The purposeful functioning of a modern organisation is largely directly proportional to the efficiency of business processes and their flexibility. Properly set up and high-quality business processes are one of the basic prerequisites for success in the market.
Today, every company must deal with a number of processes: circulation of accounting documents, approval of purchase requisitions, billing of expenses, orders and contracts, complaints or grievances, approval of projects and investment projects, customer requirements, onboarding of employees, approval of business trips, training or vacation.
Often these processes run in paper form due to old habits or are part of existing information systems (IS), where any modification is a time-consuming and resource-intensive intervention. These processes are often lengthy and administratively demanding and it is frequently difficult to monitor the current stage of the process or who is to blame for a late approval. An audit trail to retrospectively evaluate the effectiveness of a given process or to verify it is often just a dream.
But this does not have to be the case! Properly set up and managed modern technologies provide solutions that can support the digital transformation of companies, speed up processes, reduce costs and create a user-friendly environment regardless of the heterogeneous database of existing IS in the organisation.
What are the options for process automation?
Based on our years of experience auditing business processes and in relation to customer requirements in the field of process automation, we decided to become a partner of the universal process platform K2 from 2016, which is able to bridge the shortcomings or limitations of existing systems (ERP, HR, CRM, SRM, etc.) in terms of process management and workflow.
The K2 platform (from the American company SourceCode) is a solution used globally by large multinational companies, but also by many domestic companies in a number of industries. The system is suitable for a company with ten or a thousand users. Its main advantage is versatility, i.e. the ability to work with data from almost any system without the need for programming and the possibility of integration with common application interfaces (APIs).
How can we effectively automate business processes?
Through a suitably selected process platform, you can streamline all business processes overall. Specifically, it is the management of the circulation of information (data) from their acquisition through approval to linking to defined activities in the organisation's existing systems. The platform will enable not only the assignment of individual tasks to the relevant employees, but also communication with other corporate information systems.
Another great advantage of this platform is full integration into all major platforms for software process robotization (RPA). As part of your own processes, activities can easily jump from human power to the robot and back without complicated integrations. Another advantage is the possibility to solve individual processes and workflows not only on a computer, but also on a tablet or mobile phone, for example on the way to work or to the airport.
In the case of company processes, the issue of security and protection of company information is also extremely important. By not distributing data, documents or forms in an insecure environment such as e-mail, public repositories for storing and exchanging documents, etc., information security is also increased.
So what are the main benefits of using the K2 platform?
- Process platform without the need for programming
- Fast implementation of the first processes, easy adoption of this technology by employees
- Reusable integrations for most IS (even local manufacturers)
- Secure configuration
- Real-time data usage
- Acceleration of processes
- Auditability of processes
- Possibility of local or Cloud installation
- Price of process automation lower than in most common IS
In our experience, K2 is the ideal solution for the next step in digitising the functioning of your company without the need for massive investments and lengthy implementation projects. It elegantly bridges the shortcomings of existing IS, their rigidity or obsolescence. It is advisable to start with smaller, simpler processes and gradually automate even more complex processes, which will often require optimisation before the actual digitisation. Thus, you will often not only achieve the desired automation, but also break old habits in your company's processes.
We have dozens of business process automation solutions in a number of industries as well as in-depth knowledge of the corporate IT environment, including security requirements.
We are ready to discuss the necessary features suitable for process automation directly in your organisation and together with you find suitable connections for the automation and robotization of processes.
Tomáš Kubíček, Michal Vackář
tomas.kubicek@bdo-it.com, michal.vackar@bdo-it.com