Which administrative processes can be automated?
Efficiency question :
Before automating administrative processes, first determine what is genuinely worthwhile to automate and establish priorities.
Not all administrative tasks offer the same potential. Some are repetitive, time-consuming and relatively easy to automate. Others require significant development effort for more limited gains.
The first step is therefore to identify the processes with the greatest improvement potential and determine which ones should be automated first.
Key considerations:
Software development has costs and requires time, money and energy. The effort required can vary considerably from one automation project to another.
A good approach is to start with automations that deliver the greatest added value for the least effort. The initial gains can then free up time and resources that can be invested in improving other processes.
There is therefore no need to start with the most complex or ambitious process. Start instead with automations that can quickly generate tangible benefits for the organization.
Challenges:
Before developing an automation, you need a strong overall understanding of the process and then the ability to understand each step in detail.
You need to determine what data is required, when it becomes available and how its quality will be controlled. Depending on the process, it may also be appropriate to create control reports to verify the results produced by the automation.
Effective administrative automation should also remain simple. Avoid turning a relatively simple process into an excessively complex system. The goal is to simplify the work, not move the complexity into a new solution.
Technology:
The technology to use depends directly on the administrative process you want to automate.
Several tools may be considered depending on the need, including Excel, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), Power Query, Power Pivot, Power Apps, Power BI and SQL.
You do not need to use all of these technologies in a single solution. Instead, determine which ones best fit the process being automated, the available data and the desired results.
Developer's advice:
Before starting from a blank page, take the time to discuss your project with a developer who has automation experience.
Process development and optimization are experience-based disciplines. The more automation projects a developer has completed, the better equipped they are to estimate the required effort, identify potential difficulties and recognize risks before development even begins.
A short discussion can sometimes reveal a simpler approach, a better-suited technology or a way to avoid investing substantial effort in an unnecessarily complex solution.
Consider a simple example. In a service business, expense reports can be automated quite easily. A form can allow employees to enter their expenses by selecting predefined categories. Each category can be associated with the appropriate general ledger accounts and tax treatment.
The expense report can then automatically display, at the bottom of the form, a summary of the accounting allocations to be entered into the accounting system. The employee completes the expense report, and the person responsible for accounting immediately has the information required to record the entries.
This is a good example of a relatively simple automation that requires limited investment, saves time and improves consistency in how information is processed.
If you have an administrative process you would like to automate, contact SLV Expert to discuss your project and obtain an initial perspective on the available options.