Low-code automation platforms can help solve pain points in your organization. But it’s not always a single issue that needs to be solved…There are two sides to the story.
On the one side, you’ve got the subject matter experts (SMEs). These are the people in your business who know your business processes inside out: how they work, what they’re supposed to achieve, what their problems are, and what a better solution would look like.
On the other side, there are the IT experts – analysts, architects, coders, and so on – who have the skills to build the solution.
But, generally, they don’t speak the same language. The SMEs don’t have the technical skills to envisage what digital process automation would look like. And the IT experts don’t have the deep subject knowledge to understand exactly what’s required to improve the efficiency of processes.
Of course, they can get there in time – through meetings, conversations, and iterations. But it makes the process really slow. Unless you have enough IT experts to embed them in all the business areas where automation can be of benefit, you’re going to have to start from scratch every time. And in the current IT skills shortage, you're very lucky if your IT team even have enough time to work through their backlog of requests.
That’s where a low-code platform can help accelerate your digital process automation project dramatically.
A low-code platform is a solution where users can design, build, and test business applications without needing the skills in a drag-and-drop interface with minimal coding, It means SMEs can use their knowledge of their specific process area to create a DPA solution, and only require support from IT specialists for the more complex elements of development and for implementation of the automation solution.
It resolves the problem identified at the start by allowing both sides to focus on doing what they do best and reduces the amount of time spent getting up to speed with each other.
Digital process automation solutions developed on low-code platforms often have results that speak for themselves. Here are three examples of low-code solutions that show how powerful it can be.
The procurement department of Takeda Pharmaceuticals had an incumbent and tedious way of communicating with the rest of the business. Supplier sourcing was conducted via a three-page manual form, slowing down the execution of business.
But, at the same time, the procurement team couldn’t just start waving things through without due diligence. Procurement is a vital role in any business, but in the highly regulated pharma industry, strict compliance is critical.
Using Bizagi’s low-code platform, the procurement team at Takeda was able to build a workflow-supported web-based questionnaire that replaced the old, manual form. By designing it themselves, they made sure they got all the information they needed, while making it easier for the rest of the business to engage with them and to make decisions more quickly.
The whole process took under 10 weeks with only minimal support from IT, increasing efficiency and cutting costs throughout the business, while improving the perception of the procurement team as a whole.
Read the full case study for more details.
JSR Micro's Life Sciences department were ready to accelerate their growth. But, like many manufacturing organizations, they were being held back by their inefficiencies in their business processes. The US-based semi-conductor manufacturer needed to enable across several areas of the organization, sales and customer service needed to be able to give quotes, deal with client issues, and provide engineering support and product requests more quickly to help grow the business. Additionally, their purchasing and logistics teams needed to deal with a growing volume of purchase requisition and capital approvals. To keep up with this growth, the engineers needed to accelerate production while still adhering to strict customer, legal and financial audit requirements. And the HR team needed to be able to hire and onboard new staff rapidly as well as manage the other demands of a growing organization. But JSR Micro only had one IT team to help deliver the digital process automation that would help each of these teams to their jobs more efficiently.
By using Bizagi’s low-code automation platform and working closely with SMEs to define exactly what was required in each area, JSR Micro were able to automate 20 new processes in just two years, achieving a 45% throughput time improvement across the business – all with no additional IT headcount.
Organizations don’t keep still. They’re always evolving. And the same is true of digital process automation – it’s not a destination, it’s an ongoing journey of refinement.
This was true for SEFAZ, the State Finance Secretariat for the Brazilian State of Ceará, who needed to automate their complex auditing process to reduce the amount of time needed to carry out audits and issue tax fines to companies found to be in breach.
They were able to connect 10 separate systems to a single platform and create reusable templates to speed up deployment time. This was a strong start and meant SEFAZ could process 2.5 cases a day.
But as the SMEs within SEFAZ got to know the system and understand it better, they were able to develop the solution further. Using Bizagi’s low-code platform, they took a continuous improvement approach and were able to build out three subsequent versions, which soon meant the department was processing 14 cases a day, five times more than the pilot deployment.
Read their full story for more details.
These are just three examples of how a low-code platform can help businesses accelerate their digital process automation efforts. Learn more about Bizagi’s low-code platform and how it can help bring efficiency and cost savings to your business.
