Process Automation | Comidor Low-Code BPM Platform

What Are Operational Business Processes?

Marketing Team — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 05:01:55 +0000

What are Operational Business Processes (Core Business Processes)?
The Difference Between Operational Processes, Business Processes, and Business Process Operations
Operational Business Processes Within a Company
Identifying Operational Business Processes
Why is Identifying and Automating Operational Processes Important?
Streamlining Operational Processes with Comidor

What are Operational Business Processes (Core Business Processes)?

Depending on the organization’s activity business processes are often broken up into different categories (for more information read the relative article about the types of business processes). One of these categories is the “operational business processes”.

During your search regarding the operational process meaning, you will realize that there are several different terms for operational processes. You can find them as primary processes, essential processes, and core processes. However, all of them are supposed to refer to the essential business activities/tasks that deliver value to the customer by contributing to the process of producing a product or a service.

Operational processes or core business processes are the “key activities or cluster of activities which must be performed in an exemplary manner to ensure a firm’s continued competitiveness because it adds primary value to an output.”

Dealing with these processes is very crucial as these are the fundamental processes that affect directly the deliverables to the clients. Well-defined operational processes help organizations to adapt to any market change smoothly, providing at the same time boundless valuable information. After creating operational business processes, extra elements can be added to improve outputs, optimize and improve processes, and finally achieve operational and process excellence.

The Difference Between Operational Processes, Business Processes, and Business Process Operations

Operational Business Processes, Business Processes, and Business Process Operations are not the same, although they are closely related. In short, operational business processes are specific activities that are performed regularly by an organization to add value to the end-user, business processes are the broader workflows designed to meet strategic objectives, while business process operations refer to the management and optimization efforts that ensure these processes run smoothly and efficiently.

Understanding Operational Business Processes

This refers to the core activities or tasks that an organization performs regularly to deliver its products or services. These processes are essential to the day-to-day functioning of the business.
Example: Order fulfillment, customer support, inventory management, and product development are all operational business processes.

Understanding Business Processes

Business processes refer to a broader range of activities or workflows that an organization follows to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. These processes are more comprehensive and may span multiple departments or teams. They define the sequence of tasks that guide the business toward achieving its vision, from the strategic planning stage to the final delivery of products or services.
Example: The product development process, which includes research, design, manufacturing, and marketing, is a business process.

Understanding Business Process Operations

This term typically refers to the management and optimization of those operational business processes. It focuses on overseeing how these processes are performed, ensuring they are efficient, effective, and aligned with business goals. It can also involve monitoring, controlling, and improving operational processes to achieve better business performance.

Operational Business Processes Within a Company

As mentioned before, those processes are customer-oriented because their main feature is to directly add value to the customer. It is up to each business to define what it considers an operational process.

Some of the operational business processes of a company can be found in the following business areas:

Marketing
Sales
Logistics – Product Delivery
Operations
Customer Support

Identifying Operational Business Processes

Identifying operational processes is a tricky procedure since giving attention and focusing on details is demanding. You can define these processes by combining the inputs, outputs, sequential activity, and an objective to manage and improve business processes.

1. Evaluate inputs and outputs

The first step should be the evaluation of inputs and outputs. Your inputs are all the resources for your company such as materials, knowledge, and human resources, whereas outputs are deployed to cut down on the extended use of your potential resources. The difference between inputs and outputs lies in the cost. The more you use the inputs the higher the cost will be. On the other hand, the cost of the outputs declines when their use increases.

2. Asking for feedback

Secondly, find the best practice between hundreds by asking for feedback. Poll your employees to identify needs or procedures’ descriptions or ask your customers for their opinions. Are they satisfied with your services? Do they feel that something is missing from your operational processes?

3. Make your Process Analysis

Continue with analyzing your processes. Check the potential risks, such as extra taxes or capital costs. Moreover, think if you are producing your product/ service with the minimum cost in the minimum time. Have you managed error rates and ROI?

4. Analyze your results

Finally, measure data before starting the operational process implementation and then analyze the results. Are you satisfied enough with the results? If the answer is “Yes”, then start applying your processes and set it as a manual one.

Comidor offers business process automation and management capabilities, that can help you throughout the entire process. It helps you in orchestrating, developing, analyzing, and monitoring the processes at each task level, as well as evaluating the overall business performance.

The main key is to optimize these operational processes, and the aim of it is to add value at every step, to give additional value to the product/ service that gets delivered to the client. Improving these processes has a direct effect on the output of the business.

As it is referred by TechRepublic, it is also important to educate participants on operational processes and inform them about positive results and implementation.

It is worth mentioning that you should remeasure your operational business processes’ results because technology, methods, and behavior are changing constantly.

Why is Identifying and Automating Operational Processes Important?

1. Increases Efficiency

Identifying and automating operational processes streamlines tasks, reduces manual effort, and eliminates redundancies. Automation allows teams to focus on higher-value activities, improving overall productivity and workflow efficiency.

2. Reduces Human Error

Manual processes are prone to mistakes, which can lead to costly errors. By automating repetitive tasks, the risk of human error is significantly minimized, ensuring consistent and accurate results.

3. Saves Time and Costs

Automating operational processes leads to faster completion of tasks, ultimately saving time. This efficiency translates into cost savings, as fewer resources are needed to complete the same work.

4. Enhances Scalability

As a business grows, scaling operations becomes challenging. Automation enables processes to handle larger volumes of work without additional manual labor, making it easier to scale up without a proportional increase in overhead.

5. Improves Decision-Making

Business Process Automation tools can provide real-time data and insights, giving businesses a clearer view of performance. With this information, decision-makers can make informed choices based on up-to-date data, leading to better strategic planning.

6. Boosts Employee Satisfaction

When employees are freed from repetitive and mundane tasks through automation, they can focus on more engaging and creative aspects of their work. This leads to higher job satisfaction and a more motivated and empowered workforce.

Streamlining Operational Processes with Comidor

Business Process Management platforms, like the Comidor platform which combines BPM, Low-Code, and cognitive automation features, help businesses to reach a successful implementation of consistent processes and accomplish their continuous optimization.

The post was originally published on October 18, 2017.

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What is a Document Management Workflow?

Comidor Team — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:38:53 +0000

The volume of documents can quickly become overwhelming in the day-to-day operations of modern business. Fortunately, document management workflows offer a systematic approach to sorting through the chaos, providing a structured framework for handling and processing essential paperwork with ease and efficiency.

In this blog, we’ll define document management workflows, and explain their significance, the steps involved, benefits, and real-world applications.

Ready to learn more? Let’s go!

What are Document Management Workflows?

Document management workflows are structured sequences of tasks designed to streamline the creation, review, approval, and distribution of documents within an organization. These workflows ensure that documents move seamlessly through various stages, eliminating bottlenecks and reducing manual intervention. From capturing initial data to archiving final versions, every step is orchestrated to optimize efficiency and accuracy.

Now that we’ve defined document management workflows, let’s delve into the specific steps and elements that comprise these workflows.

The Steps in a Document Management Workflow

Understanding a document workflow is the first step in business process automation (BPA). The exact function will depend on your industry, document type, and regulations that may apply.

Generally speaking, a document management workflow contains a few simple elements:

Document Capture: The process begins with capturing documents from various sources, including emails, scanners, or cloud storage.
Indexing and Classification: Documents are then indexed and classified based on predefined criteria, making them easily searchable and retrievable.
Document Routing: Next, documents are routed to the appropriate stakeholders for review, approval, or further action.
Collaboration and Editing: Stakeholders collaborate on documents, making necessary edits and providing feedback.
Approval Workflow: Documents undergo approval workflows, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and standards.
Distribution: Approved documents are distributed to relevant parties via email, shared folders, or document management systems.
Archiving and Retrieval: Finally, documents are archived for future reference and retrieval, maintaining a comprehensive audit trail.

Having outlined the steps involved, let’s explore the many benefits that document management workflows offer businesses.

The Benefits of Document Management Workflows

Adopting a document management workflow can provide a wide range of benefits for a business, such as:

Enhanced Efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining data-related processes, document management workflows significantly improve operational efficiency.
Reduced Errors: Standardized workflows minimize the risk of errors and ensure consistency in document handling.
Improved Collaboration: Workflows facilitate seamless collaboration among teams, enabling real-time sharing and feedback on documents.
Compliance and Security: Document management workflows enforce compliance with regulatory requirements and enhance data security by controlling access to sensitive information.
Workflow optimation: Document management workflows can optimize workflows by introducing automation and lessening the time and effort involved in manual tasks.
Cost Savings: By reducing paper usage, streamlining processes, and minimizing manual intervention, workflows contribute to cost savings over time.

The last thing to cover is how businesses can use document management workflows. In the next section, you’ll find the most popular use cases.

Use Cases of Document Management Workflows

Document management workflows can be adapted to fit the distinct needs of any industry or organization. Let’s examine some real-world applications:

Accounts Payable Processing

Automating invoice processing workflows can streamline accounts payable operations, reducing cycle times and improving accuracy. Companies utilize document management workflows to digitize invoices upon receipt, automatically routing them for approval based on predefined criteria.

Through integration with receipt OCR technology, businesses can efficiently record expenses by extracting relevant data from receipts, eliminating manual data entry, and minimizing errors. This streamlined approach accelerates expense management and invoice processing, optimizing cash flow and enhancing vendor relationships.

Contract Management

Document management workflows simplify contract creation, review, and approval processes, enabling faster contract lifecycles. Companies leverage workflows to automate contract generation based on predefined templates, facilitating collaboration among stakeholders for review and negotiation.

With version control and audit trails, businesses ensure compliance with contractual obligations and minimize the risk of errors or discrepancies. By streamlining the contract management process, organizations reduce administrative overhead and expedite time-to-signature, thereby accelerating revenue generation and mitigating legal risks.

HR Onboarding

Automating HR onboarding workflows accelerates the onboarding process, ensuring a seamless experience for new hires while minimizing administrative overhead. Companies utilize document management workflows to streamline the collection and processing of new hire documents, including employment contracts, tax forms, and employee handbooks.

By automating document routing and approval, HR teams can efficiently coordinate and automate tasks across departments, such as IT provisioning and benefits enrollment. This standardized approach enhances the onboarding experience, improves compliance with regulatory requirements, and empowers HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives that drive employee engagement and retention.

Customer Service

Document management workflows enable customer support teams to handle inquiries and resolve issues more efficiently by providing quick access to relevant information. Companies implement workflows to centralize customer communications and documentation, ensuring that agents have instant access to case histories, product manuals, and troubleshooting guides.

By automating customer service requests, businesses can expedite resolution times and enhance customer satisfaction. Additionally, integrated analytics tools enable organizations to gain insights into customer interactions, identify trends, and proactively address recurring issues, fostering long-term customer loyalty and advocacy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, document management workflows are essential tools for modern businesses aiming to enhance efficiency and streamline operations. By automating key processes—from document capture to archiving—organizations can significantly reduce errors, improve collaboration, and ensure compliance.

The adaptability of these workflows allows them to be tailored to the specific needs of various industries, making them invaluable across diverse applications such as accounts payable, contract management, HR onboarding, and customer service. By implementing a structured document management workflow, businesses not only save time and reduce costs but also position themselves for sustained growth and improved productivity.

Ready to Experience the Power of Workflow Automation for Document Management?

Comidor offers powerful solutions for automating document management workflows, and streamlining business processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual tasks. With Comidor’s platform, organizations can automate document generation, storage, approvals, and distribution, ensuring seamless collaboration and tracking. Its intelligent automation tools enable businesses to process and analyze documents, centralize document handling, enforce compliance, and minimize errors. By reducing administrative burdens and speeding up approvals, Comidor enhances productivity and helps businesses stay organized and agile in a fast-paced environment. Start your free trial today and experience the benefits of workflow automation firsthand!

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5 Processes Retail Businesses Should Automate Today

Comidor Team — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 09:49:09 +0000

The retail sector has gone through a dramatic change in recent years. The rise of online shopping has created both opportunities and challenges for traditional retailers. It has also put added pressure on the need to cut costs or risk falling behind the competition. One way this can be achieved is the integration of automation in retail processes. From advanced EPOS systems to Customer Relationship Management, this guide looks at five retail processes businesses should automate today!

Streamlining Retail Operations Through Automation

The holy grail of any business is to increase efficiency and cut costs at the same time, this is where automation in the workplace can help. The retail sector is ideally suited to increased levels of automation. But just what retail processes are ripe for automation?

Let’s look at five of the most effective ways to automate retail processes.

1. Inventory Management

Robust inventory management has always been at the heart of successful retail operations. However, achieving accurate inventory management can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and inefficient.

Modern inventory management systems can automate the entire process. Among the benefits that this brings to retail operations are:

Enhanced accuracy: Automated inventory systems reduce the likelihood of human error in tracking stock levels, leading to more accurate inventory records.
Improved forecasting: By analyzing historical data and trends, automated systems facilitate more accurate demand forecasting, enabling businesses to optimize stock levels and minimize excess inventory.
Time and cost savings: Automation streamlines inventory-related tasks, saving time and reducing labor costs associated with manual stocktaking and replenishment processes.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when discussing retail automation, but it is an incredibly effective way to build and maintain customer loyalty. There is a huge array of tools available that can achieve this.

Among the benefits of automating CRM processes are:

Personalized marketing: Automated CRM systems enable retailers to segment their customer base and deliver targeted marketing campaigns tailored to individual preferences and purchase history.
Enhanced customer service: Centralized customer databases provide frontline staff access to relevant customer information, facilitating personalized interactions and resolving queries more efficiently.
Retention and loyalty: By tracking customer interactions and purchase history, CRM systems help identify opportunities to engage customers, build rapport, and foster loyalty through rewards programs and targeted promotions.

3. Supply Chain Management

Having an efficient and reliable supply chain is critical for retail outlets. Automating aspects of supply chain management can help to achieve this.

The major benefits of automating supply chain management in retail operations include:

Inventory optimization: Automated supply chain management systems leverage data analytics to optimize inventory levels, reducing carrying costs while ensuring adequate stock availability.
Streamlined procurement: Integration with suppliers and automated ordering processes streamline procurement, reducing lead times and minimizing stockouts.
Improved visibility and traceability: Automation provides real-time visibility into the movement of goods throughout the supply chain, enabling proactive management of disruptions and ensuring product traceability for compliance and quality control purposes.

4. Sales Reporting and Analytics

We live in an age where “big data” transforms how businesses understand and react to evolving trends, business performance, and consumer interactions. However, analyzing and understanding what is contained in all that big data can be complex and time-consuming.

This is where data automation is proving to be a game-changer in retail. Among the key benefits of automating sales reporting and analytics are:

Real-time sales data: Some systems provide real-time visibility into sales transactions, enabling retailers to monitor sales performance and track key metrics such as revenue, units sold, and average transaction value.
Customizable reporting: Some systems offer customizable reporting capabilities, allowing retailers to generate tailored reports based on specific criteria such as product category, time, or store location.
Performance analysis: By analyzing sales data and trends over time, retailers can identify patterns, opportunities, and areas for improvement, informing strategic decision-making and marketing initiatives.

To further enhance data reporting and analytics, users can create their customized dashboards. Dashboards allow retailers to create compelling visual narratives of their data, which can be crucial during presentations and strategic meetings. Data pulled from various 3rd-party systems can be automatically transformed into visually appealing presentations highlighting critical business metrics and trends, making it easier for decision-makers to grasp complex information and make informed choices swiftly.

5. Advanced Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) Systems

There are so many benefits to an EPOS system as far as automation goes. In essence, EPOS systems have evolved from mere cash registers to automation hubs. Advanced EPOS systems include features such as inventory management, sales analytics, and customer relationship management.

For retailers, the benefits of an EPOS system are multifold:

Efficient transaction processing: Automated EPOS systems simplify transactions, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction.
Integrated inventory management: Integration with inventory management systems enables real-time tracking of stock levels, minimizing stockouts and overstocking.
Data-driven insights: EPOS systems capture valuable data on sales trends, customer preferences, and inventory turnover, empowering retailers to make informed decisions and tailor their offerings to meet market demand.

How Comidor Helps Automate Retail Processes

Comidor, a low-code automation platform, streamlines key retail processes to enhance efficiency and improve customer experience. Here’s how it automates essential retail operations:

Inventory Management: Automates stock monitoring and replenishment, ensuring optimal inventory levels and reducing manual oversight.
Customer Engagement: Integrates with CRM systems to automate personalized marketing, customer service via chatbots, and customer data tracking.
Order Fulfillment: Speeds up order processing from capture to delivery, minimizing errors and improving workflow coordination.
Workforce Management: Automates scheduling and payroll, optimizing staffing while reducing costs.
Supply Chain: Provides real-time supply chain visibility, automating partner communication and logistics.
Data Analytics: Offers real-time insights and automated reporting for data-driven decisions.

Comidor helps retailers streamline operations, reduce costs, and deliver better customer service. To see how Comidor can transform your retail processes, request a demo today and experience the benefits of retail automation firsthand.

Check Out: Automating Processes in Retail

Automation in retail is key to efficient operations. These have evolved from basic cash registers to operational hubs dealing with everything from data analysis to inventory management.

For businesses looking to stay ahead of the competition, retail automation can make all the difference!

The post 5 Processes Retail Businesses Should Automate Today appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

How to Automate Business Verification Processes

Comidor Team — Thu, 30 May 2024 07:46:49 +0000

Hundreds of companies collaborate every day, and there will still be more to come as it’s an unending cycle in the world of business. This is because collaboration is how companies do business, thrive, and maximize their capabilities.

Before a partnership/collaboration agreement is reached between businesses, various preliminary processes must be carried out, such as due diligence, negotiations, and legal reviews, which can span any length of time. These processes take longer and might be prone to errors if they are manually done and not scrutinized.

For this reason, workflow and process automation have become the order of the day. In this blog post, we will take a deep dive to understand how automated workflows can improve the accuracy of business verification checks.

What is a Business Verification Process?

Business verification is a process in which a business’s legality is verified. This process involves checking the existence of a company/business. It includes the registration details, regulatory compliance, financial records, and other necessary details for establishing a business relationship. No one would like to incorporate an illegal business into any relationship or have a relationship with a business going bankrupt because of bad financial decisions and management.

Need for Automation in Know Your Business Processes

Know Your Business (KYB) is a process that verifies the legitimacy of other businesses that a company is dealing with by checking details like ownership and financial status to ensure compliance and prevent fraud. Manual KYB processes suffer from inconsistency because human judgment varies, leading to uneven decision-making and compliance issues. Additionally, as businesses grow and transaction volumes increase, manual verification becomes impractical, causing bottlenecks and reducing operational efficiency.

Manual verification processes may fail to meet regulatory requirements or industry standards consistently. Without proper checks and balances in place, businesses may omit necessary regulations and continue being at risk of facing penalties, fines, or legal repercussions for non-compliance.

Another need for automation is the limited data analysis involved in manual business verification. Manual processes for Know Your Business may not effectively leverage advanced data analysis techniques. Without automated tools to process and analyze large datasets, businesses may miss out on valuable insights that could support decision-making and risk management.

What is Automated Business Verification?

Automated business verification is a revolutionary business verification process in which business legitimacy is tested and verified using highly sophisticated machines/ technologies that will verify business registration details, regulatory compliance, financial records, and other necessary details for establishing a legal business without compromise.

Automated business verification processes demand a low labor force, less time, high flexibility, and are free of errors and compromise. 89% of businesses that use workflow automation report that it has helped them redefine roles and responsibilities. 32% of organizations cite the benefits of reduced human error when adopting workflow automation. Workflow automation increases data accuracy by 88%, which is higher than other document processing methods.

This report shows how businesses can maximize automation and help in every work process to fasten workflow and maximize output in a short time. The question now is how this automation helps in the business verification processes.

How Does Automation Help in the Business Verification Process?

Here’s how automation can amplify verification processes:

Automated Workflows
Increased Accuracy
Process Automation
Enhanced Compliance
Decision Making

Automated workflows

Automating business verification helps create a digital solution to help perform routine tasks involved in verification checks. From multiple visits to reliable sources to verify documents to waiting days for a response or having to travel to locations, automated business processes give room for digital verifications where data collections are automated and verified against a large database of registered businesses. This might also include running automatic checks on legal databases or sanction lists to ensure compliance.

For example, these processes include automated data collection, where the system fetches business details such as license numbers and tax IDs from reliable sources like government databases, cross-verifies them, and automatically updates the database.

This process significantly reduces the time and cost per verification. It also allows a more sequential workflow with fewer steps, reducing the complexity of the process.

Increased accuracy

One of the significant benefits of automated business verification is the drastic increase in accuracy and reduced human errors. The verification process involves careful crosschecking of details, numbers, and distinct values, which, when not carefully done, can lead to a series of errors. With complex legal terms and numerous data points to verify, the possibility of errors can never be overemphasized, as mistakes in manual processing are very common. Automation solutions, however, perform the checks based on predefined rules, which can accurately verify and analyze data.

Process automation

Automating the business verification process ensures a smooth and hassle-free process for tedious tasks. This also ensures little labor power as there won’t be a need for many employees to carry out tasks that can be done in minutes by a process automation solution, which needs little or no supervision from humans. It can include setting reminders for when the next verification check is due or integrating APIs that can do real-time verification.

Process automation allows scalability. The manual process is slower, less efficient, tedious, and error-prone compared to the automated processes and does not fit as the business develops due to acquiring more clients and business partners. Automated processes can handle large volumes of data with ease, making them well-suited for a fast-paced growing business.

Enhanced compliance

Automating the business verification process can improve regulatory compliance and the necessary checks against global and area-based sanctions. The automation will give updates and necessary checks against global sanctions, enforcement databases, politically exposed persons (PEPs), or other regulatory lists performed consistently and thoroughly. E-documents can be updated in real time and are easy to audit.

Manual verification is prone to omission and outdating, which can lead to regulatory compliance lawsuits.

Decision making

Automating business verification processes can be designed to generate alerts or flags based on the output of the verification process. This provides decision-makers with clear, prompt information on verification status, enabling faster and more accurate decision-making. Business stakeholders make informed decisions on business collaboration and partnership after seeing the report from the automated business verification system, keeping the flags on for notable information about the business to be onboarded, and avoiding litigation or regulatory compliance lawsuits and fines.

Streamlining Pharmacy Contact Verification with Comidor

To enhance operational efficiency, our client needed a more effective way to verify pharmacy contact details monthly, a task that was time-consuming due to manual cross-referencing of Excel files and websites. By implementing Comidor’s RPA-enabled workflow, the process was fully automated. Data is now retrieved, synchronized, and verified using RPA components, web scrapers, and Excel processors, drastically reducing time and improving accuracy. The system compares entries from an ERP file with verified contact details (e.g., stored in email list management tools) and fetches updates from relevant websites when discrepancies arise, producing files for matching contacts, non-matching contacts, and those not found, thus streamlining the entire verification process.

Read the success story >

Conclusion

Business identity verification is a process that can be tedious, full of errors, and time-consuming when done manually. Automating this process will drastically enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and scalability of the verification checks, giving businesses a faster, safer, and less expensive route to maintain their due diligence.

The post How to Automate Business Verification Processes appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

Streamline Laboratory Management: Unlocking Efficiency with Workflow Automation

Comidor Team — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:00:32 +0000

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.  

Ready to revolutionize your Laboratory Management?
Embrace Workflow Automation today!

JOIN US FOR A LIVE DEMO

The post Streamline Laboratory Management: Unlocking Efficiency with Workflow Automation appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

6 Ways to Revolutionize Your Business with Procurement Process Optimization

Comidor Team — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 11:18:27 +0000

When talking about supply chain automation, it’s worth pointing out how vulnerable the channel is to fraud and counterfeiting. And this is not surprising! Businesses spend countless hours and millions of dollars sourcing goods that could be counterfeit, often in a very short period of time. This can lead to catastrophic financial losses and loss of reputation. Better ways to procure supplies mean better cost control and a potentially cheaper bottom line for your business. If you are wondering how to help businesses achieve procurement process optimization by creating a more efficient procurement process, read on, and we’ll dissect everything further in this article!

What Is Procurement Process Optimization?

⇒ Procurement process optimization (PPO) is a set of processes, tools, and methods that correlate with the digitization of procurement processes.

According to Procurement Tactics, U.S. retail operations have an average supply chain accuracy of only 63%. This can result in significant delays and restocking issues. For example, 34% of businesses have shipped an order late due to selling a product that wasn’t in stock.

Leading companies in various sectors have widely recognized the benefits of procurement process optimization. But what are these benefits? And how exactly can procurement optimization help your company to achieve its goals?

Automate repeatable tasks. Certain tasks once handled by employees manually are now handled by automated software, which frees up employees’ time, making them more productive and efficient. Procurement process optimization also increases employee performance since there is less workload and employees can focus on organizational priorities.
Ensure transparency and visibility. An automated procurement system puts the entire process on one screen, giving executives a clear picture of expenditures, inventory management, and other operational areas.
Provide data accuracy. The system becomes vulnerable to human errors, data discrepancies, duplicity, overstocking, and obsolescence. An automated procurement process achieved through software solutions ensures the complete elimination of any human intervention that requires all vehicles and goods to be recorded in real-time with 100% accuracy.
Establish effective and error-free workflows. A digitized process that coordinates ordering, shipping, and invoicing can eliminate human errors and connect suppliers to buyers better.

Pitfalls that Affect the Procurement Process

Outdated Technology

Although software companies are trying to make the procurement process faster with their products, many businesses still hesitate to make use of such additional systems or apps. As a result, companies may find that low-code software is the answer they’re looking for. It’s built to make it simpler for non-coders to adopt tech. A great example of the benefits a low-code platform brings to businesses when it comes to outdated technology is the case of modernizing legacy banking systems.

Information/Insight/Intelligence

In almost every enterprise, whether a Fortune 500 company or a new startup, there’s an overwhelming amount of information. It comes from various places like email, phone calls, employee communications, etc. The constant flow of information creates challenges for everyone in the organization, from the senior leadership down to the frontline management, who need access to information quickly when it matters most.

Organization

For effective procurement, organizations must ensure that all parties affecting the procurement process (finance, office managers, HR managers, etc) are aligned. Such alignment enables processes and technology to work toward driving efficiency and profitability.

Poor Communication

The procurement process optimization is headed in the right direction only when all global purchasing and procurement team members collaborate with one another. This is especially important in the early stages of procurement and indirect sourcing, where the parties involved discuss product specifications in detail to ensure that both the recipient and sender operate with a mutual understanding of what’s required.

Monitoring and Controls

Proper monitoring and controls are important for safeguarding against fraud. When controlling procurement processes, you must ensure that all transactions and contracts that go through your office comply with procurement guidelines. For instance, during the development of any software application, such as a procurement process app, it is important to set metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your outcome. These metrics and software development KPIs help in guaranteeing that the solution designed provides maximum value. In addition, quality control, compliance, and complaint management are vital for ensuring that the work follows contract requirements.

Optimize Your Procurement Process for Its Effective Function

1. Develop Different Sourcing Methods

Finding the right supplier for your business is essential for maintaining high-profit margins, competitive advantages, and satisfied customers. With the development of advanced methods of communication and transport, enterprises have access to the global market and are able to buy products and services from other countries to meet obligations in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

When looking for the right supplier, keep in mind one of the most difficult challenges businesses face: the inability to source and acquire raw materials that meet their quality expectations. This results in huge losses to profit margins and puts businesses at risk of losing customers.

But how to find the right suppliers? With tools like a SERP keyword checker, you can conduct an effective search in just a matter of clicks, and obtain a list of top companies for outreach along with valuable data on their websites. All you need to do is enter a keyword that you are interested in (like “packaging materials wholesale supplier”, for example) and choose the location. The tool will compile a list of the most relevant companies to your request, without needing to crawl the web from head to toe.

2. The Need for Automation

Imagine that you are the only person responsible for sourcing 1,000 parts. Without supply chain automation, your job would be incredibly challenging. You’d have to spend much of your time tracking individual parts and finding out what was going on with them. Your invoice-matching process would take 10 times longer than it should, as you’d need to sift through every line item on each purchase order and invoice to match packing slips, order numbers, and more. Plus you’d have no way to keep track of open quotes or pending orders.

Manufacturers are facing new business challenges and opportunities that require them to automate manual processes. With the assistance of intelligent automation systems, procurement teams can be more efficient in their execution of day-to-day tasks. This helps organizations adapt to the changing needs of customers and suppliers, resulting in improved levels of service and supply chain performance. It also frees up the team to focus its attention on activities that require more specialized skills, knowledge, and expertise.

3. Analytics with AI and RPA

The demand for predictive supply chain management systems has gained traction in recent years. While conventional methods require months of observation and research to draw conclusions, new methods using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) have made it much easier by removing the need for human intervention and even guesswork that could bias the results.

One of the biggest challenges for supply chain managers is making decisions based on vast amounts of real-time data flowing in from their businesses. That is why they are seeking better ways to make the right decisions — leveraging insights that span across a number of data sources. Analytics with Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides these insights, enabling managers to take control of their supply chain operations and perform at a higher level.

Analytics with AI can automate many repetitive tasks, giving managers more time to take a closer look at their data and make smarter decisions. Using AI for analytics and decision-making solutions can help make businesses more agile and responsive by analyzing large data sets, delivering actionable insights, predicting future events, and enhancing capabilities like planning, prediction, optimization, and simulation.

Robotic Process Automation is also revolutionizing the way businesses optimize their supply chain operations. RPA technology enables businesses to automate mundane, repetitive tasks and processes, such as order processing, inventory management, and transportation scheduling. By leveraging RPA, businesses can streamline their supply chain operations, resulting in increased efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer experience. RPA also provides visibility into the supply chain process, enabling organizations to identify bottlenecks and take corrective action quickly. With its ability to automate a wide range of tasks and processes, RPA is becoming an essential tool for optimizing the supply chain.

4. Proper Procurement Model

Procurement processes have always been a key aspect of companies, and their strategic orientation determines their operating model. Operating models, in turn, determine how procurement and supply chain functions are organized, managed, incentivized, and rewarded in an organization. There are three dominant models of operating procurement departments: decentralized, centralized, and center-led. The business model varies depending on its size and the sector’s scope. While the ideal procurement strategy likely involves some combination of these three models, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

⇒ Decentralized Procurement

Decentralized procurement is a model where individual stakeholders within an organization are able to make purchases for their department without extensive oversight. This often happens due to a lack of a formal contractual agreement between parties or due to the fact that individual stakeholders are forced to collaborate and make decisions with others in their department because no formal legal agreement or framework exists. A structure like this can be effective for many public sector organizations, but it needs to be managed carefully to avoid any drains on the organization’s resources.

⇒ Centralized Procurement

Centralized procurement is a purchasing structure that centralizes buying power in an organization to one department. This saves money with bulk purchases, easier procurement, and reduced logistics costs. The idea behind it is that if you purchase an item centrally, you will use fewer resources (time, people, money) than in the traditional decentralized model. One central entity has access to all the supply options (which are usually limited in number) and can help negotiate better prices.

⇒ Center-Led Procurement

The center-led procurement model allows any internal department to purchase what they need while being guided by experts, but without having to get permission from management. This means that the team is held responsible – for anything from help desk calls to maintenance and upgrades. This tends to be a rather common practice in the private sector but it is also gaining more traction in public organizations as well.

5. Prioritizing Mobile Procurement

Today, it’s not only possible but also necessary for businesses to be able to go through their daily processes using a mobile device. It’s become common practice to receive goods and services through an app on your phone instead of calling up your supplier, as was done in the past. It is now possible to view reports and dashboards on the go, allowing you to track business performance and make better decisions based on the information captured and analyzed.

Applications such as electronic document management applications (EDM) are no longer limited to traditional office spaces. Organizations can transform their EDM into a mobile procurement application by adding just a few provisions. Furthermore, with mobile procurement, there’s no need to guess where a purchase order is. With the click of a button on your mobile device, you can scan a barcode and be directed to a specific purchase order in real-time.

If your business involves field employees, consider integrating employee GPS tracking apps into your mobile processes. These tools enable you to efficiently monitor the location and activities of your workforce, providing real-time insights that can enhance productivity and streamline operations.

6. Invest in Staff

Your procurement team consists of members within your organization who help to buy the right assets for your business through the procurement process. Development is a crucial part of the career of every professional. It helps them to get better at what they do, make better decisions on the job, and automate the procurement process flow with modern technologies that save on costs. It also coincides with other corporate and institutional goals for businesses such as increased productivity, lowered costs and expenses, and more profits.

Besides, it is important to realize that each member brings something different. Some may have more experience with administration, while others will be better at managing the supply chain and manufacturing efficiency with the acquisition of products. The key is to find a diverse team so that each member complements the others’ abilities, creating synergy within the team and leading to better purchasing decisions.

To improve your chances of success, invest in upskilling your employees by providing them with continuous training, sharing best practices, and setting clear objectives. With very little time, money, and effort, you can grow your staff’s knowledge base, skill set, and, in some cases, roles. You can commit to professional development throughout the year or when a specific need arises within your team.

Conclusion

The procurement process, in a way, is an inevitable part of business planning. It highlights which products/services your company needs to fulfill certain requirements and demands. The foundation and groundwork of setting up a sound procurement department not only depends on the right tools but also hinges on having an insightful and knowledgeable staff. Some essential elements for a smooth procurement plan include a strategic approach that involves demand planning, adequate funding for future supply needs, investing in the personal development of all staff members, and implementing automation for better oversight and management.

The post 6 Ways to Revolutionize Your Business with Procurement Process Optimization appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

5 Things a Small Business Should Automate Today

Comidor Team — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 11:15:57 +0000

Automation is a powerful tool that helps small businesses compete on a broader scale. Implementing automated processes creates an opportunity to accomplish more with fewer resources and ensures staff is engaged in high-value, revenue-generating work.

Confusion and uncertainty are common barriers to automation implementation. Here are five things your small business should consider automating today and tips for getting started.

1. Proactive Customer Service

Customer service is the lifeblood of a small business. Traditional business models practice reactive customer service— responding to requests and concerns as they arise. Now, small businesses are wisely shifting to a proactive customer service model.

Proactive customer service encourages businesses to anticipate and manage customer concerns before they arise. Embracing this approach means creating self-service options and prioritizing outreach. The downside of proactive customer service is the additional human resource and time requirements. Fortunately, automation can assist in resource management and allocation to create a better customer service experience.

The three primary areas of proactive customer service include:

Feedback and review requests
Appointment reminders
Training and onboarding

Customer feedback and reviews are critical for understanding customer needs and creating social proof. Automate this process by creating an email marketing workflow that sends an automatic request after a transaction. Consider triggering a reminder flow after the initial request to follow up with customers who have yet to respond.

Appointments and scheduling reminders also benefit both the business and the customer. Customers will appreciate the reminders while the bottom line will appreciate the decrease in no-shows. Automate this service with a scheduling app that integrates with an SMS or email CRM platform.

You can also implement proactive customer service automation in your client onboarding period. This process is invaluable if your product has a learning curve. Create an automated email flow to check in with your customers and offer training opportunities during the product adoption period. This approach can help customers commit to the product and get the highest possible value from your offering.

A 2018 survey indicated that 66% of American consumers have a more favorable view of brands that use a proactive customer service model. Automating proactive service elements can improve customer relationships with limited resources.

2. Hiring and Employee Onboarding

Hiring and employee onboarding have traditionally been extremely hands-on tasks. The resource requirements play a significant role in hiring and turnover costs. Fortunately, automation has revolutionized the hiring process from job application and candidate selection to employee onboarding.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are AI-driven programs that automate candidate screening and scheduling. The ATS starts by conducting the initial candidate screening process with minimal human intervention. The process typically includes looking for relevant keywords and metrics on a resume determined by the hiring team. The system then sends the shortlist to the hiring manager and HR team for review. Some systems can also send pre-screening tests and surveys to guide the process. Approved candidates will receive an automated invitation for an interview with a scheduling link.

After the hiring process is complete, small businesses can use integrated systems to automate employee onboarding before they start work. This process typically includes filling in the paperwork and reviewing policies— tasks that tend to monopolize the first few work days.

In addition to reducing the costs and time associated with hiring, ATS offers other benefits. A 2018 survey showed a 16% increase in employee engagement and an 18% increase in initial performance when using an automated onboarding process.

HR automation can also help small businesses create a diverse and inclusive company culture. ATS removes unconscious bias from the initial screening process. Unconscious bias is a subconscious stereotype held by hiring managers regarding names, ethnicity, and gender. As the name implies, most people are unaware of their personal biases and how they influence hiring decisions.

Automating HR processes can minimize staffing costs, improve employee engagement and retention, and support an inclusive company mission.

3. Invoicing and Receipt Creation

Cash flow is a sticking point for many small businesses. Many times, inefficiencies and bottlenecks in invoicing contribute to diminished cash flow.

Manually processing invoices takes time, especially when your business has a vast number of invoice approval workflows to carry out. In addition to working through the process, key employees are also required to disrupt their workflow or batch invoicing work. While batching invoices (processing all invoices from a specific period) improves productivity, it still leaves room for gaps. Daily invoice batching could get bumped during a busy period while weekly invoicing leads to lost time.

Faster invoicing means faster payment collection. Automation can solve invoicing challenges for small businesses.

Use an invoicing tool that integrates with your accounting software and sends automatic invoices or receipts when a sale is processed— different business models will have different automation requirements. Using a tool that also provides automatic invoicing reminders is also critical.

Small businesses that do hourly contracting work should use time-tracking and project management tools that integrate with invoicing software. These integrations simplify the invoicing process by reducing manual tasks.

This approach also works for payroll processing. Use time tracking tools with automated reporting to streamline payroll and free up human resources.

4. Email Retargeting and Churn Flows

There are endless opportunities for small businesses to use automation in email marketing. Unfortunately, many companies stop short of scheduling updates and generalized marketing content. While these services are valuable, limiting your marketing efforts to basic eCRM functionality is leaving money on the table.

Implement automated email flows for retargeting and customer churn reduction. Retargeting pulls data from your eCommerce site and sends automatic reminders when a customer abandons their browsing, cart, or transaction. Creating automated triggers will remind customers of products they find interesting to increase conversions.

It’s well known that customer retention is more affordable than customer acquisition. It’s estimated that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 20-25% increase in profits. An automated churn flow approaches waining customers with an offer to encourage their return. These are typically scheduled at expanding intervals— for example, one month, three months, and six months since the last purchase.

Implementing automated retargeting and churn flows can help convert qualified leads and retain existing customers. Most eCRM platforms or cloud platforms with CRM automation capabilities are designed for these flows; don’t neglect this opportunity!

5. Social Media and Website Inquiries

Social media management is a full-time job— even with automated scheduling tools. Yet, hiring a full-time social media manager is out of reach for many small businesses. While using automated post-scheduling platforms is an obvious win for small businesses, it’s not the only improvement opportunity.

Consider using automated responses for social media and website inquiries. You can use an AI platform to answer simple FAQs and customer service questions. These features improve response time and customer satisfaction across all channels. Customers with simple questions will no longer have to wait on hold or increase the customer service queue for answers. This process improvement also contributes to proactive customer service. Comidor delivers Leia, an AI-enabled chatbot, that helps employees and teams work smarter, remotely, and more efficiently. A Comidor user asks a question and Leia answers immediately with specific data, recommends a useful reading source, or urges the user to send an email to the administrator.

Automated responses can also improve customer satisfaction with email inquiries. Creating an automated response to let customers know their message has been received and someone will follow up shortly goes a long way.

Tips for Implementing Small Business Automation

There are endless opportunities and benefits for implementing automation in your small business— so where do you start?

Before you dive into the world of automation, take some time to audit your business processes. Look for common sticking points and bottlenecks that cause the most disruption. Work with employees to get a better understanding of challenges within their roles.

Once you’ve had some time to reflect, prioritize the process improvement with the greatest potential for revenue generation and cash flow (directly or indirectly). Then, use the momentum to conduct workflow analysis and implement additional improvements over time.

Check out Comidor Use Cases to See
how you Can Grow your Small Business

Automating
HR-onboarding

Automating Job Application Process

Automating
Invoicing

The post 5 Things a Small Business Should Automate Today appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

CRM Automation: Benefits and Examples

Comidor Team — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 13:16:56 +0000

CRM Automation: Benefits and Examples:

What is CRM Automation?
Benefits of CRM Automation Software
Examples of CRM automation Software
Conclusion

Sales reps are under a lot of pressure to close deals and hit quotas. They know that staying organized and keeping track of their leads is essential to a successful career.

However, with so many other tasks to worry about, it can be tough to find the time to keep everything straight. Often, this means they have to spend a lot of time on administrative tasks that don’t directly help them sell.

Are you looking for ways to improve your sales processes and boost your business’s bottom line? If so, CRM automation may be just what you need. Automating your CRM system can speed up the sales process and improve efficiency.

What is CRM Automation?

CRM automation is the process of using CRM software to automate sales processes. This can include tasks like lead generation, assignment, tracking, and follow-up. Businesses can speed up their sales cycle and close more deals by automating these processes.

In addition, CRM automation can help businesses keep track of their customer data and sales metrics. This can be extremely helpful in identifying areas of process improvement and ensuring that the sales team is meeting its goals. Sales teams can set up personalized reporting or follow CRM dashboard examples to automate their CRM analytics

A CRM automation solution lets businesses automate routine procedures, tasks, and processes using a single platform with less human involvement. With workflow automation, organizations can do more with less effort.

Benefits of CRM Automation Software

Below are the benefits of CRM automation software:

1. Reduced time spent on mundane tasks

CRM automation can help sales reps to save time on mundane tasks like data entry and lead assignment. By automating these processes, sales reps can spend more time on selling and less time on administrative tasks.

It not only makes it easier to keep track of vital customer information but can also help you to make better sales decisions. However, to benefit from CRM automation, you need to have high-quality CRM software in place.

2. Eliminated human errors

When sales reps input data manually, there’s always the risk of human error. This can lead to inaccurate customer information and a lack of data visibility.

CRM automation can help to eliminate these errors and ensure that your CRM system is always up-to-date. In addition, CRM automation can help you to avoid duplicate data entry, which can further improve the accuracy of your CRM system.

3. Increased efficiency

Repetitive tasks and paperwork can be tedious and time-consuming. CRM automation can help sales reps be more efficient in their work. Automating tasks like lead assignments and follow-up allows sales reps to focus more on selling.

Investing in a CRM system is a good idea if you want to optimize your sales process. You can also use CRM automation to keep track of your sales pipeline and make improvements. This method can help you close more deals and exceed your sales goals.

4. Streamlined processes

Automated workflows enable standardizing entire sales processes, from lead capturing to deal closing. This makes it easier for sales reps to follow the process and helps to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

5. Improved accuracy of data entry

With automated data entry software, businesses can improve the accuracy of data entry. It helps enterprises become more efficient by getting rid of manual processes and lowering the need for repetitive data entry.

Inaccurate data can lead to problems such as a lack of data visibility or incorrect sales decisions.

6. Improved customer satisfaction

CRM automation can help to improve customer satisfaction by providing sales reps with the tools they need to sell more effectively. When your sales reps have more time to sell, they can provide a better customer experience and improve customer satisfaction.

In addition, it can help you to keep track of your customer interactions and follow-ups. This can help to ensure that your customers are always happy with your product or service.

Examples of CRM automation Software

The following are examples of CRM automation that can help businesses to automate their sales process:

A. Deal management

Deal management refers to the process of tracking and managing sales deals. It includes activities like lead generation, lead assignment, and follow-up. It enables sales reps to focus on selling rather than worrying about administrative tasks.

It also allows businesses to keep track of their sales pipeline and CRM data. With automation software, the whole sales process can be automated end-to-end to orchestrate all sales lifecycle steps.

B. Lead assignment and generation

The lead assignment is the process of assigning leads to sales reps. Lead assignment can help to ensure that the right sales rep is assigned to each lead. This can help to improve the chances of closing a deal.

Automating lead assignments can help you to decrease your workload and increase the possibility of getting called back. You may also create assignments for your team members or new contacts when the new contract is assigned to them.

Comidor can help sales reps save valuable time and effort when searching for new leads. Let’s take the example of a sales rep who is using LinkedIn to generate new leads. The sales rep saves a search in LinkedIn and automatically triggers a workflow inside Comidor. An RPA bot replicates human actions to log in to the LinkedIn account and go to the saved list with multiple pages. For each saved contact, the bot extracts the name, job title, and company and sends all those data to the Comidor system. A CSV file with all those data is produced and sent to the sales team via an automated email.

C. Data entry automation

Data entry automation is the process of automating the process of entering data into your CRM system. In addition, data entry automation can also help businesses to avoid duplicate data entry, further improving the accuracy of their CRM system.

Comidor can be integrated upon request with any CRM system with REST/SOAP services. Our workflow designer has generic RESTful Web Service components to communicate and retrieve or send data automatically to other systems. Finally, with the Selenium RPA component Comidor can be integrated with any cloud-based system.

D. Send onboarding/ welcome emails

Sending onboarding or welcome emails is the process of sending emails to new customers or employees to welcome them to your company.

It can help to improve customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty. Moreover, it helps potential customers to understand your product or service and how to use it.

E. New Customer Verification

The New Customer Verification process is a security process that requires companies to verify their customer’s identity and details before they can collaborate.

In this particular example, our client wanted to involve their client himself in the internal process by giving him the capability to upload his identity file via email, extract data from the identity file, connect to a central database for some controls such as money laundering check, and also connect to Zoho, a third-party CRM system to import the new account. The last requirement concerned the creation of digital contracts including the client‘s details and the capability for the client to digitally sign the document. The solution by Comidor includes:

organization and automation of the entire process
a central hub for the employees to exchange information
replacement of manual actions through RPA bots
Production of digital contracts with customer data & digital sign of contracts via email.
extraction of data from identities which of course resulted in recourse and time savings
compliance with business regulations and full transparency

F. Customer Requests management

Customer requests management is a process that is often delegated to customer service representatives. They are in charge of dealing with the customers’ inquiries, complaints and suggestions. This has become an important part of the job for customer service representatives because it can make or break the company’s reputation. Here is an end-to-end solution provided by Comdior to customer requests management.

In a B2C company, one of their main objectives was to increase their sales conversion rates by improving the quality of their customer service and reducing the number of complaints from customers. Our aim was to enhance Customer Request management by implementing a low-code solution that would help them better track, analyze, and resolve all types of customer requests. Comidor solution includes:

Public form by engaging non-Comidor users to trigger an internal customer request process
ML text classification model that assists in request categorization based on historic data
AI for analyzing customer sentiment and determining whether the customer’s attitude is positive, negative, or neutral
A workflow engine that orchestrates all process steps
A low-code application to monitor all customer requests and their status

Conclusion

CRM automation can help sales reps be more efficient and accurate in their work, leading to increased productivity and improved customer satisfaction.

When your sales reps have more time to sell, they can provide a better customer experience. CRM automation can help you track your customer interactions and follow-ups. This can help to ensure that your customers are always happy with your product or service.

Investing in a CRM system is a good idea if you’re looking to streamline your sales process and improve your bottom line. You can use CRM automation to free up your sales reps to sell, keep track of your sales pipeline, and improve your overall sales workflow.

Author bio:
Hinal Tanna is an SEO strategist and content marketer, currently working with the marketing team of Salesmate. She has a knack for curating content that follows SEO practices and helps businesses create an impactful brand presence. When she’s not working, Hinal likes to spend her time exploring new places.

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Business Process Flow: Definition, Benefits, And Simple Steps to Create Process Flows

Comidor Team — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 08:35:59 +0000

Businesses require consistency and predictability. Without those essential factors, an organization is forced to operate with uncertainty and a lack of reliability, neither of which are conducive to business sustainability. However, attaining consistency and predictability within a business is not easily done, which is why any business concept, that helps achieve that, must be actively considered. Business process flows are an excellent example of such a concept. They are a practical way of ensuring that two essential things are achieved in any process: focus and consistency.

This article will provide an overview of the definition, the principal benefits of business process flows, and the simple steps to create successful business process flows.

Process Flows in Context

At its simplest, a business process flow is the sequential representation of a process and the various components thereof. These components can include operational factors such as actions required and the people and resources needed to achieve them, as well as applicable timelines. It helps define and layout all the aspects of a business process, so that said process is easily understood. One could say that a process flow provides a ‘snapshot’ overview of a given process. It allows employees to have a good understanding of how a business works.

Importantly, a process flow can be devised for any type of work or process in any type of organization. Therefore, a process flow can be as effectively used to describe how a purchasing order should be processed by the finance department, as it can be by a sales team to pitch a new product to potential customers. Process flows are used by industries as diverse as software development, auto assembly, and healthcare management. Below is a standard template for a process flow that can be used by a company’s to automate HR-related processes like the onboarding case:

As can be seen in the process flow diagram above, a business process flow provides a breakdown of the various inputs and outputs within a process. Each of these workflow components is usually denoted by means of shapes, typically ovals, diamonds, and rectangles, with each being connected by lines that indicate the possible paths. The ‘flow’ within a business process flow and workflow design usually follows an A to Z logic, i.e. from commencement or start of a process to its logical conclusion or end-goal, whatever the latter might be.

Benefits of Business Process Flows

There are many benefits to having process flows, including process mapping, the principal ones of which include:

Communication: everyone can understand a specific process, and be trained accordingly.
Standardization: processes can be reliably replicated. That is why they should be an integral and invaluable part of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Comprehensiveness: process flows can be established across all verticals and at all levels within an organization.
Maximization: all resources can be used to their full potential.

There are also systemic benefits to having business process flows in place:

Cost minimization: understanding exactly how processes work means that cost efficiencies can be implemented where possible.
Risk management: understanding your process means being able to identify potential risks and better able to mitigate them.
Agility: process flows should ensure fewer (or no) bottlenecks, errors, and duplications, making for a more Agile business.
Continuous improvement: knowing each step of a process means being able to improve processes as needed.

These benefits are applicable to process mapping itself, which is the actual diagrammatic compilation (i.e. mapping) of a process and its various components.

Simple Steps to Create Process Flows

The beauty of process flows is their simplicity, however complicated or technical the actual process might be. As such, simple steps can be taken to ensure that your process flow will be effective:

Step 1: Name it – the process flow should be specifically named according to the naming conventions used by your organization.

Step 2: Give it a purpose – what is the intent of the process flow? Why is this specific process flow in place and to what end?

Step 3: Scope it – give the process flow the needed extent of the scope by asking a simple question: what inputs and outputs should be included and excluded?

Step 4: Map inputs and outputs – go through each stage/phase/level of the process and identify the required inputs and outputs for each. Be specific in the inputs and think of possible variables for outputs.

Step 5: Provide direction – a process flow should comprise a series of directional arrows based on ‘Yes/No’ or ‘What If/What Then?’ questions posed that help connects inputs and outputs (i.e. components within the process flow).

Step 6: Assign duties and responsibilities – where needed in the process flow, applicable responsible people or line management should be indicated.

Step 7: Make it visual – a process flow should be mapped and its diagrammatic representation/workflow diagram to be readily available to any person who may need to understand the process and its objectives/intent.

A final point: consider workflow automation powered with RPA and AI/ML capabilities of your business flows: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is already being used by many businesses to enhance and automate repetitive process flows. RPA software can be used in order to choose which processes in a business should benefit from automation. Sales ordering process, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer service, and payroll are just four examples of typical processes that can benefit immensely from Robotic Process Automation.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced and competitive world, organizations are constantly looking for ways to increase their efficiency and reduce costs. Business process flows are a critically important means by which a business can give itself the structure and sense of purpose needed to succeed. Process flows can help foster transparency, enhance collaboration, and create business intelligence.

Comidor workflow automation platform allows users to design any type of business process flow, automate and optimize workflows end-to-end, and incorporate intelligent automation functionalities, like RPA, AI, and Ml. There are many benefits associated with Comidor. It can help organizations save time by automating tasks, enhance customer service, and improve company culture through transparency.

In closing, value-adding performance by management and employees alike don’t just magically happen. It is the culmination of intelligent automation decisions made and actions put into practice. The real magic is in being able to ensure that business processes are created appropriately and work as planned again and again.

Author bio
Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy-to-use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.

The post Business Process Flow: Definition, Benefits, And Simple Steps to Create Process Flows appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

8 Tips for Introducing Intelligent Automation to HR

Comidor Team — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 13:41:01 +0000

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.

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