Digital Process Automation: Turning inefficient processes into competitive advantages

More and more companies are automating their business processes in order to become more efficient and faster, minimise errors and create information transparency. One approach to this is Digital Process Automation (DPA). On this page, you can find out what this means and how you can use DPA technology to your advantage.

What is Digital Process Automation?

Digital Process Automation, or DPA for short, is a holistic approach to the end-to-end digitalisation and automation of business processes. "End-to-end" means that companies extend their digital processes beyond their borders. For example, to integrate external process participants such as customers, suppliers, service providers and partners. This allows companies to interact smoothly without media discontinuity.

From a technological perspective, digital process automation is based on classic business process management (BPM). BPM technology ensures that business processes run smoothly, error-free, lean, efficiently and cost-effectively. DPA takes this approach and develops it further. The focus is on improving the customer experience and optimising the provision of information for employees.

Advantages of digital process automation

Digital process automation offers you a whole range of benefits. It ensures transparent and optimised business processes and a better customer and employee experience. It also speeds up your business processes by automating manual and repetitive tasks. At the same time, your employees can concentrate on important business aspects. Your team spends significantly less time researching the current status of individual processes.

Other benefits include

• Cost savings
• Very precise process execution
• Significantly less loss of information within the processes
• Greater flexibility in process management: business processes can be adapted quickly
• Clean process documentation (compliance with applicable regulations, audit security)
• Better traceability of decisions
• Scalability of routine tasks

Areas of application for DPA

In principle, DPA is suitable for both small standard processes and complex, customised workflows. The digital automation of processes that influence the customer experience (CX) is particularly effective. Classic examples include quotation and order processes, credit approvals and the onboarding of new customers. In the latter case, digital process automation prevents your teams' productivity from being reduced by a high volume of paperwork. The necessary forms can be completed largely automatically. This minimises errors and simplifies the process. In addition, everyone involved automatically receives the status of the onboarding process.

You can also use Digital Process Automation to update, optimise and standardise outdated business processes. This reduces your costs and compliance risks in equal measure. DPA also allows you to integrate elements such as reminders, authorisations and escalations into your workflows. Business rules ensure efficient processes from start to finish.

Further application examples of DPA:

• Replacing paper documents and Excel spreadsheets with digital, (partially) automated forms
• Connecting digital forms with workflows
• Consolidate data from different systems and business areas
• Create automated reports on application usage (for example, to track team performance, monitor decisions or identify bottlenecks)

DPA and RPA: Digital Process Automation versus Robotic Process Automation

The terms digital process automation (DPA) and robotic process automation (RPA) are sometimes used interchangeably. However, this is not correct, as they are two different approaches to process automation.

With RPA, software robots take on the role of human employees. Like real people, the bots interact with existing systems and perform defined tasks repeatedly. For example, they can transfer data from a database to an ERP system. Robotic process automation is particularly suitable for less demanding, standardised tasks that are repeated at high frequency.

The differences between DPA and RPA can be summarised as follows:

Digital Process Automation (DPA):

• Focus on end-to-end processes
• Processes run digitally & automatically from start to finish with a mix of technologies
• Goals: more efficient processes, information transparency, improved customer and employee experience
• Transformation of existing processes
• Expansion, optimisation and standardisation of processes

Robotic Process Automation (RPA):

• Focus on tasks
• Software robots automate repetitive, human tasks
• Goals: tactical efficiency, cost reduction, relief of employees
• No change to existing processes and systems
• Automation

DPA is generally an overarching authority for the comprehensive digital transformation and automation of your business processes. Digital Process Automation utilises various technologies for this. One of these is RPA, another is machine learning, for example.

Conclusion: DPA tools ensure improved digitalisation and customer centricity

To summarise, digital process automation enables you to improve and automate your business processes and align them even more closely with the needs of your customers and employees. The end-to-end approach is advantageous here. It not only enables the digital mapping of individual tasks, but also the holistic transformation of your business processes. Getting started with digital process automation is particularly easy with intuitive, scalable low-code platforms such as JobRouter?. Start with small, simple workflows and gradually automate increasingly complex processes - flexibly and customised to your needs.