Imagine you’re the head of finance at a large enterprise. You use about a dozen platforms on a regular basis for managing salaries, invoices, and client refunds. On top of this, you have a team of analysts, treasurers, financial controllers, and accountants that you need to collaborate with on different projects.
Now imagine if you had to create a system from scratch for every project, type of invoice, and new department at the company.
That’s the kind of hassle that low-code development can save you from.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, about 70% of new enterprise applications will be developed using low-code or no-code platforms. These low-code solutions not only help with faster delivery times but also make tech more accessible to the entire team. On top of that, using low-code tools such as enterprise workflow software also ensures that there aren’t any errors in the backend of the system, allowing for smoother operations.
Why Should Companies Use Low-Code Business Automation Solutions?
Low-code business process management opens up a plethora of benefits to organizations, both small and large. With low-code workflow automation software, enterprises not only get to enjoy the benefits of greater agility and scalability but are also able to provide a much better and smoother experience to their customers.
Here are some of the many reasons why low-code business automation solutions should be used:
- Faster Development
As mentioned earlier, low-code business automation offers far quicker development times than their counterparts that require people to build systems from scratch. Low-code and no-code solutions essentially provide users with a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to implement features, integrate with other platforms, and even generate reports in just a few clicks.
This means that instead of spending time learning how to code and dealing with other development issues like knowing when to use a certain library, debugging, and making code more efficient, users can build and start using their new workflows in no time.
- Smoother Integration
By virtue of how they’re used, workflow automation tools need to integrate with a number of other systems and platforms that are used by an organization.
Take the example of a workflow for onboarding new employees. For each new employee that’s hired, organizations need to feed a lot of data about the employee into their database, including their name, designation, emergency contacts, references, qualifications, and contact details.
Without automation software, this process would be quite tedious. Someone from the organization would have to send a form to the new employee for them to fill out their details. Next, the entries in the form would be checked to ensure they are in the correct structure and format. After this, the data would be entered manually into the database. Due to all of this human involvement, the entire process is prone to a lot of errors.
By using automation, it’s possible to not only speed up the entire process but also reduce the chance of errors in populating the database. The workflow software can integrate directly with both the form that needs to be filled out and the database in which the data needs to be entered. Thus, all the data can be updated in the database without any additional steps.
How To Start Using A Low-Code Workflow Software
The first thing to keep in mind is that you must get a clear understanding of all of the workflows and processes in the organization and make a list of the ones that you can automate. Not every process needs to be automated, and some might even benefit from extra human involvement, so it’s important to be clear on what to prioritize.
It’s also important to start small. Working with one process or workflow at a time is ideal to prevent issues from spreading across multiple departments in the organization. Once your teams are comfortable using the workflow software in one area, you should slowly move on to the next in a controlled environment. Implementation can be slow at the beginning, but instead of viewing that as a hurdle, you should inform your team to prioritize learning from this experience to speed up the process in other departments of the organization.
At first, teams might be a bit hesitant to adopt business process management software as it can be seen as a replacement. However, with the right training and information, you can win the trust of your team members and inform them how low-code enterprise workflow software can help them do their job better and faster. Once your team understands the benefits that workflow automation offers, it will be much easier to convince them to use more tools that make their lives easier.
What Should You Look for in Low-Code Workflow Automation Software?
Ideally, your low-code enterprise automation software should come with a clear interface and features that make building workflows simple and intuitive. Since the tool will be used by technical and non-technical teams alike, it’s important to ensure that the layout, navigation, and all buttons are very clear so that teams don’t need to go through hours of training to set up a simple workflow.
Next, you need to make sure that the tool can easily integrate with your existing tech stack. As mentioned earlier, workflow automation tools need to work in tandem with several other software and platforms – and this will only be possible if they can integrate seamlessly.
Hybrid development options are also a huge plus when it comes to workflow software. Having the option of deploying workflows to the cloud not only makes them more accessible but also makes your infrastructure more scalable.
Lastly, the process automation tool needs to be equipped with features and capabilities that allow for hands-off business process management. By implementing automation, teams should be able to route tasks effectively with minimal or zero human intervention. With the right triggers, access controls, and notifications, teams should rest assured that their processes are safe and will only be executed as planned.
Ready to experience the power of low-code business process automation? Request a demo with Intalio today to find out how Intalio Workflow can streamline your business processes.
