Digital Process Automation Software
Key Capabilities, Platforms, Investments, ROI
In IT since 1989, ScienceSoft provides all-encompassing digitalization consulting and aids in implementing reliable digital process automation software for 30+ industries.
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Digital Process Automation Software: the Gist
Digital process automation (DPA) software helps automate one-time, recurring, and continuous business operations at the department and enterprise levels. DPA solutions improve workflow speed and efficiency and enable companies to leverage new digital business models.
Ways to implement digital process automation:
- Developing custom automation software to get all necessary capabilities and digitally transform complex and unique workflows.
- Relying on market-available low-code/no-code development platforms to build customizable automation functionality for repeating tasks.
- Implementing an off-the-shelf DPA tool to establish cohesive automation of non-specific enterprise processes.
Examples of DPA Software Use Cases
Department-specific use cases
- Candidate data management.
- Employee onboarding.
- Employee training and development.
- Staff performance review.
- Enterprise accounting.
- Payroll management.
- Financial planning and analysis.
- Financial reporting.
- Vendor selection and onboarding.
- Product and service purchase order management.
- Invoice processing and payment.
Industry-specific use cases
- Appointment scheduling.
- Patient health record management.
- Medical device performance control.
- Monitoring regulatory compliance.
- Customer onboarding and KYC/AML verification.
- Service request processing.
- Digital service delivery (bank account opening, credit approval, etc.).
- Product design and data management.
- BOM generation and inventory reservation.
- Predictive asset maintenance.
Digital Process Automation Software: Key Features
Workflow creation
- Process mapping (graphical representation of the workflow, the steps and participants involved in a business process).
- Drag-and-drop workflow editor for codeless creation of automated business workflows.
- Pre-built templates for creating typical workflows.
- Workflow modeling canvas with drag-and-drop tasks and decision points for creating custom workflows.
- Workflow logic based on internal policies and practices including handling rule exceptions.
- Support of non-linear and multistep workflows with any number of sequential and parallel steps.
Workflow management
- Management of bulk workflows.
- Workflow scheduling (one-time and recurrent workflows).
- Assigning employees to workflows or individual workflow tasks.
- AI-based task routing to relevant employees based on their roles, skills, and experience.
- Multi-step approval of workflows and workflow tasks.
- Setting due dates for workflow tasks.
- Workflow launching.
- Workflow and task tracking (e.g., status, progress, assignees, due dates) in real time.
- Managing workflows from mobile devices.
Workflow administration
- Single storage for workflow tasks, associated data, documents and discussions.
- Automated validation of workflow errors (e.g., broken pathways, logic loops).
- Automated time- and condition-based notifications (e.g., a task is assigned to an employee, a task is finished).
Workflow collaboration
- Searchable group discussions.
- Discussion boards.
- Sharing work-related files.
- Workflow-related emails and notifications.
- Collaboration on workflow-related documents.
Reporting and analytics
- Analytics of automated processes based on various KPIs (e.g., time-to-hire in recruitment, customer satisfaction in customer service).
- Real-time dashboards showing workflow status, progress, due dates, etc.
- Workflow analytics (e.g., workflows by type, complexity, average completion time).
Security and compliance
- Access control.
- Role-based permissions.
- Multifactor authentication.
- Data encryption.
- Audit trail.
- Regulatory compliance (e.g., AICPA, HIPAA, PCI DSS, FDA, FISMA).
Success Factors of DPA Software
Below, ScienceSoft's consultants have defined a range of important factors that drive the ROI for DPA software.
Strong governance model
that defines what technologies are used for digital automation of business processes, how they are used, and how they complement each other in the enterprise digital environment.
Ability to handle complex enterprise-level processes
for example, financial processes with large volumes of recurring transactions or supply chain control workflows assuming big data processing.
Smooth integration
with enterprise systems (e.g., ERP, CRM, HRMS, CMS, ITSM) and other software to create a cohesive automation environment.
Mobile functionality
to enable 24/7 managing of business workflows to prevent process delays and ensure high process productivity.
Intuitive drag-and-drop UI
to easily construct, visualize, and adjust business process flows.
Regulatory compliance
to ensure digital business process adherence to the necessary global, region- and industry-specific legal rules.
ScienceSoft's Featured Digital Process Automation Projects
DPA Software: Investments and ROI
DPA implementation costs will vary depending on the chosen platform, the number of employees, an organization’s digital maturity, automation scope, the complexity of processes to be automated, the enterprise systems involved, and other factors.
From ScienceSoft’s experience, building a custom digital process automation system of moderate complexity may cost around $200,000–$500,000. A fully-featured solution that enables end-to-end digital process automation for large enterprises may cost around $500,000–$2,500,000+.
Digital process automation software offers ROI from 190% to 390%. The payback period is usually up to 6 months but depending on the implementation scope, it can be up to 12–13 months.
Key financial outcomes
Top DPA Platforms to Consider
The DPA market is projected to reach $16.12 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 13%. The increasing popularity of low-code/no-code development platforms is named among the major market drivers. Such platforms provide customizable workflow automation features, offering a quick and cost-effective way to establish digital business processes.
ScienceSoft recommends using the following proven DPA platforms to automate non-specific business tasks:
SharePoint
Best for
Automation of document management processes like document approval and signature collection.
Description
SharePoint offers 5 built-in types of workflows that help streamline collaboration on documents and project management due to automation of collecting signatures, feedback, or approvals for documents and tracking the current status of project tasks.
Users: Citizen developers.
Rating: 4/5 by G2.
Pricing
$12.50 - $57 user/month (including Office apps).
Microsoft Power Automate
Best for
Automating repetitive or rules-based tasks like vacation approvals.
Description
Microsoft Power Automate helps create and manage simple and complex workflows across multiple services or applications to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data, and more.
Users: Citizen developers and business users.
Rating: 4.6/5 by G2.
Pricing
Starts at $15 user/month.
Appian
Best for
Automation of complex business processes and custom app development.
Description
Due to its low-code capabilities, Appian enables quick creation of business process management apps and automation of complex workflows that connect multiple enterprise systems. Appian helps organizations increase productivity, improve customer experience, ensure regulatory compliance, and more.
Users: Professional developers.
Rating: 4.5/5 by G2.
Pricing
Starts at $70 user/month, free version is available.
Pega
Best for
RPA-powered automation of repetitive tasks and app integration.
Description
Pega combines robotic process automation and business process management in a single platform and helps organizations automate business processes with bots to increase employee productivity.
Users: Nontechnical business users and citizen developers.
Rating: 4.2/5 by G2.
Pricing
Starts at $90 user/month, free trial is available.
DPA Software Implementation by ScienceSoft
With 34 years in IT, ScienceSoft offers consultancy and implementation of DPA solutions to ensure business process connectivity and streamline the orchestration of enterprise digital workflows.
DPA software consulting
- Analyzing your organization’s business processes.
- Helping design a digital transformation strategy for your business processes and a governance model for your digital environment.
- Prioritizing features for your DPA solution based on your digital process automation needs.
- Choosing a suitable DPA platform.
- Elaborating on DPA integration roadmap (e.g., enterprise systems, data sources).
- Drawing a DPA project plan.
- Elaborating a user adoption strategy for a new DPA solution.
DPA software implementation
- Analyzing your organization’s business processes and suggest how to optimize them via DPA software.
- Translating business needs into technical requirements for a DPA solution.
- Implementation of a DPA solution.
- DPA integration with enterprise systems (e.g., ERP, CRM, HRMS, CMS, ITSM) and data sources (email services, databases, etc.).
- Quality assurance and post-implementation support of a DPA solution.
- User adoption and training.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. We help enterprises design, build, and operate digital process automation solutions to increase the efficiency of business processes and accelerate digital transformation. Being ISO 9001- and ISO 27001-certified, we rely on a mature quality management system and guarantee cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers' data security. If you’re interested in introducing digital process automation in your company, you’re welcome to request DPA consulting or implementation by ScienceSoft.