Entrepreneurs can sometimes struggle with their workload. Juggling all the different tasks of running a business, managing staff, and following up with clients can be a lot to take on. With so many different responsibilities to juggle, it’s no wonder entrepreneurs feel pressured and overwhelmed at times.
Every entrepreneur has heard about the importance of business process automation and business process automation tools.
Whether it is streamlining your sales process or automating your expense reports, automation can help you save time and money. And with so many tools available to choose from, the question becomes where do I start?
Luckily, there are several tools available that can help you automate your workflow and free up time for other important tasks. These 12 incredible business process automation tools will save you hours by allowing you to focus on what matters: growing your business.
Section 1: What is Business Process Automation?
Business process automation is a term that describes a set of technologies and methods to design, deploy, and execute software applications capable of automatically executing business processes. These processes can be used to automate manual tasks, monitor progress, and identify errors in complex systems. The goal of business process automation is to enable organizations to reduce costs by improving efficiency and reducing the amount of time required for manual tasks.
Business process automation is the use of various technologies to remove humans from tasks that are both mundane and repetitive. This ensures that employees can focus on more critical tasks, while also saving companies money because they don’t have to hire staff to perform these jobs. Read More.
Section 2: Top 12 Business Process Automation Tools Every Entrepreneur
1. ActiveCollab
What is ActiveCollab?
ActiveCollab business process automation tool is being used by over 6,000 businesses among many business process automation tools in 120 countries. It is a low-code platform that lets the user create automated business processes with straightforward drag-and-drop actions. It is available in three packages, each with different pricing schemes to suit your needs.
More About ActiveCollab:
ActiveCollab strikes an interesting balance between trying to appeal to most. If not all users, while at the same time offering a relatively affordable pricing model that you can not pass up.
When business process automation tools have so many features. Usually, they try to appeal to big-budget users, but that’s not the case with ActiveCollab. At first glance, ActiveCollab seems to be geared towards the average project manager looking to create a new software feature or manage an editorial team.
But when you dig deeper, you’ll find that this tool is capable of handling all kinds of financial requirements like budgets, invoices, and work estimates.
These features greatly expand the potential user base in creative and service industries such as marketing and architecture firms.
Moreover, the learning curve is not very steep, making it perfect for users who want to learn the basics of project management, especially in terms of budgeting, invoicing, and client management.
Pricing of ActiveCollab
Considering ActiveCollab’s extensive feature set, the pricing structure is quite reasonable. The pricing is even comparable to Freedcamp, which offers even fewer features.
- ActiveCollab Project Management: $7/user per month – unlimited projects, unlimited tasks, unlimited time records, task dependencies (waterfall project management), recurring tasks, mobile app, email integration, client management, budgeting, cost tracking, and reports.
- Paid Bundle Features: Additional $4/user per month – workload management, time estimates, invoicing, online payments, Quickbooks integration, and Xero integration.
The only major difference in pricing between ActiveCollab and Freedcamp. That is ActiveCollab only offers one main pricing tier with an add-on package, while Freedcamp offers four tiers, one of which is free. Read More.
ActiveCollab unfortunately does not offer a free version of its software outside of the trial period.
2. Microsoft Flow
What is Microsoft Flow?
Microsoft Flow helps businesses automate their workflows. With this tool, you can create automated flows, get notifications when new data is available, and share reports with your team. Microsoft Flow is easy to use and it’s completely free. Join more than 100,000 businesses that have used it to automate their workflows today!
More About Microsoft Flow:
Microsoft Flow is a cloud-based system that lets you create automated workflows to simplify and manage business processes more effectively.
In short, it’s designed to make your life easier by helping you automate repetitive, low-effort, but time-consuming tasks. Such as sorting notifications, collecting data, alerts, pings, and so on.
Take collecting survey data for marketing research, for example. We have all had to do this before, and as you may have noticed, the process of collecting responses from Microsoft Forms and saving them manually can get repetitive and keep you from focusing on more important tasks.
At this point, you can use Microsoft Flow to automatically collect and save questionnaire results, as a virtual secretary, while you can focus on other tasks of greater importance. The same goes for saving all the data sent to your email.
This particular feature makes Microsoft Flow a preferred BPMS [BPM or BPM tools usually mean Business Process Automation (BPA) or Business Process Automation Tools] for new users with little BPM experience.
Microsoft Flow divides its flows into three main types:
- Automated Flow – It is a type of flow that is triggered by a preselected event. Other employees will receive a notification when a file is updated, for example.
- Scheduled Flow – A process that occurs at a specified time, such as receiving an alert about an upcoming event daily.
- Button Flow – A flow that is triggered by the pressing of a button.
Pricing of Microsoft Flow
As for pricing models for Microsoft Flow, there are many types. That’s because Microsoft’s customers vary widely. Customers range from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies that use Microsoft Power Automate for different purposes.
Understanding pricing models is important.
Per-User Licensing
This type of plan is best suited for small teams and companies with limited business needs.
- The basic plan costs $15 per user per month. With the basic plan, users can create unlimited flows and use other features of the software. The plan with RBA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI costs $40 per user per month. Read More.
In this plan, users can automate legacy applications with RBA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI. They get 1 active, mentored RPA bot and 5000 AI Builder service credits per month. This takes automation to a new level. Because you can assign rules and algorithms to automate specific tasks if they meet the criteria you set.
Licensing plans per-flow
This plan is best suited for large organizations with a large number of users using automated flows.
- The price for this plan is $500 for 5 flows per month. With this plan, you can implement flows with reserved capacity for an unlimited number of users in your organization.
- Additional flows can be easily purchased for $100 per flow per month.
3. Zapier
What is Zapier?
Zapier is the best choice for Business Process Automation. With Zapier, you can automate tasks like marketing campaigns, purchase orders, customer service requests, and more. You can also use it to connect to hundreds of other apps and services to automate your work. It’s the only Business Process Automation Tool you’ll ever need.
More About Zapier:
Zapier is a tool that helps you automate repetitive tasks between two or more apps, no code necessary. When an event happens in one app, Zapier can tell another app to perform (or do) a particular action.
How can you automate your work with Zapier?
- Frequently performed tasks. For example, remind your team every week to fill out the agenda for meetings.
- Any time you have to move information from one app to another. A simple example would be to add tasks from a project management app to your to-do list app.
- Simple tasks that don’t require much thought. Copying email addresses of attendees to a spreadsheet is an example.
Pricing of Zapier
There are 4 pricing editions of Zapier, which range from $24.99 to $748.75. To see which one is right for you, take a look at the pricing information below and read more about the product here.
- Zapier is one of the leading automation services for business. With its user-friendly, cloud-based tools, it’s easy to get started and create automation workflows. Zapier’s starter plan is $24.99 per month with no contracts or commitments!
- Zapier is the perfect software to help you automate your business. The $61.25 per month plan offers unlimited automation for unlimited sites for professionals. This plan is perfect for entrepreneurs who are just starting and don’t want to spend any more than they need to on software. Read More.
- The cost of Zapier’s subscription plans is quite low for what you get. You’ll be able to monitor your marketing campaigns, make marketing decisions, and monitor your website visitors with Zapier. For only $373.75 per month for a team plan. You can monitor up to 10,000 visitors monthly. If you have a business with more than 10,000 visitors monthly, then you can contact us about our enterprise plan.
- It is a great service that helps you do more with less. It’s a perfect app for small businesses and startups. It is a great tool for automating processes and simplifying workflows. Zapier provides a lot of functionality for $748.75 per month for any company plan.
4. HubSpot CRM
What is HubSpot CRM?
HubSpot CRM is a dynamic system that continuously improves itself to make better use of your data. It is a system designed to keep you ahead of the competition and give you the best chance for success. It can be customized to increase productivity and performance. HubSpot CRM is a comprehensive solution that covers everything from marketing automation, sales, customer service, and lead management.
More About HubSpot CRM:
The advantage of HubSpot is that it is an all-in-one marketing and sales package that helps you generate traffic, acquire customers, grow your business, and turn leads into sales. For inbound marketing, which is defined as the technique of attracting customers to products and services by marking them online, there are tools for SEO, social media, landing pages, marketing automation, blogging, and web analytics.
The tools allow you to integrate it with your company’s website or even create your website on HubSpot. HubSpot also acts as a content management system (CMS) with a variety of options associated with it. According to HubSpot, there are approximately 121,000 customers in more than 120 countries that use some or all of HubSpot’s tools and services. Read More.
Pricing of HubSpot CRM
HubSpot’s services are organized into different “hubs,” each of which addresses a different aspect of running a client-focused company.
- The Marketing Hub, starting at $50, includes all the tools a company needs to attract customers and convert contacts into leads.
- The Sales Hub, starting at $50, lets a business track every lead interaction and every deal pipeline.
- The Service Hub, starting at $50, allows a business to keep its entire client base happy with fast, smart customer service.
- The Growth Suite, starting at $113, is you require a package of hubs. It includes the Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and Sales Hub, but with a 25% discount applied to all of them.
5. Klaviyo
What is Klaviyo?
Klaviyo is the best business process automation tool in between many business process automation tools. It is the only business process automation tool that has helped thousands of e-commerce businesses reach their goals with automated email marketing, abandoned cart recovery, and powerful built-in customer insights. It has helped users save time and money while growing their businesses.
More About Klaviyo:
Regardless of the size of your B2B or B2C eCommerce business, Klaviyo can grow your business. Store all your customer data in one place and deliver tailored experiences through email and other owned channels.
This tool makes it easy for eCommerce merchants to grow their contact lists, personalize the user experience, and communicate more effectively with customers. To help you evaluate Klaviyo versus MailChimp, take a look at some of Klaviyo’s key features below.
Automation
With Klaviyo, you can plan the Customer’s Journey from start to finish to create your ideal customer experience. Use Klaviyo’s email automation to send triggered emails based on specific criteria to accelerate the customer’s journey through the Buyer’s Journey. This can help you improve your abandoned purchase email strategy and win back lost customers. Read More.
Klaviyo’s A/B testing capabilities allow retailers to test different subject lines, content types, and timing to improve performance and increase customer engagement. Klaviyo uses behavioral data, customer data, and integrated data to personalize emails based on customer lifetime value, lifecycle stage, brand loyalty, and more.
Reporting
Klaviyo’s reporting and eCommerce analytics tools help merchants analyze metrics beyond open rates and clicks. See how much revenue your campaigns have brought in, compare current and past performance, see trends in events, and more.
Pricing of Klaviyo
Starting from: $20.00/month
Pricing model: Free, Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Klaviyo charges for its services based on the number of contacts and SMS messages sent.
- Email Pricing: Until 250 contacts are added, it is free. After 250 contacts, it costs $20 per month.
- SMS Pricing: Sending an SMS costs $0.01 or sending an MMS costs $0.03.
- Email & SMS: Until 250 contacts are added, it is free. For 251+ contacts, it costs $20/month. For MMS, it costs $0.03 per message.
6. Slack
What is Slack?
The ease of use and the simple interface has increased the adoption rate of Slack in a short period. It is an easy-to-use tool with powerful features that cover most requirements of an office. It has the potential to increase productivity and efficiency for employees who are required to work remotely, as it can be used on devices other than just your desktop. Read More.
7. Zoho Creator
What is Zoho Creator?
Zoho Creator is a world-class business process automation tool that is a single, unified platform for all your automation needs. It offers a comprehensive suite of services for managing workflows, documents, data, and people. It integrates seamlessly with popular business software and platforms, making it the ultimate tool for today’s organizations to thrive in today’s dynamic business environment.
8. Wrike
What is Wrike?
Wrike is a leading cloud-based service that optimizes your business processes and automates the following: project management, resource management, IT project portfolio management, time tracking, and invoicing. A lean and mean tool with pricing starting at $13/user monthly.
9. Akamai NetSession Director
What is Akamai NetSession Director?
Akamai NetSession Director is the best business process automation tool among many business process automation tools. The Akamai NetSession Director has a robust and scalable system that allows you to manage your entire business process without any trouble. This is why Akamai NetSession Director is the best business process automation software today. Read More.
10. Oracle Utilities Applications Suite
What is Oracle Utilities Applications Suite?
Oracle Utilities Applications Suite is the most successful and successful business process automation tool among many business process automation tools. Oracle Utilities Application Suite has been in the market for a long time, and it has the most potential in the future. For this reason, companies should focus on Oracle Utilities Applications Suite.
11. Salesforce Marketing Cloud
What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the best in the market when it comes to business process automation tools. It is an enterprise-grade, all-in-one solution that is used by many big companies around the world. Its list of features includes a comprehensive marketing suite, a social listening dashboard, a campaign dashboard, and more.
12. Cisco Wide Area Application Services
What are Cisco Wide Area Application Services?
Source: Cisco
Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) is the best business process automation tool in the market right now, and it’s trusted by over 100,000 organizations. If you’re in need of a reliable and scalable solution for your business process automation needs, we implore you to take a look at Cisco Wide Area Application Services.
Section 3: The Benefits of Business Process Automation
Automating processes eliminates bottlenecks and helps the company improve efficiency, productivity, and compliance. Business process automation also improves customer experience and market performance.
1. Employees can save time.
2. Costs are reduced as a result.
3. It makes you more productive.
4. Business processes become more efficient.
5. The error rate is minimized.
6. The process is standardized.
7. The records are auditable.
8. This ensures compliance.
9. The customer experience is improved.
10. It makes the application more scalable.
Section 4: Conclusion
Business Process Automation Software is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to gain access to the tools they need to require to scale their business and compete in today’s digital age. Entrepreneurs can use these tools to centralize their marketing efforts, automate support, and become more efficient. You deserve the best business process automation tools in order to take your business to the next level! Read More.
