Pros and Cons of Process Automation

Nowadays, people think of business process automation as the one and only solution for all their problems, like it’s going to save them huge amounts of time and resources and…well, sometimes, things don’t actually go that way, there are two sides to every story.

Pros and cons of process automation:

Automating just because that’s what’s everyone else is doing isn’t the right choice for any business (haven’t you ever heard what your mama told you?) – and it won’t probably be the right call to improve your company’s efficiency.

When you start thinking a certain manual process could be automated, the first rational step is taking a look at it, weighing the pros and cons, the benefits that’ll come from automating it and the costs the automation will generate.

The Pros:

Some of the pros of process automation include:

• Elimination of human error: by automating tasks, you eliminate the human factor involved in those tasks and, therefore, eliminate the possibility of human error incurring;
• Reduction in employee numbers: as you automate tasks and eliminate the human factor in tasks, you also eliminate the need of hiring new employees, saving you money in salary, administrative and government fees, etc.;
• Allows your workforce to focus on what’s most important: by automating the most boring, ordinary tasks, you free up your employees to focus on most important tasks in which their intellectual capacity will be better exploited.

The Cons:

On the other hand, some of the cons are:

• The cost: one important thing people seem to forget when thinking about automation is that it doesn’t always comes for free – sure, it can help save you money, but it can also cost you so it’s a matter of which way the scale tips and whether the balance is positive. Also, sometimes, it’s not about the cost of automation itself, but the complexity of the new system that generates a whole new maintenance cost that wasn’t there before;
• IT Complexity: most automations (not all of them, though) require some familiarity with technology or the hiring of technical assistance during implementation;
• Change management: automation is a change in your process and it should be monitored to make sure it’s worth it – you need to test it thoroughly before and after implementation to ensure the results of the automated system are the same (or better than) the results you have with employees doing the activity.

Automate your processes with Pipefy:

Pipefy offers you alternatives to automate your processes without generating high expenses, increasing your IT complexity (no IT consultants needed) and making the change as smooth as possible: all the pros and no cons. Got you interested? Click the blue button and try Pipefy!