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Get to know 4 workflow automation tools

Workflow automation can benefit businesses by making manual processes digital, giving employees more time to work on other tasks. Learn more about workflow automation tools.

Companies don't want to waste valuable time on repetitive tasks -- they want fast and efficient processes that increase productivity. By using workflow automation, businesses can save money, free employees up for more important tasks and improve customer service.

While there are many workflow automation tools on the market, one may suit a business better than others depending on its individual processes.

Here are some automation tools that can benefit businesses.

Box

Box's workflow automation tool, Box Relay, gives users the ability to design content workflows without the help of an IT department. Box and IBM joined forces in 2016 to create this tool, but now Box Relay is part of and builds on Box capabilities.

Box Relay focuses on content-heavy processes and enables cross-department collaboration. Some of these processes include employee onboarding and offboarding in HR, patent and contract reviews in legal departments, and content review in marketing groups. It offers many features, including a new workflow engine, a simplified UI, a no-code workflow builder and a dashboard tracking workflow history. Box Relay also enables users to respond quickly through mobile devices.

Nintex

Box's workflow automation tool, Box Relay, gives users the ability to design content workflows without the help of an IT department.

Nintex launched a platform called Workflow Generator through which users can create workflows using Nintex Promapp. The no-code workflow automation tool connects IT departments that have automation experience with employees that understand the department's processes. The tool streamlines processes for more efficient workflow by using natural language processing. Employees can document a process and then click request automation, which creates a draft of the documented workflow and alerts the IT department.

Nintex currently offers Workflow Generator to customers that subscribe to Nintex Promapp and Workflow Cloud. The company also made Nintex Sign, powered by Adobe, available to SharePoint users and updated Nintex Forms to include more capabilities.

Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate, formerly known as Flow, is a cloud workflow service that enables IT departments to create automated and scheduled business processes and button flows. IT can then manage those flows through the Power Automate mobile app. Microsoft Power Automate has connectors to approximately 280 different applications and services, some requiring a premium plan.

The Microsoft Power Automate mobile app is available on iOS, Android and Windows.

Robotic process automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that enables users to train bots to perform digital tasks. RPA automates repetitive processes, and various businesses groups are adopting the software.

RPA can add many improvements to content management and save companies time. For example, there are tools that can proofread content before it goes live, take care of email marketing and promote content on social media.

Businesses can use RPA to curate content, which is a way for companies to gather existing content to attract customers, and to automate content monitoring, which tracks customer feedback and scores content performance.

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