landscape 

Ready to transform the way your team works with automation? It’s again important to focus on how much this is about humans, not just about technology. You will need to prepare your organization for the change, reskill your workforce, and foster a culture that embraces innovation. Happy automating!

While the concept of laboratory management and automation started in the 1950s, the process of automating lab workflows only really started to take off during the technological revolution in our own time now. The standardization of laboratory systems and procedures across an entire organization is essential in establishing and maintaining the validity of any scientific establishment. 

Workflow automation has dozens of benefits, not only for employees who get to work more closely with each other than they would in isolated positions, but also for lab results in general. Let’s look at some of these benefits and explore ways to implement workflow automation in your laboratory-based organization.

What is Lab Management and Automation? 

Lab management involves the integration of both software and hardware to streamline and automate laboratory processes. The implementation of software for lab workflow management will have a significant effect on lab results in terms of their accuracy. 

For example, a blood sample vile that spins 1,000 times will deliver a different result than a vile that spins 1,001 times. Accuracy is vital to laboratory processes like these, and workflow automation software removes the chances of human error, while adding consistency across an entire organization.   

The automation and management of lab procedures aim to streamline all steps in every process of your research, including: 

• The collection of samples 
• The storage of those samples 
• The analysis of samples 
• The archiving of results 
• Accessibility of those records 

Suffice it to say that workflow automation is about more than simply speeding up research. It’s about focusing on the quality, accuracy, and objectivity of the research your establishment is entrusted with. 

The Manifold Benefits of Automating Laboratory Workflows 

Companies may wonder about the value of automating processes in the workplace, especially those relative to their laboratory workflows. The following advantages show it leads to a high ROI, and individuals can use this to motivate leadership or investors why laboratory automation should be a priority in the current market. 

Automation Increases Employee Effectiveness 

Streamlining laboratory processes not only speeds up the workload but also adds to the productivity of employees. While employees are still very much involved in day-to-day lab procedures, workflow software works with those employees to modernize processes in an accurate and structured way.  

By removing the chance of errors (see more in the point below), employees have the freedom to focus on the research objective itself, rather than the correctness of their analysis. 

Laboratory Management and Automation Reduce the Chance of Errors 

As mentioned, human error is a real concern when it comes to the accuracy of analysis in laboratory testing. Automation further assists employees by removing human error and creating a workflow system that is coherent with the standards of the testing set forth by the organization in question.  

Removal of errors from all processes speaks to the reputation of your laboratory. This reputation of high accuracy will cultivate trust among your clients, and ensure more work for the future. 

Improves Research Quality 

The reputation of any laboratory organization hangs on the value of its research. Since we have already shown that errors are removed and speed and accuracy are increased, achieving the highest quality research is a subsequent positive side effect. 

Improves Data Accuracy 

Laboratory workflow software that can be tailored to match a set of criteria is almost completely free of error. An organization’s reputation and value once again depend on the accuracy of data derived from its respective research. 

Data accuracy in research is essential in today’s information age. When it comes to any scientific research, details matter. The more we discover, the stronger our desire to be fastidious about what we learn. 

Cuts Expenses and Saves Money 

There’s a lot to be said about how much money can be saved during the long term when adequate workflow processes have been put into place. Employee participation is reduced, research processes run faster, and less time is spent overall in the collecting of data which would otherwise take days—even weeks—to complete. 

Tips for Improving Lab Sample Management Workflows 

Now that you’re persuaded of the benefits of implementing a laboratory workflow system, you may be asking, “How do I get started?” Let’s discuss the steps you can take to make this happen in the most effective way possible. 

Standardize the Processes Within Your Lab 

The standardization of all laboratory processes creates a controlled environment where all procedures are synchronized and unvaried. With one set of goals in mind (accuracy, quality, objectivity, and coordination) across all sample analyses, your entire organization will gain more direction in obtaining the most valuable results. 

Standardizing any laboratory requires the integration of workflow software that can be set and adjusted according to the mission objectives of your organization. There’s also the mission objective of your clients to bear in mind, which must be meticulously maintained. 

Know Your Capacity & Work Within it 

Whether your laboratory is small, medium, or large, the workflow automation possibility will depend on your capacity. Fortunately, laboratory workflow software can be tailored to accommodate any size, purpose, or objective you might have. 

It takes your employees into account, manages samples and their corresponding data, and can even be tweaked to adapt to new criteria when needed.  

Establish Proper Channels of Communication 

If synchronization is to take place and ultimately lead to success, communication is a key element. An important contribution of workflow automation is that it puts every department within your lab on the same page. 

Communication and collaboration across all sections within your laboratory become a natural result when every bit of data is accessible. Employee communication is also improved because vital and accurate data is now available at their fingertips. 

Employ an Integrated LIMs System 

LIM (Laboratory Information Management) is crucial to the workflow success of any laboratory. Data can be retrieved according to a hierarchy of accessibility, and a history of results is stored for later use. 

The convenience of integrating a LIM system cuts costs, streamlines processes, and creates a digital workplace that thrives on quality research. 

Finalize 

As a laboratory manager or in any similar role, your concerns are diverse. There’s the duty to your employees, a responsibility to your clients, and an overarching desire to maintain the reputation of your establishment. Implementing automated workflow processes for your laboratory answers all of these concerns while saving you money and reshaping your organization for the better.   

Automation in the workplace is a powerful tool that has the potential to transform a business. Now, advancements in technology have made it possible to automate processes and tasks, allowing humans to focus on higher-level activities. Automation can be used in many areas, from customer service to education and supply chain. By automating mundane tasks, companies can reduce costs while improving efficiency and accuracy. Automation also allows companies to scale easily and quickly, as well as increase their competitive advantage. As automation becomes more sophisticated, it will continue revolutionizing the workplace in ways we cannot yet imagine.

Automation is quickly becoming a must-have in the workplace. Here are some significant benefits of automation in the workplace:

Improves Productivity 

One of the main benefits of automation in the workplace is that it improves productivity and output. Many people interpret this benefit as replacing human employees, fueling the stigma around automation. However, this software often helps employees do their jobs better. It also maximizes how they use their time.  

Many employees who have long been a part of the job market are familiar with the challenges of using an outdated system or systems that don’t integrate with one another. These issues add extra steps to the workflow, many of which are tedious.  

For example, suppose your company’s inventory system is outdated. The accounting team might have to wait for a printed report with manually entered update numbers to start processing sales data. Marketing is another example of a department that benefits from automation. The content creation process is labor-intensive. Automation helps offset that workload.  For example, marketers can create engaging content fast using ChatGPT and AI tools, or create eye-catching social media videos by using automatic filter presets or dropping files into an online video reverser — they don’t have to spend hours editing software. Social media posts and emails can be crafted in batches and scheduled to go out automatically, reducing the need to set reminders to go in and click “post” or “send.”  

Productivity isn’t just about getting work done; it’s dependent on employee engagement and satisfaction. The less frustrating their tasks are, the more efficiently they’ll get them done. 

Makes Time for Big Picture Work

There’s a genuine concern that incorporating automation software into a workflow will make human employees obsolete. After all, doesn’t cutting work hours from their schedule diminish their job security?  

Not exactly. 

Automation helps shift talented employees away from non-revenue-generating tasks to focus on big-picture activities. Generally, these activities directly support revenue generation or improve the company as a whole. 

For example, consider a Human Resources manager. Today’s HR manager has the challenge of supporting employees and protecting the company while burnout is at an all-time high. Yet daily tasks like onboarding new employees, sorting through candidates and chasing down paperwork detract them from those efforts.  

Implementing automation to streamline candidate vetting and employee onboarding could reduce those tasks so the HR manager could focus more on employee retention efforts. This shift could have a reciprocal effect by reducing the need to navigate the hiring process so often. 

Automation software is a massive asset for entrepreneurs and small teams, too. Small business owners typically wear many hats. On any given day, they might act as a marketer, HR professional, salesperson, and inventory manager. Incorporating automation allows a business owner to take a step back and work on their business rather than in it. 

Reduces Costs 

Cost reduction is a significant driver for many businesses. Automation can help reduce costs in several ways. 

First, it can reduce the need for new hires. The goal isn’t to eliminate employees, but to ensure existing employees have a productive workflow. If the core workflow is an issue, hiring new employees is a bandaid fix that doesn’t solve the underlying problem. Having automation ensures all new hires are validated.

It also helps improve product output without significant upgrades and investments. This helps keep costs low and production high. Furthermore, incorporating automation helps reduce costly errors that slow production time and cut revenue. 

Attracts and Nurtures Leads

Automation is a powerful tool for attracting and nourishing leads in the sales funnel without ongoing effort.  

As mentioned previously, email marketing is dramatically improved by automation. Marketers and business owners can use automated email marketing software to schedule email flows. These flows are triggered when a customer exhibits a flagged behavior, such as abandoning a cart or not making a purchase for a predetermined period. These email flows help move a customer through the funnel automatically, without any hands-on work from the sales team. The flows are typically a “set it and forget it” tool. 

AI software has enhanced these tools even further. Retargeting through pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns captures data and automatically guides the customer toward a sale.

Transform Data Into Information 

Capturing data is of the utmost importance for understanding customers better and making business decisions. The general mindset is to capture as much data as possible and figure out what to do with it later. However, later never comes when small businesses have limited resources and conflicting priorities.   

Automation can help translate large blocks of data into valuable, relevant information. You can use software to summarize about purchasing behaviors, customer demographics, sales fluctuations, and more and to manage data in the workplace. Create automatic reports to minimize the data translation process, or set alerts to notify key stakeholders when something goes awry.

Using automation means anyone can access the data in a usable fashion without special training in analytics or data manipulation. This helps keep everyone on the same page and promotes collaborative teams. 

Improve the Employee Experience 

Automated software ultimately improves the employee experience. It increases job satisfaction and engagement by smoothing out friction points. It also creates an opportunity to explore new challenges and find purpose in the workplace.

New employees also benefit from automated hiring and onboarding processes. Automated applicant tracking systems (ATS) can offset unconscious bias during the hiring process. Streamlined onboarding systems contribute to a better first impression of the brand and directly impact new employee engagement.  

Improve the Customer Experience 

Automated software helps improve the customer experience in several ways. 

First, automation on the back end of the business helps improve the employee experience. This carries over to customer service interactions, as many customers report being aware of whether an employee is happy when they talk.  

Automation helps customers get in touch with a brand and get important information. Automatic AI chatbots can facilitate basic inquiries, so the customer doesn’t waste time waiting to talk to a human. For more complex inquiries, most chatbots can automatically connect users with a human agent. 

Automated emails and communications keep customers informed of their order or inquiry status. This feature reduces the need to reach out to the company and minimizes the frustration of not knowing what to expect when making a purchase.  

As mentioned, automation can also set up alerts for key business stakeholders. These alerts identify if the website is experiencing glitches or downtime that could impact customers. The quicker these alerts are received, the faster someone can correct the issue. 

Conclusion: Start Using Automation Today to Unlock Your Team’s Maximum

Automation is a great way to unlock your team’s maximum potential. It can help you save time, money and resources while ensuring that the work is done quickly and accurately. Automation can also help you stay organized and focused on the tasks that matter most. By automating mundane tasks, you can free up your team to improve workflows, employee relationships, customer experiences, and the profitability of a business, and focus on more creative projects or simply take a break and relax. With automation tools becoming more accessible than ever before, there’s no better time than now to start using them to unlock your team’s maximum potential.

Constant optimization of processes is always on the agenda for businesses. Especially if it’s an eCommerce company, which requires managing multiple aspects, from keeping a Magento 2 PageSpeed score high to delivering the goods on time.  

Naturally, poor workflow management creates issues and requires more money, time, and resources to keep a store on track. What if you could make your store run smoothly by itself with less investment and staff employed? This is precisely what eCommerce companies are striving to achieve with automation.  

Read on to find out how automation works and how you can benefit from using it. We’ll also cover some of the most practical methods you can utilize to automate processes for e-commerce success.

What Is Ecommerce Automation

Automation generally involves simplifying corporate processes, like creation, distribution, and automation of human functions in an organization. The fundamental idea is to identify repetitive tasks and manual processes that can be automated and performed more effectively by workflow automation software.  

In eCommerce, some manual operations such as approving purchase orders, catalog listings, processing refund claims, and resolving customer complaints, may be automated up to a certain point. 

Benefits of Ecommerce Automation

The entire automation process may initially appear difficult and perplexing. However, if you turn to the right software and the proper process management methodologies, you will discover that it is a major deal-breaker for your company. 

• Saves Time 

Employees frequently perform repetitive duties throughout the day, wasting many hours and decreasing output. By streamlining workflows for your eCommerce company, you may move as many procedures and jobs as you can to automatic mode, giving your staff more time to work on more vital, urgent, and, most importantly, exciting activities.  

For example, welcome letters are sent automatically to every user who has just finished registration. Can you imagine how much time it would take to do this manually? Luckily, there’s no need to spend time on such mundane activities since automation will handle this without requiring your participation every time. 

• Eliminates mistakes 

Even with the most skilled team at your disposal, human error is one thing that no organization can avoid. Automation decreases the number of mistakes made during eCommerce processes like data entry since it eliminates the need for you to input data manually.  

 Additionally, the system will automatically prompt the subsequent action, such as requesting permission from the person in charge. It ensures that no step is missed or forgotten along the process. 

• Gathers Real Data 

Most automation tools provide extensive business performance metrics and analytics. It gives a better understanding of how your business functions. You can learn how long it currently takes to process an order, how many mistakes are produced by your existing purchase order, or at which point visitors leave the website. 

• Reduces Costs 

By introducing automation, you’re not only making the process simpler for yourself, but you’re also saving money by not hiring extra staff to complete jobs that could be done automatically. 

What Can Be Automated in an eCommerce company?

To determine what processes can be automated, think about the customer journey and additional aspects your team needs to deal with outside the platform, such as marketing activities, accounting, HR processes, payroll, and lead generation. 

1. Orders Management 

Every eCommerce company depends on the items’ delivery. In the long run, missed deliveries might be quite expensive. Shipping issues are usually the result of errors made along the road. An employee may have entered the wrong address on a shipping label, and an order may have been mistakenly marked as complete in your system.  

This area of your business can be streamlined through workflow process automation. Printing shipping labels and changing the order status are included in this. It may also involve giving delivery tracking numbers. 

2. Abandoned Cart Recovery 

An Independent Web UX Research Institute Baymard estimates that nearly 70% of shopping carts get abandoned. With proper automation, follow-up emails or push notifications will be automatically sent to entice the consumer back when they leave their cart on your website. In the case of emails, they can be personalized and mention the items the user added and justify why they would still want to purchase them. eCommerce data analytics can help identify patterns in cart abandonment and optimize the timing and content of these follow-ups.

3. Customer Support

Give your clients updates on their orders’ shipment status, transit time, and courier deliveries. Provide up-to-date contact information upfront so that clients can get in touch with your team.

Besides that, consider integrating chatbot solutions powered with cognitive automation capabilities into the store so that you can instantly communicate with customers. For example, if you set up your Business WhatsApp for online customers, you may send automatic messages to start a conversation or find out what their main worry is. 

4. Social Media Management

According to a WordPress hosting Kinsta, 74% of customers rely on their social networks to make purchasing decisions. Hence, it comes as no surprise that online stores devote so much time and effort to promoting their business on social networks. Social media marketing requires consistent production and distribution of engaging content for your audience. Design teams can speed up that creative work by building reusable promos with flyer design apps that plug into their automation stack.

If this process is automated, your company may benefit from a social media presence without investing much employee time in it. Using social media management tools, you may create a lot of content at once and plan how and when to share each post. Apart from that, such tools usually provide extensive analytics, which is crucial for building an efficient marketing strategy.

5. Inventory Management 

When you sell through one channel, managing inventory doesn’t seem like much of a burden. However, with time you increase the number of sales channels. Your responsibility to control inventories across all channels expands as a result. Inventory automation tools conduct regular counts, help to track inventory across channels, and set reorder points to avoid overstocking and understocking. Thanks to inventory management and automation you’ll be able to keep your business growing with a better understanding of the goods in stock and the threshold inventory. 

6. Accounting 

The finances and accounts of your eCommerce business should be well-organized. You may use accounting and bookkeeping software solutions to automate the financial management process. They can give you a complete idea of finances and allow you to plan investments according to cash flow. You will also be able to handle your tax claims and predict your company’s financial needs. 

Final Word

When preparing your business for automation, identify the repetitive tasks affecting your company’s productivity. Once you’ve determined where your operations are weak, you may consider ways to strengthen them. Consider how it will change the workload and what tasks your employees can take up instead of those automated.   

After that, you need to find the right workflow automation tools. Study your options, and pay attention to the functions, interface, and price. Remember that you need to train your employees to work with these tools. After the automation is set, you need to constantly analyze the results, assess the impact, and make changes if necessary. 

Author bio:

Alex Husar is a chief technology officer at Onilab. Working at the company for almost a decade, Alex has gained proficiency in web development, creating progressive web apps (PWAs), and team management. Alex constantly deepens his knowledge in various technological areas and shares it in his articles. He helps programmers overcome common challenges and stay updated with the latest web development trends. 

The Finance and Accounting industry is a veritable warehouse of data. Banks and other financial institutions compile and maintain paperwork that counts for gigabytes of electronic information. For instance, building a specific finance or accounting report requires multiple employees to visit the site where data is stored, make copies, and organize the information into a presentation.

This setup is very inefficient. The process consumes resources that could have been diverted to other important accounting tasks within the organization or the financial department. Fortunately, the digital age has introduced numerous solutions that could help streamline various financial and accounting processes. In other words, finance automation is now a reality.    

How Accounting Automation Can Help the Finance & Accounting Industry 

Automation can improve the efficiency of the following processes in the finance & accounting industry: 

• Accounts Payables

Accounts payable processing deals with humongous amounts of data. The sheer number of invoices alone makes the human user prone to mistakes and inconsistencies. Automation, however, avoids these shortfalls and shortens the processing time of invoice approvals.  

• Source-to-pay 

Automation can significantly shorten the turnaround time for extracting supplier invoices, gathering payment details, and forwarding the money to the vendors themselves. Automated tools are now able to access vendor emails to read invoices and gather other relevant information needed to complete the transactions.   

• Data analysis 

Before automation, employees had to pore through stacks of documents to find and then copy data for their reports. Computers reduced the amount of paperwork, but manpower still had to manually copy and paste information. With automation powered with RPA and other intelligent technologies, however, the software will analyze the data and present it according to the parameters set by the user.  

• Credit risk assessment and management 

Automation helps finance companies accurately measure a prospect’s risk and charge the appropriate interest rates, or deny financing altogether. Credit data can be instantly updated from the credit bureaus, and automated analysis can make instant decisions on approval or rejection. 

It’s interesting to think about how financial and accounting automation can be achieved. There are various methods of automating finance and accounting processes in particular. These technologies are outlined in brief below. 

Technologies used for Accounting Automation

Workflow Automation 

Workflow automation is a great way to improve the efficiency of accounting work. There are many benefits of using workflow automation for accounting. It’s not only about saving you time by automating the most tedious parts of accounting and finance processes, it’s also about saving money, improving accuracy, and generating better results.  

 

When it comes to accounting and finance, the ability to free up resources and allow employees to focus on other tasks plays a crucial role. Normally, massive paperwork and manual entry are required to be done by Accounting professionals. With workflow automation, all these time-consuming tasks are automated, run in the background, thus, freeing up time for users. Capabilities like integration with third-party systems, business logic implementation, workflow controls, and task escalation are only some of the must-have features of workflow automation software.  

Robotic Process Automation 

Scripts, macros, and bots are some of the earliest technologies used in automation since they have helped free up time and improve people’s efficiency and productivity over many years. McKinsey estimates that these early technologies are capable of automating 42% of activities in the finance department. Automation using scripts, macros and bots becomes tricky when the need to interface between multiple applications arises. In this case, there are other methods of creating and using scripts. The bottom line – all processes still take time and tie up manpower. That’s where Robotic Process Automation or RPA comes in. 

RPA is simply software that acts as a middleman between two unrelated systems. RPA, for instance, can extract the invoice data from a PDF file and then upload them directly to another system. For example, in a sales order process, RPA bots replicate human actions, send data, and create an order in the ERP system. 

RPA bots are autonomous and do not rely on a mother program like Excel to work. They can also be used by individuals with virtually no programming knowledge. Most importantly, it takes but a few minutes for a well-trained employee to create the automated process. 

Cognitive Automation 

Artificial Intelligence is the pinnacle of automation technology. AI is a piece of software that follows a preset algorithm but can make intelligent choices, within the predefined limits, involving the inputted data. This capability allows the software to perform a thorough analysis and present the data in a structured manner without errors or inconsistency.  

AI also gives way to intelligent automation. IA combines the analytical capabilities of Artificial Intelligence with the capabilities of Robotic Process Automation. The most notable implementation of IA in the finance industry is the Erica virtual assistant developed by the Bank of America. Erica is capable of analyzing each customer’s banking history and making intelligent recommendations of financial products to the user. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms constitute a great choice when there is a constant flow of data, and the decision-making process is extremely difficult and complex. Such examples include the generation of financial reports, payrolls, procurement process, analysis of employee productivity, new product launch, or predicting future churn rates. 

Summary 

All in all, time and manpower are the two crucial elements of business efficiency. A business process that ties down these two resources can have adverse effects on productivity and performance. Simple as they are, mundane tasks like data management and entry can still consume precious time and personnel. 

Finance and accounting automation enhances business efficiency by shortening the time required to perform these routine tasks. At the same time, automation also ensures that all reports generated continue to be accurate and reliable. This perk allows managers to make timely and sound decisions. Indeed, accounting automation is an asset that every financial or accounting department should not be doing without. 

The first step to introducing intelligent automation to HR is to understand the full breadth of its capabilities. Intelligent automation makes the work of your employees easy. It is easier to understand and motivate people who are dealing with monotonous tasks, using intelligent automation technologies. Consequently, your personnel will be more productive. The next step is to identify a few tips for implementing intelligent automation in HR within your business.

One of the primary business functions that can benefit from intelligent automation is HR management. It will reduce the cost of handling some of the most significant HR challenges beyond reducing the risk of discrepancies. To make the introduction of intelligent automation smoother to HR, here are the top tips to ease the transition.

1. Choose the right processes to automate 

There are many HR processes that can be automated. They range from recruitment to shortlisting, creating profiles, interviewing, and induction. The management of your HR is also a function to be considered for automation. One example of People Management software that can be used to automate processes in a digital workplace is one that is focused on entering and exiting the office, logging in to work-related systems, and completing employee evaluations.

So, in any case, the intelligent automation software you’re going to invest in should help you save time and resources. It must make your operations more efficient. You should be gradual when deciding which processes to automate.

2. Identify the software needed

Intelligent Automation requires the investment of software. For example, entry points will require biometric or badge-scanning gadgets. If you are automating recruitment, you will need special software to manage applications and profiles. Invest in the most efficient intelligent automation software for your HR operations. Consider integrating recruitment agency software by Recruiting CRM to streamline applicant management and enhance candidate profiles. This investment ensures efficiency throughout HR operations, preventing bottlenecks and optimizing resource utilization. The absence of efficient gear will affect your operations. For instance, employees will find it difficult to log in to systems if they do not work efficiently. This will delay the commencement of work. These systems may also capture the wrong data, resulting in conflicts with employees. Invest in HR management software that makes your work more efficient.

What’s more, cloud automation platforms give HR teams the opportunity to improve the employee experience and transform their business much faster and more efficiently than using traditional approaches. This results in improved employee productivity and increased operational excellence which contributes to significant business growth.

3. Brief the affected personnel

The introduction of automation will affect the flow of work in your company and it is important that employees and your HR department understand what changes they will need to make. The briefing helps introduce any new systems and ensures that they are accepted at the workplace.

Part of the briefing includes training on how to use the software. The installation supplier should ensure that all parties involved understand what it will take to run the system efficiently. Without requisite knowledge, the technology becomes an intruder. It will result in hitches that would have been avoided.

4. Introduce the HRM automation system to employees

The introduction of technology always brings challenges. HR automation is not an exception. Anticipate challenges and prepare to handle them to achieve your automation goals.

The main challenges come from intelligent automation itself. Some personnel will not want to adapt to the new system. In other cases, the system will be difficult to handle for some people. Such challenges slow you down but are not insurmountable. An experienced automation software provider can help you handle these challenges better. The challenges are also an opportunity to improve on the existing systems. Out of experience and innovation, you will find answers to these challenges.

5. Implement Low-Code software for HR

HR automation can be disruptive. It requires strategic planning and implementation. Relying on IT and development teams to code and create HR software from scratch can be costly and time-consuming. Businesses can save resources and time by using a Low-Code platform to automate HR processes.

Experienced business users and HR experts know exactly what features they are looking for in automation software that works for them. When they are given the opportunity to build custom solutions to their needs by themselves, with no coding experience needed, they are certain that the automation process will be successful.

6. Test your HR software 

Test the automation software before deploying it. The deployment of intelligent automation technology in HR always comes with challenges. You will identify the challenges during testing. It helps you to capture these challenges before full rollout. Part of testing the systems is implementing automation in stages. Once one aspect works seamlessly, you can proceed to the next stage. This leaves you with fewer challenges to deal with at a time.

7. Invest in the automation 

HR automation systems are expensive and require investment. Put aside a reasonable budget to actualize HR automation.

A poorly-funded HR automation process will be chaotic. It will even disrupt an otherwise smooth-running work environment. A poorly-developed software will also be detrimental to your HR management. Invest in advanced, as well as user-friendly technologies, to make your HR processes flexible and agile.

8. Collect data

Evaluate the successes and challenges you encounter in the process of automation. Each step should be guided by the experiences of the previous stage. The data helps you to make better decisions and achieve improved results.  

HR automation will transform your business through efficiency. It is also a chance to collect crucial data for future HR decisions. Choose the right automation software provider and invest adequate resources in the process. It makes your work environment more productive.

Achieve seamless HR automation with Comidor

Comidor is an intelligent automation software solution that helps businesses automate any type of business process. It provides a single platform to manage all the HR-related processes so that companies can focus on other aspects of their business.

For instance, with Comidor, you can automate the recruitment process by using AI to analyze resumes, schedule interviews, and conduct them. It also generates reports for hiring managers and candidates which are easy to understand and accessible in one single point. Comidor also helps with managing employee benefits, payroll, and other HR tasks, like absence requests.

Contact our team today to find out how you can integrate Comidor into your business and innovate faster!

Author bio 
Adri is a freelance writer specializing in digital marketing. He helps businesses and individuals to develop the strongest systems to improve efficiency. He uses expert insights and personal experiences to help businesses achieve their marketing as well as operational goals.  Get the best report writing services UK to make your work easier and seamless.

The importance of automating processes is an essential topic for many industries. However, one industry that benefits the most from automation is education. Automation in the educational sector can reduce costs and improve efficiency. In this article, we will explore the significance of automation in education and the top five ways that schools, universities, and other educational organizations can benefit from automation and technology. 

The Role of Automation in the Education Sector

Automation is increasingly transforming the education sector by streamlining administrative tasks, enhancing personalized learning, and improving efficiency in the workplace. Through tools like AI-powered grading systems, virtual classrooms, and adaptive learning platforms, educators can focus more on student engagement and curriculum development. Automation also aids in data automation and analysis, helping schools identify trends, track progress, and tailor teaching methods to individual needs. While automation can reduce administrative burdens, it also raises questions about the balance between technology and human interaction in the learning process.

Let’s now dive into the top 5 ways automation is transforming education:

1. Automating Classroom Technology to Manage Lesson Plans 

Automation in schools has been a buzz topic in the recent years. Many schools are already using classroom technology to manage lesson plans. There are several software platforms available online that can help teachers create, follow, and update their lesson plans. Teachers can even update their lesson plans remotely. They can also make class lessons more dynamic by incorporating creative videos with music, creating interactive presentations, using teleprompters, and adding live data into documents displayed on the screen. This way, they increase student engagement and interest in their studies. Most importantly, classroom technologies also allow instructors to upload content online without students having direct access to it, enabling them to plan and alter the content before presenting it to the students. 

2. Automating Administrative Workflows 

Administrative tasks such as record keeping and student management take up time at schools, universities, and other educational organizations. However, automating management tasks can streamline these activities into efficient processes, allowing school staff to focus on more essential tasks like teaching students. 

Through automation, teachers can have a permanent record of all graded assignments in an electronic format. This allows students to access their grades at any given point during the school year without having to ask for them multiple times or go into an administrator’s office if they need another copy. 

Teachers can also submit parent messages through online software, that automates communication between parents and schools, saving them hours each week! Automation and education go hand in hand, shaping the future of learning. Together, they save teachers time and money, allowing them to focus on teaching instead of thinking about other administrative tasks. 

 3. Using Virtual Classrooms To Engage Students Who Are Not Physically Present On Campus 

Another way that technology and automation improve education is through using technological tools that allow teachers to interact with students who are not physically present on campus.  Especially with the global health crisis we’re experiencing, virtual classrooms allow teachers and professors to reach a larger audience by using platforms that allow for online lectures, interactive discussions among peers, Q&A sessions with experts in various fields of study, and more! Virtual learning environments have improved education outcomes while also saving time because it doesn’t require physical trips back and forth between campus buildings. 

Additionally, virtual classrooms allow students worldwide to enroll in lectures and lessons at any time of day as long as they have a computer with an internet connection. This also helps students who have full-time or part-time jobs because they can follow along in class in their free time instead of waking up early before work just for one specific lecture. Also, it makes going back through lesson materials easier, so teachers don’t have to worry about losing track of teaching materials which saves them valuable planning time each semester.

4. Automating Enrollment Processes 

Another way that schools can use process automation is by streamlining and optimizing the enrollment process for both students and school staff. Technology allows parents, guardians, or students to submit their school application materials online. It saves time because it eliminates time spent on trips from student homes to campus buildings and not worrying about lost paperwork! An automated system can also accurately estimate by using AI technologies, how much aid each student will receive based on their family’s financials. This gives students and families more certainty instead of making them wait around throughout the summer months, just checking if they’ve been accepted into college yet. 

In addition, this also helps colleges save money by cutting down on paper use since everything is submitted electronically, from teachers’ recommendations to transcripts from high schools. 

5. Creating Automated Assessments With Artificial Intelligence

Lastly, process automation can help improve education by creating automated assessments with artificial intelligence. With automated assessments, instructors become more confident about what goes into the grade book. It allows them to maintain complete control over how those scores affect student performance and provides flexibility when dealing with particular circumstances like injuries or illnesses. With the rise of online learning, teachers have been tasked with grading massive assignments while also ensuring students are completing their work appropriately and on time. For many instructors, grading papers for an entire class takes hours as they spend so much time reading essays or checking test answers. It’s not only tedious but highly time-consuming! 

Automating assessments allows instructors to assess student progress quickly without taking up hours of grading papers or essays. Cognitive automation and AI technology make an effortless task possible for educators, which is why many schools are starting to use these technologies. Using cognitive automation is beneficial not only to teachers but also to students. It also allows students to receive better grades because it provides them with personalized feedback on their strengths and weaknesses. This helps instructors focus more time where it is needed the most. 

 

There is a lot of software available online that helps teachers with essay and quiz assessments. For essays, there are different tools that can easily check plagiarised essays like Grammarly. Also, there are software solutions with browser-based services designed for high school and higher education students that provide specific feedback and editing suggestions to uploaded essays. Students upload their work, and this software automatically suggests editing changes not only about basic conventions, but also with evaluations on the logic, cohesion, and clarity of the work; teachers can also electronically edit students’ work alongside this system’s suggestions, and view an assessment tool that analyzes student progress.

Finally, automated tools help educational organizations save resources,  such as saving hours for teachers and instructors, and spending less money on hiring additional staff for assessment activities. Automation has made these educational processes much more straightforward, thanks to intelligent automation capabilities. By using artificial intelligence, educational institutions can use their resources responsibly to make the best decisions for their students and employees. 

Bottom Line 

Automation brings plenty of benefits to the education sector. It is a godsend not only for teachers but for admin staff, too. Advanced technologies and automation give them more time to work on providing students with the best education possible while ensuring efficiency, productivity, and transparency. At the same time, those same students have plenty of rest from all their busy classes and more room for studying their lessons!

47% of remote workers indicate that managing WFH distractions is their biggest challenge. Other challenges high up on the list include collaborating with colleagues, motivation, career development, and burnout. 

Whether your business has been making the decision to work remotely or the current global situation has forced the move, there are always going to be obstacles. With remote work you’re moving away from a centralized setup that you can control and easily monitor, to a more fluid setup that’s largely out of your control. It’s also harder to stay in touch with your workforce and monitor how they are doing in their everyday work life. 

One of the biggest conversations happening around technology and remote working is automation. The key focus is how automating processes within a business can remove the sticking points that remote working has uncovered.  

Business managers and owners are looking at how they can improve the experience for their employees, and ensure that company targets are still met.  

Automation can help. Here’s how. 

Maintain The Flow Of Projects 

In a regular office environment, it’s easy to pull team members on a specific project into a quick update meeting. Employees can also walk over to each other’s desks and chat about the progress of a particular job. This is all still possible thanks to chat software and video conferencing solutions. However, chats are easily ignored or misinterpreted, and online meetings are not always that easy to host. 

With the right automation solution for enterprise collaboration, everyone can immediately see what is running and who is responsible for what part of it. This helps to maintain a form of accountability when you aren’t face to face. It also facilitates collaboration, especially when the software allows for several people to work on a project concurrently.  

Alleviate The Pressure On Your IT Department 

The shift to remote working would not have been easy for most businesses, especially for those who were not expecting it to happen. Your IT team has likely been working overtime to help get everyone set up correctly at home. And they’ve had to ensure that everyone has the correct access to the work they do. Security online has also become a major concern for businesses as people now need to access company information from home, rather than from an internal office server. 

Automating processes like monitoring security and even responding to basic support queries can free up a lot of time for your IT experts. They can focus on keeping the system operating, while the robotic and AI-enabled solutions assist in the background with repetitive and manual tasks.

Bridge The Gap Between Office-Based Legacy Systems And Remote Work Spaces 

One of the major issues that businesses came up against when suddenly switching to a remote setup was realizing how much they depend on their systems in the office. Older systems installed years before remote working was even an option can be integral to the way older companies operate. However, they may not be able to sync with online methods of working. 

To overhaul these systems will be a big task and will likely require a large outlay of time, manpower, and money. You may also have to disrupt workflows and halt production or output for a period while you try to bring the legacy systems up to speed.  

The alternative is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or AI that can bridge the gap between the old system and your new, remote setup. These solutions can collect the necessary information when requested, and share it with the employees who require it. 

Intelligent robots can save a lot of time as they can scan the system a lot faster than a human could to find the necessary information. 

Remove Unnecessary Administrative Tasks 

Administrative tasks are the bane of pretty much all employees. Except those employed specifically to carry out these tasks. Things like filling out timesheets and creating invoices are time-consuming and often lead to the jobs getting done at the last minute or standing in the way of actual work. Putting systems in place that automate these kinds of tasks will allow your employees to focus on the work that you actually hired them to do. 

Automating these tasks will help your business too because a properly set up system will remove the chance for human error. You’ll likely see that fewer mistakes occur and you can check on things like timesheets in real-time to see how processes are running. It gives you greater oversight of remote workers and gives your employees less mundane distractions to worry about. 

Improve The Ability To Monitor And Record Your Processes 

Many process automation solutions by their very nature allow you to automatically keep a record of tasks, processes, workflows, and the history of work done on a system. When managing a remote workforce, this kind of oversight can be like gold. A manager can keep tabs on everyone under them without constantly having to ask for updates. You can also look back if there is a problem to see where it may have occurred. 

This may feel a bit like “Big Brother is watching” but it can save a lot of heartache or headaches down the line. Completed processes are stored so that you can refer back to the information or decisions made later on.  

Managers that create workflows can track version histories and are able to restore to previous versions in case of a major mistake, or if the workflow goes in a different direction. Having these elements recorded automatically will give you a buffer to ensure that work won’t get lost and processes can keep moving forward. 

Wrapping Up  

Automation in the remote workplace certainly offers major benefits. From collaboration tools to process automation tools that take over minor tasks and streamline processes, the advantages are clear.   

It doesn’t take away the human element, it simply enhances it. You’re not replacing your workforce with machines—you’re simply making the work experience more efficient and productive.