Business process automation

Business process automation (BPA) refers to using advanced technology to automate laborious business processes. It can be a simple rule-based task (like data entry, invoice processing, etc.) or a complex activity (customer interactions, supply chain management, and so on). With the abundance of technologies available today, almost any operation can be streamlined and optimized to a certain extent.

BPA differs from other types of automation due to its complexity and integration with multiple enterprise IT systems. It’s tailored to an organization's specific needs and may leverage a wide range of technologies, including robotic process automation (RPA), workflow orchestration, business process management, artificial intelligence, and cloud solutions.

The difference between business process automation and robotic process automation lies in their scope and complexity. BPA is broader and spans multiple IT systems and departments, whereas RPA is narrower. In fact, RPA is one of the methods of BPA.

Robotic process automation automates individual, repetitive, rule-based tasks within a single application, often by mimicking human actions (hence the name “robotic”). It’s typically used to automate tasks that are manual, routine, and structured, but it does not involve the broader integration of multiple systems that BPA handles.

Business process automation, on the other hand, is a broader approach focusing on automating entire business processes across multiple systems, departments, and workflows. It often involves multiple technologies, including RPA itself, AI & ML, workflow orchestration, and cloud platforms. It is used to optimize complex processes spanning different organizational functions.

The role of BPA is to automate processes within an organization and thus increase its efficiency. It is used across many businesses and industries to minimize (or sometimes entirely get rid of) labor-intensive tasks and free up time for core business activities. With the right BPA strategy, you can:

• Cut operational costs.
• Accelerate time to market.
• Improve customer experience.
• Improve team productivity and job satisfaction.
• Streamline regulatory compliance processes, and more.

Sure, business process automation may require significant upfront investments, depending on your use case. However, its long-term benefits easily make up for that. So if you’re planning to scale and don’t want to deal with inefficiencies in the future, BPA software is the right choice.

The cost of implementing BPA heavily depends on the scope of automation you require. The more processes, workflows, and operations you need to streamline, the more solutions you have to implement, which increases the costs. Also, technology stack, team expertise, complexity of each separate solution, employee training, and many other factors come into play and influence the price.

While the upfront costs can be substantial, you should weigh the long-term benefits of BPA implementation. You should calculate how much money you save by leveraging business process automation in the long run. This will give you an understanding of how soon your investment will pay off.

If you wish to receive a time and cost estimate for your project, please contact us via the website form. We’ll get back to you within one business day to organize a scoping call; it will allow us to better understand your needs and business objectives.

Note that it’s not necessary to invest in full-scale development from the very beginning. We can help you develop an MVP, see how it performs in a real-life scenario, and only then, if you’re satisfied with the results, proceed with developing a full-fledged BPA solution.