11 Automation Strategies to Optimize End-to-End Workflows

How can a business automate and effectively optimize end-to-end workflows?

To help organizations determine ways to automate business processes, we asked experts in machine learning and AI and business leaders for their best advice. From starting small with predictive text software to setting strategic goals, there are several suggestions that may help you streamline workflows with automation to grow your business.

Here then are 11 automation strategies to maximize your end-to-end workflows:


Start Small With Predictive Text Software

Business automation is such a great way to work effectively. Start leveraging the power of artificial intelligence or machine learning. Having a software to take some of the load off can help your business work at the highest efficiency. You can start small with something like predictive text software. This way, you can cut down on correcting errors in your writing or reducing worry about your tone.

Our software corrects errors in real time and learns your patterns. You can save keystrokes so you save even more time and speed up your workflows and business processes so that you can get back to the heavier-lifting, more complex issues when it comes to running a business.

Guy Katabi, Lightkey

Include Automated Backups

Protect your website with daily automated backups. This automated process can help protect your business against viruses, hackers and even your own code accidentally breaking your site. For example, updating a plugin on WordPress may accidentally bring down your entire site. By keeping a daily website backup, a business can easily revert to a working version of a site to restore connectivity with customers.

Mor Hasson, Maple Hosting

Set Strategic Goals First

It is hard to optimize business workflows without a target in mind. As you begin to restructure business processes for operational efficiency, align changes that tie into your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs). At Comidor, we help businesses set strategic goals and monitor business performance with real-time performance tracking using Comidor’s reporting and analytics capabilities reports and analytics solutions. Clients can view their goal progression in their own unique dashboards to gain valuable insight to their company.

Spiros Skolarikis, Comidor

Automate All That You Can

The ‘paradox’ we always talk about is how automation can, when used in the right places, make your hiring processes more human. Businesses hire recruiters and managers to spend time with people, pinpoint growth, and develop teams. When you can automate up to 90% of recruiting tasks — from pre-screening resumes all the way through interview scheduling and onboarding paperwork — you not only increase the speed and efficacy of the hiring process, you actually allow your people to spend more time on the work that affects the business and their own growth.

Josh Zywien, Paradox

Optimize Using Deep Learning

Various data science inclusions in the end-to-end workflows can help in optimizing the workforce and automating the processes. Deep learning is one such example, which, when added, can help in identifying the dependencies, gaps, and missing efforts.

Terkel is a knowledge platform that creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. We use content intelligence as our deep learning algorithm that enables us to automate the image graphic creation, answer selection, and also panelist rankings.

Based on these attributes, answers are selected and a Google Doc is created as an output of this automation. Deep learning helps Terkel stay automated and reduce manual efforts by minimizing human intervention.

Sri Sagar Kalisetty, Terkel

Catalog Your Products

Companies can now use AI tools to categorize, classify and understand product properties and their relationships. This means you can help sellers automatically generate offers from your CPQ (configure price quote software) without them needing to be experts or research your entire catalog to create and configure offers. It saves time, delivers better value to your clients, and reduces the likelihood of mismatched products and returns.

Tal Valler, Zoovu

Consider Process Mapping

A process map is the simplest and most effective way to communicate this information so that it can be easily understood by people across your organization. Process mapping via automation is an important aspect of accelerating and optimizing common processes since it allows everyone to know what tasks need to be performed and which tasks they need to collaborate on with other users.

It enables key decisions about process improvements to be made easily from the perspective of a process manager. If you want to start automating your workflows, process mapping is the easiest approach to figure out where to start I believe.

Herbert Riggs, UnscrambleX

Prioritize Which Workflows to Automate

In order to automate and optimize end-to-end workflows, an intimate and detailed understanding of individual, departmental, and company goals are necessary. Specifically, create a pyramid that details the 10,000 foot company goal, all the way down to individual goals. This will allow you to prioritize what workflows push the needle more than others, while also ensuring that you have a roadmap for future automation along the way.

Lucas Nudel, Pride Palace

Adopt CRM Automation

CRM automation creates a streamlined workflow for sales teams. Salespeople just have to click to review a new prospect’s information and schedule a call with a representative. It also seamlessly sets up the proper follow-up process. Automation is such a crucial part of a smooth workflow for salespeople. In addition, similar processes can be applied across departments; anything that takes mundane tasks off the hands of employees is a win because it helps them focus on the creative, higher-level work that’s needed to drive businesses forward.

Nicholas Vasiliou, BioHealth Nutrition

Choose an All-Inclusive Platform 

When the pandemic first hit, I began offering pro bono job searching help to professionals furloughed or laid-off from their jobs. I ended up with 30 clients at once and was using spreadsheets to manage my pro bono clients. I ended up spending up to 10 hours a week inputting new clients, tracking client progress, and managing client relations all using a spreadsheet.

After spending time doing my due diligence, I signed up with Dubsado to automate my client leads, discovery calls, and overall workflow. It’s truly optimized how I work and now enables me to spend much more time working with my clients to help them land their next position.

Jennifer Holtz, Second Wind Career Strategies

Test and Audit Business Processes

It pays off to consider all possible routes through which processes may progress before rolling out the workflow automation. Usually, over 80% of subsequent work relates to those cases that slip through the cracks and don’t fit into considered categories. Testing work sequences on a sample of real-life processes can help prevent that. Also, tuning the workflows should always be included in the process automation plan.

Michael Sena, Senacea

Further reading: Databricks Turns Data Into Billions

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

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