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Effective collaboration and communication is essential for any organization. Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings, errors, duplicated efforts and lack of clarity on a project's status. This often leads to infighting between company departments that become frustrated with one another. Companies that fail to form a collaborative and transparent environment risk creating siloed departments, damaging productivity and negatively impacting client satisfaction.
The solution lies in adopting workflow automation tools to facilitate a culture of transparency, teamwork and accountability across the organization. By leveraging workflow automation systems, firms can break down these barriers and establish streamlined processes that ensure everyone has access to the same, latest information.
Related: 3 Things to Consider When Automating Your Workflows
1. Cross-department collaboration
Most organizations have various teams that provide unique and specialized contributions to client deliverables. Each department must work together flawlessly to produce the best results. Workflow automation platforms can break down department silos, allowing teams to collaborate seamlessly on the same documents and projects in real time.
For example, a workflow automation tool can route an important document between the marketing, design and sales teams for input. This not only helps the team function as one unit but also reduces the chance of version control issues.
2. Data-driven decision making
One of the biggest challenges with decision-making in an organization is that everyone has their own perspectives and agendas. Workflow automation systems can provide everyone in the organization with access to analytic tools, reports and dashboards that highlight performance data and other key metrics. Access to a unified dataset can reduce the risk of conflicting information creating decision bottlenecks and wasting valuable resources.
Workflow automation tools can also support seamless internal and external approvals by routing documents and other items to the appropriate team members for review and signoff. This ensures that projects stay on schedule by reducing turnaround times and provides visibility to the current approval status.
3. Improved client satisfaction
Workflow automation not only enhances internal processes but also improves client satisfaction. A robust workflow automation system can benefit clients by providing transparent project status updates and proactive communication. This, in turn, can help foster trust and long-term partnerships, leading to lower client turnover and a better ability to outperform competitors.
For example, a legal firm can automate case management and client communication, allowing clients to receive automated updates on case progress and access relevant documents through a secure client portal.
4. Clarity on roles and responsibilities
The last thing the team needs is confusion around who is responsible for each step in a workflow. Automated task assignment based on predefined criteria ensures clarity on responsibilities across the team. It can also highlight who currently "has the ball," reducing the risk of duplicated efforts. Having an automated workflow also eliminates the delays that can occur when someone is on vacation and isn't available to push the task along manually.
5. Team accountability and recognition
Workflow automation tools allow team members to see what tasks are completed, pending or overdue. Shared dashboards and progress-tracking tools are essential for the firm's management to track and manage both employee and company performance. These systems can also help the team identify and recognize the most effective and productive team members. By managing poor performers and rewarding strong team members, the company can improve team morale, collaboration and productivity.
6. Automated updates and alerts
In many cases, teams are managing thousands of tasks spread across numerous clients and projects. The probability of something slipping through the cracks is enormous. Most automated workflow systems come equipped with automated notifications and reminders to keep team members informed about deadlines, project updates and required actions. These alerts can often be highly customizable and can even escalate high-impact alerts to upper management.
Related: 5 Ways Automation Can Help You Manage Your Team
Ultimately, there is a lot of risk with traditional, manual processes that can lead to chaos and disruption within an organization. By refocusing everyone's efforts through an automated workflow system, businesses can take collaboration and communication to new heights. The age of automation is here. It's critical for companies to start embracing the benefits that these powerful tools can bring to their organizations.
