When in the USSR, organizations began to switch to electric calculators (which are plugged in), accountants, estimators and planners could not avoid their large wooden bills: they thought that the machine would definitely make a mistake and need to be checked again. When electronic CITIZEN appeared on the tables, they appreciated the convenience of a light wireless device and did not test it. But PCs with 1C on board almost caused a revolution. Young people instantly appreciated all the advantages, and the old guard split into three parts: some went to study and vehemently tormented the implementers, others persisted and decided to stand on manual labor until the last, others simply retired or looked for work not related to computers. Oddly enough, the habit was not formed until the end: even now in company teams you can find opponents of corporate software who do not know how to work with it, and those born in 1985, 1990, and even 1993. For them, any new work program is a source of stress, especially if their direct work is affected (for example, processes are automated).

If I were writing this article for a boring CEO print publication, I would start something like this: “Business automation allows companies to eliminate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, improve business efficiency, and improve employee productivity. People get the opportunity to focus on more important tasks without spending time on activities that were previously performed manually, but with the help of automation they can be performed faster and more efficiently.

Because when it comes to automation, it is necessary to talk about some “more important tasks of employees”. And what are these most important tasks?

Automated systems can schedule meetings, send emails, and perform more time-consuming, repetitive, and frankly boring tasks. And your employees know the business and can help in its further development – each of the healthy and able-bodied people knows how to work with their head (sometimes, however, you need to stimulate and motivate, it happens even with the help of a pimp), and therefore can think integratively, considering the company, work processes and customers in general. And only the human brain is capable of figuring out how to work better, more humanely and more correctly – AI is not yet capable of this. Therefore, we entrust the routine to the programs, and we ourselves implement the tactics within the strategy, making the company not formal, but people-oriented.

Now about the five main causes of stress during the automation of business processes.

Automation of all business processes at once

It is not necessary to automate absolutely all business processes, on the contrary, it is sometimes even harmful. It is necessary to combine manual control and automation. When a company deals with the design and formalization of business processes, the types of processes are easy to recognize:

• if the process is long, with complex stages and the frequency of launching once every six months to a year, while requiring a change in approach, then it is better to leave it on manual management, since it can actively change and waste time on refactoring is inappropriate;

• if the process consists of the same stages, the settings and settings of which do not depend on time, then it can be safely automated;

• if the process has complex chains of agreements, many transitions (triggers – e-mails, calls and connections), then it should be disassembled and automated first of all.

Gradual and partial automation of business processes will be much easier for both employees and the company as a whole, as familiar actions and relationships will be combined with something new that is a little more difficult to digest.

Hasty automation without process planning

To be honest, it is difficult for me to imagine a company in which it is possible to automate existing business processes “from wheels”: there are always “branded” crutches, caveats, office rules, process participants with special requirements, etc. All these nuances do not sit well on the rails of strict automation (created a process template of developers ERP and CRM. For the cases of automation in the form that it is, in our environment a long time ago there was a formula: “If you automate a mess, you will get an automated mess.”

There are two extremes of automation: not to prepare processes at all and vice versa, to completely redo processes exclusively for automation tasks, thoughtlessly throwing away triggers, responsible and sub-processes. Both lead to deplorable results: the program simply will not meet the requirements of the business. In the first case, it will not be able to rebuild itself (and if it can, it will be modified at the price of Boeing), and in the second – everything will be beautiful and perfect, but the processes will turn out to be unnecessary, confusing and employees will work in the old way. So what to do?

Five easy steps:

1. collect descriptions of all processes in the company;

2. conduct a full-scale audit, get rid of outdated schemes, collect new ones;

3. re-collect descriptions of already changed processes, simplify them;

4. determine which will remain manual, which will require automation;

5. begin automation and testing.

An important point: if the automated process works worse than the manual one, don’t delay the refactoring for a long time, test the hypotheses right away. If you see the benefits of a radical process change, don’t be afraid to start over, despite the time lost, it will work in favor of efficiency.

Score on safety

Perhaps in the process of implementation, an exception for such a serious block as security management will save some effort and time, but this is an illusory achievement. Immediately after the start of work with automated processes, issues of information security will become key – and if someone does not suddenly realize this, the scale of trouble will surprise everyone. And in our age, it is almost a guarantee: if there is a vulnerability somewhere, it will be felt sooner or later.

So take care of security before it becomes a problem.

• Ensure the security of information and data – it is better if the automation of processes is implemented as a module inside your CRM/ERP, and it is preferable that it is a native tool, and not an addon or plugin of an external developer (any external connection erodes security to the point that the data can end up in the public cloud. bru”). If you use the cloud or use a cloud application, be sure to check the reliability and resilience of the hosting. Well, of course you remember about backups (don’t you?).

• Ensure the security of internal transactions and the circulation of information between departments. Employees can share information with each other and give access to systems to their colleagues, even with their login and password (“we’re family, we have no secrets”). This increases the impact of the human factor on the security system, so use levels of access rights and entrust the design of processes only to system administrators (with responsible responsibility).

• Take care of the confidentiality of the process diagrams themselves. Any scheme can be printed and given to interested parties. First of all, try to choose enterprise systems with logging of actions inside it. If internal company information is extremely sensitive, set up print and work email controls. However, if you are a democratic and decent manager, and not a tyrant with paths from the PC to the toilet, you will not close all the holes (you will not close the paths either), but everything basic security levels it is definitely worth supporting (here we are analyzed the topic in great detail).

• Isolate the management of business processes from external influence. I think the comments are redundant here.

And yes, remember that any company has three vectors of vulnerability: its own people, other people’s people, infrastructure. So, the first – the most critical from the point of view of infobez.

Losing people to automation

What forms does the man-program attitude take in the mouths of short-sighted managers: “I will replace all of you with a program”, “now we will implement and reduce ineffective ones”, “CRM sells for you, and you are idle here”, etc. In essence, this is real stupidity. If you suddenly feel deep down that automation is ready to replace people, consider the current success of self-driving cars: their share in the real sector, the number of accidents, etc. So this is a completely ready, implemented technology. And business automation is simply a process designed to help employees work quickly, without errors and downtime (ideally). People, as before, are at the forefront of the success and failure of any company – moreover, there is a clear feeling that soon the presence of people (and not bots) on the first line of support, help and service will become a competitive advantage and an expensive asset of companies.

Give the use for purchase to an external consultant

When you decide to automate business processes, it’s almost inevitable that sharks of all kinds will gather around you. You will encounter automation consultants. And if the vendor’s employees (project managers and developers) calmly work on a ready-made technical task and listen to your requirements, then third-party consultants can impose their solutions and methods, not taking into account the specifics of the organization (and simply not knowing about them). As a rule, these are brilliant speakers who are able to convince even the top management that “everything is wrong, the patient is more likely to be dead, listen to me, otherwise screw up.” If you behave, you will pour money and time into another “case” of the consultant, instead of investing in automation (the cart will not move).

An outside perspective is always useful and working with a consultant can make sense if you remember a simple rule: a consultant can only be a facilitator, not a leader. The reason is obvious: no one knows the details of business processes better than the manager and his team (even if it doesn’t seem like it).

Automation of processes is not the point of development of the company, it is the beginning of a new stage that requires attention from employees. Processes should be in place in any company, even in a three-person sole proprietorship, because they are responsible for the order and fulfillment of obligations (both to customers and to each other). Processes need to be measured, formalized, correlated with KPIs, and work with them should be carried out in the company’s natural working environment, not with a whip over the head. It doesn’t matter if you do it today or in a year. The fact remains: automation is inevitable, and its correct implementation makes business more efficient.