Is your business already using workflow automation, but you’re worried about getting the most bang for your buck? Or maybe your organization is just starting to explore how an automation tool can enhance your operations. Whatever the case may be, welcome! 

As you begin your automation journey, it’s important to know that not every workflow solution is the same. While workflow automation software have evolved in their functionality and integration capability, you want to ensure that your solution is solving problems in your organization – not creating new ones. 

So what should you expect from a workflow automation solution, and how can you ensure your selection will streamline your operations and improve efficiency?

What Can Workflow Automation Bring to Your Business?

At the most fundamental level, workflows capture the sequencing of tasks and functions that your business executes on a regular basis. Examples of these include employee onboarding, invoice processing, and patient tracking. 

Workflow software offers a space to organize these functions and automate the flow of work into a process that provides greater visibility into the sequencing of the tasks, rules, responsibilities, inputs, outputs, and reporting.

Workflow tools increase communication around the completion of tasks and use business rules to validate data and check for task dependencies. This can save your team hours of manual effort by preventing unnecessary delays or incomplete work.

To enable these functions, many workflow automation solutions are able to integrate directly (through APIs) or indirectly (through manual data feeds) with the other enterprise systems organizations use. This provides a comprehensive and efficient automated representation of a process.

What Features Set Workflow Automation Solutions Apart?

There are a number of features some workflow automation platforms offer that others don’t. While two workflow automation solutions may look very similar, there are some pretty major differences to keep your eyes out for. 

Comprehensive Rules Engine

Are your employees able to navigate through each step, completely? Are processes moving forward without all of the necessary inputs? Are you able to build in logic to accurately route workflows that replicate your business’ objectives?

The depth and breadth of a workflow solution’s rules engine is a major differentiator among the options you see on the market. For example, Decisions offers an integrated rules engine that keeps workflows interactive and flexible. 

In the Decisions platform, workflows can be set with:

• Statement Rules to trigger actions or display data 
• Truth Tables to compare inputs and decide outcomes
• Mathematical Expressions to solve equations 
• Rule Sets that combine multiple rule types for custom-built outcomes

Native System Integration

Modern workflow automation platforms can handle integrations with a wide range of applications and systems that organizations use. A workflow process may require simultaneous input from operational data, sales metrics, and HR systems. A workflow solution should be able to communicate with these external systems in real-time to facilitate collaboration and easily move data.

Intuitive Reporting and Workflow Presentation

A third defining feature is the ability for a workflow automation tool to facilitate the design and presentation of reports and process data. Organizations should be able to easily sort information to find trends, structure data to match business metrics, and collect, filter, and display data in recurring or ad-hoc reports. Ever better, the ability to view workflows and reporting metrics across multiple platforms and devices—browsers, mobile devices, and email—should be seamless.

Why Is Decisions the Best Value for Your Business?

In addition to offering every feature mentioned above, Decisions’ no-code environment offers a flexible and adaptable automation tool that can be managed by users of any level.

We understand that your organization is constantly evolving and growing, and your processes should, too. Building processes that match the reality of business operations shouldn’t take countless hours, a fully-fledged team of developers, or multi-phased functionality testing. With a solution like Decisions, end users are empowered to adjust workflow business logic with no required coding. 

The Flow Designer lets users drag and drop over 3,000 components within a workflow, while the Form Designer creates dynamic, customizable forms, or the option to input existing ones. Decisions combine all of these features, saving your team hours of valuable time, and your organization a significant chunk of change. 

Take the Next Step!

Keeping your business ahead of the curve takes technology that is adaptable, accessible, and innovative. Decisions takes the frustration out of creating, monitoring, and improving your business processes by empowering end users through the removal of developer bottlenecks. 

Ready to see Decisions in action? Connect with our team today!