What BPA covers
BPA can be as small as stopping someone from typing the same fields twice, or as large as a workflow that runs across several systems.
Three common types:
Robotic process automation (RPA): software that repeats a rule-based task a person used to do on a screen.
Workflow automation: a defined path for a process (who does what, in what order, with what checks).
Business rules engines: written rules that choose the next step, instead of someone deciding each time.
You do not need all three. Most organisations start with one process that already hurts.
Why small and large businesses automate
Smaller organisations
Invoicing, payroll and customer follow-up still eat a lot of the week. Automating those frees time for work that actually grows the business. The test is whether the process is stable enough to describe.
Larger organisations
More teams and more systems usually means more copying between them. Automation can put a single path over tools that do not otherwise talk. The test is whether you can name the systems and the hand-off, not whether you want a platform.
Industries (discussion only)
These are the sectors the original piece discussed. They are not CoSource case studies, and they do not carry results figures.
Manufacturing
Supply chain, quality checks and inventory are the usual candidates: orders, shipments and supplier records that already follow a pattern.
Healthcare
Patient administration, billing and some diagnostic support work can be automated where the steps are known. That is a discussion of the process, not a product claim, and not a promise of clinical cover.
Retail
Inventory, customer service and in-store operations often have a reorder or a ticket step that people still do by hand.
Finance
Risk checks, compliance steps and routine customer work are common targets when the rules are already written down.
Invoice processing
Re-keying invoices is a frequent starting point. Automation can cut the time spent typing the same lines out of one system into another. How much time you get back depends on the process you have. There is no percentage on this page that you should read as a CoSource or client result.
Related published work
These are CoSource projects already on the site. They are labelled so they are not mixed with the generic industry discussion above.
Online Business Technology (OBT)
Custom billing across Cortex and AutoTask. Published result: invoice generation from 40 man hours a month to under an hour. Older project, not a product brochure.
Online Business Technology case studyEffort Tracking
A school effort-tracking process that lived in Google Spreadsheets, rebuilt as a Vue and ASP.NET Core web app. Used by several schools.
Effort Tracking case studyChallenges
Setup costs money. People need training. A process that is still unclear will automate the confusion. Assess the work first: which process, how often it runs, where the errors are, and what should stay with a person.
Related
Custom software is the service page when the process no longer fits a spreadsheet or an off-the-shelf product.
Custom software