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What is workflow automation?

What is workflow automation?

The process of automating a series of actions to accomplish a task with minimal human intervention is called workflow automation. In essence, it's automating repetitive tasks to make your work easier. Workflow automation software helps your business optimize its overall efficiency, productivity, and transparency.

Why is workflow automation software important?

Consumers today expect results fast, and digitization is the only way to deliver. By automating repetitive tasks, organizations can save time, effort, and money, and avoid human error. And by delivering quality work quickly and accurately, businesses gain an advantage over competitors relying on manual processes. However, to achieve all of this, you need effective workflow automation tool in place.

Why is it important?
How does workflow automation add value to your business?

How does workflow automation add value to your business?

Leveraging automation can enable businesses to transform time-consuming and arduous manual processes into automated workflows, enhancing business efficiency. Automated workflows assist businesses in optimizing various processes to increase efficiency, revenue, productivity, and collaboration, and reduce costs. This, in turn, provides a far more positive experience for your employees and customers.

What are the types of workflows?

Visual workflow

A visual workflow is a process that allows users to create a sequence of tasks visually, and then execute them by passing data from one task to the next. It provides a high-level overview of the steps in a specific task or business process. Visual workflows improve project management by simplifying every business process involved, resolving conflicts instantly, automating your business processes on the go, and more.

Business workflow

A business workflow is a repetitive process comprised of a set of tasks that must be completed in a particular sequence. It ensures that the right information is sent to the right person at the right time and in the proper sequence. Business workflows can help you improve business operations, eliminate redundancy, reduce downtime, and more.

What to expect in workflow automation software?

Selecting the right workflow automation software is the key to operational and business process efficiency. Effective workflow management uses digital tools to streamline tasks through appropriate features and functionalities. Businesses should consider the following factors when selecting the right workflow automation software:

Go mobile

Capture all notifications, tasks, and approvals on the go. Stay informed at all times by accessing your workflow automation app from anywhere and at any time.

Customize your way

Whether it's a simple business process or a complex workflow, ensure that your workflow automation software can be tailored to your specific business needs by providing multiple templates and easily configurable components.

Seamless integration

Integration must be an important factor when choosing workflow automation software for your business. To streamline your automated workflows, make sure your app has third-party app/custom integrations.

On cloud nine

Your workflow software needs to provide accessibility, reliable and consistent security, data scalability, cost savings, flexibility, and other benefits. This is why cloud-based tools are your go-to solutions.

Intuitive dashboards

Your workflow automation app must have the ability to build comprehensive dashboards with graphs, reports, and charts containing important metrics for your business's growth.

Zoho Creator - A custom workflow automation software

Enter Zoho Creator, a cloud-based workflow automation platform that allows users to build complex workflows with its simple drag-and-drop interface. Its rich suite of features, like integrations, multiplatform support, access controls, and guided scripting, make it easier to design and automate workflows for every process. Using Zoho Creator's workflow automation tools, you can get more done in less time and build scalable workflow solutions.

How to build effective workflow automation software?

How can you benefit from our workflow automation software?

Boost productivity

By automating a redundant business process, employees can save time on menial tasks and focus on solving more complex problems.

Reduce manual errors

With automated business processes, errors can be avoided, and even if they occur, the system will notify you of where the error is at, so you can fix them quickly.

Increase transparency

By defining workflows for internal communication, every detail can be shared, tracked, and accessed across departments by every stakeholder in real time, providing complete visibility.

Enhance customer satisfaction

Provide better customer service by setting up workflow rules to automatically route support tickets based on priority, which helps resolve issues faster, resulting in a better experience for customers.

Some processes you can automate with our workflow automation software

frequently automated workflows
 
  • Reimbursement processes 
  • Employee onboarding 
  • Leave requests 
  • Purchase orders 
  • Customer support 
 

With Zoho Creator’s workflow automation tool, you can

  • Define your workflow

    Design workflows
  • Get productive with automatic processes

    Automate tasks
  • Share the right data with the right people

    Share the right data
  • Check how your team is doing

    Check how your team is doing
  • Design workflows
    • Choose from over 32 different field types to collect data through forms. Auto-populate fields, perform validation and use logic to build a foolproof form.
    • Visualize your workflow and trigger a set of actions based on how and when a user interacts with your application.
    • Use the drag-and-drop script builder to perform calculations and execute complex business tasks.
  • Automate tasks
    • Configure multi-level approvals for any process.
    • Stay on top of your work with notifications about updates or any process deviations.
    • Schedule tasks and send reports, event invitations, and reminders on time.
  • Share applications
    • Group users into roles and assign permissions so they can see only what they need to.
    • Refer to record audits to see who's edited your data and keep track of changes made to your application.
    • Maintain dedicated portals for your customers and allow them to log in and access their information.
  • Publish and monitor
    • Publish your workflows, and test if they work as you want them to.
    • Create reports that help you identify bottlenecks and improve your team's performance.
    • Combine reports in a dashboard so you can narrow down to specific information.

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Workflow automation made easy for all

Workflow automation can assist various departments at your organization in streamlining operations and minimizing the monotony of manual data entry.

Marketing/Sales

HR

Product

IT

Finance

Operations

Here's how our workflow automation software helped our customers

   

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is workflow automation software?

Workflow automation software is a tool that enables businesses to automate a part or all of their operational activities by designing custom workflows. Automating your core business processes using Zoho Creator's workflow automation platform can have a real impact on your organization's efficiency.

What are the benefits of workflow automation tools?

Here are five major benefits of workflow automation software:

  • Increased productivity
  • Fewer errors
  • Improved compliance
  • Saves time
  • Better visibility

How do you automate a workflow?

Although it differs from person to person, there are usually 5 to 6 steps involved. This is what Zoho Creator recommends:
1. Identify the repetitive tasks.
2. Define your requirements clearly.
3. Sketch a workflow of the processes that need automation.
4. Choose workflow automation software that suits your needs.
5. Train stakeholders on the software.
6. Create workflows as simple or complex as you want.

And then you're done!

What should you look for in workflow automation software?

A well-rounded workflow automation tool should be easy to use, have excellent dashboard and analytics features, seamless integrations, multi-platform compatibility, and role based controls.

What's the difference between workflow automation and RPA?

Both robotic process automation (RPA) and workflow automation are essential tools for automating various business processes, although they serve different functions. While RPA has a wider scope in that it may automate whole workflows from beginning to end, workflow automation helps automate tasks inside a business process or workflow.

Why choose Zoho Creator?

We have helped 13,000+ brands create bespoke workflow automation and improve their end-to-end operations across a variety of industries. With over 25 years of experience in catering to B2B organizations, we have the best tools in the trade to help you improve your business.

What are some examples of workflow automation?

Attendance management, leave tracker, employee onboarding, document review, and invoice approval are just a few business processes can be automated. You can also checkout our pre-built workflow templates to get started right away.