57% of organizations performed pilot tests for solutions to automate at least one business process pre-COVID. #nocode #automation @airSlateAcademy
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According to a 2020 global survey of business leaders by McKinsey, 85% of enterprises have somewhat or greatly accelerated the deployment of videoconferencing and filesharing technologies to facilitate remote employee interactions. In addition, 50% of enterprises increased the digitization of customer channels (via mobile apps and chatbots), while some 35% have further digitized their supply channels.

The upward trend for use of robotic automation is due to its ability to facilitate contactless interactions and relieve the cost pressure that can stem from the economic decline caused by the pandemic. This tumultuous period presents an opportunity for businesses to redefine their own business models with workflow automation and no-code automation/integration bots. This new automation technology introduces a number of benefits:

• Affordability compared to standalone solutions
• Can serve as a substitute or additional workforce
• Cuts expenses associated with paper-based workflows (ink and toner, postal delivery, etc.)

For instance, airSlate’s Automation Bots allow the user to set up a fully automated no-code workflow designed to fit the specific business operations they have in mind. Before we delve into the list of the Top 20 most popular airSlate Bots, it’s a good idea to first clarify the bot definitions.

Document Workflow Automation for IT Professionals

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• Client onboarding
• Workflow optimization

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What is a bot?

airSlate has two types of Bots: Automation and Integration.

• Automation Bots are used to automate a specific Flow by completing tasks like sending notifications, sending reminders, populating documents with CRM data, etc.
• Integration Bots are used to integrate your Flow with cloud services, popular tools, and streamline the storage of important information. They are used to transfer data from CRMs, SQL databases, spreadsheets, and other sources.

As a result of using airSlate software Bots, the vast scope of business operations ranging from contract management to employee onboarding and patient intake, are all efficiently handled within airSlate.

Watch the video below to get a grasp of no code bot automation basics with airSlate:

airSlate’s top-20, no code Bots for business optimization

airSlate allows organizations of any size to automate even the most complex business workflows using over 140 no code Bots. The list of airSlate’s most popular Bots can be split into several groups based on their mode of application:

Pre-fill Data Bots

• Pre-fill from Doc to Doc Bot
  Pre-fill from Doc to Doc Bot automates the process of pre-filling one document with data from another document within a single workflow. For instance, the Bot can be used to automatically populate a sales invoice with data from a completed sales proposal. Enroll in the Pre-fill from Doc to Doc course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to install and configure this Bot.
• Pre-fill from Excel Spreadsheet Bot
  The Pre-fill from Excel Spreadsheet Bot automates the process of importing data from an Excel Spreadsheet to another document within a single workflow. For instance, this Bot can help you automatically populate the dropdown fields of a purchase order form using inventory information that is taken from a product inventory Excel spreadsheet. Sign up for the Pre-fill from Doc to Doc course at the airSlate Academy and learn how to use this Bot for your business needs.
• Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot
  The Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot pre-populates dropdown fields in documents with data taken from a Google sheet when certain conditions are met. For example, the Bot can be used to automatically fill out the dropdown fields of a purchase order form using information that is taken from a product properties Google sheet. Click to learn more about the Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot.
• Pre-fill with Custom Data Bot
  The Pre-fill with Custom Data Bot pre-populates Slates (collections of documents) with manually entered data. The Bot can be used to automatically pre-fill invoices with custom data manually entered by a sales representative such as the client’s name, reference number, and dates for a new deal. Click to learn more about the Pre-fill with Custom Data Bot.
• Pre-fill from Google Sheets Bot
  The Pre-fill from Google Sheets Bot automatically transfers data from a Google sheet to the selected fields of another document within a single workflow. This Bot can be used to automate the process of creating employee onboarding documents, financial reports, and sales orders pre-populated with data from Google Sheets. Enroll in the Pre-fill from Google Sheets Bot course at the airSlate Academy and learn how to use this Bot for your business needs.

Salesforce Integration Bots

• Pre-fill from Salesforce Records Bot
  The Pre-fill from Salesforce Records Bot automatically populates documents with data taken from one or multiple related Salesforce records. The Bot can be used to automate the process of creating contracts, quotes, invoices, and reports completed with the Salesforce information you need. Enroll in the Pre-fill from Salesforce Records Bot course at the airSlate Academy and get a step-by-step guide on how to install and use this Bot.
• Pre-fill from Salesforce Records via SOQL Bot
  The Pre-fill from Salesforce Records via SOQL Bot searches for Salesforce records based on your SOQL query and fills out documents with data from these records. For instance, this Bot can be used to automatically generate invoices pre-filled with data from unpaid sales orders. Click to learn more about the Pre-fill from Salesforce Records with SOQL Bot.
• Create Salesforce Record Bot
  The Create Salesforce Record Bot automates the process of creating Salesforce records using data from a completed document. For instance, this Bot can be used to transfer data from a new client’s completed registration form and create new Leads in Salesforce. Enroll in the Create Salesforce Record Bot course at the airSlate Academy and learn how to use this Bot for your business operations.
• Update Salesforce Record Bot
  The Update Salesforce Record Bot can change record types in Salesforce. The Bot automatically updates Salesforce records with data from a completed document. For instance, if a customer makes changes to their business address in an order form, it will be updated in the corresponding Salesforce record. Enroll in the Update Salesforce Record Bot course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to install and use this Bot.
• Export to Salesforce Bot
  The Export to Salesforce Bot automatically uploads a Slate to a specific Salesforce record. For instance, the Bot can be used to automatically save a contract as an attachment to the relevant Salesforce client record. Sign up for the Export to Salesforce course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to employ this Bot in your business operations.

Other popular airSlate Bots

• Rename Flow on Documents Completion Bot
  The Rename Flow on Documents Completion Bot automates the process of renaming your Slates. For instance, the Bot can be used to automatically assign a new name to an invoice once it has been paid. To learn more about installing and customizing this Bot, sign up for the Rename Flow on Documents Completion course at the airSlate Academy.
• Hide Signatures Bot
  The Hide Signatures Bot automatically conceals previously added e-signatures or initials when certain conditions are met. In other words, each time a signer or multiple signers want to e-sign a document, they will have to add a new version of their electronic signature(s) or initials. New signatures or initials can be added by all signers online and in-person with a tablet or smartphone using their fingers. Click to learn more about the Hide Signatures Bot.
• Email on Documents Opening Bot
  The Email on Documents Opening Bot allows you to track when your recipient opens a document sent to them. Also, the Bot sends you an email notification each time someone has started working on a Slate document. For instance, this Bot can be set up to automatically send an email notification to a sales representative once a prospect has opened a sales quote. Enroll in the Email on Documents Opening course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to install the Bot and set it up.
• Export to Google Sheets Bot
  The Export to Google Sheets Bot automatically transfers filled-in data from a Slate document to a Google sheet. For instance, the Bot can be used to export client data and order details from a completed order form to a sales report sheet in Google Sheets. Sign up for the Export to Google Sheets course and learn how to install and customize the Bot according to your workflow.
• Remind Recipients to Complete Documents Bot
  The Remind Recipients to Complete Documents Bot sends reminder emails for signing or completing a Slate document based on recipient roles. Learn how to automate reminder emails to keep all participants in a workflow up to date with the help of the Remind Recipients to Complete Documents course at the airSlate Academy.
• Save to Google Drive Bot
  The Google Drive Bot allows you to automatically move completed Slates to a Google Drive folder. For instance, the Bot can be used to archive business contracts after they have been terminated. Sign up for the Save to Google Drive Bot course to streamline your document retention routines.
• Save to Dropbox Bot
  The Dropbox Bot allows you to automatically transfer and archive completed Slates to Dropbox. For instance, the Bot can be used to store executed purchase orders, quotes, contracts, etc. Enroll in the Save to Dropbox course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to use this Bot for document retention.
• Add Tags Bot
  The Add Tags Bot adds tags to a Slate to mark specific changes. For instance, the Bot can be used to automatically assign the “accepted” tag to a sales proposal once it has been accepted by a customer. Click to learn more about the Add Tags Bot.
• Create Event in Google Calendar Bot
  The Create Event in Google Calendar Bot automatically creates events in Google Calendar and populates it with data taken from a pre-filled Slate. For instance, the Bot can be used to automatically schedule a weekly staff meeting in Google Calendar with a date, topic, and event description taken from a pre-filled meeting agenda form. Enroll in the Create Event in Google Calendar course course at the airSlate Academy to learn how to use the Bot for more streamlined appointment scheduling.

If you want to advance your no code automation skills, we recommend enrolling in the airSlate Academy’s free certification programs. Start with the airSlate Bots: The Ultimate Guide course to master the ins and outs of using airSlate Bots.

Originally published in February 2021, updated in July 2023 for accuracy and comprehensiveness

The post What is a Bot? TOP 20 Bots for no code business automation appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Disconnects between business goals and technology adoption are named as one of the biggest obstacles to transformation success. In 2022, the priority is projected to shift from sporadic adoption of various automation technologies to actually achieving business automation success.

While some companies are scaling their digital strategies through comprehensive enterprise platforms, others still prefer to use tools like Google Workspace, formerly G Suite, for workflow automation. @airSlateAcademy @Google…
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Using G Suite to automate workflows and tasks is the go-to choice for many businesses, out of an ecosystem of apps, for various use cases — from productivity tools to databases and language processing services. It’s safe to say that implementing G Suite tools is the first step towards business automation and cloud technology adoption.

However, given the fast pace of digital adoption and departure from traditional business models, organizations will have to amplify their digital strategies to use more comprehensive business automation platforms in the months to come. According to recent Workato research, 94% of businesses would choose a unified workflow automation platform to integrate all their apps instead of relying on several systems or tools.

In this blog, you’ll learn how to accelerate digital transformation with airSlate and make a smooth transition to a more advanced business automation strategy. There’s no need to abandon your good old G Suite tools — we’ll show you how to get the best of both worlds with the top 5 airSlate Bots for Google.

G Suite tools for workflow automation — is it really enough?

By G Suite tools for automation, we often mean combining tools like Gmail and Sheets, or Forms and Sheets, to streamline certain stages of a business process. For instance, with Forms and Sheets, it’s possible to validate and control the information collected via specific form fields, as well as ensure proper data categorization for more accurate record retention.

Google Sheets automation is used for a number of scenarios that require data being exported/imported and the sorting of information from different sources. Google Sheets offers basic workflow templates that can be extended with extra functionalities using the Google Apps Script.

94% of businesses would choose a unified workflow automation platform to integrate all their apps instead of relying on several systems or tools. @airSlateAcademy #automation #nocode
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With an Apps Script code, users can incorporate custom features like menus, dialogs, and sidebars into Sheets, as well as integrate Sheets with other Google tools like Calendar, Drive, and Gmail. App Script allows for scaling multiple functionalities by setting triggers which hold the key to automation. In fact, Google shares the ready-made Apps Script code to customize the G Suite. To get the basics of using Apps Script with Google Sheets, check out this quick guide to Macros, Menus, and Custom Functions.

Document Workflow Automation for Business Analysts

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• Data management
• Business process efficiency

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How to automate workflows in G Suite tools vs airSlate

And now, let’s take a look at how teams and businesses of any size can automate one of the most popular business workflows — employee onboarding workflow — and how the process differs for G tools and airSlate.

Employee onboarding workflow automation with G Suite tools

In a nutshell, employee onboarding in G Suite is meant to provide users with a Google account for work to allow access to the productivity suite, which includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Calendar, etc. It’s possible for HR to manually onboard one or two employees. However, if there are several recruits to onboard into G Suite, the employee onboarding workflow has to be automated.

Small-to-medium-sized businesses can accelerate their G Suite employee onboarding workflows using an Apps Script from Google or integration of third-party G Suite user onboarding and offboarding tools. For instance, it’s possible to configure an app script that automatically sends a message to a new employee with a prompt that details what they need to do after they’ve finished setting up their G Suite account.

However, it needs mentioning that an Apps Script has its limitations, as it requires basic knowledge of coding, and only allows for automating one step at a time. On the other hand, it’s possible to set up multiple approval workflows with app scripts that could fit the purpose of the onboarding process, such as:

• Reminding an employee to finish setting up their account
• Sending an employee to an FAQ page after they finish completing onboarding forms
• Directing an employee to web apps they might need to use on a daily basis.

Also, Apps Script allows for creating custom menus and sidebars in Google Sheets, Docs, and Forms to help new employees get accustomed to the system faster.

Employee onboarding workflow automation with airSlate

Automating employee onboarding workflows with airSlate doesn’t require any scripts or coding. An automated onboarding process in airSlate proceeds as follows:

1. An HR Manager creates an employee record in a CRM system and then creates a flow template in airSlate and attaches all the documents required for the onboarding process.

2. Next, the HR manager configures the Steps of the workflow, assigns access permissions, adds and sets up the airSlate Bots typically used to configure the Employee Onboarding Flow Template:

• Pre-fill from NetSuite Records Bot pre-fills the mapped fields with NetSuite data from the selected record(s) when someone opens a Flow.
• Pre-fill from Doc to Doc Bot automatically copies data from a selected document to the respective fields of the other document.
• Export to Netsuite Record Bot automatically uploads documents to a NetSuite record each time someone completes a Flow.
• Email upon Slate Completion Bot sends an email notification to a specified recipient after a Flow is completed.
• Set Signature Type Bot defines the signing method that recipients are required to use.

After the Bots are configured, the HR manager then proceeds to share the flow template with the new employee. By the way, check free airSlate Academy courses to get a better understanding of how to configure bots.

3. The employee receives an email invitation to fill in the documents. Once the employee has signed their forms, the HR manager will see them automatically uploaded to the CRM system. They will see that the employee’s status has changed to Onboarded, and the signed forms are now attached to the employee’s record.

4. An employer is notified by email about the new employee joining their team. The employee receives a new confirmation email about their successful onboarding, along with the employee handbook.

See how HR teams use airSlate to automate employee onboarding:

airSlate allows for automating any business process in your organization without leveraging any third-party solutions and/or API integrations.

And if that sounds complicated, you can set up your own automated onboarding process right now using a ready-made Employee Onboarding Flow Template or build a new one from scratch. airSlate makes employee onboarding workflows so much easier without having to play around with any scripts or coding.

Just take a look at how G Suite tools and airSlate are different when it comes to automating routine workflows:

Here’s what one of our customers, Menachem Tauber, Technology Development Manager at Lubavitch Educational Center had to say about using airSlate Bot automation:

Top 5 airSlate Bots for Google

airSlate allows teams and businesses of any size to automate even the most complex business workflows with over 140 no-code Bots. There’s no need to abandon your good old G Suite tools — you can get the best of both worlds with the top 5 airSlate Bots for Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar:

Export to Google Sheets Bot

The Export to Google Sheets Bot eliminates manual data entry issues and ensures the accuracy and accountability of your business data. The Bot transfers custom values to the corresponding columns of a Google spreadsheet based on the ‘if-this-then-that’ conditions you set. Use it to automate the process of transferring custom data such as the date of signing or any manually entered details to your Google Sheet.

The Export to Google Sheets Bot delivers a number of business benefits, such as:

• Hours saved on copying and pasting information
• Minimal chance of critical business errors
• Improved workflow efficiency 
• Increased productivity

Pre-fill from Google Sheets Bot

The Pre-fill from Google Sheets Bot transfers data from Google Sheets to documents based on the ‘if-this-then-that’ conditions you set. The Bot helps automate the process of creating contracts, sales invoices, and proposals pre-populated with information from Google Sheets. After a successful Bot setup, you will be able to:

• Help your recipients fill forms faster
• Change sources of information to auto-fill web form from Excel
• Update databases in .xlsx files and upload new ones

Save to Google Drive Bot

The Save to Google Drive Bot helps avoid data loss by keeping documents secure in your Google Drive account. With this Bot, you can automatically save documents to your Google Drive account once they’re executed. The benefits of setting up the Archive to Google Drive Bot include:

• Improves workplace productivity 
• Allows for reclaiming time for other tasks
• Ensures a human error-proof process
• Excludes human involvement

Create Event in Google Calendar Bot

The Create Event in Google Calendar Bot allows for automatically creating events in Google Calendar. With this Bot, you can automate the process of creating meetings, reminders, trip notifications, and other events in your Google Calendar using data from completed documents. When configured, the following improvements will compound over time:

• Better product output
• Higher employee value
• Reduction of mundane, recurring tasks
• Advanced data safety and security
• Enhanced productivity

Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot

The Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot automatically populates dropdown fields in your documents with information from a Google Sheets spreadsheet. With this Bot, you can automatically populate dropdown fields of order forms, service requests, and sales invoices with multiple options from Google Sheets. Using the Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheet Bot, you can:

• Accelerate data transfers 
• Keep data accurate and consistent
• Avoid paying for APIs 
• Deploy quickly and easily

Workflow automation: 3 tips on how to be more productive

Our mission at airSlate is to help teams and businesses of any size run better, faster, and more efficiently. We believe in giving everyone the opportunity and power to focus on what they love to do while bringing teams, partners, and customers together in the process. All of that is impossible without constantly improving skills and gaining new practical knowledge. Become more productive using one or all of the following airSlate resources:

1. Free business automation courses at the new airSlate Academy

The new airSlate Academy is the first educational hub for learning the ins and outs of digital transformation. In the platform, students can access industry-focused learning plans to discover the capabilities offered by workflow automation in healthcare, HR, Education, Finance, and other industries. Enroll in a free Certification Program and get certified in just 3 hours!

2. Industry-specific flow templates and pre-built processes

Create and automate your first workflow in minutes with tens of thousands of pre-built airSlate Flow Templates for any department and industry use case. Some of the most in-demand airSlate Flow Templates include:

– Employee Onboarding Flow Template

– Contract Management Flow Template

– Sales Invoice Flow Template

– Patient Intake Flow Template

– Vacation Request Flow Template

and many more.

3. No-code Bots

If you wish to upgrade your skills, enroll in free airSlate Bot Courses at the airSlate Academy. Become more efficient when using airSlate Bots for Google by completing the following courses: Pre-fill from Google Sheets, Create Event in Google Calendar, Save to Google Drive, Export to Google Sheets, and Pre-fill Dropdowns from Google Sheets Bot.

The post Using G Suite workflow automation for years? Go to another level with airSlate no-code Bots appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

In this post, we’re going to investigate some of the most common positive and negative aspects of human-robot experiences to find the answers.

Interesting fact:

Artificial intelligence: great expectations

Ever since the first mentions of artificial intelligence in Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (1950), people have had high hopes for the positive transformations it would bring. According to a survey by PwC, 63% of respondents believe that AI will provide solutions to the most pressing issues of today. In the meantime, 46% of respondents are convinced that AI will replace the human workforce.

Consumers believe that AI will help cope with common modern problems, such as:

The blended workforce transformation

In 2016, as most companies had been moving towards a “gig economy”, Forbes’ Dan Schwabel named the “blended workforce” one of the workplace’s most dominating trends. About 93% of businesses would team up freelance workers with employees to work on projects collaboratively. Hiring on-demand workers to solve problems fast while cutting the costs associated with permanent employees would become a popular option.

In 2018, the MIT Technology Review analyzed 18 reports on the effects of automation and technology on labor which resulted in a series of divergent predictions. While some reports forecasted a one billion increase in jobs worldwide by 2030, others insisted on a loss of two billion jobs! A McKinsey 2017 report suggested 400 to 800 million jobs could be automated by 2030.

In 2020, the “blended workforce” got a revamp in the form of a human-machine partnership. A study by Honeywell Integrated suggests that over 60% of US companies are willing to invest in automation to cope with the challenges brought on by the global pandemic. Experts believe that by 2025, more businesses will be willing to invest in robotic process automation, with total expenditures expected to hit a staggering $25 billion.

Still, when it comes to human-robot interaction, the nature of the process isn’t always obvious. Let’s take a look at some examples of positive and negative experiences.

By the way, you can watch the video below to learn how to use no-code automated Bots for managing your workflows in airSlate:

Human-robot interaction: the good

GPT-3, a Bot capable of writing essays

Can a robot write a full-blown essay from scratch? There’s one that coped with the task better than an average human would! OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) is known to be the most powerful natural language technology to date. It has 175 billion parameters which allow it to generate pieces of text in a variety of styles. GPT-3 is capable of generating a coherent text after being given a few simple prompts.

Here’s what it wrote in an essay to convince people that AI has no intention of destroying the human race:

Source: MIT Technology Review

Currently, GPT-3 is implemented in a vast range of cases, from auto-completion of Excel spreadsheets to NLP-based semantic web search.

Automation in pharma to develop a COVID19 treatment

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the pharma company Takeda began recruiting patients for clinical trials of a COVID-19 treatment using automation software from UiPath. Normally, the candidates’ selection procedure and paperwork would take a few weeks. Using automation Bots significantly sped up tasks like opening files, selecting input fields, and filling out forms. The process was repeated for each prospective candidate, allowing paperwork to be processed and approved in days rather than weeks.

airSlate Bots: efficient business automation

Unlike multiple Bots geared to perform an isolated task (for instance, chatbots), airSlate Bots are rule-based automation Bots that are adaptable to nearly all kinds of workflows. Since each workflow is unique, airSlate’s capacity isn’t limited to building a flexible document or data flows.

In airSlate, all Bots are divided into Automation and Integration Bots. While the former is used for automating a particular workflow, the latter is meant to integrate it with cloud services. The result is that business processes such as contract management, onboarding requests and approvals, and patient intake, are all efficiently processed within airSlate.

Here’s how airSlate helps San Diego’s NewSchool of Architecture & Design:

With the help of airSlate, NewSchool of Architecture & Design streamlined the process of student form submission by creating required rules directly into the forms. This way, the documents are forwarded to the correct department for approval and then back to the Registrar’s Office in the form of an email that gets delivered to their Customer Management System.

Set up a fully automated no-code

workflow for any business operation

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Human-robot interaction: the bad

When it comes to the practical use of robotic automation and other advanced technology in daily life, there’s always room for underachievement and concern.

Amazon’s automated management

In 2018, the result of Amazon’s automated management came as a shocker. The company fired around 300 full-time employees at a single warehouse facility between August 2017 and September 2018 for failing to “meet productivity quotas.” At the time, Amazon was using an automated tracking system that rated every worker by a fixed number of items they had to process per hour. If a worker failed to meet the requirements, they would be “automatically fired”. According to Amazon’s staff, the working conditions were harsh as the robot would force them to work nonstop which eventually resulted in occupational injuries.

Bots and the “infodemic”

Social Bots are semi- or completely automated social media accounts used to manipulate public opinion. Unlike useful software automation Bots, social Bots are typically associated with malicious activities and misinformation. In 2020, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit banned thousands of Bot accounts contributing to the COVID-19 and the 2020 US elections infodemic.

Research suggests that the social presence of Bots rapidly increases when political or economic interests are at stake:

• 82% of the top 50 most influential retweeters discussing COVID-19 were identified as Bots. Meanwhile, humans collaborating with Bots accounted for 66% in discussions around controversial pandemic-related topics.
• 71% of Twitter accounts mentioning trending US stocks, are likely to be Bots.
• Before the 2020 US presidential election, right-leaning accounts on Twitter exceeded the number of left-leaning accounts by 4 to 1 among bots and by 2 to 1 among humans. Bots have also contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and “pizzagate”.

Microsoft’s AI chatbot and racism

In 2016, Microsoft had launched a Twitter chatbot named Tay which backfired by making a bunch of racist statements learned from Twitter users. According to Microsoft’s reps, Tay was meant “to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation.” Sadly, Tay’s conversation didn’t go well, as the chatbot started making inflammatory and political statements in its tweets.

Microsoft later explained that the Bot used AI together with an editorial written by a team of improvisational comedians. To do the Bot justice, Tay was only repeating the words of other users. However, it was still learning from those interactions. Eventually, the Bot was “silenced” by Microsoft hours after its launch.

Source: @TayandYou/Twitter

In a nutshell

Despite the concerns associated with the use of a human-robot blended workforce, the future has already arrived. Humans need to develop mutually reinforcing, not competing, skills for interacting with technology. While AI can perform multiple tasks better than humans, it’s still humans who interpret and put the results of its work into practice.

One of the ways to gain the necessary skills needed for effective human-robot collaboration is by completing Automation Courses with the airSlate Academy.

The post Humans and Bots: the new blended workforce appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

The airSlate Academy offers free online certification programs, developed specifically for those who are fully aware of the increasingly important roles of no-code automation and citizen development in today’s economic context.

The airSlate Academy offers free online certifications, developed for people aware of the important role of no-code automation and citizen development in today’s economic context. #nocode #automation @airSlateAcademy
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If you’re still unsure how relevant business automation could be for your personal development and future career, you’re welcome to read the stories we’ve collected from Zoom interviews with recent Academy graduates. Our graduates (who are primarily IT consultants and early-career professionals) have already applied the obtained knowledge in real-life business situations.

Document Workflow Automation for Finance Specialists

• E-payments
• Workflow optimization
• Business process automation

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Student Profile:

Brian Dazo

Private consultant and a certified public accountant specializing in financial and regulatory reporting, mainly for the e-commerce and financial services industry.

For the month of October 2020, Brian completed seven courses at the airSlate Academy.

Background & motivation to become an airSlate Academy student:

Brian was hired by a CPA firm based in Puerto Rico. Just like thousands of other accountants around the world, they too have loads of paperwork going in and out of the office. Brian was hired to automate these paper-based processes and coordinate the initial setup of airSlate workflows for them. When Brian was invited to join, the firm already had airSlate in mind. Brian was hired because of his previous exposure to RPA and familiarity with its great potential to cut costs and increase productivity:

Future plans:

Firm-level:

Brian was hired when the firm’s process automation was still in the early stages of development. Completing courses at the airSlate Academy was an integral part of this preparation process.

The firm’s plans pertaining to process automation include complete automation of the invoicing process, with automated routing, notifications, and automatic reminders sent to clients who are not responding.

After this automated invoicing test drive, full-scale automation of other accounting processes is next on the list.

Brian’s individual career plans and aspirations:

Having several years of experience in both the fields of accounting and consultancy, Brian is optimistic about the potential benefits of business automation and airSlate in particular:

Students who have already completed courses at the airSlate Academy have the opportunity to become airSlate Partners.

The airSlate Partner Program was recently launched to satisfy the rapidly changing needs of private IT consultants and/or resellers.

Upgrade your career

Start learning workflow automation today for free

Enroll

The post airSlate Academy graduates: RPA with airSlate for certified public accountants appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the key concepts of document management. You will learn how to choose a document management solution for teams and businesses of all sizes. Finally, we’ll explore the possibilities of airSlate for document management. Let’s get started!

The brief history of document management

In the ‘before times’ when the internet was still something you needed a landline telephone connection and CD to install connection software, a lot of various attempts at solutions to everyday problems began development. At first, Word was the exalted-one for word processors and most everyone tried to follow Microsoft’s example. Other office suite software came and went, and alternative solutions attempted to rise against the machine. Most failed, but some did not.

Document generation tools can be dated back to at least 1989 with mkd, which was used to generate technical documentation based on pre-encoded comment lines within the code of a program. Other solutions like Javadoc came later in 1995, and some were released as early as 1993, likely in line with the release of Windows 93 (nostalgia link).

We’ve come a long way since then, but Oregon Trail has stayed more or less the same.

Over the years, document generation has even expanded into website creation and content management systems (CMS) of all kinds. Some good examples of this are Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki, and many, many more. When you visually organize the elements of the page as modules instead of via code, you’re still generating a document in the form of a webpage, blogpost, article, or e-market.

Pages and documents that have been generated manually can also work as templates, or baseline layouts for future pages and/or documents. Furthermore, the modules or elements themselves can be premade and automatically placed, organized, and filled by a document generation tool. As a result, the tool can create a fully automated pipeline with only preparation required.

When it comes to CMS technology, the takeaway is that the development of such technologies and systems over the years has not only created standard expectations, workflows, and feature requirements between the available CMS software, but also what works, what doesn’t, what’s best for users, and what are the best ways to implement such technologies.

Imagine using Drupal to smoothly drag element modules into place that you can later fill, then going into a generic word processor and expecting the same functionality out-of-the-box. You would suddenly become very disappointed in the word processor for being unable to accommodate your needs; however, over time, these same features have been ported by the community into word processors as plugins, or have been natively implemented due to popular demand.

What is document management?

First of all, what is document management? Document management is a pretty broad term and encompasses the updating, storage, sharing, finding, and security of documents within, and without, the scope of workflow processes. One of the most important factors, outside of data security, is accessibility. If your documents aren’t accessible then the management of your data may need a revision.

Sometimes data accessibility issues can arise from using too many services to complete the workflow process, and this decentralized structure can lead to a myriad of cloud storage and other services to accommodate the compatibility differences between each. This can also add overhead to personnel time and reduce productivity while they manage tasks and files between a number of services to complete the pipeline manually.

Electronic document management systems usually handle logs and audits. However, if your processes are decentralized and flow through a number of services then your records, logs, and data may be missing, incomplete, insecure and/or impossible to work with. And what about security? If your company is using a vast swath of services to accommodate various workflow document management software services, the chances are much higher that a data breach could occur.

Learn more about document management with the Introduction to Document Process Automation course. This course is dedicated to those who are interested in effectively digitizing their document processes. The course covers basics such as the key players in the DPA market and outlines the core categories of process automation.

Why is workflow centralization important?

How can anyone know who exactly has access to every platform if no one knows all of the platforms every department needs to use as a collective whole to complete their own processes?

And what of communication between departments? If you lack a centralized system for task management, workflow processes, document generation, and data management, it can be impossible for everyone to know what they need to do, when they need to do it by, and where they need to be. This is exactly why we always hear the phrase, “I need that done yesterday”; it’s not always about poor time management on the part of the employee.

Communication is the key to success

Communication is always the first thing to break down in any organization. From a lemonade stand to the military, breakdowns in communication can impede progress, destroy advantages, and ultimately lead to disaster.

When everyone is on the same page, quite literally, they can stay on top of their tasks, paperwork, negotiations, recruitment policies, logistical needs, client data, employee satisfaction, and anything else they need to make the organization’s dreams and goals a reality.

Business document management matters

When it comes to blurring the lines between document process, automation, management workflow, and generation software, airSlate is taking the charge very seriously.

airSlate is a very robust system and has a wide array of tools capable of managing data, automating workflows, generating documents, and much more. We accomplish this through a logical and simple approach to our service from platform navigation to implementation.

Some of the benefits to implementing a centralized approach using airSlate for your document workflow and management include:

All of your data is accounted for in the cloud service of your choice via native multi-cloud support. As a result, only the people who need access to sensitive data have it, and it’s all in the cloud service of your choice, not just the cloud services compatible with the seven different service providers you needed to complete just a few tasks.

The amount of people required to manage document automation and document workflow is significantly reduced; thereby increasing employee accountability and significantly reducing incidents of human error.

Your processes can be automated, completely. Not only can you automate document generation, you can also automate a near-infinite amount combination of data management and workflow tasks using codeless Bots.

There’s always an Audit trail for every document and file handled by our system. This audit trail includes the exact actions taken, what IP address was used to access the files, the user’s name, and the date and time.

Simplicity

The airSlate Dashboard and every other page of the platform is clean, modern, simple to navigate, easy to understand, and there’s always more than one way to reach your desired results.

Everything flows in a logical pattern. When you need to create a new workflow process, you create a new Flow from scratch; and when you need a Flow Template to be filled in, emailed, signed, or to have actions taken to it, a Flow is created based on that Template specifically. A single Flow Template can be reused indefinitely, and can automatically generate new Flows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with non-stop functionality.

Additionally, everything within the process is easy to use. Even our conditional logic and Bots are completely no-code (codeless), meaning set them up in the Template’s settings and bam! You’re done; the Bots are ready to work until you disable them or set them to be disabled.

When generating new forms, or a number of Template types including PDF’s you already have, everything is seamless. You can take a corporate PDF, add fields to be filled by employees, set-up a Bot to automate the process of compiling the results into a spreadsheet, and be done in less than a couple of hours.

Collecting electronic signatures, and in the correct order is a simple, seamless, and quick procedure. The document approval workflow has probably never been easier; all it takes is a little footwork to get it up and running. Once done, you have a Template already prepared for that approval process and you don’t need to do it again.

So we’ve built it up quite a lot, let’s get to some features to back up our claims, followed by examples.

Native Multi-Cloud support

We natively support Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Amazon S3, Slack, Microfocus, and more. You can export your completed or incomplete Flows directly to the cloud of your choice, read data from existing spreadsheets, update cells, edit information, etc.

Unfathomably robust Bot automation

With over 100 no-code Bots to choose from, and conditions you can apply within your Flows, you have near-limitless automation combination possibilities at your fingertips. Unfortunately we haven’t figured out how to materialize chocolate yet so we can’t say it’s completely limitless, sorry – someone is probably working on it.

Because the Bots are no-code, you can set them up with no more technical expertise than is needed to take that personality-type survey that your friend keeps sending you on social media.

Here’s our complete list of available Bots, as of September, 2020:

Seamless document generation

Document generation is as easy as selecting elements, dragging them where you want them, and configuring some basic settings. You can create a survey in less than 30 minutes which also captures eSignatures, processes payments, and exports the data to a spreadsheet.

Workspace teams get everyone on the same page

Add your employees to your Workspace so they can see their available Flows (formerly Slates) that require attention, manage their contacts, or set-up their own department’s document workflow management. The permissions and roles are entirely up to your discretion.

Watch the video below to learn more about how to work with Flows (formerly Slates) in airSlate:

Workflow setup and document management

To get started with our document management system and document generation, it’s as easy as creating a Template. 

Creating a new airSlate workflow can be achieved in a number of ways, but we’ll start from the Dashboard and select Create New Flow.

We can choose to create from scratch or choose one from the library of Flow Templates , we’ll do this from scratch to show how easy this is.

When the Create New Flow is ready, you’ll be greeted with a message to Add documents, or to Create a document type to generate your documents from scratch. We’re going to do both.

We’re going to be using a standard model release form that can be found here and creating a Form or Survey.

First off, let’s handle the release form.

To add fillable fields to our document, it’s as easy as dragging them onto the document and resizing them while they’re selected.

To add fields, either select empty space on the document, or select Fields on the right-hand side of the screen.

The types of fields available seem quite numerous but try to remember that Template fields are generally Standard fields which are pre-filled for your ease of use.

For example, US States Collection is a Dropdown that is pre-filled with the acronyms of all 50 US States.

If you would like to change some of the parameters of a field, simply select it and the right-hand panel will change tabs to Options.

Once here, you should always, for the sake of your hairline and nerves later, name every Database field name. The reason for this is to be able to identify it when handling conditional logic, Bots for automation, or when auditing.

The best practice for this is to have a prefix for each Role within the Flow. We’ll cover that shortly.

In our example, we have a photographer, witness, model, and potentially a legal guardian. It would behoove you to name the fields based on the job or other determining factor. E.g., Model_Signature

Additionally, you can set the default text, add notes, select your preferences or requirements, and add some text to help your signers.

In this example we will need to introduce some conditional logic into the mix. If our model is over the age of 18, we don’t need the legal guardian’s data, nor the second group of fields from the witness, only the first. And vice versa, we won’t need the model’s signature or the first set of fields for the witness if the model is under the age of 18.

We can select the field we want to hide or reveal a field based on our needed conditions by turning on Make this field conditional. When we do this, a new pane opens up and we see some options. The first is grayed out because we only have one condition listed. If we select the triggering field in the second dropdown, we can then set the condition for the field to be revealed or hidden as needed by switching between ‘is filled in’ and ‘is not filled in’.

When you’ve completed the circuit of logic for the fields, adjusted your field settings, and are generally happy with the document, press Done. In regards to document automation, we’re not even scratching the surface yet.

We’ll be returned to the Template configuration page. Let’s look at the top-right of the screen to find a row of buttons.

We’re going to go to Roles to set-up our field assignments.

We can add Roles here to assign fields, contact information, add personalized messages for each recipient, and choose to revoke access to the document once they’ve completed it.

You’ve created a Flow Template from PDF, congratulations! That was pretty fast, right? We didn’t get into Bots and document generation yet, let’s just get right to it.

Let’s start by adding a Form or Survey. You’ll notice there are a lot of data entry options available, don’t get overwhelmed, let’s focus on the basics.

We’ll need a Dropdown menu for the user to select a company to order from. We’ll also need a Number and Signature element.

And lastly, we will need a simple Google spreadsheet with some columns based on matching company name rows. This will be important later when we get to adding a Bot to export our form data to our Google Sheet.

Once we’ve set-up our elements, selected which kind of signatures we’ll allow, and named all of our elements, we can proceed by pressing Complete.

While viewing our Flow’s page, we can find the Bots button in the top-right of the page. From here, we’ll configure a Bot to automate moving data into the Google Sheet.

When we first land on this page, we’ll be greeted only by the default Bot, Configure and send out email notifications. This Bot will be disabled by default. We can press Add Bot to continue.

Here we’ll find that massive lists of Bots organized in a nice little package for us, even with a search function to help us speed the process up even more.

The amount of Bots available really may seem overwhelming, and at times it can seem as though your use-case doesn’t have a Bot available to help. If you can find another Bot that’s similar in nature to the one you’re looking for, check it out. It’s quite possible that flipping a switch in its configuration will meet your needs or even exceed them.

We’re looking for the Export to Google Sheets Bot, and luckily it’s one of the popular Bots.

When we select it, we’ll be prompted to install the Bot into the Flow Template, so let’s go ahead and do that. We should also favorite this Bot for later, just for practice, by pressing the heart icon after we’ve selected it from the list.

With our Bot now installed, it’s time to set it up to grab data from our form.

When we install our Bot, we’ll need to configure it before we can enable it. We need to connect our Google Sheets account by pressing Connect and logging in. After we’ve successfully logged in, the General settings will open up for us to start preparing our documentation automation.

To start, we need to select the spreadsheet we wish to use, and in our case it will be “Client List Example” on the sheet List1.

From here, we need to select our form or document from within the Flow, under Document. Ours is named “Order Request”.

Once we’ve selected the form, we can find the appropriate value we need to match with data in the spreadsheet, for the Bot to find which row he’s supposed to be looking in.

After this, we will select our document or form again, but this time we need to choose the data we will export to our Google Sheet.

In our case it’s the amount of an item they ordered.

Following this, we should go to Bot execution conditions to tell the Bot exactly when he should start his job. Because this is a financial transaction, albeit a mockup, we shouldn’t count on a sale until we’ve seen a transaction or signed agreement; therefore, in our circumstances, the execution conditions aren’t so optional. In general, you won’t need to touch this parameter often but it’s good to know why it’s there and what it does.

As soon as you press Apply setup, your Bot is ready to do his job. How’s that for document management workflow automation?

That’s it, from start to finish with two document formats. Of course, you should ensure your roles are always set-up accordingly and that your elements and fields have a name; otherwise, the process is pretty straightforward.

Documentation automation software is usually cumbersome, bulky, and tricky to work with; we hope that our platform is easy to understand and helps you to accomplish more than you thought possible.

Now imagine, that was just one Bot, imagine what the rest can do. There are Bots that can interact with MySQL databases, import/export data between cloud based files, remind colleagues to complete your outbound Slates, and so much more.

We know we rushed that a little, we wanted to leave some room for the next part.

What is it like to be the recipient of a Flow?

When you’re the recipient of a Flow, you’ll receive an email notification letting you know about it. And, if the sender set-up the Notification feed Bot, subsequent reminders if you procrastinate the task.

You’ll be prompted to fill out the Flow from the email, and in some cases the sender may have set-up some form of authentication such as phone, email, or via your Facebook or Google account.

Depending on the Role assigned to you, you’ll see some fields grayed out which are for other signers. When you enter your information, you may be asked to electronically sign the form to make it official. There are a few options available to you to accomplish this.

The first option is a typed signature that will be represented by a cursive font. This is a legally binding signature. Electronic signatures require a record, or crumb trail to validate the signature and protect businesses and consumers. If you’re worried about a lack of record keeping, please check the Audit trail at any time, it’s very thorough.

Alternatively, you can draw your signature. If you’re using a keyboard and mouse, this can have some mixed results. If you’re on mobile, it turns out a lot better generally speaking.

The process for drawing your signature is to click and drag, or press and slide as needed until you’re happy with the results. If you’re not happy with the results, you can undo steps or Clean the pad. When done, press Save and Use to place it onto the document in the field that brought you here.

This will save your signature, which you can delete at any time, for later use. When you press on subsequent signature fields, the signature you’ve chosen previously within that document will be placed. To remove your signature, touch or click it again; it’s that simple.

The other two options are to upload an image you may have of  your signature or take a picture of it on mobile.

To sum up

We’ve talked about a lot today and we hope we’ve cleared the air about airSlate document workflow software and what it can do for you, your team, and your organization as a whole.

Finding reliable and centralized document management workflow software has been a very difficult quest in the past, especially in the ‘before times’. Now, it’s possible to bring it all together into one family of services without needing to track down loads of service providers for every step of the process.

If you have any questions, please feel free to visit our Help Center or Youtube channel. We have a number of short-form tips in playlists waiting for you, we hope you find them as useful as our posts.

Contact us to explore the possibilities of business automation with airSlate.
Fill out the form below to request a free demo!

The post How to get seamless document generation within a comprehensive document management solution appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

The problem with automation security and compliance

Business process automation solutions are considered the fastest-growing segment on the global enterprise software market today. Quite naturally, business owners and regular users express doubts about whether a particular automation tool is capable of operating at the level of enterprise data security they require.

Despite the implementation of highly-technological automation security measures, such as facial recognition and biometric technologies, even industry giants like Facebook are vulnerable to devastating security breaches. Earlier this year, an entire client list and over 3 billion photos were stolen in a massive security breach at Clearview AI, a facial recognition developer.

Recent trends and security statistics show us that cybercriminals are sophisticated and highly motivated by the rewards that come with gaining access to archives of financial and personal data. What makes matters worse is that many companies implementing automation represent traditionally risk-averse industries, like banking and insurance, that handle large amounts of confidential data on a daily basis.

Security concerns to consider when automating your business

Security concerns and risks vary from company to company. Still, there are several common concerns that are primarily associated with automation:

• Automation bots have privileged access to sensitive credentials required for accessing internal applications and databases. Exposing these credentials can endanger confidential information.
• The bots are granted access to sensitive user data for the purposes of moving that data through a business process, one step at a time. Exposing this information via logs, dashboards, or reports can also lead to compromising security integrity.
• Unauthorized access to business processes — when they can be viewed or used by employees who don’t have permission to do so — may result in a so-called internal security violation.

Addressing these and other potential security concerns will help your business ensure the security of its automated processes. It will also eliminate existing security threats.

How to ensure the security of your automation infrastructure

To successfully fight against malicious intent, an organization must make cybersecurity part of its corporate culture. Usually, this includes things like:

• Identifying potential security risks before automating business processes.
• Addressing risks by analyzing security features offered by the out-of-the-box automation tool and its traceability.
• Identifying critical data and managing document access in combination with encryption.
• Applying best security practices at every stage of automation: workflow setup, adding bots, executing automated business processes, etc.

Following with these steps will protect your entire organization from data loss and cyberattacks that may occur down the road.

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Must-know automation security and compliance basics

Pay attention to document access

It is important to control who can view, modify and share information within your system by establishing user and administrative rights.

With airSlate, you can create and assign roles to certain fillable fields in a document and grant specific access permissions. You can also specify who has access: a single person, multiple people, or all recipients. For instance, if you have a document that should only be accessible by one manager in your company, nobody else will be able to access it.

Encrypt your data

Encryption serves as an extra level of protection for any private customer’s data, payment details, and other confidential data used in automated business processes. Needless to say, such data should only be transferred via secured channels.

We use the Secure Hash Algorithm at 256 bits (SHA-256) for data protection at rest and in transit. airSlate uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for information and user authentication, provided documents, transmitted to, from, and within airSlate-owned and airSlate-managed hosting environments. The TLS encryption method is used for passing user credentials, authentication, or authorization data for any airSlate hosted web-based application and/or web-services deployment.

Prevent data loss with Audit trails

An Audit trail is a chronological record of all changes made to a file or database. Audit trails are especially helpful when identifying what changes were made to a document and when. Without an Audit trail, any malicious action performed within a system can go completely unnoticed. Thus, Audit trails are valuable for analyzing and detecting unauthorized access, unusual activity, and system errors.

Pay attention to industry-specific compliance

The financial, healthcare, and legal industries have especially strict regulations. Failure to comply results in fines. For example, in the healthcare industry, incompatibility with HIPAA law may cost you from $100 to $50,000. Even a jail term for violating HIPAA is a possibility, with some violations carrying a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.

Not all automation platforms are designed to follow a specific industry’s regulations. Pay attention to the policy compliance tools of your software. In particular, whether it is HIPAA and GDPR compliant, has SOC 2 Type II certification and PCI DSS certification.

In airSlate, customer documents and information are encrypted and accessible only by the customer due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

airSlate complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) hosting standards for protecting the private health information of patients.

airSlate complies with PCI DSS for every monetary transaction a customer makes.

airSlate also complies with industry standards for security such as SOC 2 Type II, 21 CFR Part 11, and CCPA.

An Audit trail displays the following information:

• Type of activity that took place within a system
• Information about the user who performed an action
• Date and time when the action took place
• Information about login and logout attempts
• Suspicious activities, i.e., improper web-browsing or email use

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, airSlate users can set up custom events to be displayed in the Audit trail using the Add Custom Event to Audit Trail Bot.

Another cool thing about airSlate is that you can check every action that occurred within your workflow by viewing the Bots Log. The Log provides a description of the method, time, and condition under which specific Bots were either executed or not.

While the Audit Trail allows you to access the history of actions performed on your documents, the Bots Log helps you control and check the automation process itself.

In a nutshell

The modern business world demands that a company conform to the strict standards and compliance measures regulating it’s industry if it has plans to stand out and achieve growth.

Fortunately, choosing the right software for your business operations is no longer rocket science.

Become a socially responsible and solid business player, strong enough to be an influencer that inspires change with your own industry leadership.

Learn more about how to strengthen data security policy via the automation of routine processes. Enroll the Digital Security and Compliance course today for free.

The post How automation improves security and compliance for your business processes appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

65% of legal professionals identified time lost on administrative tasks as their biggest pain point.

All these factors have one thing in common: they begin and end with manual work. That’s why contract negotiation process automation has become such a powerful tool for staying ahead of all the back and forth.

What is the contract negotiation process?

The contract negotiation process involves a strategic discussion aimed at reaching an agreement between all parties involved in the transaction. During this procedure, each party tries to persuade the other to agree with some terms and conditions. It’s not arguing but compromising: each side gives up something in order to reach an agreement.

A contract negotiation process is a give-and-take procedure that is conducted according to the terms of business and law. It’s an integral part of most transactions and most deals. And it’s function is critical because it allows all parties to contend for what they expect to receive from a deal.

Document Workflow Automation for Sales Professionals

• Price quotes
• Workflow optimization
• Business process automation

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Understanding contract negotiation processes

Let’s take a closer look at the contract negotiation process itself and what key factors come into play:

1. Everything starts with an objective for entering into a contract. All parties should have a clear idea of what they want to gain from this particular transaction. Terms and conditions grow from there. Some of them may be considered as those that may be compromised in advance.
   
2. Contract laws: Contracts are actually legally binding agreements. This means they may be regulated by the courts. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to get legal advice.
   
3. Negotiation, the central element of the contract negotiation process, assumes backups.
   
4. Goals and priorities.  Define exactly what you need out of the transaction and what your bottom line is.

Once the contract is signed, all parties are legally bound to the terms of the contract, and non-compliance entails legal liability.

What is the best strategy for contract negotiation processes?

From a formal point of view, contract negotiation is the process of discussing and compromising terms and conditions to reach a final agreement between parties involved in a transaction. In fact, if we were to depict the entire process in a few words, it’s all about risks and revenues.

To avoid leaving resources on the table, pay close attention to the asks of your partner. The major aim of negotiation is to make a deal that benefits both. If you get your partner to accept your view of the situation, then you can influence the amount of risk involved.

Another point is to improve the process itself: avoid time-consuming processes with a potential for the interruption. Meet your counterpart’s needs and desires by working on a contract, during your contract negotiation process, in real-time by omitting time, geographical, language, or cultural gaps.

So there are two basic rules: putting customers first and doing more with less.

How to reap the benefits of negotiation?

Get feedback

Feedback is when a client asks you to push back on certain terms. It may sound like “Sorry, we have to agree on that with our lawyer”, or “We need some time to consider the terms”. That time your customer takes to consider the terms is actually the time they’re preparing valuable feedback for you. So each time a point raises questions for your customers, it’s a good indication that something may need to change. But at the same time, any change can bear heavily on your business because the actual aim is to reach an agreement and receive the benefits of negotiation in as short a time as possible.

Make your contract data-driven

How to propose changes? Ask your partners what exactly isn’t working for them. Here are some common reasons for requested changes:

• Limits on obligations
• Possible risks
• Range of values
• Not understanding what that particular line means

Ask your partners about individual paragraphs and amendments. Ask why those terms or conditions are problematic. Their answers will help you see your weaknesses and how to turn them into strengths to reap the most benefits of your negotiation.

Pre-approve fall-back positions with legal

Once you identify a point that can be negotiated, estimate a counteroffer and your level of risk. By doing this, you can reconcile feedback without wasting time on legal advice for every particular case. Consider using simple wording to clarify complicated terms. Gather all facts, figures, financial statements, and documents as reinforcement for backing up your points of negotiation during the contract negotiation process.

Automate the process

Automated contractors already exist in everyday transactions such as your local supermarket, where negotiating is not possible. However, contract negotiation can be simplified for tasks such as data entry or managing reviews, using suitable workflow automation software. By implementing these types of solutions, the contract negotiation process can be completed online, faster, and more accurately.

Based on the average salaries of the parties involved, the IACCM estimates that the average cost of a simple contract is $6,900, and rises to more than $49,000 for more complex agreements.

Reducing the amount of time spent reviewing contracts and getting them signed off, through the use of a contract negotiation system, significantly reduces these associated costs and increases the benefits of this negotiation.

Watch the video below to learn how to use airSlate for your contract negotiation processes:

How do automated contract negotiation processes work?

To prove a point let’s move on from statistics to real contract negotiation automation steps.

Since airSlate is a great example of an all-in-one business automation platform, let’s see how to get all the benefits of negotiation in a single tab.

1. Use team workspace

With a safe business automation platform, you can add unlimited teammates and collaborate together in a single secure hub. It works better if you have the option to manage access permissions and protect your documents with a password.

2. Generate documents and assign responsibilities to recipients

Managing documents is an irreplaceable part of a contract negotiation process. Create documents with fillable fields and assign fields to particular recipients. airSlate allows you to pre-fill documents with data from CRM platforms, databases, or clouds.

3. Use No-code Bots

No-code Bots remind you when a contract has expired, needs to be re-negotiated, or renewed. Also, Bots populate documents with data or export data from your contacts to your CRM, such as Salesforce, or for example, to your Google spreadsheet.

4. Enjoy negotiating contracts in real-time

The ability to reach an agreement online boosts your productivity and expands the benefits of negotiation. Once your partners receive a contract, they can easily redline, add comments, or approve changes. You can track any action and get notified once your recipient opens a document.

5. Close your deal by eSigning the contract

Make sure that your business automation platform provides you with legally-binding eSignatures. Once the contract negotiation process is over, eSign the contract right away. With airSlate, you’re signing with a legally binding signature that is compliant with worldwide standards.

6. Automate sending invoices for signing when contracts are executed

At the end of the contract negotiation process, when all parties have executed a contract, automation Bots generate invoices and send them out to be eSigned and paid on time. You can set up automatic payments upon receipt and start calculating all the time you’re saving as a result of using Bots automation.

No human-factor errors, no delays, no wasted hours. Simple as that.

7. Evaluate the benefits of negotiation

Calculate how much time and money you’ve saved without unnecessary trips to and from a customer, use of postal services, or explanations for employees on how to reach an agreement more efficiently. Then, take a look at your deal results and figure out how much more profitable the contract negotiation process became.

And now the red line

Сontract negotiation is one of those things that requires time to learn. But how you approach it can make the process less painful. Knowing your worth helps to understand how much to ask for. And knowing the needs of your negotiating partner means knowing where to draw the line. Since most business processes can be automated, results will depend on the tools you use. By choosing the right automation platform for handling your contract negotiation processes, you can not only prevent common pitfalls but empower your best practices using digital methods.

Dive deeper into the automation of contract negotiation processes by checking out the airSlate Academy’s course on contract management. With the help of this course, you will become an expert in creating contracts, customizing them, and configuring automation with no-code Bots. The course is free, and once you successfully pass the exam at the end, you’ll receive a verified airSlate certificate. Enjoy developing new skills, implementing them into your business, and enjoying the benefits of negotiation.

The post Boost your ability to win more contracts: the benefits of contract negotiation automation appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

This blog will help you understand the anatomy of business processes and how to turn them into digital workflows without losses or breakdowns.

What is digital workflow?

Digital workflows are a part of everyday business processes that consist of sequential and predictable combinations of tasks and data. The term ‘digital’ here refers to streamlined operations. Digital workflows help users instantly look up critical data, keep track of processes and tasks, and automate them.

Let’s see how it works with real business cases.

One of our users —a recreational facility company — was dealing with a recurring problem when processing documents that required reviewing and signing by multiple parties. Although Microsoft Word and Office are industry standards, sharing documents via email and messenger caused confusion among updated versions, and considering mobile security concerns, using mobile was out of the question.

What’s wrong with sending documents via email?

1. Documents and tasks managed via emails can easily get lost in someone’s inbox.
   
2. Since documents can easily get lost and forgotten, deadlines are hard to track and enforce.
   
3. All notifications related to documents and tasks should be sent manually. If you forget to send an email or you send it to the wrong address, documents and tasks too easily get lost in the void of cyberspace.
   
4. And finally, there are far too many steps between you sending your email and your recipient receiving it.

Our user remarks:

“People couldn’t open up, edit, or complete things we needed when we needed them. OR if they were trying to do it on a computer, there were version issues we had problems with like ‘it doesn’t fit in the box’ etc. These were regularly ongoing issues.”

By implementing digital workflows, the recreational facility was able to eliminate most of the routine time-consuming aspects of their daily routine. For example, a birthday party reservation form is available to be filled in via public link. When a parent has filled and submitted the form, the information is automatically pushed into the Swimming Pool facility’s spreadsheet. Available time slots for arranging a party are also pre-filled in the same spreadsheet. Once reserved, a notification is sent to the Admin and the completed Slate is archived to the client’s Dropbox. All these steps are automated by airSlate Bots once a party reservation form is submitted.

And just like that, parents can celebrate their child’s birthday without ever having to use the phone, fill out and submit papers by hand, check back for availability, or resubmit a form from scratch if a slot is already taken.

Digital workflows are how the facility’s staff is able to control and monitor what is happening and when. This means they’re much more responsive to things as and when they occur and are able to stay on top of tasks as they come in, rather than at a later time.

The current state of digital business processes

According to recent statistics, 70% of companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one. Nearly 77% of companies say their relationship with technology is average or above average. And 65% of companies are positive about their ability to adapt to technological disruption over the next three years (data from 2018).

At the same time, of the $1.3 trillion spent on digital transformation in 2018, an estimated $900 billion was wasted when initiatives didn’t meet their goals. Only 16% of employees in the survey said their company’s digital transformations had improved performance and were sustainable for the long term. According to Forrester Research, more than 50% of digital transformation efforts fizzled out completely in 2018.

Moreover, 87% of companies think digital transformation would be disruptful to their industry, but only 44% are prepared for a potential digital disruption.

Organizations say their biggest obstacles in achieving success with digital business initiatives include:

• Lack of sufficient budget
• Lack of staff
• Lack of correct skill sets
• The need to replace legacy systems
• Cultural issues

For many companies, becoming a digital business means enabling worker productivity through tools such as mobile, data access and AI-assisted processes, and the ability to better manage business performance through data availability and visibility. They also want to satisfy customer expectations, understand customer needs, and provide secure, optimized access to assets. And of course, companies want to achieve top-line growth through digital product enhancements.

All of these goals require a smart combination of technologies. But the problem is that there are too many technologies to choose from. These technologies are expensive, they require a lot of training, and many companies find themselves ill prepared for such changes.

The reality is that digital workflows are here to stay and are becoming more available and easier to implement so that every company will eventually be able to integrate them with their existing processes. Let’s figure out how to assess your business’s real needs and pain points to find the best solution for resolving these issues.

What main steps are involved in a typical business process?

Every business process consists of six stages:

• Initiation
• Generation
• Negotiation
• Approval
• Execution
• Archiving

1. So the first step is the initiation e.g., settling on an idea for the project. At this stage it is critical to do research to see if the idea is realistic, how it would be completed, etc. The initiation step involves consulting the head of the development team and shareholders. The key point during the initiation process is to examine your project for both its feasibility and value to the organization.
   
2. The second step is generation. At this stage you’ll begin to draw up a project plan, scope or charter, calculate a budget, the resources needed, and a schedule. All of these items may be changed during project planning. Pay attention to the flexibility of the teams working on the project. In case any delay occurs, you may need to divert resources in order to hit your deadline.
   
3. Negotiation is a process that involves consultations between the involved parties to reach a consensus on a particular process/deal. Negotiations can happen at any time within the project life cycle.
   
4. Now that the most painful processes are in the past, it’s time to come closer to the execution stage. The approval process means getting the final acceptance of the customer or contractee on the negotiated terms and conditions of the project.
   
5. The execution stage is when all of the parties agree on the deal, process, project, contract etc. It is critical to meet with the teams involved and distribute the necessary resources, tasks, timeline, responsibilities, and any other important information related to the project. It is also necessary to make sure that the team understands exactly what the project is and why they should both care and be enthusiastic about it. The execution part of the business process requires deep tracking of each participant’s actions.
   
6. The final process is the archiving stage. The project is finally closed. If all is completed to a satisfactory standard, then the process can be archived. This is when inactive information, in any format, is securely stored for long periods of time. Such information may be used again in the future to check previous projects, make sure everything has been done correctly or to find information for future projects.

Common problems when creating efficient digital workflows

In the paragraph about the current state of digital business processes, we saw that processes involving digital transformation are not as efficient as they are supposed to be. Let’s discuss the main pain points that prevent companies from achieving a successful digital transformation.

Expensive integrations

When businesses begin their digital transformation journey, they often begin by solving a simple problem that turns into an integration nightmare. This is because businesses iterate on implementing workflows gradually, they often find themselves stuck in a type of hostage situation where each part of their workflow is owned by a separate service vendor. They use DocuSign for e-signatures, Conga to generate documents, Salesforce to manage their leads and Box as their cloud storage. They try to integrate them and build an automated workflow solution using services like Zapier or Nintex, but couldn’t foresee the two roadblocks that accompany integration:

• It is very expensive. You’ll have to pay for a set of services, custom API integrations and the automation tool itself. Cost estimates will reach into the tens of thousands of dollars just for implementation.
• It lacks flexibility and scalability. Every time your workflow changes, you will have to go through the entire configuration process (including API coding) again. So yes, expect to spend thousands whenever your workflow changes.

No flexibility when you want to re-configure workflows

It’s impossible to predict what your workflow will be tomorrow, but it should be your ambition to digitize and accelerate your business in order to achieve growth. You may find that you are the hostage of an inflexible software that prevents your business from developing efficiently.

• You can’t quickly on-board new workflow participants
• You can’t think of other workflows you’d like to implement that could involve automation, conditional routing, web-forms, contract negotiation, etc.
• It takes too long to implement your new workflow or change it

Consider the future needs of your company as its workflow may change or become more complex.

No real automation

Most software providers mislead users by selling them automation tools that don’t possess the real power of automation. What does this amount to? A business pays an enormous amount of money to finally get rid of the need for manually tedious processes and repetitive tasks. And then that business realizes that it still has to do many things manually, and these things are pretty complicated.

For example, Nintex positions themselves as a ‘Workflow automation platform,’ yet it’s Adobe Sign that powers e-signatures for Nintex customers. Others such as DocuSign will provide you with e-signatures and CRM integrations, but they don’t have any automation options except for simple things like sending reminders.

What is even more unpleasant is that in order to build complex workflows and set integrations you have to learn coding skills. Well, this is not what you expected when deciding to streamline business processes. Your company will need to hire more developers and pay them for their work.

So when choosing a platform to create digital workflows, make sure it provides you with Bots. Bot automation is the process of automating repetitive tasks such as data entry. With the help of properly configured software robots, these Bots can complete any task for you without further action on your part.

There are usually two types of Bots:

The main benefit of Bots is that you can easily set certain conditions for them and they will perform tasks on their own based on these conditions. No programming or coding skills are required.

Now that we’ve identified the main pain points of digital workflows, we are getting closer to solving the problems of implementation. However, in order to implement digital workflows that will truly assist in the growth of your business, we should first understand the main components of a digital workflow.

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Digital workflow: Overview of components

Document generation

Document Generation is the process of automatically creating documents based on certain rules.

Document Generation Software is useful when multiple documents need to be generated and each document contains a combination of:

• Static content — the parts that remain the same in each document.
• Dynamic content — content that is customized for the audience or recipient of a generated document.

Why should businesses automate document generation?

Every day, more and more data is generated, stored, and reused. It isn’t a question of how to control it. It’s a question of how to stay ahead of it. An organization of any scale in any industry is dependent on accurate data representation and efficient document workflows. When workflows are transparent, projects get done promptly, often resulting in profits. Companies waste massive amounts of cash to automate document workflow. This software segment will reach an impressive $11 billion within the next decade.

At the same time, purchasing yet another expensive tool may not solve your business’s pain points.

Using document generation software with systems of record such as CRMs or custom databases

Your document generation software should allow you to connect your document to a data source so that you can map document template fields to CRM records, SQL databases or an Excel spreadsheet. By following this method, you’ll never have to re-enter repetitive data.

Transferring large amounts of data and documents between company departments or branches that have more than one physical location can be extremely complicated and time-consuming.

In cases like this, a document flow usually includes multiple workflows — requiring an organization to share, track, store, synchronize, and approve documents across teams and users working through a variety of apps, cloud services or CRM systems. As projects increase in size, more and more people get involved, and more documents get passed back and forth, creating a dilemma.

Even the most popular platforms for document generation only provide document routing between individuals. Not only do you have to organize data transfers between a sender and a recipient, but also ‘system to recipient’ and ‘system to system.’

How does automated document generation work?

Let’s say a company is negotiating a contract with a customer outside their organization’s workspace. Usually, this process would take days to accomplish and go something like this:

1. The manager shares a contract containing the organization’s terms and provisions.
   
2. The customer reviews the contract, adds their edits and sends the edited contract back to the manager who receives it the next day.
   
3. The manager sends the contract with the customer’s proposed changes for review to upper management, losing yet another day to reviewing the edits.

With the right business process automation platform, the entire contract negotiation phase can be completely automated for everyone. When the platform has been set up correctly, both parties are able to redline the contract as the edits that are made will trigger Bots to notify the right people.

This way, all the necessary steps, including edits, approvals and signatures, are processed within the Flow, showing the changes in real-time:

1. The organization’s representative creates a contract template and modifies it for a specific customer, adds fillable fields, signature fields and checkboxes.
   
2. The representative adds roles and assigns fields and checkboxes to this role. All of them have to be checked by the customer, signifying their agreement.
   
3. After that, the representative sends the contract out to be reviewed and e-signed by the customer.

How much does document generation software cost?

The pricing structure for document generation software varies based on the number of users, forms, integrations, and access to advanced features. Some vendors offer basic document generation features for as low as $20 per user per month while high end solutions can run as much as $750 per month.

The average business should expect to pay in the range of $200 per month.

Contract management

Contract management is the process of managing contract creation, execution, and analysis. It aims to maximize operational and financial performance in an organization while reducing financial risk. Even though the aim is to save money and reduce risk, the process proves to be a very time and cost-consuming element for a business. Let’s find out how contract management should be automated. But first, we need to identify the main points.

Nine stages of a contract management process

1. Contract preparation means identifying needs, establishing goals, setting expectations, and defining risks.
   
2. Authoring contracts involves consulting an attorney or in-house counsel to draft a contract.
   
3. Contract negotiation requires both parties to view and work on a document together in real-time.
   
4. Getting approval means reaching an agreement on the contract’s terms.
   
5. Execution of the contract is when all parties agree and sign the contract.
   
6. Contract obligations management ensures that the contracting parties fulfill the obligations laid out in the agreement.
   
7. Amendments and revisions are about adding edits and changes to the contract.
   
8. Auditing and reporting are a part of ensuring that all the obligations are met.
   
9. Contract renewal is when the contract is scheduled to expire. The parties may renew their contract based on current terms, or renegotiate them and enter a new contract.

How does contract management work with digital workflows?

An automated contract management cycle should cover the entire process from creation to execution.

Digital workflows help you focus on primary issues without having to waste hours or days on repetitive, organizational tasks.

Digital contract security and compliance requirements

Contract compliance is designed to accommodate the rules or guidelines regarding and related to equal opportunity policies and regulations. For example, equal opportunity for employment without regard to age, gender, religion, disability, or national origin.

However, when you decide to use contract management automation systems you should also pay attention to the platform’s compliance measures.

You should be able to ensure contract compliance by archiving and locating all of your contracts in a single, secure place while protecting your contract’s information with HIPAA and GDPR compliant platforms.

Check whether the platform you use or plan to use takes security seriously. Platforms like airSlate encrypt user communications with the NSA developed SHA-256 encryption algorithm which protects data transfers between users, or user and server, against external access. User documents are stored on Amazon S3 data centers located in the US.

Contract negotiation

Contract negotiation is the process of discussing and reviewing the terms of a contract. Doing so is a necessary part of reaching a final agreement between two or more parties involved in a deal.

What are the advantages of automating contract negotiations?

When redlining contracts online, you’ll need to use a contract negotiation platform. This way, both parties can view and work on a document together in real-time without having to send and resend documents multiple times.

With a proper contract negotiation platform you get everything you need for efficient contract review and approval:

1. The ability to redline contracts in real time. You can share a contract with business partners and let them easily comment and redline it.
   
2. Always on the same page with partners. You may set Bots to automatically send reminders and notifications to all negotiators.
   
3. Keep contract information up-to-date by automating contract updates and approvals. This way you can reduce errors and track compliance.

A contract negotiation solution allows you to build compliant contracts with real-time negotiations and easy updates. What’s most important is that by replacing the human factor with automated performance, your organization can save a tremendous amount of time and money.

How much does contract management automation cost?

The market for contract management software is reaching a peak in its development with dozens of different solutions available. Analyzing the pricing of the market leaders carefully is critical for making the right decision.

• Nintex’s standard edition will cost your company $950 per month.
• Conga’s pricing for contract management starts at $55 per user per month.
• airSlate will cost you an average of $30 per month. However, you can use it for free. The only difference is that with this plan, full access to each Slate will be limited after the first 30 days of creation.
• Qwilr starts at $66 per month (3 users).
• ContractWorks starts at $600 per month and includes unlimited users (but only 2500 documents). The plan with unlimited numbers of documents will end up costing your company $1000.

This overview could be extended as the list of contract management software is growing every day.

As you can see, pricing varies. So before choosing a contract management solution, you’ll need answers to the following questions:

Do they offer a free trial? How long is it? Is the pricing policy transparent and publicly available to all interested parties? How big is the price difference between a basic package and an advanced one?

It’s important to remind yourself that your team will grow, so finding a solution that scales with your growth is important.

And this brings us to our main point — the need of a scalable, end-to-end workflow solution.

What is an end-to-end workflow solution?

An end-to-end workflow is a process that delivers a full document and data lifecycle while supplying all the necessary components along the way.

An end-to-end workflow platform should include things like:

CRM and cloud integrations out of the box

An online document editor and HTML form builder

E-signature solution

Filled-in data collection

No-code workflow routing and automation

Document generation

Contract management and contract negotiation

 

Note: It’s the user who can adjust everything, without any engineering support required.

What are the real benefits of an end-to-end workflow solution?

Let us help you understand the specifics of an end-to-end workflow solution based on the airSlate experience:

1. First of all — this is a single platform. You get everything you need to quickly configure any business process. And there is no need to pay for or manage multiple vendors.
   
2. It’s ten times faster to deploy. An end-to-end solution decreases the costs of configuration and time to deployment by up to 10 times.
   
3. You can create a team workspace — add unlimited teammates, manage their access permissions, and collaborate on workflows in a single secure hub.
   
4. Using such an advanced solution empowers your employees. They get the tools they need to focus on what’s most important for their business.
   
5. You get access to advanced analytics that display your business data in real-time, as it happens.
   
6. Of course — no-code configuration and automation. You can configure, automate and integrate business processes without the need to code APIs.
   
7. airSlate is natively multi-cloud. This is the only platform that is natively multi-cloud, ensuring your workflows function across all your cloud applications at the same time.
   
8. Your data is accurate, secure and compliant. airSlate is HIPAA, SOC II Type 2, CCPA and GDPR compliant. These requirements are built into every airSlate process. Two-factor recipient
   
9. You can use airSlate for free. airSlate premium features are available the moment you create a new Workspace, regardless of the subscription plan you’ve chosen. The only difference is that the free plan has a time-based retention limit (30 days) for the document Slates you and your teammates create in your Workspace.

airSlate democratizes business automation: for the first time, deploying, automating and sharing workflows is available to everyone in your organization. You and your employees can focus on what’s important: customers, career and business success.

You don’t have to choose between multiple vendors claiming to provide you with an ‘advanced workflow automation solution.’ With airSlate you can just try and see for yourself.

We hope that after using an end-to-end workflow solution, you’ll be able to create efficient digital workflows without wasting enormous amounts of time and money. Find the solution that will not only correspond to your current business needs but one that can scale with your business’s growth and development.

The post The ultimate guide to digital workflows: configuration, deployment, and pricing appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

What’s the idea behind RPA?

Robotic Process Automation is yet another method of automating routine business processes. It uses software robots, or simply bots, that perform tasks without human intervention. They’re useful for everyday tasks, such as transaction processing, IT management and automated online assistants.

In fact, what RPA really does is:

a) removes existing workflow automation constraints, and
b) replaces repetitive processes with easily-configurable logic-driven workflows.

Of course, there’s an awareness that algorithms will soon replace more work tasks currently performed by humans. However, recent global labor market statistics prove the opposite. 40% of businesses expect to extend their workforce, and 25% expect automation to create new roles in the enterprise.

Since modern-day business decision-making requires precise, data-driven analytics, RPA adds to the development of so-called data-driven culture. This technique seeks to leverage data whenever possible, to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness. Data-first culture (one in which people automate data-driven decision-making so they can respond to changing market conditions in real-time) is the number one technique for every decision-making process these days.

Instead of replacing their staff with robots, companies choose to adopt smart strategies, such as staff augmentation. Not only does this technique enhance human-based workforces, but it also empowers employees to become citizen developers.

These facts lead us to a simple conclusion. The adoption of RPA, in fact, widens the range of tasks that can be accomplished by humans. When human workers are freed from the need to perform mundane, repetitive activities, there’s always more space for their uniquely human talents.

Watch the video below to get the concept of RPA explained in simple terms:

Less obvious RPA software benefits that are worth mentioning

For the first time in the history of automation, deploying and sharing workflows is actually fun. Automation aims to democratize corporate processes. It allows everyone in your organization to focus on what’s really important: customers, career and business success.

RPA offers a bunch of apparent benefits like better data management, accuracy, faster data processing, shorter backlog, and so on. But let’s focus on those we believe are not fully appreciated.

• Scalability. Which is probably the first thing every enterprise should think about. Without its core processes being adequately automated, even a successful startup is likely to face workflow bottlenecks.Along with improving teamwork and automating tasks, RPA software is the only way for your business to grow while supplying all the necessary components along the way.
• Reduced integration costs. Many businesses today trap themselves in API-driven servitude. Every time there’s a need to connect your product with an existing app, or website, you need to pay for custom API integrations.The RPA and no-code approach, on the other hand, brings you the possibility to design a robust, fully-automated business architecture without the necessity of purchasing integrations over and over again.
• Bot automation is more than just chat messages. RPA uses software bots, and no, they aren’t only capable of notifying workflow participants about specific changes in the workflow chain.When properly configured, Bots can complete any task for you without further action on your part by performing certain operations based on pre-set triggers and conditions.

When RPA software doesn’t help

RPA is a business strategy that does not replace a workflow but compliments it. After all, there are some basic patterns companies need to follow to ensure they use RPA effectively:

• Don’t imagine RPA for broken processes. RPA and bots are just tools in your hands, so don’t expect them to do your job for you. Use workflow mapping to organize work between teams and understand all the steps needed to complete a workflow before applying an RPA solution.
• Automating too much is a pothole. The human touch is essential to the success of RPA and AI. Intelligent automation solutions, like airSlate, use RPA to automate particular business processes while still leaving human workers in charge of the decision-making.
• Your RPA vendor doesn’t correspond to your business model. Imagine you’ve already figured out which of your business processes require automation. Now, your next big challenge would be finding a vendor that would ensure the seamless implementation of all the necessary tools as quickly as you need them.

How does RPA work on business process automation platforms?

Let’s see how RPA works on platforms like airSlate.

Any workflow you create, automate and manage in airSlate is called a Flow. Flows combine document and form templates with Bots configured to automate different actions under the conditions you set.

Anytime you send out a Flow to be completed, a new copy is automatically generated. You can create a reusable Template based off of the Flow you’ve created. Flow Templates in your Workspace can be edited, annotated and filled out without the need to change the initial Flow setup. All incoming Flows you receive from your business partners are always attached to the name of the person who completed the Flow. Meaning everything remains clear and transparent.

You can optimize any workflow using automation or integration Bots. No coding skills required. Bots automatically perform specific actions on pre-set triggers and conditions configured during the Flow setup.

When someone makes changes to a Flow, they create a new Revision.
No more confusion about who did what, or lost changes. Track all the edits in automatically saved versions of a Flow (revisions).

In addition to Flow revisions, you can track all the changes made by admins, team members and business partners in real-time via the audit log.

The whole automation process can be reduced to just 7 simple steps:

Step 1. Create a new Flow. Either create a brand new Flow from scratch or browse industry-specific Flow Templates and choose the one that matches your case exactly.

Step 2. Set up your Flow. Add the documents and forms involved in your process. Feel free to create, upload, or generate documents from scratch using the built-in editor. Add a payment or authorization form, request an attachment, or create a form, survey, or even a questionnaire.

Step 3. Edit the Flow documents. You can create a fillable and signable template out of any document in your Flow. If the document doesn’t have fillable fields, you can add them manually using the drag-and-drop wizard.

Step 4. Create roles. Assign authorizations and roles, allowing all the parties involved in the process to access and manage data within the Flow. Add Flow Admins. They will be able to modify and manage the Flow.

Step 5. Select and set up Bots. Choose the Bots that are right for your Flow and set them up according to intuitive IF-THEN statement logic.

Step 6. Set up permissions and share the Flow. Simply enter your recipients’ emails, specify their access permissions and mention in the attached message why you’re sharing this Flow with them.

Step 7. Lay back. Watch automation in action and enjoy the results!

If properly adjusted and customized, the Flow can successfully work for years. Every time there’s a change in the process, the Flow participants can easily change the Flow structure, as well as the automation settings without assistance from IT. It means that each workflow is, in fact, a finalized, standalone, and fully automated process.

Get workflows like this up and running in minutes, not days

• An insurance agent receives a claim from a customer and sends over an Insurance Claim form that has been automatically pre-filled with that client’s Salesforce data.
• The customer completes and signs the form online. Once finished, the form is automatically sent back to the agent’s manager.
• Once the manager has approved the form, a receipt is automatically generated using the document generator and is sent to the customer.
• Both the customer and agent receive instant email notifications confirming the Claim’s approval. A Bot then sends payment to the customer’s bank account.
• Part of the Claim form’s information is used to update the customer’s Salesforce record automatically. The Claim is then transmitted separately to the company’s internal record management system. At the same time, the receipt of the processed claim is saved to a folder in Dropbox.

If you’re looking for more examples of business processes being automated, take a free Industry Use Cases course from the airSlate Academy. The course is oriented towards business users looking to add practical benefits to their organization. It covers the challenges companies face when conducting business. It also provides a practical explanation as to what companies can get from implementing RPA in their day-to-day processes.

Other essential features that a good RPA solution must possess

Today, there are dozens of vendors on the market, and they’re all representing themselves as full-cycle workflow automation solutions. However, if you look at some of the most popular workflow automation platforms, you may find they‘re only capable of processing certain parts of a workflow chain.

• Security and compliance. Make sure your data is protected by industry-leading security standards, two-factor authentication and uses password-protect for documents. This is the only way you can ensure that your workflows can only be accessed by their intended recipients.
  Also, make sure that the software you choose allows you to archive and store documents in a single secure place. Additional advantages would be the ability to track all changes and analyze workspace activity with AI-powered widgets.
• Flexibility. A worthy no-code solution must be able to expand, change and adequately respond to every new challenge your business faces. You certainly don’t want to re-code your entire integration structure or use an API each time your workflow needs a new service added.
• Simple Bot creation interfaceсе. RPA tools should be quickly and effortlessly set up (including bots) to route and administrate document Flows.
• Single team workspace. Manage company workflows within a single team Workspace. Let teammates join a workspace by logging in with corporate emails, sending a Public link, or emailing others to join
• Out-of-the-box Integrations. The ability of an RPA solution to be easily integrable with various CRM and cloud systems (i.e., Salesforce, MS Dynamics 365, Google Sheets, MS Office 365) is essential for any business.

So what are the main points to remember about Robotic Process Automation

RPA removes existing workflow automation constraints and replaces repetitive processes with easily-configurable logic-driven workflows.

RPA improves data management, accuracy, fastens data processing and shortens backlog. It brings scalability to your business and reduces integration costs.

Bots, AI, and the global workforce are the future of workplace efficiency. Technology is now at a point where it’s simply cheaper, faster, and more reliable to have mundane tasks completed via automation.

Create a consistent process that will help your business thrive, improve competitiveness on the market, enhance overall performance and increase income.

Building engaging workflows strengthens relationships between businesses, employees and customers. Connect your essential business tools in one place and make Robotic Process Automation your project’s engine!

The post Automation here and now: processes you can improve with RPA software appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Document Workflow Automation for IT Professionals

• Business process automation
• Client onboarding
• Workflow optimization

Enroll now

How to use bot automation

Bot automation is the process of automating repetitive tasks, such as data entry, with the help of software robots — known as bots. When properly configured, bots can complete any task for you without further action on your part. And, just like any other program, bots can be used by cybercriminals as spam/scam/web scraping tools.

Next, it’s important to understand that there are tons of bots out there that fall into a variety of categories for performing a wide range operations. For example, one of the most well-known types of automated bot software today is the chatbot. Other types of bots include web crawler bots and — the most important category — rule-based bot automation.

The problem is that, whether for better or worse, most software bots are “one-trick ponies”, i.e. only applicable to a certain part of a workflow chain and incapable of resolving all your business pain-points on their own.

In reality, however, every workflow is unique, and so are bots. That’s why airSlate isn’t aimed at solving immediate workflow-related issues while accepting their existence in general. Instead, it provides users with the possibility to build an adjustable and transparent document and data flow and automate it with Bots that perform certain actions on pre-set triggers and conditions.

In airSlate, all Bots are divided into the following categories:

Make sure to check out the collection of the top 20 airSlate Bots for no-code business automation.

If you want to learn more about airSlate’s no-code Bots and how they work, we’re going to shed some light on everything you need to know:

How to automate your business processes with Bots

• Contract management

Let’s say you need a contract approved and signed by a few separate parties (a sales representative, customer, manager, etc.). Assigning specific access levels for each role and distributing them to each party is a hassle. That’s why using automated bots will save you hours, if not days.

Start with creating an automated Flow by adding a contract template and connecting your CRM system’s account (for example, Salesforce). Next, create roles and configure access settings for everyone involved. The sales representative, the client, and the manager can now fill out their necessary fields and leave comments.

Then, set the Pre-fill from Salesforce Record Bot to automatically fill the document with your Salesforce data — allowing the Flow participants to skip having to fill in the same information over and over again. The Email upon Slate completion Bot can also be set to notify the Flow participants of any fields being completed. What’s more, the Update Salesforce Record Bot can be activated to automatically update Salesforce record(s) with the filled in data.

Click to learn more about how Salesforce process automation helps streamline contract management for teams and businesses of all sizes.

• Hardware/software purchase requests

Processing hardware/software purchase requests are a common routine for most companies — a request is created by an employee and passed to a manager for approval. A payment form is also added to confirm payment. It may take a while before the employee finally receives their equipment. Afterall, the request has to go through review and approval by their manager, the IT and Accounting departments.

To avoid these complications, the employee can create a simple Flow that contains both their equipment’s Request and the Payment Forms, and share it with both their manager and IT department’s representative for review and approval. The employee can track their request’s progress and receive notifications as soon as both parties have approved their request. The Export to Google Sheets Bot can be added so that the Accounting department can keep track of their company’s purchases.

All the employee had to do was create the Flow. From there, they could simply monitor the progress of the automation Bots while the Flow completed itself.

• Onboarding requests & approvals

A lot of things can go wrong during the onboarding process. Maybe there’s a miscommunication regarding an employment contract, or maybe a new employee hasn’t received the IT resources they need to start their job. Issues like these can be resolved by creating an Employee Onboarding Flow Template that contains the necessary document package.

Just create and assign roles for the employee, HR Manager, etc. for filling in any missing data. Then, add and configure Bots for sending notifications and routing documents from role to role, based on the conditions you’ve set. Additionally, you can set up a Bot to archive and store completed and approved documents in Dropbox.

• Patient intake

One of the main workflow bottlenecks in healthcare occurs when trying to collect signed and completed forms from the proper parties.

Clinicians can now use airSlate to set the Remind Step to Complete Slate Bot so a physician won’t forget to sign a prescription. Instead of keeping patients in suspense — set up the Email upon Slate Opening Bot so that your patient gets notified once their document has been approved. With an automated workflow, both the physician and patient can exchange and sign the necessary documents in real-time and without need for regularly meeting in person.

Integrations: Bot automation vs API

Imagine having to repeat the same administrative data-entry routine everyday for 8 hours, day in and day out. It wouldn’t be long before your focus would drift and the possibility of error becomes a probability. Millions of situations like this occur every day in the workplace and can cost your business up to 30% annually. The best way to focus on tasks that actually matter is to automate. And the best way to automate your workflow is to use Automation Bots for business.

Set automatic reminders for the participants of your workflow that notify them of any changes made to a document, scheduled reminders, or require them to take action (eSign a document, fill in data, etc.) — automation Bots are there to help you in any situation.

What’s more, you can set up a separate Bot that would automatically print specific documents from Google Cloud, or update the Audit Trail log whenever a document or spreadsheet has been changed.

The main task of Integration Bots is to ensure seamless data exporting and importing, as well as integrate with the systems you already use — CRM’s, databases, NetSuite, GSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, and so on.

Since Integration Bots connect your Flow to the services you’re using, there’s no need to re-code your entire integration structure or use an API each time your workflow needs a new service added. No-code integrations are especially helpful as your business grows and demands change.

How to configure Bot automation software?

Bots can be easily configured using simple “if-then” logic. First, set their triggers — actions that define when a Bot acts.

• When someone opens a document. These Bots are responsible for pre-filling a document with custom data and sending notifications to your teammates.
• When someone completes a document. These Bots perform actions pertaining to finalized documents. For instance, you can set up a Bot that archives a document to Dropbox so that you can access it later, or notify a teammate when the document is completed.

Any form of Bot automation occurs according to the conditions you set:

• Recipient. This condition is based on the profile information a person enters when creating an airSlate account, such as their email, first name, last name, position and role permissions. Based on this condition, the Bot will only act if the document’s recipient is registered with airSlate and it is able to check that recipient’s personal information.
• Date. This condition is only applied if you want a Bot to take action on a date or for a specific duration of dates.
• Document. Finally, if you need the Bot to perform an action based on data entered into fillable fields, set this Bot condition with your document.

Watch the video below to learn how to add a Bot to your workflow:

What automation is and is not

Automation is a business strategy, not a one size fits all. Automation compliments a workflow, it does not replace it. Likewise, as helpful as they are, Bots are just tools in your hands so don’t expect them to do your job for you.

What Bots can do is improve your daily business processes such as team collaboration, employee productivity, customer satisfaction, etc. Luckily for us, we have access to these benefits without having to code or pay extra for third-party solutions and API-integrations.

Start scaling your business faster with Bot automation. Learn how to set up task automation along with the different types of Bot automation technology designed for this purpose with the Bot Basics course from the airSlate Academy.

Document Workflow Automation for Operations Managers

• Onboarding
• Business process automation
• Workflow optimization

Enroll now

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