Take the pain out of document generation with document automation software, and boost accuracy too.
Audit. Compliance. Team training. Process re-engineering. Every one of these activities requires that your team have accurate business process documentation in hand to maximise success. Implementing process automation can significantly improve operational efficiency and productivity within business operations. Here are seven reasons why process documentation is a smart strategy to support today’s complex documentation needs.
Reason #1 Process Documentation is Not Optional. For a variety of reasons, complex enterprises need to have a firm understanding of how they actually conduct business and “how things really work around here.” It needs to be written down in a way that your team, your auditors, your regulators, and your business analysts will understand and be able to use and customise for their intended purpose. Understanding process models is crucial in this context, as they provide a clear representation of how business processes work.
Reason #2 Manual documentation is time-consuming. The problem is that generating and maintaining accurate business process documentation is a real pain because it’s time-consuming and difficult. The knowledge of the process has to come from business users and business analysts, whose time is expensive – and any time spent creating process documents and relevant documents takes them away from their primary mission of running the business. Even worse, once this hard-won information is captured, it can become out-of-date in a matter of days or weeks as business processes change over time.
Reason #3: Manual Documentation is Expensive. The cost of documenting your business processes can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct costs for consultants, interviewers, and document preparation – not to mention your team’s opportunity cost, which can be much greater. Business rules can help reduce costs by guiding automated systems.
Reason #4 Automation Makes It Easy. With software for automated business process documentation, the business user turns on a process “capture” feature from their desktop toolbar when executing a business process in their enterprise application of choice, such as SAP or a web application. When the process is complete, they simply turn off the capture feature. Every business process function, keystroke, and transaction has been uploaded into the business process document automation software. In this way, the software captures process information directly from the user’s interaction with the application and its underlying business objects. Integrated systems play a crucial role in capturing business process information. No interviewer. No time delay. Little chance of error. High accuracy. Lower cost. This automated document production ensures efficiency and accuracy.
Reason #5 Automation Scales With Ease. The best part is that this is not limited to single transactions with an individual user. You may have a dozen or more people involved in a complex end-to-end business process – and today’s automation platforms have the ability to stitch together business process segments across users and geographies. This means that they can capture a comprehensive, end-to-end view of the whole process. Note that this is not a hypothetical process or the process as it was originally designed – it’s the process as actually executed by real business users every day. Business operations benefit significantly from automation. Capturing the process is the hard part, and once that’s done, generating documents is straightforward.
Reason #6 You Can Streamline Training Development. Creating step-by step-documents for training business users on how to perform normal process activities (such as creating a new order or processing a shipment), has historically been time-consuming, tedious, and quickly outdated. With software like Worksoft’s Process Documentation, step-by-step training materials include a narrative of each process step along with sample data, full screenshots, and even highlighted data entry fields used for every transaction. Results are automatically generated in MS Word or PDF documents. Best of all, when part of a process changes (because a business user has captured a process in a new way), new documentation is generated with the click of a button. With business process document automation software, the generation of training material is automatic, and automatically updated. Digital documents play a crucial role in training development by ensuring materials are up-to-date and easily accessible.
Reason #7 Meeting Audit & Compliance Requirements is Imperative. When external or internal auditors are deployed in your organisation, one of the first things they ask for is a description of the processes used in your business. In my experience, this is time-consuming and takes away valuable time from your team’s normal activities. In addition to detailed, plain-English process narratives described above, Worksoft Analyse allows you to provide auditors with up-to-date flow charts describing the overall process (when an overview is needed), as well as detailed step-by-step documentation. Manual steps or signature approval blocks can be easily added because the process description is generated in easy-to-edit formats, like MS Word. Related resources are essential for audits and compliance, providing additional insights and tools. Ensuring that all team members are on the same page helps streamline processes and improve efficiency.