Your Complete Guide to Enterprise Automation Software

What is Enterprise Automation Software?

Enterprise automation software is a type of technology that automates manual processes, streamlines workflows and improves efficiency within an enterprise. This software can have a range of functionalities and features from using spreadsheets to track and manage company expenses to building a complex network of applications that automate business processes.  

The Different Types of Enterprise Automation

There are five distinct types of enterprise automation. They are explained below:  

• Basic Automation – Basic automation is the most preliminary form of automation that exists. It takes simple, basic tasks and automates them to streamline fundamental business processes like using a shared messaging system to create a centralized location to store information.  
• Process Automation – Process automation uses software to automate various functions and processes of a business. For example, processes like  employee onboarding,  performance management and self-service can be automated to streamline the employee experience.  
• Integration Automation – Integration automation describes a technology that can easily integrate an organization’s existing systems with one another. Once the systems have been integrated, workflows can operate independently without the need for human intervention.  
• Robotic Process Automation - Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is technology that replicates the exact actions a human user would take to interact with digital systems and software. RPA does not need expert decision-making, but instead mimics the behaviors of application development the same way an employee would.  
• No-Code Automation - No-code automation enables users to build automated workflows and processes without the need for code. It involves the creation of software and systems to replace repetitive, manual processes.  No-code technology is unique as it serves as a platform solution, a robust software that allows users to build solutions for their unique business challenges. Unlike other point solution software on the market, no-code technology allows its users to not only solve one specific business problem, but also address several others.  

The Difference Between Point Solutions & Platforms for Enterprises

Put simply, the difference between a point solution versus a platform solution is that one can be likened to a toy car and the other is a set of Lego blocks. The best way to think about a point solution is that it’s a specific piece of software, developed for a specific problem, which means you’re getting deep expertise and a detailed and designed solution for your problem. This is different to a platform that is typically described as a robust foundation  for you to build  solutions on. It allows you to not only solve one specific problem  but also address several others.

Enterprises should use a point solution over a platform when its system and structures do not change and have uniform requirements across the entire organization. An example of where a point solution would make more sense for a company is with bookkeeping. Balance sheets do not change much from industry to industry, let alone across an organization. So, if you have a solution that really nails balance sheets, profit, and loss statements, transactions, and reconciliations with your bank account, it really makes sense to buy an off the shelf point solution.

However, a platform solution would make sense if the process you’re looking to automate is specific to your organization. Unlike point solutions, platforms allow a wide degree of customization, allowing users to mold the technology to their processes, rather than the other way round.

If you take for example the legal team, they’ll have NDAs, service agreements and delegation of authorities in the way they design, draft and approve for their team and across business functions. How your NDA looks is different, how your matrix for delegation of authority is different, or how you interface with your finance team on thresholds and who needs to sign off is different, making a platform solution the most sensible option for your organization.

Enterprise SaaS vs. Enterprise Software

When choosing the best technology for your organization, you will often have to choose between software-as-a-service (SaaS) or enterprise software. SaaS software describes a software licensing model, which allows its users access to software applications on a subscription basis using external, cloud-based servers to deliver services via the internet. By contrast, enterprise software is software your organization buys and installs on your organization’s servers, which requires no licensing fees for implementing. There are other features which further distinguish the differences between these two types of software. They are described below:  

• Customizability – Enterprise software is easy to customize because your organization owns the software. As such, you are at liberty to customize the software as much as you like so you can better serve your organization’s needs. However, with enterprise SaaS, customization is limited to whatever tools the SaaS provider offers. SaaS offerings exist in a multi-tenant environment, meaning that customization is not possible.

• Data Analytics & Reporting – Analyzing data and creating reports are typically created by a software scanning the entire database for useful data, however, in a multi-tenant environment like enterprise SaaS, generating data reports can create significant processing overhead. Conversely, enterprise software can create reports using third-party integrations to pull data sets and reformat them to present data in a meaningful way.  
• Functionality – This difference is largely rooted in the customizability of the software. Since SaaS software already has limited customization, it might not be able to perform all the functions that your organization needs. Enterprise software, however, can be customized to meet your functional needs.  
• Cost – Enterprise software tends to have added costs beyond just the initial purchase of the software like software licensing, software maintenance and customization/services. Enterprise SaaS tends to require only a monthly fee to use the software and any other services you need. Purchasing software at the enterprise level results in higher initial costs, while enterprise SaaS has much lower costs upfront.  

Automation Software Solution for Common Divisions within an Enterprise

Automation software solutions can be applied to the workflows of any department within an organization. Automation software has various functionalities that work as an all-in-one service automation platform solution, like:  

Human Resource Automation - Using automation software solutions enables HR departments to automate their manual processes and streamline their services. Here are some ways that HR departments can use their automation solution:  

• Employee Engagement Surveys– Give back time to HR teams by automating standard, low risk letters and employee agreements
• Compensation Calculators & Workflows – Streamline compensation reviews and connect performance management to optimize equitable employee compensation
• Remuneration Letter – Generate and send personalized remuneration and salary increase letters in bulk, including dynamic clauses and calculations

• Employee Onboarding Management – Speed up and improve the onboarding process for new employees, managers and HR teams through automation

In House Legal Automation - Automation software can transform the legal team into strategic business enablers that consistently deliver immediate and valuable results to the organization. Below are some ways that in-house legal teams deliver value through automation:  

• Intake & Triage – Streamline intake and route users to different resources based on process rules with full visibility of requests.
• Contract Automation – Using an all-in-one automation software, streamline the generation of legal contracts from approvals, e-signatures and obligations
• Automated Self-Service – Enable users to self-serve bespoke legal information through knowledge bases or by routing requests to expert decisioning

Finance & Tax Automation - Automation software solutions can increase the clarity and accessibility of your finance department’s services, making it easier to navigate essential forms while streamlining manual work. Here are some examples of how finance departments can automate their work:  

• Expense Approvals – Guide users through expense approval requests by enabling them to self-serve and efficiently lodge expense claims
• Automated Finance Risk Assessments – Digitize complex decision and approval workflows to improve the quality, speed and coverage of risk assessments
• Decision Automation – Enable decision automation for your workflows with customizable rules, logic and calculations using no-code
• Financial Report Automation – Reduce the time it takes for finance teams to collect data, generate bespoke reports and manage the everchanging regulations and policies of the organization

Procurement Automation – To optimize your procurement processes end-to-end, it is important to digitize procurement rules, assessments and checklists through automated procurement. Read examples of procurement automation below:  

• Modern Slavery Risk Assessment – Assess suppliers against modern slavery standards and policies to arrive at a risk rating and overall compliance score
• Vendor Risk Assessment – Enable vendors to self-serve a security questionnaire to determine their compliance and potential risks
• Vendor Agreements – Generate vendor agreements in a matter of minutes and facilitate negotiations and signing with ease

What Are the Advantages of Using Enterprise Automation Software?

Enterprise automation software automates manual and tedious processes of employees and gives them more time to focus on high-value, strategic work. This software provides other benefits to their organizations as well, here are some of their key benefits below:  

• Cost Efficiency - Enterprise software saves organizations money by allowing employees to get more work done in just a fraction of the time compared to manual processes. As a result, organizations do not have to spend added overhead on hiring new employees or investing in expensive equipment since enterprise automation software eliminates the need for human operators.  
• Streamlined Processes – Since automated processes drop the need for human input, they can be carried out instantly and without delay. This makes it faster and easier to complete tasks than if they were carried out by employees manually.  
• More Efficient Operations – Automation can significantly reduce, and even eliminate, any redundancies that might occur in manual workflow processes. This allows more time for employees to come up with more innovative and creative solutions to create more efficient business operations.  
• Increase Employee Productivity - By freeing employees from tedious and manual tasks, they can focus on more high-value, strategic work that brings significant value to the business. For example, with legal automation, lawyers can become more of an advisor to the business with strategic, legal advice.  

• Improve Customer Experience - When working with tight deadlines and budgets, you can guarantee faster turnaround times for not only the business, but for clients and other stakeholders. Automation also enables customers to self-serve, allowing them to get results faster and increasing their satisfaction with the business.  
• Analytics & Decision-Making – Automation can improve decision-making in an organization by supplying data that helps employees analyze information and make more exact predictions. Automation allows departments to make better-informed decisions based on data as it becomes available.  

Something to Consider When Choosing Enterprise Automation Software

No/low-code automation platforms are gaining popularity across organizations as they enable any business user to build automated workflows and processes without the need for extensive coding knowledge. This allows for solutions to have quicker implementation times without having to consult IT to build business applications in-house and from scratch. No-code also empowers the people who know the issues and processes best within the business to rapidly automate and manage their own solutions.

No-code makes it easier for business users across an organization to build and maintain applications faster with significantly fewer errors. Furthermore, as modern technologies appear, the management of legacy systems is becoming time consuming and more costly than the no/low code alternative, reducing the development and maintenance costs by up to 80%, alleviating the organization's resources and bottom-line.  

Getting Started with Enterprise Automation

Ready to take the plunge with enterprise automation? There are several things to consider when getting started on this new and exciting journey to have a smooth implementation process from start to finish. Below are the following things you need to consider:  

• Define your automation goals – Look at what it is that you are trying to carry out through automation. Do you want to free up your departments from administrative work to focus on more strategic work? Or do you want to provide faster turnaround times for your clients? Figure out what you are trying to achieve, and act accordingly.  
• Evaluate your current processes – Determining how your current processes run is fundamental to starting the enterprise automation journey. During this process, you might find that certain processes require more immediate actions than others, which can help narrow down which software best suits your business needs.  
• Choose which processes to automate – Choose which processes will have the most efficient implementation and start there. The way to get buy in from the business on automation software is by small wins, will eventually add up meaningful results in the end.  

• Carefully research vendors – After performing the three tasks above, it’s time to start looking at the different solutions that are out there. Researching online is a great place to start when looking for your perfect solution. Factors such as price, speed of implementation and software features can help narrow down your options. Don’t forget to schedule a demo to see in real time if the platform is right for you.  

Learn More

As the leading no-code, workflow automation platform, Checkbox empowers business functions to automate their tedious, manual processes and streamline their service delivery. Because Checkbox requires no technical knowledge and is truly no-code, this empowers business teams to enable digital transformation in a matter of days, not months.  

To get started, book a call with one of our technology consultants and figure out where you can get started on your no-code automation journey.

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