First steps to business automation. Where to begin?

Introduction

If you are reading this article, you probably already heard about the benefits of an automated business. Organized work with employees and customers, increased workflow efficiency, increased profits ... It is not surprising that so many companies want to automate their business as soon as possible. That's just not always possible to do it right.
After all, usually everything happens like? The company acquires a special program, begins to implement it and faces difficulties. For example, it turns out that employees do not want to switch to an unusual system for them, and organized business processes are not so easy to transfer to strict table frames. As a result, it all ends up with the fact that the system is not used to its full potential, or even completely abandoned and returned to the usual Excel.
Such examples make management think seriously before installing the system in their company. And this is for the best: the program is really capable of taking business requirements into account as much as possible, but for this they still need to be presented. That is - to draw up a technical task.
Compilation usually takes a lot of time. It is necessary to understand which processes should be automated and what to pay attention to first of all. To do this, you can involve employees, attract specialists from the outside - but still remain without the desired result. In order not to miss important points and use the program effectively, you need to clearly define an action plan. That is why the customer base teamcreated this beginner's guide. If you plan to transfer your business to modern systems, but are not yet sure where to start, then all you need to do is answer the questions that are described in stages below.

Step 1. Business Processes

First of all, you need to understand what the automation system will work with. First you need to answer the following questions:

• What actions do company employees take?
• What causes the most problems in these actions?

For example, consider the most common actions in companies:

1. The operator accepts the application, enters it into the list of orders;
2. The manager receives a new order, approves it and invoices for payment;
3. The accountant accepts payment and sends the order to production;
4. Production receives data on the order and executes it;
5. The manager submits the order to the client.

If everything happened as fast in practice, as it was read! But difficulties are encountered in any process, and it is difficult for management, of course, to track everything from beginning to end. But much of this routine could be entrusted to an automation system. For example, from the list you can see that no process is complete without working with data. So, first of all, attention should be paid to creating a single database.

Tips:

First of all, it is necessary to automate problem areas that delay the work of the entire organization.

For each process, it is necessary to determine the employees responsible for it and the supervisor. The problem can be solved faster if you know exactly who is responsible for the case at each stage.

It is better to build processes so that all data and terms from the beginning of the project to its completion are automatically transferred between the participants.

Step 2. Tables

Data is a valuable asset of any enterprise that needs to be handled correctly. That is, money, of course, can be stored in cabinets, but it was not in vain that safes were invented. So, the data collected in one database and reliably protected will allow you to work much more efficiently and not to think about where you saved this or that information every time. Therefore, you need to decide:

• What data does the company work with?
• By what parameters can they be distributed?

Once again, let's look at the main actions of employees in the case of our example. To organize work with a client, you need to have contact information and a history of working with him. In the management process, you need a list of previous tasks of employees, their personal data and contact information. To complete applications, you need to see their description and the deadlines. It will be more convenient to monitor timely payment of bills if they are brought together.
It turns out that the data needs to be reduced by such parameters as:

• Customers
• Applications
• Employees
• Accounts

Thus, we have 4 main tables. Now consider the list of fields. For example, in the table “Clients” you need to collect the name, details, contact numbers and addresses, the name of the contact person. In the table “Employees”: name, position, salary, date of receipt, contact information. In the table "Applications" will be filled out a description of applications, information on those responsible for the implementation, timing, status. In the “Accounts” the name of the organization to which the account is issued, the amount including VAT and without, the paid part and balance will be recorded.

Tips:

It is very important to monitor the timely filling of the database - information not submitted on time may be necessary when other sources are not available.

Do not make tables at once for all occasions. It’s better to start with the most important ones, test them, polish them and only then add the following.

Use related fields. So the data from one table does not have to be duplicated into another: the related fields will be filled in automatically. For example, a list of clients can be compiled once in one table — in all other fields that need such data, they will be filled in without additional effort.

Step 3. Access

Not all data is suitable for open access, and this is not only related to security. Even if the trust in the company's employees is unlimited, you still need to try to protect them from unnecessary and distracting information. To do this, you need to understand:

• What groups of employees are involved in the company's business processes?
• What data does each group work with?

We single out the main groups of employees and see how each of them works with the data. Say, managers only need to “lead” their customers, and the director needs to monitor the work of the entire department. Therefore, in this case, the director needs to see all the fields in the "Clients" table, and only part of the managers.
It should be remembered that some groups need not only to follow the information, but also to edit it. For example, bookkeeping simply needs to be able to edit fields for payment.

Tips:

For each group you need to make a list of fields for viewing and editing. Everything else will be closed by default.

In addition to accessing fields, you need to consider access to adding or deleting records, exporting or importing data, and accessing reports.

Step 4. Templates

Any company has basic documents that are filled out by employees all the time. For example, accounts in which the manager manually enters the amounts and order items. In fact, most of this documentation is based on the same samples, so the automation of this process will help save a lot of time. Therefore, determine:

• What documents are used most often in the company?
• What data for these documents is already collected in the tables?

We collect the main documents (for example, invoices, commercial offers, contracts, applications) and note the text, which should change. What data from the database should fall into it? For example, in the account you need to pull up the details, product name and amount. Hence, it is these fields that need to be bound to it.

Tips:

Templates need to be made as flexible as possible, leaving only the main text unchanged. The remaining information will be substituted automatically. This will save employees from “paperwork”, and the documents themselves - from errors and typos.

Often in the template it is necessary to substitute data that have not been considered in the table before. For them, you can always add new fields.

Even the most complex contract can be reduced to a single template by simply adding various conditions to it. Therefore, it will be more convenient to reduce several similar agreements into one.

Step 5. Newsletters

Now you need to think about how the company maintains relationships with customers. Does she arrange special promotions and events? Does customers wish you a happy holiday? If so, then you will need the ability to send information about this via email or SMS.
When doing this work manually, you can safely reorganize the company into a postal branch - this will only take employees working time. How to be? First, you need to answer the following questions:

• With what frequency and at what time the company will be able to conduct mailings? How often do news appear that will be of interest to customers?
• In which cases is it better to use mail, and in which SMS?

After planning the frequency and distribution method, it is necessary to form the main text, which the program will supplement with the given information. In this case, you need to carefully consider the text of the mailings in advance. For example, the system can substitute both a male name and a female name in the message, but the meaning of the text should not suffer from this.
In addition, the recipient, of course, wants to feel: this particular letter was sent to him, the organization really cares about his ability to follow the news. To avoid “stereotyping”, you can create a mailing list in the style of letters that were sent manually before automation.

Tips:

The main information should be contained in the text itself. No need to overload the template with pictures and heavy files. Most users prefer to disable add-ons, which means that for them the essence of the letter will remain unclear. Not everyone will find this intriguing - rather, just close it and not take advantage of the offer.

When mass mailing is worth thinking about spam lists. In order not to fall into them, you need to pay attention to the ability of the client to unsubscribe from the newsletter at will. Moreover, the option should be obvious - for example, in the form of a designated link in the letter.

Also, when planning mailing, you need to consider the server limit on the number of letters sent per hour (on free servers per minute). As a rule, after reaching the maximum number of letters, the server blocks the account. To avoid this situation, it is better to distribute the newsletter into several cycles.

Do not send out too often and without much reason. Firstly, it annoys subscribers, and secondly, uninformative letters are unlikely to interest anyone. If you have confidence in the planning, you can warn about the frequency of mailings even at the subscription stage - for example, the phrase "Our weekly mailing."

Step 6. Reminders

Changes to the company's database occur regularly, and employees need to be informed about them quickly and targetedly. Exchange of business information should be accessible, even if we are talking about branches located in different cities. The main purpose of reminders is to respond quickly to ongoing processes. For example, after the operator enters an order from the client into the table, the manager should receive a notification about the receipt of a new order and begin his work. A reminder can be reflected on the desktop of the program, come by e-mail or SMS.
In order to organize the process of sending reminders, you need to know:

• What changes should employees be notified of?
• What should these alerts look like?

Let's look through the list of basic actions once again and find some examples of possible reminders: “A new task has been added to you”, “The deadline for the completion of the project is approaching”, “The status of the order has changed.”

Tips:

Reminders should be informative so that at first glance it is clear what is at stake. Therefore, you need to specify more specific information within the text. Agree, there is a difference between “Order status has changed” and “Order status No. XX has changed from A to B”.

Reminders should only be sent if necessary. You should not create reminders for unimportant changes or send them to those whom they do not concern. Employees simply “drown” in them and stop responding on time.

Step 7. Calculations

In their activities, many companies use certain formulas. For example, almost everyone uses the calculation of the form "Amount = Quantity x Price". But there are more complex formulas. For example, to calculate the cost of orders, where it is necessary to use logic.
If this process is automated, the program will automatically calculate the necessary fields in the tables according to the given formula. To come to this, we will answer the following questions:

• What tables do computed fields need?
• By what formulas will the program calculate them?

After the specified parameters, the calculations will be done by themselves. You don’t have to manually count and enter anything, which means that the number of errors will decrease many times.

Tips:

First of all, the calculations that were previously stored in Excel or other programs can be transferred to the automation system.

It will be more convenient to start with simple calculations, complicating them as you master the automation system.

The data necessary for calculations can be taken not only from the current table, but also from the ones associated with it. To do this, do not forget to affix the necessary connections.

Step 8. Reports

It would seem that periodic reports are compiled in companies without this automation of yours. Does the system really need help in instantly generating them? The key word here is instant. The transparency of the organization’s business processes is not only the reliability of the data, but also the speed of its receipt. So, of course, needed. Therefore, we define:

• What data will instant reports be made of?
• In what form will it be more convenient to view them?

Accurate information about the work done by employees, provided at any time convenient for management, will help to quickly analyze the current state of affairs. To do this, it is enough to request the generation of a report on the database from any tables in any process in the system.

Tips:

It is necessary to determine the parameters that can be changed during the formation of the report - for example, by period or by groups of employees.

Do not overload instantly generated reports with complex information. Their main task is to quickly familiarize themselves with the current situation in order to immediately respond to possible difficulties.

You can make reports easy to read. For example, visualize them using various graphs and charts.

Conclusion

Thus, answering the above questions, you will see:

• What business processes need to be automated in your company;
• what data can be combined into a database;
• how to differentiate access to this data;
• In which templates to combine the documentation;
• How to organize mass mailings and reminders;
• which calculations are more convenient to carry out automatically;
• What reports need to be generated instantly.

Specific ideas for each of the items will make up your terms of reference. It can be passed on to developers who will determine the time and cost of developing the automation system you need. Or, as an option, you can use the ready-made designer and create the system yourself.
This concludes the introductory instruction. We hope that our tips will help automate your business quickly and without extra costs!