6 Best Workflow Automation Software

By automating tasks, a software solution offers these benefits to businesses:

• Increased productivity: Since team members won’t have to perform tasks manually, they can focus on more complex and high-yield tasks like developing marketing strategies or building customer relationships.
• Fewer errors: When team members process forms and approvals, they will undoubtedly make a few mistakes. Automation decreases human error and ensures accuracy in workflows.
• Better team accountability: It’s challenging to keep track of manual work, but with automation, you can see every task’s progress and check team members’ contributions.

Consider the following criteria when choosing workflow automation software for your small business.

• Pricing and scalability: One of the primary concerns for small businesses is the cost of adopting new tools. While many workflow automation tools are available for free, these forever-free plans often have less robust features than paid plans. Therefore, you should look for providers offering multiple workflow automation tiers with incremental pricing that provides just enough monthly actions and automations without exceeding your goals.
• Usability and customer support: Next, you need to consider your technical skills and knowledge of setting up workflow automation. While some software providers offer visual editors and a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to design custom workflows, others are less intuitive. Consider whether the provider offers onboarding support or software developers who can help you create a system that suits your business needs. Additionally, note if customer support or technical assistance incurs additional fees or is only provided on specific plans.
• Analytics and AI: Automation goes hand in hand with artificial intelligence, so many small businesses could benefit from workflow automation software that includes these advanced features. Specifically, AI is beneficial for providing business insights and feedback on your automations and allows you to design workflows using prompts. 
• Industry standards and integrations: Besides the advanced features, workflow automation software is often tailored to specific industries. For example, sales and marketing automation usually includes lead generation and email campaign tools, while human resources can benefit from customizable form templates. Therefore, you should choose software that caters to your industry and your most commonly used business integrations and standard tools.
• Reporting and compliance: While workflow automation software can include security features like single sign-on and approvals, many are only available on specific plans. So, if your industry has regulations around security compliance and reporting, you should choose a software and plan that reflects these standards.

Automating workflows can save your business time and money by streamlining repetitive tasks, efficiently managing staff, and improving customer engagement. However, workflow automation can also become overly complex. Therefore, the following list includes some best practices for using workflow automation tools to benefit your small business.

• Consider your goals and intentions: Before choosing your workflow automation software, consider why you want to use it. For example, what goals do you hope to achieve by automating processes in your business? Do you have more tasks than staff, or do you want to create a more efficient workflow? These questions will help you understand if you need to pair your workflow automation with more workforce management tools or artificial intelligence features.
• Talk to your team: Before and after developing a workflow, you should include your team members. This means delegating administrative roles to team members, deciding how to assign tasks, and identifying ways to manage their workload. Communicating throughout this process will ensure your team understands the workflow and can benefit from adopting automation.
• Create a workflow diagram: Most workflow automation software visually represents automated workflows in the dashboard. However, you should create workflow diagrams before using the software to automate tasks. This will make it easier to design the automations within the platform because you have already organized your tasks and developed the conditions for each action.
• Document and share automation rules: Record these diagrams to share with your team after creating your workflows. This will benefit your business by demonstrating how automation works and what actions are triggered when completing specific tasks. It will also ensure that team members understand each step in the workflow and how their activities fit into the process.
• Review and revise automated processes: After implementing a process, you should routinely assess which automations benefit your business and which overcomplicate tasks or lead to bottlenecks. Then, revise these processes to ensure your workflow automation aligns with your initial goals.

Workflow automation software allows users to set up rule-based logic within a system. This enables the system to perform tasks independently without human assistance. Project management platforms often use this software to assign tasks, update statuses, or send notifications about to-dos.

The most advanced type of automation on the market is intelligent automation. This type of automation uses artificial intelligence and process management to streamline workflows and improve processes. For example, workflow automation tools can use speech recognition technology and robotic process automation (RPA) to create recurring tasks that save time on manual task assignment and management.

How to start a workflow automation depends on your goals, processes, and tools. Before automating a workflow, you should identify what you want it to do, how it fits into your business goals, and whether it benefits that task.

Then, you should find a tool that can accomplish your goals efficiently and within the scope of your technical skills. For example, do you need automation for task management (e.g., assigning tasks), or do you want to automate a repetitive process, like sending emails?

Once you know your automation tasks, goals, and tools, you should design a process that facilitates automation, such as a timeline for your tasks or criteria for task completion. This is also a good time to assign roles and permissions to ensure tasks are completed with accountability and in a reasonable timeframe. Then, you can use your workflow automation software to create an automated task or action.