Digital Workflow Automation: An Ultimate Guide

In this blog post, I will look at digital workflow automation and share some of my thoughts on where it adds value and how to plan, deploy and scale a successful workflow automation strategy.

What is digital workflow automation? 

Digital workflow automation enables businesses of all sizes to enhance their internal processes by making them more efficient and streamlined. Over time, companies have recognized the advantages of optimizing workflows to minimize inefficiencies, using technology to identify bottlenecks and automate repetitive tasks. This automation approach helps organizations save time, reduce errors, and improve productivity, allowing teams to focus on higher-value activities.

Earlier, there was only so much that could be achieved as organizations used paper-based documents and snail mail to communicate internally and externally – the improvements that could be made were restricted by the physical world. 

With the advent of scanning technology, the limitations of the physical world started to be overcome. Initially, this was driven by large organizations who realized that the expense of the technology and the cost of running it was more than offset by the benefits of removing these physical barriers.

Unfortunately, this cost/benefit advantage could not be realised by smaller organizations as they just did not have access to the resources needed to digitalize their world. 

Starting the digital workflow process

Roll forward a few decades and for many businesses, everyday work has become digital – everyone uses email, spreadsheets, electronic documents and many other software-based applications in carrying out their day-to-day work.

But just because information is now shared in a digital format and communications are much easier and quicker, does not mean that all businesses have made their way of doing their work as automated or efficient as possible. 

There are key manual processes in organizations of all sizes that rely on email for communication, spreadsheets for data capture and analysis and process supervisors/managers to follow up to make sure the jobs to be done get done promptly.

Digital workflow automation applications

Digital workflow automation applications are designed to allow an organization to put some structure on their day-to-day work ensuring that staff work consistently.

They ensure the quality and timeliness of data captured and they provide visibility so that work can be tracked to ensure procedures have been followed and that there is a quality outcome for all stakeholders – staff, managers, suppliers and, most importantly, customers. 

When FlowForma was initially released the vision was to make digital workflow automation an achievable reality for businesses of all sizes regardless of their experience and skills.

One of the key features of FlowForm's approach to digital process automation software is its no code functionality. FlowForma’s unique no code approach allowed businesspeople to take charge of defining and automating their core processes without the need for complex technical projects which over-promised and under-delivered. 

If you'd like to learn more about how no code accelerates business transformation with workflow automation 4x faster than other methodologies, check out this video below:

Examples of digital workflow automation 

All business processes can be broken down into a list of tasks that need to be completed to achieve an outcome. For example, think of the checklists you may be familiar with in everyday tasks such as supplier onboarding, employee offboarding, payment processing and leave approval.  

Each of the tasks that make up these processes can be classified to determine if the task is a: 

• Delaying tasks such as waiting for someone to send or respond to an email 

• Manual repetitive tasks such as entering data from one spreadsheet to another or one application to another 

• Quality control tasks such as multiple layers of checking of other staff members work to ensure it is correct 

• Handoff tasks such as passing work from one business department to another  

• Communication tasks such as updating a work colleague that a task is completed 

• Rework tasks such as when an error in an earlier task causes a problem with a later task. 

• Reporting tasks such as when a summary status update is compiled and sent to a manager 

Digital workflow automation can be used to eliminate these delays, automate manual tasks, remove the need for multiple levels of quality checking tasks, automate handover tasks, automate communications, reduce or eliminate rework and automate reporting tasks.  

So what tasks are left when digital workflow processes has been deployed? The core tasks remain in the process.

These tasks include those that add value to the business and its customers, those that use the skills and experience of the employees in the right way and those that differentiate the business from its competitors. 

Implementation of digital workflow automation with Flowforma 

We are often asked by organizations starting on their digital workflow automation journey, which process they should automate first. The best process to start with is one that has a level of complexity and will be used by a representative part of the workforce. Once this process has been automated you will have an internal working example to showcase what business process automation can deliver.

Very simple processes or overly complex processes are generally not good starting points on your automation journey – they will either not demonstrate enough value or will require more advanced process automation skills than are available in the business at this stage of the automation journey. 

Implementing a digital workflow process improvement strategy with FlowForma is straight forward but it is not a magic wand – you need to understand what the tasks involved in a process are before you can automate the process. 

My colleague Paul Stone recently hosted a webinar alongside three of our customers Clean Sky Aviation, Coinford, and Vorea.

I'd recommend checking out the webinar recording if you'd like to learn more about how FlowForma can support digital transformation to improve efficiency and save money and time while overcoming the continued pressures of economic uncertainty.

Focus areas for implementing digital workflows

There are many different approaches as to how you go about understanding a process but the key things to focus on are: 

• The tasks involved and who performs them 

• The stakeholders in the process must be kept informed 

• The key measurements to be reported on 

• The outputs generated by the process 

• The applications used in delivering the process 

As you try to understand a process, it is important to focus on the core process – avoid getting into detailed discussions about every possible exception (many of these exceptions occur because the process is not automated) and avoid getting into the detailed design of potential integration requirements (these will change based on the way the automated process is designed). 

Automating your business processes

Once you have this information you have enough to build the first version of a process in FlowForma. You can define the steps that are needed in the process, who needs to carry out those steps and the information that needs to be collected at each step.  

Continuous improvement

The next step is to go through a refinement process with the business stakeholders by showing them the initial version of the process and making the changes they need.

After several iterations of this improvement cycle, you will have a process that everyone agrees meets the business requirements. During this improvement cycle, the exceptions that the process needs to cater for can be layered in. 

In parallel with the improvement cycle integration should be considered. In general, where integration to another application is needed it is either to push data to that application or to retrieve data for lookup or validation purposes.

Building integration to other applications is generally straightforward using capabilities such as REST Apis but it can be time-consuming to put in place, so make sure that it adds the value you expect to the automated process. 

Benefits of digital workflow automation 

Eliminating delays, automating manual processes, ensuring quality and consistency of work, and automating handoffs are all obvious benefits of digital workflow automation.

How much these add value to an organization will vary based on the type of organization and business processes that have been automated. However, other benefits may not be as obvious: 

1. Visibility 

Data on operational processes is not available in many organizations. Input and output can be measured as well as the amount of resource used but there is often no visibility of the actual work done.

Once implemented, digital workflow automation captures data on processes – how many items are in progress, who are they assigned to, what stage in the process they are at, whether they are inside or outside SLAs and a host of other metrics – which can be used to monitor the process and improve it further. 

2. Employee onboarding & training 

If operational procedures in an organization have been automated, then onboarding and training new employees is much easier.

Automated manual processes will guide new employees through the steps in the process ensuring that they carry out the process in a standard way. This not only reduces the employees onboarding/training time but also ensures new employees increase productivity.

3. Cognitive load 

The cognitive load (the amount of effort that is exerted or required while reasoning or thinking) can be quite high when working with manual unstructured processes. Every time a person has a job to do they need to remember and think about the steps they need to take, who they need to keep updated and what information they need to collect.

If there is an automated workflow for the process already in place this significantly reduces the cognitive load as the person is guided through a series of steps to achieve their objective. 

4. Process thinking

As organizations use digital workflow automation to automate manual processes, people in the organization develop a process thinking skillset which allows them to identify the opportunity for process improvement and automation within the organization.

Digital workflow automation becomes their solution for poor or inefficient manual processes across the organization. This ensures that organizations continue to improve and evolve – all driven from within. 

Challenges of digital workflow automation 

The challenges associated with implementing digital workflow automation will vary from one organization to another, these are some of the common challenges we encounter.

1. Change management 

Managing change in most organizations is a challenge, regardless of what type of change you are trying to make. Rolling out a change throughout an organization which moves many people from an established way of doing things to a digital workflow is a significant change which will encounter resistance unless managed correctly.

Some techniques to help overcome this resistance to change include: 

• Involve representatives from the impacted group in the project to define and automate the  

• Use prototypes and demonstrations instead of detailed documentation. 

• Communicate with those affected well in advance and keep them informed.  

• Use recordings of the proposed solution to help everyone visualize the change 

• Set up easily accessible support for everyone by establishing ‘super users’ across all impacted areas in the business. 

• Use other internal projects as a reference  

2. Establishing process champions 

Promoting digital workflows across an organization is much easier when there is a cohort of internal ‘process’ evangelists who can promote the concept, identify opportunities and help implement business process solutions. 

When someone with the right skills and enthusiasm is identified, understand that promoting digital workflow efficiency is a valuable role and it is worth developing these individuals so that they can willingly help transform the organization. 

3. Progress over perfection 

Another common human trait is the desire for perfection. We see customers continually refining their digital workflow solutions before they are released to the organization for day-to-day use.

We would advocate a ‘progress over perfection’ approach – when a process delivers functionality that solves a business problem and end users will be willing to use it, it should be rolled out and feedback sought.

The feedback can be used to improve the process further. Establishing this continual feedback and improvement technique in the early life of digital workflow automation initiatives will demonstrate a commitment to continual improvement which will help keep implemented processes up to date.