Hyperautomation is here to stay.

– Gartner’s IT Automation Predictions for 2022

The concept of business process automation (BPA) isn’t new for businesses today. It has been there for quite some time now, with an improbable concoction surrounding it that automation will eliminate jobs and replace humans in the workforce. Workers, for a long time, were apprehensive about their organizations adopting automation. But despite the common narrative, many enterprises have adopted automation in the last few years to improve their overall productivity and efficiency, evidencing that BPA isn’t a competitor for human jobs. 

BPA can do a lot for organizations of all sizes, be it startups or big businesses with deep pockets and at all stages of their development. Unlike multi-million-dollar corporations, startup leaders might think twice before investing in automation, or they might consider it an unnecessary investment, but that’s completely understandable, as a series of minor overspends can add up fast, becoming a nightmare for the startup leaders.

Taking their fear into consideration, in the subsequent sections, we have discussed why business process automation is worth investing in and how it enables employees to be more efficient, benefiting the startups in more ways than one.

How BPA delivers a competitive advantage to Startups?

The global startup ecosystem is getting stronger with every passing year. However, according to a National Business Capital report, startup failure rates are around 90%. 21.5% of startups fail in the first year, 30% in the second year, 50% in the fifth year. The reason for such high failure rate is intense competition in the space. 

The basic mantra for a startup to stand strong in the market is to ‘outperform the competition’. In order to stand ahead of its competitors, a startup has to do better in all the underlying areas. 

• Address the customers’ pain points proactively
• Curate a compelling selling story that connects with the consumers 
• Focus on unique selling propositions and add value to customers
• Serve customers with a smile 24X7
• Keep up with the market trends

BPA helps a startup to improve in all the aforementioned critical areas. For instance, the data related to customers’ interests and behavior, when analyzed with the help of automation, can shed light on the customers’ needs. Leveraging the data, startups can create a selling story that will actually impact the customers. And finally, automation enables startups to serve the customers better and faster with reliable products and services. Thus, automation strengthens the effectiveness of all business operations.

How can BPA help startups gear up for success?

In the book, Deep Finance, veteran startup finance expert Glenn Hopper says, “Automating parts of your process can help you scale faster. Lost productivity from manual tasks means it will be difficult to scale operations as a company grows. Manual processes are people-intensive and not scalable. You may have to start manually in the beginning, but today there are so many apps that give businesses the ability to start with automated processes. It is possible from day one to be automated.”

Let’s see how BPA benefits startups.

#1: Delivers more and faster­­­

Automation gives startups the super-power to deliver more in comparatively lesser time and improve their customer satisfaction rate. When the processes that are performed manually are successfully automated, they are processed by means of programmed commands combined with automatic feedback control to ensure proper execution of the instructions, which means the employees will now be able to invest their time in areas that require human intelligence. Theoretically, automation can double the speed of deliveries. 

#2: Automation helps in cost containment

By 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyperautomation technologies with redesigned operational processes.

– Gartner’s IT Automation Predictions for 2022

Leveraging technology to automate organizational business operations helps startups to manage the payable hours of their workforce and thoughtfully reduce expenses to improve profitability without risking long-term damage to the company. 

#3: Establishes standardization of business processes

Standardization is achievable with automation. Whether it is the standardization of workflows or quality of products and services. By removing human interference from the processes, the chances of manual errors are dissolved. Therefore, all the operations are performed according to a predefined set of rules ensuring top-quality and error-free.

#4: Increases scalability

Automation improves business scalability. It empowers a small team of employees to perform tasks that generally require a large team by handling all the repetitive, tedious tasks on its own. Thus, scaling a company for more productivity and efficiency. 

#5: Extracts data and delivers actionable insights

Analysis of data is essential for every organization. But, if a startup is stuck in analysis-paralysis, it will probably fail in making critical decisions timely. Automation technology combined with AI can help the stakeholders to analyze the data and make decisions faster, based on which the team members can perform operations at a faster speed. Businesses can get to know the customers more, identify the areas of improvement, and maximize the return on their investments.

Still, wondering if your young business needs automation?

BPA will continue to be a core focus for growing organizations in the coming years. It is more than just a convenience. It enables organizations to overcome various daunting business challenges, bolster productivity, and increase customer satisfaction.

AgreeYa’s suite of intelligent automation solutions has enabled organizations to increase process efficiency, enhance customer experience, optimize operations, amplify workforce productivity, reduce process costs and risks. Our award-winning No-code SharePoint BPA solution – QuickApps – enables organizations to automate their business processes on SharePoint and Office 365 with its powerful suite of web apps. It enables startups to automate their cumbersome processes and maximize SharePoint or Office 365 investment. Download a free trial today, to learn more.