One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Benefits of a Customized Automation for Your Organization

What do you think of when you hear the word “automation?” Complicated? Too difficult to understand? For large-scale, high-volume manufacturing firms only? Good news – it doesn’t always have to be complicated, and it is certainly valuable and accessible to any organization, of any size or sector.  Automations become particularly valuable when they are viewed as a customized solution to an organization’s unique requirements or pain points. Whether you are tired of drowning in a sea of manual tasks or are seeking a smarter, more efficient way to get things done, customized automations can be highly effective tool for your team.

Working With Clients to Develop Customized Automation

One of the main practices at Regroove is to first listen to our clients describe their goal, vision, or issue, and then adapt the technology to fit to our clients (not the other way around!). It’s no different with automations.

In our initial meetings with our clients, we capture information such as:

1. What do your typical daily tasks look like?
2. How much time do these tasks take you?
3. Are there any tasks that cause bottlenecks to other workflows?
4. Are there any tasks that require multiple levels of review/approval?
5. Are any of your tasks conditional on one another?
6. How do you feel about the tasks you and your team are doing? Are there any tasks that slow down work or projects that you believe are higher priority and require more focus and energy from your team?

From these conversations, we can get a strong sense of where automations could save your organization time and resources.

Conversely, sometimes our clients come to us with a clear issue. For example, let’s say an office manager is responsible for handling document approvals. It requires multiple back-and-forth emails, tracking changes, and maintaining version control, and it takes too much time. They want to make this process quicker and more hands-off. 🔔🔔🔔 – this is the perfect scenario to introduce a customized automation.

We’ve Got the Receipts

We recently had a client approach us with a very similar issue. Their finance team was required to send invoices for multiple rounds of approval. They had to be manually scanned into an email inbox, then had program codes, vendor codes, and department managers manually assigned, after which they were categorized by program type and invoice amount. Depending on all those factors, they would then be manually sent to the different approvers. If there was a question, the invoice would be sent back, and the process had to start all over again. Moreover, approvers did not have any kind of reminder system to alert them that an invoice was waiting for their approval.

Using Power Automate, Regroove built a solution that would filter invoices based on program type and amount and send alerts to various approvers. We also set up a dashboard that indicated the status of each invoice. This has cut out multiple steps of reminders, emails, and manual approval notifications.

We had another client in the finance sector who faced challenges providing regular support and services to their clients, due to the need for timely information gathering. Their previous system of using individual spreadsheets for each client resulted in siloed information and lack of notifications to the entire service delivery team. They sought a new process that would offer a dashboard to access and visualize completed and outstanding items, as well as an automated notification system for completed actions.

We implemented a solution with Microsoft Lists to visualize the client’s tasks and project items, and used Power Automate to set up automated notifications upon item submission, which cut out back and forth emails like “has this been completed?” and “can you send me a status report?” Read more here.

During the pandemic, one client faced the challenge of implementing a universal and consistent electronic tracing system across their five office locations to comply with government regulations. Our team at Regroove built a Tracing App, which allowed staff to sign in and out with a click of a button and enabled guests to sign in using QR codes posted on office doors. The app provided a real-time dashboard, audit logs, and notifications through Microsoft Teams. It eliminated the need for paper sign-in forms and offered a paperless, contactless solution. The app ensured compliance, protected the health and safety of staff and visitors, and provided a single source of truth for movements across locations.

Customized Automation at Regroove

We implement automations for our work at Regroove too, from project management to invoicing. When a new client signs an agreement, our project management team submits two forms using Microsoft Forms, which automatically creates a client account in our cloud-based project manager and in QuickBooks Online. It also generates a Microsoft Teams for us to discuss all project deliverables out loud. When our team was working in multiple office locations (we’re a fully remote organization now 😊), we created an automated notification for Accounts Receivable, that would send a post to Microsoft Teams, letting our entire team know when payment by cheque had been received. Our team no longer had to chase down paper folders across different offices to determine if payment had been made.

Ask yourself – is there a repetitive task I do every day that takes too much time? Do we have any recurring tasks that require multiple people to approve or respond? Is anyone on our team constantly sending email reminders or task follow ups? These are just a few examples where customized automations can introduce a simple yet highly effective solution to save time, reduce errors, and boost collaboration. Reach out to our team of experts by filling out the form below and we would be more than happy to chat automations with you.

PS – if you just can’t wait? Read our blog on three simple automations you can implement TODAY!