Automating business processes is essential to any organization's growth, especially multinational corporations with 1000s of employees. Automating workflow and processes can reduce costs and increase productivity for large companies by making operations more efficient.

With the rise in popularity of automation and self-service technologies, it's easy to get confused by the terms "workflow" and "business process automation." The two concepts are often used interchangeably. There are many similarities between workflow and business process automation. Both are designed to make it easier for organizations to get their work done.

But it is crucial to understand the differences between them. Let's examine three significant differences between workflow and business process automation.

Task vs Workflow vs Process

When we talk about tasks, workflows, and processes in business, we're talking about three different ways of describing how things get done.

A task is a single unit of work that needs to be performed to be completed. Tasks can be related or unrelated, but they all have their purpose, and they are independent and self-contained units of work that can be completed without affecting any other task.

For example, when you receive an email message from a customer and respond with an answer, this would be considered one task.

Meanwhile, a workflow is a set of tasks that must be performed to complete the process (or business function). Dependencies connect them with one another, so they have to be completed in a particular order. The workflow is designed to help users complete tasks more efficiently by monitoring what has been done and what needs to be done next, so you don't have to remember everything yourself.

When you create a new customer account using Salesforce's account management software, many different tasks are involved--from entering basic contact information to setting up billing details and sending out welcome emails. All these steps form the company's new customer account creation workflow.

Finally, a process is a repeatable sequence of steps that take input and produce output; it's designed to produce consistent results over time and achieve a specific organizational goal. Processes are collections of tasks and workflows that represent the total flow of work through an organization over time.

A sales process, for instance, could include a series of tasks and workflows that move along the stages of an order from lead generation to fulfillment. You can use processes at all levels of an organization, but they are most commonly used to describe the flow of work through departments or teams within larger organizations.

Workflow Automation and Process Automation

Workflow automation is the process of automating workflow processes using the software. You can apply workflow automation to any business process, but it's most commonly associated with manual tasks involving multiple steps or people working together.

In contrast, business process automation involves using computer systems to execute defined actions (several different workflows across the organization) to streamline business operations. Business processes are essential because they standardize how work gets done and lead to more consistent outcomes. With BPA, you're looking to improve entire areas of your company and make them more efficient.

Differences Between Workflow Automation and Process Automation

The main difference between workflow and business process automation is that business process automation is a more robust and complex system than workflow automation.

While workflow automation is the automation of individual tasks, process automation is about a more holistic approach to business processes. Workflow automation automates several tasks, such as a purchase order. Process automation refers to organizational goals like improving customer experience or reducing lead time in sales.

Next, process automation focuses on strategic objectives rather than workflow automation's day-to-day operations. Workflow automation addresses the needs of individual workers, but process automation goes beyond that to address broader organizational goals. Process automation streamlines and simplifies a business's operations by making it possible to complete complex projects.

Last, process automation is a strategic approach to business transformation. It's about changing the way the organization thinks about processes, which can help it achieve its goals and become more competitive. Process automation allows an organization to focus on big-picture changes through the necessary structure, systems, and processes.

For example, mining companies are using business process automation to adopt best practices, pursue sustainable development and ensure worker safety. It means they are adding new technologies, automating workflows, and streamlining existing systems to achieve efficiency, sustainability, and safety goals.

Start Your Business Process Automation Journey

In most cases, companies begin to automate their processes by focusing on discrete tasks and workflows, using these initial successes as a foundation for more comprehensive business process automation.

The Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit), which provides public transportation for Seattle and its surrounding communities, has successfully employed business process automation that transcends individual tasks.

OTB Solutions, a firm that builds apps for transportation systems, recommended AgilePoint, a low-code automation platform, to create a systematic, quantifiable, and auditable process across Sound Transit.

AgilePoint's process-centric orientation enabled OTB Solutions' application design to focus on multifaceted business processes that extend beyond individual tasks.

The most beneficial aspect of this was AgilePoint's built-in integration capabilities, which made it easy for the software to communicate with other systems and databases throughout the organization.

AgilePoint is particularly well suited for process automation and workflow automation. While you can quickly sign up for a SaaS solution that enables task automation, more complex use cases require a platform such as AgilePoint to handle additional requirements—including those related to scale (i.e., user capacity) and security.

Aside from automating processes to increase efficiency, AgilePoint also consolidates IT stacks and reduces costs by eliminating redundant software applications and licensing fees on multiple systems or databases.

Request a personalized demo of AgilePoint Business Process Automation software today to explore how it can help your business! After the demo, you'll be able to choose a plan that best suits your organization's needs.