BPM, Workflow, Automation and RPA to manage your processes and go further !

The management of business processes within a company makes it possible to model, analyze and optimize the responsibilities and tasks of the various trades present in the company. This management method can be applied to multiple tasks such as repetitive processes, logistics processes, sales processes; etc.

This management can also be automated by what is called BPM Workflow but also automation or RPA. This allows you to first create your type of process, which can be based on checking conditions or on a regular frequency, then configure it in order to define the course of the different actions that you choose.

BPM and Workflow are two distinct but complementary tools. BPM stands for Business Process Management. It is a process of analyzing how a business operates that saves businesses time and improves day-to-day processes.

This process improves performance, productivity but also quality by making its management more agile, more fluid, faster, more reliable and robust.

To complete the BPM / Workflow there is also automation, a process that uses all the services of a software or a computer application. Automation makes it possible to benefit from an automatic system of a series of operations in a company.

Finally, Robotic Process Automation is a technology that allows you to enter a set of structured indications about business processes. A company can then configure a software or robot as it wishes in order to automate its processes.

Workflow management software / Workflow versus BPM software

It is important to distinguish between the two processes :

Workflow management software is focused solely on providing businesses with options for organizing their workflow. The goal of a workflow management software is to create conditional steps that are chosen according to the will of the business journey but also to create parallel paths for an item to follow. This software is compatible with d ' other software.

BPM software, on the other hand, allows companies to benefit from a unified and broad view of all business processes. Robust Workflow features that allow you to organize but also control your data.

BPM / Workflow a good process to go further in the digitalization of your Supply Chain processes (stocks, purchases, receptions, preparations, control, deliveries, etc.)

A BPM process gives you access to visibility within the company to better understand your customers and help meet their needs.

It also allows you to have agility in automating tasks.

Most importantly, a BPM process provides an overview of a company's traceability. The manager will thus be able to monitor more effectively the progress of files or assigned tasks and automatically communicate any anomalies, errors or delays.

BPM makes it possible to automate, thus making good use of the automated and digital devices already present in the company in order to meet a future need. BPM is thus adaptable to a company's new projects as well as to its current projects. The automation of your various workflow processes gives you the ability to automatically send a customizable email or SMS as soon as an offer is created or as soon as there is a step change in your process. The goal is to maintain productivity and automate repetitive tasks.

Workflow stands for workflow or business process modeling. This process represents all the tasks, actors whether they are human (employees, directors) or not (software, software, applications, services, integrations, API, etc.) and interactions that allow the actors of a company / organization to carry out its missions.

The role of Workflow is to improve the validation, performance and profitability circuit within a single company.

The automation of this process makes it possible to send each stakeholder, employee and others the tasks that they must perform the same day with a completion deadline. These functions make it possible to ensure the success of each task and for the manager to intervene in the event of an obstacle.

There are two types of Workflow processes that businesses can use.

The Procedural Workflow also says Production Workflow:

Workflow process already pre - established: the business processes are perfectly mastered and always identical. The company's progress is then "frozen".

The ad hoc workflow:

This flow requires employees in an organization to communicate with each other in order to avoid errors, risks and avoid obstacles. The path is then no longer "frozen" but "dynamic".

Thus the Workflow becomes automated, the Workflow tools gradually become more specific, agile and efficient.

Workflows & Watch Tower / Business Intelligence

Automation through Business Intelligence is beneficial for a company, it consists in providing all types of information at the right time and to the right person.

Developing or using a Business Intelligence / control tower solution remains beneficial and advantageous.

• Present all the information in a structured and coherent manner,
• Possibility of having a relevant indicator that helps companies in their decision-making,
• Gather and consolidate quantified data (purchases, sales, accounting, number of customers, etc.,
• Willingness to improve the visibility of figures, discrepancies, anomalies, delays, obstacles within a company,
• Anticipate and forecast trends.

AUTOMATISATION BPM / Workflow

In order to improve the performance of companies, it is essential for them to automate their processes. Indeed, events occur continuously and can disrupt the ecosystem of the Supply Chain. These events require reluctance and vigilance on the Supply Chain. This is why, due to constant upheaval, companies are in dire need of being alarmed in real time about their activities.

BPM / Workflow automation allows management of tasks but also information within a company regardless of its size. This allows employees to prioritize their tasks and thus gain efficiency, limit the risk of errors, alert in the event of an event but also optimize communication within a company.

Automation of sales processes / Sales automation

The automation of sales processes saves you time and increases productivity, especially in the sales process, which remains the main activity of your business. 

• Universal processes
• No forgotten order: each order is tracked and alerted in the event of a delay,
• Better reports: improve each Supply Chain process

There are 3 ways to automate processes:

• Create a workflow automation process that meets your needs.
• Create hundreds of other processes to automate tedious and repetitive tasks within your team's process. The goal is to focus on operational actions.
• Improve or modify, delete or make a workflow inactive.

Companies are looking for efficient and effective tools to improve the sales process, preparations, receptions, transfers, inventories, deliveries, field interventions, the journey and customer satisfaction. Artificial intelligence has therefore taken place within companies and translates into real added value.

Artificial intelligence enables the processing of operational data; improving performance and business learning.

All data such as data on your customers, your company's sales, the market context and competitors, the various suppliers, delivery delays, the price scale, promotions, consumer reliability, inventory management, the quality and duration of receipts / preparations, process planning, financial / accounting flow inventories, distribution mode, etc.

Thanks to this, the validation requests in the company by the manager or director are automated and the orders can thus be automatically sent. The criteria of the order are free but validated or refused by the manager / director.

Automation of logistics processes :

A company has the option of fully or partially automating its logistics processes. These are numerous and common to every company.

- Management of goods receipts : Time management in the preparation and receipt of orders, reduce and eliminate validation errors: scan, barcode, QR-code, RFID chip,

- Management of raw material receipts : ERP management for quality monitoring, product monitoring, inventory on stocks,

- Inventories : Detect unknown products in advance to streamline your inventories. Detect missing products and identify the cause of full traceability deviations and value its stocks (FIFO, LIFO, CUMP, FEFO, NIFO),

- Delivery / Tours : Optimization of schedules, management of files and customer journeys, follow-up of journeys, multidistribution,

- Inventory management : simplify and improve inventory management thanks to an omnichannel solution,

- Other processes : etc.

Automation of repetitive tasks :

BPM or Workflow automation saves considerable time for companies that spend a lot of time on routine tasks. The goal then being to connect each movement between them and to automate the process of making an appointment, assigning a sales representative, adding contact. Workflow automation is a real lever for productivity in companies and for multitasking. The automation of processes allows companies to benefit from many advantages:

• Efficiency,
• Job satisfaction,
• Accuracy of data and tasks,
• Productivity.

Automate your process and improve the collaborative aspect: automate your emails, sms, validation notifications, data exports, etc. automatically and save time by avoiding time-consuming and repetitive tasks.

Automation process

In addition to BPM / Workflow there is also automation, not to be confused with automation. This process involves using the services of software in a computer application. Automation enables an automatic system of a business suite of operations.

Automation enables workflows to create accountability within an enterprise. No task can be mismanaged or even missed. Each employee becomes aware of their responsibilities and the importance of their position through automatic triggers and reminders.

BPMN

The responsibilities and tasks to be performed within a company are sometimes very different. Automation but also task optimization are present to bring together all business processes and adopt the same vocabulary.

BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation which corresponds to the business process and rating model. Like BPM / Workflow, BPMN corresponds to the analysis, performance and modeling, but above all to the automation of the various business processes. The N in BPMN stands for Notation, which is a method of graphing processes. This makes it possible to define a common framework for the representation of all business processes.

BPMN 2.0 Standard :

The business process modeling standard called BPMN allows the same vocabulary to be adopted within the process. It is a diagram modeling from A to Z all the planned processes. There is a set of BPMN elements and symbol:

BPMN is characterized with four types of elements for graphical representations of different business processes:

• Flow objects: events, activities, gateways
  Events: there are three types of events: start (the one that triggers the process), end (the one that ends the process), intermediate (interactions between environments)
• Connection objects: sequence flow, household flow, association
  Connectors: there are two types of connectors: sequence flows (how events and connectors interact with each other) as well as household flows (how the business process interacts with all objects)
• Corridors: Main actors of the process. Those are not necessarily in the same company but can be in the same process.
• Artifacts: additional information added to bring details to the diagram: data objects, groups, annotations, comments.

The avantages :

• Easily understandable: by all members of the company but also by external members but this is not simplistic: BPMN defines subtypes for objects in order to benefit from a detailed description of the process.
• The orchestration of the processes is automated by an overlay of models: the events within the BPMN describe the action to be performed (task, transaction, sub-process, call, mail, etc.).
• Gain in agility, speed, productivity: link objectives between them

RPA: Robotic process automation

RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. It is a technology that makes it possible to enter into the object of the Workflow structured indications on the logic of the various trades present in a company. This can configure the RPA software or robot in its own way in order to read and interpret the object, apply the processing or not to trigger a response and communicate it.

This automates the objects of each business process through automatic responses such as a message, receiving an email or a letter.

There are 4 types of Automation :

- Assisted RPA or front office : this RPA performs the work of the front office: that is to say that the robot executes the built tasks to the letter.

- Unassisted RPA or back office : work orchestration, work to be done, performance analysis.

- Autonomous RPA : the RP performs more detailed information processing (events, objects) using a workflow. This level is more complex and carries out information processing with workflows.

- Cognitive RPA : corresponds to the intersection between recognition software and data interpretation

What RPA process management brings :

• Reduced personnel costs and human errors. Indeed, since the robot replaces humans.
• Stepping up on automated processes
• Avoid the application of repetitive tasks

Create one or more processes for creating automated actions in a single Workflow

BPM, Workflow or Automation allow you to automate your processes within the same platform.

Due to the advancement of the Supply Chain, it is becoming essential to automate and digitize these different processes within a company.

Workflow process automation functionality allows companies to create it with different sequences of automated actions. It is also possible in some processes to add due dates or times before the condition is triggered.

In fact, the user will first define the trigger and the various stages of his workflow to be executed automatically as soon as the condition is validated. There are several types of variable trigger depending on the Workflow you choose:

• Condition: customizable according to your desires / needs
• Trigger date
  In addition there are several types of conditions :
• Creation
• Update
• Deletion

When creating a Workflow, you have the option of configuring the desired actions in the order that seems most appropriate to you. This is called creating objects.

Add dates, times, conditions, notifications to be sure to follow your workflow correctly. For example, when condition 1 is defined and validated, you can decide to receive an email to proceed with condition 2. It is a circle comprising one or more conditions that you can manipulate as you wish.

Automating one or more processes within an organization increases the efficiency and productivity of employees in the workplace. The use of software and package simplifies day-to-day business management.

These complement the manual work of men and provide the company with assurance on its production.

Process management leads to increased communication, employees / workers communicate more easily and quickly with each other.

By all these advantages, the company will gain in productivity and time.