Harness the Power of Digital Workflows for Improved Efficiency

Highlights:

• Companies should focus on optimizing the employee experience through strategic document management, technology integration, and workflow automation.
• For effective business digitization, leaders should adopt an agile automation approach capable of adapting to environmental change.

“The best employee experience can deliver the best customer experience.”

When employees have essential support and technology at their fingertips, they can deliver exceptional and smooth customer interactions.

Now, we are in a phase where seamless collaboration, automation, AI, and enhanced security should go hand in hand to furnish extraordinary customer experiences. To fulfill the case, we can utilize digital workflow for improved efficiency.

HBR Analytic Services findings showed that approx. 80% of respondents said digitizing workflows enhances the employee experience, and almost 90% accepted that the employee experience has a direct connection with the customer experience.

For example, Adobe’s integration with Microsoft apps automates time-consuming document processes. This workflow digitization offers the following benefits:

• Real-time collaboration
• Streamlined production
• Enhanced customer experiences

This efficiency empowers employees to concentrate on priority work, which is advantageous for both customers and businesses.

Workflow digitization categories

The Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey highlighted the potency and prioritization of digital workflow by classifying respondents into three major groups:

• 30% counted it as very important
• 41% counted it as medium important
• 30% counted it as not very important

Digital Workflow Obstacles and Challenges That Require a Proactive Approach

Streamlining workflows is vital to enhance efficiency and productivity. However, the path to a full-fledged digitized workflow can be challenging.

By understanding these hurdles, companies can steer the digitization process more efficiently and uncover the full potential of a smooth, digital workflow.

Infographics

Irrespective of the varied benefits digitized workflow offers, businesses face numerous challenges in its adoption. It contains:

• Lack of business participation: IT departments frequently lead digitization initiatives without emphasizing business KPIs. Hence, it becomes challenging to get the expected business effectiveness.
• Difficulty in defining processes: Many businesses do not have the necessary understanding of their processes, like:
• Who is involved
• How they operate
• The important players
• Available data
• Limited end-to-end approach: In some organizations, there is generally a lack of focus on necessary workflows or customer experiences, making digitization a problem.
• The intricacy of data: Businesses face issues with the huge volume of unstructured data that does not integrate seamlessly, resulting in duplication, increased intricacy, and security concerns.
• Early stages of automation: Most enterprises are still in the initial stages of workflow automation.
• Skills gaps: Some skills gaps hamper progress in automating workflow despite the promise of low-code/no-code solutions, as employees necessarily need training and support to deliver results.
• Technical implementations: The technical side of digitizing workflows can be tough because of the integration of content and data from various systems that do not work together seamlessly.

Additionally, Constellation Research’s Hinchcliffe has given a ‘9x rule’ that highlights the significant challenges in user adoption of digitized workflow.

According to his rule, for a new technology to be adopted by an employee, it must be nine times better than the one it aims to replace.

Workflow Digitalization Requires Flexible Automation

To successfully digitize your business, business leaders should use an agile automation perspective that can adjust to environmental changes.

Some businesses use robotic process automation (RPA), a technology that imitates human interactions with software to perform repetitive, high-volume tasks. This automation saves time for employees to concentrate on other essential work.

However, RPA has limitations:

• It is able to handle individual tasks only.
• It is unable to automate an end-to-end process across an organization.
• It has less flexibility to adapt when a specific application’s user interface changes.
• It needs continuous administrative attention from IT, which may decrease the overall efficiency gains from automation.

A low-code platform for digital workflow automation is a game-changer in such a scenario. It helps businesses automate repetitive tasks and redesign whole processes to be more digitized.

These low-code platforms are easy for both technical and non-technical staff, empowering collaboration on solutions that are advantageous for both teams and the company as a whole.

As Forbes highlights, low-code automation is essential for businesses expecting to digitalize quickly, especially when there is a lack of skilled software engineers.

An all-in-one low-code platform is necessary for organizations looking to digitalize workflow with automation. It provides:

• Automation for end-to-end business processes
• Increased operational efficiency
• Modernized core systems
• Enhanced customer engagement
• Strengthened organizational agility

Navigate the Path to Workflow Digitization for Maximum Success

As per the HBR survey, organizations are aiming to advance their workflow digitization initiatives with:

66% are planning to speed up their investment in the next 12 months.

83% of respondents aim to digitize more documents and workflows.

To get through this, organizations should:

• Involve employees: Engage necessary workers to understand their best practices and verify areas where automation can seriously help, improving both employee and customer experiences.
• Start small: Focus initially on low-value-add, manual processes. This can enhance employee experience and manage intake processes like customer onboarding.
• Democratize data: Provide broader employee access to data to ensure better decision-making and constant improvement. Make sure data quality is prioritized parallel to process automation for a more flexible and effective system.
• Invest in smarter workflows: Once organizations create a hold on digitization, they must prioritize making their workflows smarter before starting automation. Ensure you are not automating unsmart systems, as this can result in poor decisions based on flawed data.

Instead, optimize business processes with digital workflow for forecasting predictions and to help decision-making.

• Focus on the employee: Companies should pay attention to building the best employee experience by smartly planning how they manage documents, merge technology, and automate workflows. Success in digitization comes from seeing the process as a complete journey that enhances the overall employee experience.

Concluding Lines

Finally, building a strong employee experience is vital for companies navigating economic concerns, technological disturbance, workplace culture concerns, and growing competitive pressures. When employees feel satisfied, successful, and supported, it straightforwardly enhances customer experience.

To enhance the employee experience, organizations must emphasize digitizing documents and workflows. These initiatives boost efficiency, save time, optimize processes, and strengthen collaboration, all of which empower employees to give better customer service.

Moreover, data-driven insights from automated workflow provide significant advantages by increasing efficiency, minimizing errors, and streamlining operations.

However, organizations must tackle concerns such as user adoption, change management, and technology implementation. Collaborating across the organization and identifying critical tasks can reduce these obstacles. It should provide the essential tools, enhance processes, and certify that this superior experience is reflected in the customer experience.

Enhance your understanding by delving into various technology-related whitepapers accessible through our resource center.