The views expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
Effective collaboration and communication are essential for any organization. Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings, errors, duplication of effort, and lack of clarity on project status. This often leads to conflicts between departments that frustrate each other. Companies that fail to create an environment of collaboration and transparency risk creating siloed departments that reduce productivity and negatively impact customer satisfaction.
The solution is to adopt workflow automation tools to facilitate a culture of transparency, teamwork, and accountability throughout the organization. By leveraging workflow automation systems, corporations can break down these barriers and establish streamlined processes that ensure everyone has access to the same, latest information.
1. Interdepartmental cooperation
Most organizations have different teams that provide unique and specialized input into the products they deliver to customers. Each department must work seamlessly together to get the best results. Workflow automation platforms can break down departmental silos, allowing teams to seamlessly collaborate on the same documents and projects in real time.
For example, a workflow automation tool can route an essential document between marketing, design, and sales teams for input. This not only helps the team function as a single unit, but also reduces the risk of version control issues.
2. Data-driven decision-making
One of the biggest challenges in decision-making in an organization is that everybody has their very own perspectives and agendas. Workflow automation systems can provide everyone in the organization access to analytics, reports, and dashboards that highlight performance data and other key metrics. Access to a unified set of knowledge can reduce the risk that conflicting information will create decision bottlenecks and waste worthwhile resources.
Workflow automation tools also can handle seamless internal and external approvals, routing documents and other items to the appropriate team members for review and approval. This ensures projects stay on schedule, reducing turnaround times and providing visibility into current approval status.
3. Improving customer satisfaction
Workflow automation not only streamlines internal processes, but also improves customer satisfaction. A solid workflow automation system can profit customers by providing clear project status updates and proactive communication. This, in turn, can assist build trust and long-term partnerships, leading to lower customer churn and a higher ability to outperform competitors.
For example, a law firm can automate case management and client communications, allowing clients to receive automatic updates on case progress and access relevant documents through a secure client portal.
4. Clarity of roles and responsibilities
The last item a team needs is confusion over who is responsible for each step in a workflow. Automatically assigning tasks based on predefined criteria provides clarity of responsibility across the team. It also can indicate who currently “has the ball,” reducing the risk of duplicating efforts. Having an automated workflow also eliminates delays that may occur when someone is on vacation and not available to manually push a task.
5. Team responsibility and recognition
Workflow automation tools allow team members to see which tasks are accomplished, pending, or overdue. Shared dashboards and progress tracking tools are essential for business management to track and manage worker and business performance. These systems also can help a team discover and recognize the handiest and productive team members. By managing weak employees and rewarding strong team members, a company can improve team morale, collaboration, and productivity.
6. Automatic updates and alerts
In many cases, teams manage hundreds of tasks spread across multiple clients and projects. The potential for something to slip through the cracks is huge. Most automated workflow systems come with automated notifications and reminders to keep team members informed about deadlines, project updates, and required actions. These alerts can often be highly configurable and may even escalate high-impact alerts to higher management.
Ultimately, there are many risks associated with traditional, manual processes that may lead to chaos and disruption inside an organization. By refocusing everyone’s efforts with an automated workflow system, corporations can take collaboration and communication to latest heights. The age of automation is here. Companies need to start benefiting from the advantages these powerful tools can bring to their organizations.