Choosing the Right Processes for Automation: Don’t Automate Everything!

Let’s face it – everyone’s talking about business process automation (BPA) these days. But here’s the thing: not every process in your business deserves the automation treatment. The real trick? Knowing which processes to automate and which ones to leave alone.

What Makes a Process “Automation-Worthy”?

The most successful automation projects focus on processes that are:

• Structured and repeatable – Think clear rules, consistent inputs, and predictable outcomes
• Happening all the time – Daily or weekly tasks beat those quarterly or annual headaches
• Involving multiple people – Processes that bounce between departments or require handoffs
• Compliance-heavy – Anything needing documentation trails or regulatory checkboxes
• Business-critical – Processes directly impacting your customers or operational efficiency

The Boring Stuff Delivers the Biggest Wins

Here’s the irony – those mundane, eye-glazingly boring tasks often deliver the greatest returns on your automation investment. Why? Because when you do something tedious thousands of times, the time savings add up fast.

Think about tasks like:

• Mind-numbing data entry
• That weekly report nobody wants to compile
• Customer onboarding paperwork
• Processing invoices (yawn)
• Chasing down expense approvals

Automating these everyday tasks frees up your people to work on stuff that actually requires human brainpower and creativity – you know, the things humans are actually good at!

When to Keep Your Hands Off the Automation Button

Not everything should be automated. Seriously. Step away from the automation tool when you’re dealing with:

• Complex decisions that need human judgment and experience
• Tasks you rarely do where building automation would take longer than just doing the task manually for the next decade
• Processes that keep changing – you’ll drive yourself crazy reconfiguring the automation every other week
• Anything with tons of exceptions – if your list of “but what about when…” is longer than the actual process, just leave it alone

The Expensive Mistake Nobody Talks About

Here’s where things get real: automating the wrong processes can actually make things worse and cost you a fortune. Too many companies rush to automate processes before optimizing them first. It’s like paving a cow path instead of building a proper road.

The fallout can be painful:

• Systems that are too rigid to adapt when business needs change
• Exception handling that becomes more complicated than the original manual process
• Technical debt from automation solutions that need constant babysitting
• Team resistance when your “time-saving” automation creates more work instead of less

Build Your Automation Game Plan

Want to avoid those pitfalls? Try this approach:

1. Make a list of all your business processes (yes, all of them)
2. Score them based on how well they fit the automation-friendly criteria
3. Pick your winners based on ROI potential and strategic importance
4. Start small with quick wins to build momentum and trust
5. Expand gradually, learning from each implementation

The Bottom Line

Smart automation isn’t about technology – it’s about choosing the right processes. By focusing on structured, repetitive, business-critical tasks, you’ll get the most bang for your automation buck while avoiding painful automation fails.

Remember: automation is a tool to improve your business outcomes, not a shiny toy to implement everywhere just because you can. The most successful automation projects stay laser-focused on business goals while being realistic about which processes actually benefit from technological help.

What processes are you thinking about automating in your business? If you’re not, book a call with us today!