So these contain all their important info, like name, role, etc. But also all their sensitive documents, like their employment agreements and things like that.

But what’s amazing is, when I onboard someone and need to generate a new employee agreement, thanks to Power Automate, I don’t have to sit here and follow a manual process to find all the relevant fields and modify them.

Instead, I’ve built a button here that says “Generate Employment Agreement.

And when I press that, it starts asking me, “What’s their salary going to be?” “How many vacation days do they get?” and all the questions I need to generate this document. 

Then, it will ask me, “Do you want me to prepare this for E-Signature?” If I say yes, it auto-sends it to our new employee. Once they return it, it automatically puts the signed copy in this folder, generates a new Office 365 account for them, and puts a task on my calendar to buy them a laptop.

LENNY: Wow. Incredible business process automation tool.

DUSTIN: Yeah, and we’re really just scratching the surface here, so it just depends how specific you want to be.

You can have Power Automate read documents for you and then populate spreadsheets with that information. With Microsoft Syntax, another AI-powered business process automation software, you can have it read contracts, teach it the different important terms, and then have it write new versions. You can hook Microsoft Copilot Studio into your processes and essentially create a chatbot assistant.

For instance, I had Copilot Studio study our processes for our business, define our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and write our employee handbook in less than an hour.

LENNY: Now, what if people already like the tools they are using? Maybe they actually love that signature tool they spent a bunch of money on?

DUSTIN: Even though Microsoft tools work best with each other, just having one or a few pieces of the puzzle exist outside of the Microsoft ecosystem doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of them. Office 365 can integrate with all types of other solutions, such as Google Drive, DocuSign, Quickbooks, etc.

Ultimately, what I find is that businesses that have 17 different solutions, none of which talk to each other, will use these tools to stitch those systems together at the expense of their time and efficiency. Or, they can start from scratch and build one unified business automation system to run their organization from end to end faster and more efficiently. The possibilities are really endless with automating business processes because you have all these fantastic building blocks at your disposal.

LENNY: So, for people who are excited by these building blocks and want to jump in right away, can they just sit down and create an intelligent automation for a complex process on their own?

DUSTIN: Well, it depends on what you need, obviously. I mean, we are low-code software developers. Meaning that we don’t have to write a lot of code to do most of the automated workflows. It’s definitely closer to clicking and configuring.

I would say it can be a little bit daunting for someone to create an automated process from the ground up if they have no experience with automation technology. But it’s not as bad if you’ve had someone set it up for you and you just want to maintain it.

If you’re looking to maximize these systems quickly and you don’t have a ton of free time, then partnering with a company like ours could be an ideal solution for you. But if you’re tech-savvy and you have the time, automating much of your workflow management can be learned through Google or various internet resources.

That said, if you just want all the business process automation information in one place, we’ve also created a fantastic resource called Incite Discovery. This platform not only walks you through all these features but also helps you strategize how to best take advantage of them for your specific business.

LENNY: Perfect! One last question for you. Any pitfalls people should be wary of when using these productivity tools?

DUSTIN: Sure. Like all AI tools, they’re not perfect, so you should just periodically double-check that they are doing what they should be. And it’s obviously important to make sure you don’t abuse these technologies by say, tracking employees silently or automating complex workflows just because people don’t feel like doing them.

But the biggest thing to be aware of is that the more we start relying on automated process to handle these tasks, the more important it is to invest in the infrastructure that supports them. It becomes even more critical to have strong cybersecurity solutions and make sure all that data you’re generating is being backed up.

LENNY: Thanks, Dustin. Really powerful stuff here. Any last thoughts you want to leave our readers with regarding business process automation?

DUSTIN: Well, look, we live in a time now where small and medium-sized businesses can use business process automation tools to compete with organizations larger than theirs. Essentially, they have the same tools available to them; you just have to have the imagination to use them. So, I guess what I’d say is – don’t miss out improving your business process management!

LENNY: Amen to that.

Don’t forget to visit Incite Automation and their training platform Incite Discovery if you’d like to learn how to automate your business processes too.

If you need help building an infrastructure that can support these powerful business process automation tools or don’t have an Office 365 setup and want to discuss how to automate your day-to-day workflow, feel free to contact Lenny Giller at lenny@reliabletechnology.com.