One of the essential questions in a company is how to automate some of their business processes in so-called automated workflows. An automated workflow executes a sequence of steps in a reproducible way, some fully automated while some others require user action. The purpose of this automation lies in cost savings, while reproducibility preserves a constant quality level of the outputs.
Why do I need automated workflows?
Automated workflows are needed by everyone who wants the most straightforward, most efficient, and structured business processes possible in their company. Once an automated workflow has been created, it takes over some of the originally time-consuming tasks from individual employees. It allows the team to handle more production without adding resources, achieving "More with Less," optimizing processes and implementing automated workflows is about. 
The gain in productivity and efficiency and the reduction in downtime and errors reduces costs at all time. Automated workflows will help any business by adding transparency to the complex visuals and Artwork journeys. This improvement in transparency increases your products and service's quality. Simultaneously, an automated workflow will reduce the number of touchpoints and costly product handling to reduce time to market.
What is the business case for automated workflows?
Companies are complex systems that are in constant exchange with their environment. This often results in workflows where processes require user action and those taken over entirely independently by the automatic workflow solution. In the following section, we explain the difference between those two types of processes constituting the workflow.
Review and approval processes:
A review and approval process describes all workflow steps which have requests to be fulfilled manually by responsible persons. In this process, the responsible parties must respond to various events, such as approving or rejecting a claim within a specific time frame.
Companies can find review and approval processes everywhere in everyday work. Such as the approval and release of selected images, a legal review, creating a brochure, and preparing content for distribution to multiple on- and offline channels.
In this context, review and approval processes often follow a similar pattern. Therefore, there is great potential to make these vital routine processes more efficient and traceable through workflow automation. By orchestrating review and approval processes, you reduce email communication in the company, as tasks are retrieved online and reminders are sent only in a targeted manner. Everyone involved will benefit from it.
File processing:
File processing designates all workflow steps that transform and manipulate existing files. In doing so, the system can automatically perform tasks without intervention or monitoring by an external party.
The various automated workflow actions include, for example:
- Deploying or deleting assets.
- Transforming them into new renditions.
- Producing different content formats for multi-channel content delivery.
File processing is often working steps that do not require creative thinking because they get done in the background. In most cases, they are very trivial tasks that need to be performed over and over again. By automating these, you will increase your efficiency and avoid mistakes that can cost you time and money.
The benefits of automated workflows
When used together, the benefits of an automated workflow with review and approval processes and file processing are complementary. Together, they lead to the automation of recurring steps in a traceable and reproducible way that requires human actions or communication between stakeholders. Both are coordinated by the workflow, assuring the output's consistent quality while freeing you more time for essential activities. In the meantime, the monitoring of automated workflows will also help identify bottlenecks within your structure, giving you important insights to support critical strategic decisions
