What is business process automation? We look at definitions and 10 real examples of BPA of enterprises.

Material composition

• Definition of Business Process Automation
• What is a consistent and integrated approach to automation?
• Consistent approach
• A complex approach
• Approach example
• Which business processes can be automated and which are difficult to automate?
• Which businesses require business process automation?
• We exclude the human factor from the company's business processes
• Examples of enterprise business process automation
• Example 1. Automation of business processes using 1C
• Example 2: Automation of the purchasing department
• Example 3. Automation of interaction with tenants
• Example 4: Automation of machine tools and production (CNC and non-CNC)
• Example 5. HR automation, resume collection
• Example 6. Automation of management reporting
• Example 7. Personnel training
• Example 8. Automation of the sales department
• Example 9. Automation of relationships with B2B customers (B2B portal and back office)
• Example 10. E-commerce automation
• An example of how pricing automation works
• Conclusion

 

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In the review article of our blog, we decided to highlight the topic of business process automation.

This material is applicable to all types of business and production. But we will try to carry out the corresponding analysis not on a dry theory, but using fairly detailed examples, although we still have to catch a little of the theoretical part.

Business process automation can also be found under the names "BPM" (Business Process Management) and "BPA" (Business process automation).

 

 

Note: it will be important to add that business process automation, or integrated enterprise automation, is considered in this material not from the point of view of installing robotic equipment, CNC machines or conveyor lines in production, but from the point of view of automation through the introduction of software products into business processes companies.

 

Definition

In order to understand what the automation of a company's business processes is, it is necessary to start with what business processes are in general and what they are. In this case, we will not invent any definition of our own, so we will simply turn to Wikipedia.

«A business process is a set of interrelated activities or work aimed at creating a specific product or service for consumers. The management concept of BPM (from the English business process management) considers business processes as important resources of the enterprise, and assumes their management as one of the key organizational systems.

There are three types of business processes:

• managers — business processes that control the functioning of the system, such as corporate governance and strategic management;

• operating — representing the main activity of the organization, creating the main stream of income (supply, production, marketing, sales or debt collection);

• supporting — serving the organization (accounting, recruitment, technical support).»

Learn more about business processes here

But what exactly is business process automation? As such, there is no university definition of what BP automation is, so specialists from different fields understand it in their own way, within the framework of their professional orientation or specifics.

For example, for an accountant, automation of a business process may involve the introduction of an accounting system from 1C and the creation of uploads, but for a marketer, this may be the development of a consolidated custom interface between all information systems with which he works, including with 1C interface, in order to be able to quickly track the demand for products, balances, advertising channels, budgets, and so on.

Therefore, we propose the following definition for understanding what business process automation is:

Automation of business processes is the optimization, simplification and acceleration of the work of a company, production or employee, in any required direction, through the implementation of software and hardware solutions, in order to increase the quality and efficiency of the company.

VIMS Communication specializes in software automation of business processes, namely the development and implementation of software products in accordance with the client's terms of reference.

In other words, we solve business problems by leveraging technology.

To automate business processes, we develop custom products or integrate ready-made packaged solutions with personal adaptation for the client.

 

What is a consistent and integrated approach to automation?

In business process automation, there are 2 main approaches to implementation, for simplicity we will call them “sequential” and “complex”. Perhaps this is not entirely true from the point of view of the terminology used in IT, but the purpose of this material is to tell about the automation of business processes, just for non-IT specialists.

 

Consistent approach

A sequential approach is used when automating a business if a company needs to automate not all business processes, but only a part of them, or automate the entire company, but gradually.

This approach can be called consistent by the fact that after the introduction of automation in a business process, it is possible to move on to automating the next business process. Thus, moving along the chain of business processes of the company, until the moment of full automation of the enterprise.

The sequential approach is chosen for several reasons:

• Automation of a part of business processes allows to reduce investments in relation to investments in complex enterprise automation;
• Sequential automation allows you to reduce the amount of invested resources at the start of the project and start with a small prepayment for one business process (prepayment should be understood not only as financial, but also as time and personnel investments);
• Fast automation and operational start-up of relatively complex automation of the entire enterprise.

In the case of a sequential approach, the customer, together with the developer (we recommend VIMS Com.), defines the entire schematic of the business process whose automation is required.

 

A complex approach

An integrated approach is focused on the automation of the entire enterprise.

Integrated and consistent approaches are closely related to each other. In fact, an integrated approach is a chain of sequential automation of business processes, but with the possible development of a single software product, a single logical core of the system and a common interface. Such development requires the preparation of a capacious technical task with details of each business process and their joint interaction.

 

Let's take an example of both approaches

Let's say the trading and manufacturing company "N" decided to automate its business.

In this case, those areas in which automation is required are determined.

If a company needs to automate only the procurement of materials for production and automate the work of sales managers, then these two systems can be logically completely unrelated and their implementation is possible in the form of two separate software products.

That is, the work of the purchaser and the work of the sales manager, in this case, are absolutely not intertwined, which means that a consistent approach can be applied to reduce costs.

Suppose the second option, the purchasing department and sales managers are closely related to each other.

In this example, the manager, upon confirmation of the order from the client, sends a request for production, production, in turn, forms a request to the purchasing department with a request to purchase a sufficient amount of material to fulfill the order.

This chain can also include a warehouse, which must understand the volume of imported material for production, as well as logisticians, accounting, managers, etc.

In the second example, the company will need the development and implementation of an automated banking system, but with a single logical data processing core and integration into all company accounting systems.

This approach will make it possible to promptly provide all specialists with the necessary information in the process of production and transfer of the order to the client.

The option of complex automation from the second example, with a high degree of probability, will be implemented within the framework of one software product and is aimed at working for all departments of the company.

The example shows that the software products used in automation can be either in the form of several software products or in the form of one.

 

Which business processes can be automated and which are difficult to automate?

You can automate all business processes of the company without exception.

When automating a BP, it is important that the logic of the process can be put into some kind of mathematical form. In other words, you can automate any mathematically understandable process of an enterprise, but the automation of a process that is directly related to the “creative” or “non-verbal” component brings special difficulties.

Describing the issue of creativity in automation is quite difficult and long, so let's just look at an example:

The job of a human resources (HR) specialist is to process an unlimited amount of data about new employees, according to the given parameters. For example, a specialist can search for an employee based on education, work experience, special skills, and so on.

Then, from the collected questionnaires, candidates are selected who are invited for an interview, after which a decision appears on admission or refusal.

So, if we consider the automation of the business process of finding employees, then there is nothing supernatural here - a detailed collection of data on the necessary parameters using the developed software product.

To automate the issue of collecting and processing applicants' profiles from absolutely any number of sites is a relatively simple issue, and in this case, automation easily copes with the selection of the current pool of specialists in the shortest possible time.

But it is quite difficult to automate the decision on the candidate.

During a personal meeting with a candidate, HR pays attention not only to professional training, work experience, but also to related factors, for example, behavior, appearance, psychological portrait, quality of answers to questions and much more, and this is where the main difficulty lies. automatic recruitment.

It is difficult for an algorithm or a computer to replace the professional qualities of professional HR. The software package is devoid of intuitive selection and evaluation of non-verbal factors, so the result will still be based on mathematical inference.

Theoretically, it is possible to automate the issue of selecting a candidate, for example, with the involvement of neural networks, but again, automating the creative component or some non-verbal and non-obvious parameters is a rather complicated process, which, in any case, will require investment and a large resource.

It is important to note that despite the complexity of automating such business processes, this area is actively developing and is of great interest to large international companies.

 

 

Which businesses require business process automation?

It would be fair to say that it is possible to automate business processes in absolutely any company.

But first of all, automation is required for those enterprises that have a lot of routine processes, large data sets, a fleet of production equipment, and an extended chain of communications between departments and specialists.

 

We exclude the human factor from the company's business processes

The exclusion of the human factor is one of the most important advantages that BPA provides.

Designed, developed and implemented BPs make the company faster and more accurate in processing incoming and outgoing data.

As a rule, the work of the UPS is not tied to employees, has no days off, holidays, and easily copes with the processing of large amounts of data in a short time without errors and according to a given algorithm.

One of the simplest examples in understanding the application of business process automation can be the construction of management and production reporting.

Often, in the manual version of such a report, from one to several employees are involved who collect, analyze and summarize relevant data for several days or weeks, while the automated version of the same report can be built immediately after pressing the necessary button, which gives at the moment, the efficiency and accuracy of the data obtained.

This quality of the report is achieved due to the fact that the BPA logical block is connected with all information and accounting systems of the company involved in the construction and presentation of data (warehouse, production, accounting, logistics, 1C, etc.).

 

Examples of enterprise business process automation

Now let's move on to examples of business process automation.

Objectively, it will be noted that, naturally, within the framework of one material, we will not be able to consider absolutely all options for possible automation for all enterprises, because business process automation or complex automation is a very capacious topic that is developed, developed and implemented according to the individual scenario of each company, and accordingly, there can be an infinite number of such examples.

 

Example 1

Automation of business processes using 1C 

The most understandable and common software solution for UPS are products from 1C.

We are sure that there are no people in the business environment who have not heard about 1C.

Hundreds of books can be written (and have already been written) about software solutions from 1C, but the task of our material is to provide information on what automation of enterprise business processes is, how to understand, start, plan and implement it.

1C is the basic software product for enterprise automation. Almost every company starts its journey in automation with the introduction of 1C.

1C allows you to simplify and systematize the work of accounting, warehouse, manage small and large enterprises, production, through its software solutions, the names of which already refer us to the direction of automation for which this product was developed, for example:

• 1C:Enterprise
• 1С:Аccounting
• 1C:Trade management
• 1C:Integrated automation
• 1C:Managing our company
• 1C:Payroll and personnel management

Automation from 1C is possible in any field. The company provides a huge number of editions and various variations, with the possibility of refinement and adaptation to any enterprise.

The presence of 1C or other accounting systems is fundamental when considering the issue of automation in general.

The accounting system is the base from which all the work of the company and its further development are built.

In our practice, there is a case where the architecture of an existing, fairly large and expensive E-commerce project was redesigned and changed due to the need to introduce 1C as a data source. The restructuring of the project architecture took place because the introduction of 1C was not considered at the start, but with the growth of the project, there was a serious need to introduce an accounting system as a data source.

1C stores and distributes in itself all data on products, margins, cost, wages, depreciation, balances, purchases, balance, equipment, etc., really simplifying (automating) work in all given directions.

The introduction of 1C automates, first of all, the company's accounting and is the main source of data for other internal and external systems that can work both in the form of one-way and two-way exchange.

For the implementation of 1C, you can contact us

 

Example 2

Automation of the purchasing department

Let's give an example of one of our rather interesting cases on automation of the procurement process.

For conspiracy, let's again take the trading and manufacturing company "N", whose activities are related to the sale of metal, the production of products and metal structures, the sale of fasteners and related products.

The company's product range includes more than 25,000 units of various products stored in several warehouses.

Company "N" cooperates with more than 8,000 suppliers throughout Russia, the CIS, Asia and Europe.

The main difficulty of the work of the purchasing department of the company "N" was to control the balance, forecast the required volume of purchases, the frequency of purchases, seasonality, the formation of purchase requests for suppliers, as well as the selection of the current supplier, taking into account the characteristics, location and logistics.

The problems that the company faced were concentrated in insufficiently fast processing of minimum balances, a large purchasing department, a proactively configured accounting system, a directory of current / outdated suppliers, incorrect nomenclature and articles, the absence of a supplier rating and manual selection of commercial offers.

In other words, the purchase of goods was carried out absolutely uncontrollably, at the discretion of the purchaser, in manual mode, without predicting any results and terms, taking into account the human factor. In addition, it is worth noting that the procurement process was not transparent and did not inspire absolutely no confidence that the really best offers are being selected.

All this directly affected the assortment of the company, the availability of goods in warehouses and the cost of products for the end consumer, in connection with which the question of automating this business process arose.

As part of the procurement automation work, we rebuilt the company's accounting system, implemented all the necessary internal processes to control and track the stock balances in the company's warehouses and stores. In connection with the processing and adjustment of the accounting system, as well as the development of automatic control procedures, the purchasing department was able to track the availability of goods in all warehouses already at the first stage of automation.

The next step was to redesign and set up a directory of current and irrelevant suppliers, with the assignment of a manual rating from the buyer. Subsequently, the rating was automated, but the possibility of its manual adjustment was retained.

The rating of suppliers in this project affects the automatic selection of relevant offers with further graphic marking for specialists from the purchasing department.

In the process of automating procurement, a system was implemented for automatically generating a request for a quotation for the company's suppliers.

That is, when the quantity of goods in the warehouse drops to the minimum current value, the system generates a request for each item or group of items, sending an electronic form to suppliers with a notification to the purchasing department.

The choice of suppliers and sending a request for a quotation is based on the directory of suppliers, the availability of an up-to-date assortment and rating.

It will be important to add that the automated procurement system provides and implements several options for transferring prices from the supplier:

1. Web form;
2. File sharing;
3. Direct integration with the supplier's accounting system.

After receiving all the necessary quotations within a specified time (set by the purchaser), the procurement system provides the specialist with a generated table with the output of all proposals and graphic marking of the best of them.

If we take a closer look at the formation of the final table, then the choice of the current supplier, relative to the rest of the company's suppliers, is carried out according to a combination of such parameters as: product cost, availability of alternatives, assortment, supplier reliability, location, history of cooperation, availability of logistics and logistics cost.

In total, more than 20 different parameters are involved in the logic of automatic supplier selection.

For the convenient work of the buyer, we have developed specialized interfaces that interact with both 1C and the developed procurement system.

After the introduction of the automated procurement system, the company "N" became much more efficient and accurate in purchasing goods, reduced costs, reduced the number of specialists in the department, eliminated the human factor, and the company's work was reorganized into reliable suppliers.

 

Example 3

Automation of interaction with tenants

This case with an example of automation, as can be seen from the subtitle, is aimed at simplifying the interaction between the landlord and the tenant.

This automation option is applicable to all types of premises requiring maintenance and implying client-service communication - shopping and business centers, urban complexes and homeowners associations, as well as street retail.

The problem that needed to be solved by automation was the high load on the office of the management company of the business center (the constant presence of tenants, on absolutely any issues, in the administration office).

During the analysis of the activities of the administration of the business center, the following pool of problems was identified:

• Provision and exchange of accounting documentation with tenants, incl. at the request of the tenant (contracts, invoices, acts and reconciliation acts);
• Receiving and transmitting data from water and electricity meters from the tenant;
• Regular provision of mandatory accounting documentation at the end of the period (bills for electricity, water, maintenance, internet, cleaning, meeting rooms, etc.);
• Provision of documentation and passes for entry, exit, loading for commercial and personal vehicles of tenants, as well as replacement and restoration of passes;
• The load on the administrative and economic department (AHO) for servicing tenants' premises (electricity, Internet, video surveillance cameras, access control systems, equipment replacement and repair);
• Requests for booking meeting rooms and conference rooms;
• Requests for rental and preparation of equipment for conferences and negotiations;
• The problem is in identifying the specialist who carried out any repair or critical work in the event of a repeated problem with the tenant;
• Interactive layout of tenants on floors and offices, indicating the name of the company and legal entity, for quick navigation of employees upon request.

To solve the problems listed above, we have developed a communication web platform based on the ServiceDesk and HelpDesk system, with the provision of personal accounts, two-way integration with 1C, file exchange, and linking the actual departments of the business center structure to servicing tenant requests.

The system is a web platform located on the server of the business center, with personal accounts for tenants and the ability to form your request immediately to the required department.

 

Let's analyze the elements of the system on the above problems:

Provision and exchange of accounting documentation with tenants, incl. at the request of the tenant (contracts, invoices, acts and reconciliation acts).

This problem is completely solved due to the implementation of personal accounts and a link with 1C.

That is, when the documents are ready, the 1C business center automatically generates and uploads documents to the tenant's personal account. Documents are stored inside personal accounts during the entire period of the tenant's work in the business center. This model of providing documents completely eliminates the loss and search for documents by the tenant for any period.

If the tenant needs to receive some documents additionally, he can form an application for their provision, inside his personal account.

The tenant's application goes directly to the accounting department of the business center on a first-come, first-served basis. The response to the application is uploaded to the tenant's personal account, indicating the contacts of the employee who processed the application, as well as notifying the tenant by mail.

If the tenant uses EDI, then the documents are uploaded both to the EDI and to the personal account.

 

Receiving and transmitting data from water and electricity meters from the tenant.

Automation of metering devices is built on the automatic collection of meter data, through a software layer associated with the 1C business center.

In other words, data from water and electricity meters located in tenants' offices are automatically transferred to 1C, where all the necessary documents are generated, after which the documents are sent to the tenant's personal account.

Internal processing 1C monitors the status of invoices and transfers them to the web platform interface.

To generate invoices for the period, the accountant needs to press 2 buttons - “generate an invoice” and “send an invoice”

Billing automation made it possible to completely disconnect both the tenants themselves and the accounting department of the business center from the process of providing and processing data.

 

Regular provision of mandatory accounting documentation at the end of the period (bills for electricity, water, maintenance, internet, cleaning, meeting rooms, etc.).

As can be seen from the description of the solution to the first two problems, this item was also solved by automatically generating documents and automatically uploading documents to the tenant's personal account, as well as to the EDF.

 

Provision of documentation and passes for entry, exit, loading for commercial and personal vehicles of tenants, as well as replacement and restoration of passes.

The automation of transport and access documents is similar to the automation of accounting issues, only in this case the tenant's application is not sent to the accounting department, but to the ACS, to the appropriate specialist.

All applications are lined up in the form of a queue, such a scheme allows the BC specialist not to lose requests from tenants and move in sequence.

If the provision of a pass is associated with payment, then the AXO specialist can independently generate an invoice and send it to the tenant (recall that the administrative offices of specialists are connected to 1C and have a two-way exchange), after which the payment status is monitored inside the application. As soon as the invoice is paid, this information enters the application interface and changes the status.

Application processing takes no more than 2 minutes. All data on the tenant necessary for issuing an invoice and a pass are pulled from the application form, and the cost, details and names of the legal entity from 1C.

After the pass or entry documents are ready, the tenant receives a notification.

 

The load on the administrative and economic department (AHO) for servicing tenants' premises (electricity, internet, video surveillance cameras, access control systems, equipment replacement and repair).

The automation of the ACS block lies in the fact that all narrow-profile requests from tenants go directly to the right employee or department of the business center, without involving the administration of the business center in the process of distribution and selection of a specialist.

For example, if a tenant needs to change a light bulb, the application will go to a specialist who replaces light bulbs.
Inside the application, the specialist agrees on all the necessary conditions for the work. After the work is completed, the contractor sets the status of the application as "Completed". If the tenant confirms the completion of the application in his personal account, then the application is closed and marked as completed. If the tenant does not agree with the quality of work, then the application can be sent for revision. In the event that the tenant forgot to close the application, the application will be closed automatically after 30 days (the parameter is configured for each department).

All applications for each employee and tenant are stored in the history of applications within the platform, the administration of the business center can generate a report or view the details of all work performed for any time interval for each employee or department.

Also, when the problem reappears, the administration and the tenant know which specialist carried out the work.

If the work requires payment, then invoicing is carried out according to the same principle as described in the “passes” problem.

 

Interactive layout of tenants on floors and offices, indicating the name of the company and legal entity, for quick navigation of employees upon request.

There is nothing unusual in the development of an interactive layout of tenants, plus or minus a similar layout is available in almost every modern shopping center.
But in our project, there are some improvements that made the scheme useful not only for navigation, but also for the sales department.

The scheme developed by us is needed not only to make it easier for staff and tenants to navigate the business center, but also to ensure that the commercial department of the business center visually understands which premises will be free, who has what cost per meter of rent, what is the total cost of rent when the contract ends, for what period the contract is concluded, PDF contracts, which offices are free, what additional services are connected, how long the tenant works in the business center, how often he contacts the AHO, and so on.

That is, we made not just a navigation scheme, but also by delimiting user access, we provided a convenient tool for the sales department, which at the moment can provide all the necessary data during a dialogue with a client, without referring to the paper version of the contract.

 

Example 4

Automation of machine tools and production (with and without CNC)

An interesting example is the case of industrial equipment automation.

As everyone knows in the world, there have long been robotic machines with control units that can receive and send data to information and monitoring systems.

Based on the data obtained, it is possible not only to collect statistics and monitor component wear, oil level, temperature and operating hours, but also to implement a digital twin project for the entire production unit of the company, testing various hypotheses.

But what if you need to obtain statistics from machine tools and other industrial equipment that are not equipped with computers and CNC units?

For reference, some CNC machines also cannot transfer data to external systems.

In fact, not everything is so simple, among our projects there are several cases when we receive data from non-computerized equipment. This can be done by installing several sensors on machine tools, such as a vibration and tilt sensor.

Due to the activity of the sensors and the transfer of information from them to the software layer, we can get the active time of using the machine.

Knowing the active time of the machine, and information from 1C, we can assume the demand and load of equipment in production, calculate the maintenance time and maintenance costs.

Of course, it would be fair to say that full-fledged automation of a non-robotic machine is impossible without installing a control unit on it, but this is only from the point of view of remote control of the machine.

If we consider, for example, production reporting, load planning or maintenance, then this kind of automation of data collection is suitable.

Among the equipment that we have automated in this way are not only modern industrial equipment, but also Soviet ones, thermal installations, as well as any types of engines and cabinets with light indication.

When implementing a scheme with sensors and collecting information using them, we can develop monitoring systems, analytics, SCADA and ERP.

 

Example 5

HR automation, resume collection

Above in the text, in the theory section, we have already touched on the topic of collecting questionnaires and automating the work of HR.

We did it consciously, because. in our portfolio there is such a case with automatic collection of candidates.

Automation of this process consists of three software elements:

1. Software for collecting profiles from the main sites where resumes of employees are posted;
2. Block of logical processing of received data;
3. Interface for HR.

Let's consider each element of the software package separately and how they affect the automation of the department.

Software for collecting profiles from the main sites where resumes of employees are posted.

The software block is engaged in parsing (collecting) resumes of applicants from three main employment sites.

The collection system is built in such a way that after entering the necessary data by an HR specialist, parsing by parameters is launched at three sites at once.

All collected resumes are uploaded to the repository.

The collection procedure and frequency is repeated until the parser is stopped by a specialist.

Block of logical processing of received data

The processing unit checks the collected resumes, filters out inappropriate ones and profiles with stop words, then transfers the data to the storage and notifies the specialist through the interface about the results.

Also, the logical core of the system places visual markings in questionnaires that best match the search parameters.

Interface for HR

The specialist interface is used to enter the criteria and parameters for collecting questionnaires, as well as to display the results of parsing.

Automation of the process of collecting applicants' questionnaires makes it possible to quickly collect a pool of resumes of suitable specialists, as well as monitor the labor exchange for the emergence of new applicants.

 

Example 6

Automation of management reporting

Management reporting is usually automated, allowing you to track important and key parameters of enterprises at the moment.

Automation of management reporting makes it possible to quickly obtain information about the company, as a result of which it is possible to quickly make strategic business decisions.

Among our cases, there are implementations of management reporting automation in quite interesting versions, for example, in the form of a digest for management, but a description of these works deserves a separate article on our blog.

In this case, we are trying to show the construction of reporting as another possible option for enterprise automation.

As we wrote above, management reporting allows you to make strategic decisions more quickly and always be aware of the situation in all areas of the company's business. This is achieved due to the fact that the company's management and heads of departments have access to already processed and summarized information in a convenient interface for any required period.

The reporting interface is developed individually for each company and contains all the necessary information indicators, filtering parameters and conclusions.

For company decision makers, work with reporting does not go beyond interaction with the interface. To generate a report or get some data, you do not need to go to 1C, to production software, or request uploads in accounting.

The logical block of the reporting automation software solution collects, processes and transmits information to the interface independently receiving it from the company's resources (1C, cash registers, telephony, accounting, machine tools, CNC, EDO, ACS, sensors, tags, etc.).

Building reporting for company management most often includes the following information in the most detailed form:

• Turnover of funds;
• Profit;
• Debts;
• Costs in all directions;
• Costs;
• Purchase;
• FOT;
• Indicators of managers and personally of each manager;
• % fulfillment of the sales plan;
• The number of incoming applications to the company;
• Number of applications in work;
• Workload of production;
• Statistics and equipment wear;
• Warehouse statistics;
• vehicle statistics;
• AHO statistics;
• Employee statistics.

Automation of management and summary reporting of an enterprise gives the company a strategic advantage, frees employees from manual and monotonous work, absolutely eliminating the human factor and errors.

 

 

Example 7

Personnel training

Another option for possible automation of the company is staff training.

All companies in one way or another are faced with the training of new or advanced training of existing employees.

But there are enterprises that are tied to frequent training and certification of their specialists (for example, banks), or companies that are fully specialized in training (training centers), and large state-owned companies such as Russian Railways are no exception.

Trained staff gives businesses a real competitive advantage.

If an employee knows the production process, supply, company structure and products, then he will be more efficient than an employee who has not been trained.

Additionally, it is worth noting companies that are associated with mandatory confirmation of an employee's certificate, for example, banks and AML / CFT.

 

Why automate the learning process?

There are three problems in the process of "manual" training and certification:

1. Education;
2. Testing;
3. Checking the relevance of the certificate (often a certificate of conformity is issued for a certain period, say, for a year).

 

The introduction of an interactive staff training platform solves all problems at once.

1. The employee undergoes full training on all topics of the company;
2. An employee can learn not only on texts and pictures, but also on video materials and files of any type, this simplifies the layout of the course information;
3. An employee takes a test without the ability to write off answers;
4. The employee receives a digital certificate of conformity, which is recorded in the company's database;
5. The relevance of the certificate is controlled by software and when the expiration date of the certificate approaches, it notifies both the responsible person and the employee;
6. The teacher sees all the information and details on the employee's training.

Automation of the training and certification process, reduces the burden on teachers, increases the overall efficiency of the company and eliminates the need for an employee to control the validity of the certificate.

Interactive platform for training and certification of personnel

 

Example 8

Automation of the sales department

In our opinion, one of the easiest examples for understanding business process automation are various CRM systems for the sales department.

CRM systems for sales managers are divided into two main types:

1. ready-made solutions;
2. custom development.

Whatever CRM system the company chooses for the work of its managers, the task of this CRM will be to automate the work of a sales employee.

Any CRM makes it possible to accompany the client from the first request to, directly, the transaction.

The main differences between ready-made CRM and custom ones are the level of development of the company's business process.

Ready-made solutions are oriented for all companies, they are not individual and contain a common business process applicable to all companies in the world, with the possibility of a little customization for convenience.

Custom CRM is developed in a personalized way for the company, taking into account all the wishes and nuances in the sales process.

A custom CRM system is a company-customer-oriented product, and therefore provides real benefits due to the complex automation of the process.

Text about custom and boxed development

CRM development with VIMS Communication

 

Example 9

Automation of relationships with B2B customers (B2B portal and back office)

A good example of a B2B customer relationship automation solution is a B2B portal or digital back office.

The essence of the B2B portal is to automate routine and linear processes that occur during cooperation between the company and its partners.

Inside the portal, a company partner can independently carry out all the necessary actions without involving company employees:

• Place an order and pre-order products;
• Get individual conditions and discounts for the purchase of products;
• Select and arrange a logistics chain with an indication of the delivery date;
• Upload the necessary accounting documentation for any period of cooperation;
• Get access to a database of current promotions and marketing materials;
• Receive news and notifications;
• Work at any time and day convenient for you.

The portal is an interface connected to the brand's information systems through the software core, due to which the necessary accuracy and efficiency of providing information for each partner is achieved.

The introduction of a B2B portal to any trading company significantly reduces the load on departments such as:

• Accounting;
• The Development centre;
• Sales department;
• Purchasing department;
• Marketing and advertising.

After the introduction of the B2B portal, you can optimize the personnel.

The integration of the B2B portal into the company's activities increases the sales of products and the satisfaction of partners from cooperation.

Development of B2B portals

 

Example 10

E-commerce automation

This example of business process automation is one of our cases and has been successfully used in several fairly large Internet projects.

To understand the essence of automation, you need to imagine an online store with a large number of products, let's say 100,000 items.

1C in this project is a data provider for an online store, transferring all the necessary information to the product card - price, discount, quantity, description, article, etc. (this is how almost any online store works, the accounting of which goods is kept in 1C).

Automation of the project implemented by us consists in the automatic alignment of the cost for each item in the store. This is done to ensure that the entire assortment of the store is sold at the current price at any time, without manual adjustments.

 

Consider the work in detail

In e-commerce, the most important parameter for making sales is offering the product to the visitor at the best price. The best price of the goods must be provided at any given time.

If we talk about the margin on the goods, then everything is simple, the margin of the online store is added to the current offer of the supplier, after which the final price of the goods is formed in the site catalogs, such a processing model is implemented in 1C.

But in online sales, there is another important element that limits the formation of margins and the frequency of sales — these are competitors.

Before making a purchase decision, the user compares the offers of various online stores and marketplaces in order to choose the best one.

Accordingly, the solution to the problem of increasing sales of an online store is to constantly maintain the best price, but the problem is to collect competitors' prices and adjust the price on the site.

Physically, it is quite difficult to change the price of 100,000 products manually or track it according to the principle of “manual monitoring of competitors”. Firstly, it is not prompt, secondly, it is not predictable, and thirdly, it requires human resources.

In the e-commerce automation project, we have developed a software solution that makes it possible to comprehensively evaluate the prices of suppliers and competitors, and then automatically generate the best price for the entire range of the online store.

That is, the software package consists of parsers for collecting data on prices and discounts of all competitors, as well as supplier analytics.
In other words, our software solution monitors prices on all competitors' sites, monitors suppliers' prices, sets the best price for the product on the market, taking into account all the parameters received, and displays the cost in the website catalog.

The frequency of collecting data from suppliers, competitors and price changes is set in the interface of the software solution.

Additionally, it is worth noting that updating the price in the online store can be carried out both in automatic streaming mode and after manual confirmation by a specialist.

Our software package tracks and saves the dynamics of price changes and sales for each product, generating segmented financial statements of profit.

 

An example of how pricing automation works

Consider a pet store with a lot of products.

Let's take some popular cat food, let's say dry Whiskas "Rabbit" 350 gr. with the article from the supplier A-001.

The price of our supplier for this product is 200 rubles.

We launch an analytics system and collect information from competitors, use the parameters received from the supplier and used on our website: article, name, weight, description, taste, packaging

(the system may start automatically).

After a programmatic analysis of competitors and marketplaces, we receive information:

The average price of goods on the market is 300 rubles

Best price — 290 rubles in the store "X"

Worst price — 310 rubles in the store "N"

Recommended best price — 288 rubles

Recommended markup — 88 rubles

Marginal profit — 50 rubles

The system allows you to set the markup of goods, both in rubles and as a percentage relative to the prices of suppliers and competitors.

For example, you can set the parameter -1% or -10 rubles from the competitor's best price.

The dynamics of changes in prices and sales is formed in the financial statements.

Data collection and processing systems

 

Conclusion

As can be seen from the description of business process automation, implementation approaches and examples, any activity can be automated for any company.

Automation is possible not only in production equipment, but also in all business processes of a company, from employee training to digital twins of industrial holdings.

The main thing to consider when automating a business process is the goal, deadline and possible resources for BPA.

 

#Automation #1C #IntegratedAutomation #BPM #CRM #ERP