Companies want Custom Software to fulfill different needs. In this blog, we’ll deal with two of these needs. Firstly, when you find you have a lot of small, repetitive tasks in your business, and want to use software to automate them so you can free up time for more complicated, harder tasks and reduce human errors.
Secondly, when you want to facilitate internal business processes, software may be the cost-reducing, time-saving solution you need. However, you can’t chase both of these goals. That’s why exploring what kind of software you need is a process of self-identification.
For now, take software out of the equation and ask yourself this — What’s the next step for taking my business to the next level?
- Is it automating your processes?
- Or facilitating them?
If you already know what you need, you can go to the conclusion where you can find the link to schedule a free consultation with us. Together, we’ll find out which software can meet your particular needs. On the other hand, if you still don’t know the answer to this question, read on.
When You Want to Automate Processes
In a business, some tasks get repeated. Over and over. A superb software will let you automate some of these tasks and free up time you can use to discover new customers, add more services, expand to a new market, or focus more on your employees.
Moreover, automation lets you reduce human errors. When your company is operating manually, there’s a lot more chance for human error. On the other hand, with automation software, you’ll be able to prevent these mistakes. You’ll also be able to improve and quicken your daily business tasks.
Automation also leads to streamlined communication. In other words, dramatically improved communication. Moreover, as workers often cite stress due to poor communication as #1 why they left a company, this kind of software may lower your turnover. You’ll improve communication as you eliminate the need for employees to remind each other about what needs to be done. They’ll get these automatically.
Additionally, automation facilitates increased accountability. With automation, you may assign responsibilities to employees for every part of your business process. This will lower the chances of something being missed. Every step of your business process will be assigned to some employee. This not only makes sure all work is completed on time but will also show weak spots or inefficiency in your business process.
If you’re looking to automate your daily business tasks, custom software is the best option.
When You Want Software to Facilitate Business Processes
If you want to facilitate or optimize business processes, software may be the way. It can definitely make your business more efficient. Since we’ve invented computers, companies have been finding ways to utilize tech for facilitating internal processes. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with a BPM — Business Process Management software.
In fact, 46% of organizations look at business processes as a way to reduce costs, according to a study of 236 Polish businesses. Although reducing costs is definitely a crucial advantage, it’s definitely not the only one BPM has to offer. A robust BPM program—or actually any kind of more effort you put into this—will not only save you cash but also set the stage for constant improvement of your business and team as a whole.
Cost savings will keep building up over time. But you’ll also ensure you’re doing the tasks faster and easier. This will help your team become more motivated, engaged, and productive.
Facilitating business processes is based on consistency. You’re trying to ensure that only the tasks are completed fast but in the right way every time. This reduces workload. When processes come with errors, you’ll need to go back and solve them. This takes a lot of time.
On the other hand, the software doesn’t make mistakes. It behaves like it’s supposed to.
Benefits Beside Cost-saving
Software is about saving money, yea. But there are also other advantages beyond this. Often, when you automate processes, they become more timely. For example, if it takes workers 10h to complete a task, you may automate some parts of this process. Automated processes would just simply take seconds, saving time, and thus money. Scalability from software, while not a direct cost-saving measure, does directly impact company’s revenue. For instance, software can act as an enabler for working with multiple clients.
Don’t Eliminate Jobs, Eliminate Positions
Remember one thing about the automatization of business processes. When you develop an automated business process for something, it will only be able to do that one single thing. In essence, business process automation is quite strict and rigid. They’re only and highly specialized for a singular task. Your workers, on the other hand, are adaptable humans who can learn to do a lot of stuff. And figure out better and new ways of doing business.
Automation means you’re freeing up your capital and workload, giving you the chance to expand into new business opportunities. In other words, your employees will have a lot more time. This means you can focus their energy on these new opportunities. When you can, eliminate positions, not jobs. It’s better if your creative employees can focus on more creative opportunities as you free their time with automation.
The best way to use your staff with free time is to point them toward new and difficult problems. Once they figure out those, you can automate even these processes as well. Workforce that automates. And automation that follows behind with magnificent effectiveness.
Keep Track of Information
Even with automation, mistakes can occur. Even worse, a company can lose track of its objectives if it isn’t careful. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to avoid errors when you’re automating your office.
For starters, you should have built-in reporting features. There are a lot of production systems that come with reporting features built inside the process that was automated. At various intervals, you can make the software produce reports that enable you to track:
- Accounting
- Project timeline
- Any kind of important information
You should also develop flags. Fortunately, the majority of automated systems come with built-in flags. This means that if you go over time. A workforce on a project or if the numbers don’t add up, you’ll get a notification about the error. This has advantages. Especially when it comes to avoiding the issues in the future. Moreover, this will help you avoid the case when the system thinks there’s a mistake, but actually, there isn’t.
In the end, you’ll need the ability to review. When you’re automating business processes, it’s easy to get lost in the project. But when you get a built-in review at every checkpoint or billing period, you’ll know how to spot small failures and resolve them while moving forward.
Should You Develop Your Own Software?
This is the last question. We promise. Often, when you’re looking for software, you’re left with a choice:
- You can either try to learn and make your own software.
- Or you find someone to develop it for you.
What happens when you try to develop it yourself? Often, especially for non-tech people, the primary issue is that you don’t know anything about it. But know something else. Your main business.
Let’s say you’re a construction company. And you spot something critical missing from available construction simulation software. You want to fix this. Or solve some mistake in another software for construction. But this means that you know what are the construction-wise problems with that software. Not that you understand the issues software-wise.
It’s better if you focus on what you know best. Your business and customers. If you would try to make the software, you would just pull your attention from something that’s already bringing in profits. It would just distract you from your business. Trying to learn to make the product yourself means losing tons of resources and time on learning how to make the tech. You may even end with even more flawed software.
Better if you hire someone who’s already an expert in software production. Even more, someone who understands your industry. Someone who knows the issues and pitfalls. Who can build you the solution you were looking for.
Conclusion
Whether you’re looking to facilitate or automate your business processes, the software may be the solution. Especially if you want to grow your business. The important thing is that you ask yourself a couple of questions before you start this journey. And find a reliable software partner.
