In any organisation, there are certain levels of management departments where the particular work needs to be approved. From sales to marketing, there are several tasks that need approval. And using an automated workflow is a technology that automates the entire sales process involved in the workflow by eliminating any disturbances or bottlenecks.
Manage operational performance with Automated Approval Workflow
For a large or medium sized enterprise consisting of a couple of departments there could be defined hierarchical workflows which require approval from all the line managers which can be a time-taking process.
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Benefits of Automated Approval Workflow for operational performance
- Streamlines recurring business processes
One of the major advantages of approval process automation is the streamlined business activities, particularly repeatable business activities that pertain to document management and delivery. It helps the organisation to standardize and streamline business activities and also keep a track of the progress.
- Minimizes cost
Automation tools help the organisation to achieve substantial ROI (Return on Investment) by eliminating costly manual routines. How does automation reduce costs?
- Eliminates paperwork
- Reduces cost of acquiring new customers
- Reduces production cost
- Aligns sales and marketing
- Helps in decision making
The organisation’s workflow is configured and tasks are automatically assigned and delivered to the reps of the respective teams. Thus, the managers can manage key approval and optimize their time and resources by helping in quick decision making.
- Instant and accurate availability of information
The automated approval workflow helps to store and manage business data on a single platform. It also helps the reps of particular departments to access instant and accurate business data with a single click.
- Enforces accountability and compliance
Automation will help to enforce accountability and improve timely compliances by automating, standardizing, and tracking core business processes, helping organizations to perfectly know what tasks need to be attended to on a priority basis. Aside from this, it will also help organizations to manage information access to safeguard information security and privacy.
- Helps in maintaining cordial relationships with customers and suppliers
Having an effective workflow system will help an organization to acquire timely approvals concerning purchasing new material from vendors, offering support to external customers, or even accelerating timely deliverables to your customers. All this will translate to mutual trust and confidence reposed in your organization from all the key stakeholders, which is a key performance metric for your organizational efficiency.
- Instant and accurate information access across various departments of an organization
When there is an ineffective workflow solution, frequently people in one department will fail to easily access key information from a different department. This is an utter waste of resources and time. With an automated workflow system, you will be able to easily access data and streamline information processing, thus helping key users to speed up approvals at any point in time. Aside from that, it will enable the incorporation of access rules to control and track data access for any given process.
Manage sales team with Automated Approval Workflow
So, how does the automated approval workflow benefit the sales cycle? Let us first focus on the sales now. The sales cycle starts with the lead generation, lead interaction, demo and follow-up etc and many more efforts put in by the sales rep. The workflow consists of a series of sequential steps that needs to be carried out with proper approval at the right time and at each stage from the beginning to the end. But, if the sales rep is stuck in any of the stages during the sales cycle it may ultimately lead to losing the lead.
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Benefits of Automated Approval Workflow for sales team
- Efficient Transactions
Automation encourages sales team members to make the most of their time and effectively prioritize routine tasks. Automated systems reduce the requirement for sales team members to wait for manual transaction approvals, as such systems can complete tasks with just a click, assuring systematic completion.
- Digital Transactions
Sales team members no longer require to maintain paper records of clients or print quotes and orders for approval. Quotation management software allows the prompt creation of quotes utilizing the ready-made templates. For further information on Quotation Management Systems, check out our blog on Online Quotation Management Software. Such enables sales team members to manage tasks digitally and eases the complete process.
- Immediate Business Insights
Workflow automation delivers a thorough overview of organizational workflow, with all details stored in a centralized automated platform. Such a system creates prompt reports and sales forecasts, supporting to shield possible bottlenecks that can occur in the future.
- Freedom from Micromanagement
Sales team members figure out the micro-management, where every transaction necessitates detecting and approval from the sales team manager, frustrating. Workflow automation assures that each and every approval in the sales cycle progresses step by step. Such not only enables sales team members to report when required but also regulate rapid approvals when required, minimizing the requirement for elevated micromanagement.
- Fewer administrative errors
There may be unintentional errors during the data entry process. But the automated workflow results in very few administrative errors as it eliminates the manual process of inputting the data. It also keeps the sales rep intimated of the expected action out of him/her.
- Efficient task management
An improved task management leads to right utilization of time as well as efforts. The automated task management system comes with tasks displaying in the dashboards, set reminders and alerts, pop-ups etc. This helps the sales manager to quickly view the status, bottlenecks and opportunities for workflow process improvement.
Automated sales force management tools enable the business process to be completely organised and standardized by tracking every activity by creating events, follow ups and tickets. Every item is tracked with these items and updated with current status to keep all stakeholders at the same page of development on the item.
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Manage marketing team with Automated Approval Workflow
Coming to marketing, it is important for the marketing team to manage the reviews and approve social media and marketing materials before publishing. It can be too time-consuming to email posts, get feedback and keep track of each and every edit, comment and request on every single content.
The automated approval workflow allows the content to be automatically sent to the appropriate person until the final approval has been reached. Automation tools provide the marketing team to spend more time creating content and less time managing them.
Benefits of Automated Approval Workflow for marketing team
1. Easy content approvals
Automation tools gives the marketing team the flexibility to create content approval workflow. The customized approval process helps to manage various social media channels. Choosing an automation tool allows complete customization to fit your marketing team is critical for an efficient content approval process.
2. Define approval process
The automated system allows you to view how the content moves through your team internally and define the client approval process.
3. Track the efficiency of marketing
The marketing automation system helps you to analyze and measure the automation workflow. It gives overall information about – where the lead came from, how efficient was the lead, how much time did it take for the lead to convert into sales and what is the conversion rate etc.
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Conclusion
Now that you have understood the benefit of automated approval workflow, it is equally crucial for you to choose the best software which makes the business process effortless as well as efficient.
