The Significance of APIs in Business Process Automation: Shopygo BPA
- Athul Raj
- Mar 14, 2022
Business Process Automation (BPA) acts as the backbone of enterprises, embracing automation to enhance efficiency and minimise cost. If you can fit all your staff members into a single car and go to dinner together, the automation of business processes might be a low priority for you. But if your business requires two cars or more to go to dinner, then you must take a hard look at which business processes can be automated.
Read on to learn more about the common problems your business may face that can easily be solved with the right BPA software.
You have heard all about Business Process Automation (BPA) and how it saves companies’ time and costs. But how will you know if your enterprise needs BPA software? There is really no limit to the advantages that BPA can bring to your business, but there are a few things that help improve specific areas of the business.
BPA software can integrate with both legacy systems and new apps under the same roof and make critical apps work under a single interface without the slightest glitch. It works on all programs whether, newer applications, legacy programs, cloud-based solutions or on-premises. For instance, an admin may have to log in and pull data from an application on a mainframe legacy system, then paste that data into a report and distribute it. This is a process that involves many manual steps but BPA software can manage the entire process automatically.
Even if you hire employees with great attention to detail, the likelihood of mistakes is still high and it will get worse when they do repetitive, low-level work. BPA is designed to be extremely efficient and reliable, particularly if the task is repetitive. BPA tools follow strict tasks exactly as it’s told to do, and this is very significant when you handle data in the finance industry, where one small mistake means thousands lost. By substantially removing the clunky and pain-staking manual processes your team does on a daily basis, BPA enhances efficiency as workers’ time will no longer be wasted on repetitive, mundane tasks.
When adding a new automation solution that simplifies reporting and monitoring for process KPIs, you won’t have to deal with the time-consuming manual reporting tasks. BPA tools have data gathering, reporting, and analytics capabilities so you can view data dashboards that tell what everybody currently works on, and make more informed decisions. You can automatically create accurate reports in a variety of useful formats that can be updated in real-time whenever the data associated with it is changed. There are also BPA tools that support BPM by offering customizable reporting or process modelling capabilities required by a BPM strategy.
Your team may have to wait for approval from the seniors before starting the work, which often leads to delays. If a person is on leave or out of office, it will throw everybody else off schedule. BPA software makes getting approvals as easy as clicking a button. With every data and file added to the workflow, you will eliminate the bottleneck process and accelerate more high-level business processes between business units, team members, and everybody within your organisation. The approver receives direct notifications, checks the necessary files, and approves or rejects it straightaway which saves time and keeps your team always on schedule.
Automation processes ensure that best practices are followed, and governance is enforced. It improves compliance so businesses don’t run afoul of multiple regulations and incur large penalties and fees. Automated database queries, and encryption at every level of automation makes your organisation compatible with data protection and security regulations. Automation solutions have strict guidelines on who is able to make changes or update a document. Your team members may not always follow them, but with BPA in place, the process is already built into the system. Documenting that information also helps you during audit trails and demonstrating compliance.
Depending on how the documents are shared and saved in your company, you may lose track of written communications, spreadsheets, and other documents when using manual processes. The implementation of BPA will automate filing and documenting tasks, manage documents, compile them, and store them in the required places. When needed, it’s available within a click of a button. Some of the most sophisticated business automation software comes with in-built Document Management Systems. Process automation means that all of your documents and data are housed in a single location, ensuring simple data and document management.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an area of automation that is usually compared to Business Process Automation as both emphasise process improvement by eliminating human interference from repeating tasks. Both BPA and RPA solutions use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to better interpret unstructured data such as emails, images, and audio files. This leads to personalised user experiences as the technology can overcome ambiguity and interact with user needs.
However, RPA uses software to automate pre-defined, rules-based tasks via user interface (UI) while BPA software tends to handle more complex tasks than RPA. RPA integrates programmatically and can thereby offer more resilient and dynamic automation, particularly concerning complex, end-to-end processes. RPA software is trained to mimic repetitive tasks such as copying and pasting data into a field. Normally, end users can train and deploy RPA bots without the need for development skills. Most RPA solutions are easily installed prebuilt software tools that run on top of existing systems without connecting to databases or accessing APIs.
BPA solutions are customised for a specific organisation, normally integrated into data systems or connected to APIs. Rather than focusing on individual tasks, they focus on overall processes. Though certain business processes such as form filling and recordkeeping are automated, BPA is about more sophisticated functions involved in managing a company, such as processing payroll or keeping track of inventory. It is possible for a BPA solution to incorporate some RPA software.
It is best for BPA software to run on various types of infrastructure - like at the edge where business decisions take place, and in cloud environments that scales to meet demand. One growingly common strategy is to separate the UI from the workflows themselves, which are constructed as services called through APIs. These considerations are all part of Streetbell BPA solution’s design. These qualities bring both scale and flexibility, making it helpful for bigger companies that have to automate numerous business decisions. Our solution includes tools for streamlining processes, creating new business opportunities, and developing new strategies to automate the enterprise. Our engineers are continuously improving features, reliability, and security to make sure your enterprise and IT performs and remains stable and secure. Our solutions, services, and training offer you the control you need for automating your processes so you can focus on innovation and moving forward.
Automating business processes can help a business go from linear to faster growth. To get started with business process automation, we recommend three steps: identify functional areas of operations, hone in on the repetitive tasks and prioritise the areas to automate, and choose an automation platform that can consolidate all the processes within your company and transform them into one overarching solution.
Streetbell specialises in delivering business process automation software and low-code automation technologies. We have helped several businesses automate numerous steps in both core and support functions to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Request a demo, and explore how to build an efficient digital workflow automation that supports your business objectives.
