How to strengthen your business process automation strategy

Shipments miss deadlines. Invoices get stuck in approval limbo. And employees spend hours on manual data entry. These are just a few ways ineffective business processes can create bottlenecks, drain resources, and cause unnecessary hassle.

When you spot overly complicated and inefficient workflows, business process automation (BPA) can be a game changer. In fact, BPA can prevent delays and eliminate unnecessary steps that would otherwise affect team engagement and can harm your reputation. 

Let’s break down the definition of automation in business processes, explore examples and benefits, and look at proven strategies to craft a plan that moves your operations forward.

What is business process automation?

Business process automation is the use of technology to automate complex and repetitive tasks within an organization, enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing human intervention. For example, if you regularly send large video files to coworkers, an automated system can simplify the process by resizing, encrypting, and sending them via secure cloud storage — saving time you can spend on other tasks.

BPA is a subset of business process management (BPM) — the long-established practice of designing, analyzing, and optimizing workflows, whether automated or handled manually. Over time, BPA has evolved by integrating advanced technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance efficiency, scalability, and intelligence across processes.

BPA involves automating: 

• Individual tasks,like tagging documents with appropriate metadata and auto-generating reports based on data inputs
• Workflows, including automatically reviewing and revising documents through collaborative platforms or sending contracts for e-signature after internal reviews
• Broader business processes, such as generating and distributing marketing materials  or managing the entire lifecycle of data from creation to archiving

By automating business processes, you speed up tasks and standardize workflows, reducing errors and maintaining high-quality standards, which is crucial for scaling operations, especially when handling terabytes of data.

Discover why digital workflow automation is more important than ever for businesses.

RPA vs. BPA: What’s the difference?

If you’re undertaking a digital transformation initiative, BPA and RPA are concepts you should be familiar with. 

BPA and RPA focus on different aspects of business operations but complement each other.

• RPA is a type of business process automation that handles repetitive, rule-based tasks, such as moving data from a web form into a customer relationship management (CRM) system, without manual input
• BPA is a broader strategy that includes RPA — but it goes beyond that, covering complex workflows like document management, which requires strategic planning and technology integration to enhance overall business efficiency

Explore the key differences between these approaches.

If you implement business process automation software, the solution will likely integrate RPA to handle repetitive tasks within larger processes. For example, RPA can automatically extract relevant information from unstructured data, like scanned invoices, and input it into your accounting system, while BPA manages the entire billing process. The combination of RPA and BPA helps ensure a seamless flow across departments.

Understand the role of automation in streamlining workflows.

Benefits of automating business processes

Automated business processes can reduce human error in compliance checks or save time spent on document approval workflows. No matter your goals or challenges, BPA can create opportunities you hadn’t considered. Imagine, for example, how much smoother operations would be if your HR team could skip chasing approvals from department heads and instead focus on speeding up hiring.

The advantages can extend across departments. These are examples of how business process automation benefits organizations.

• Increased operational efficiency: According to the PEX Report 2025, 43% of businesses view operational excellence and business transformation as ways to improve productivity and efficiency. Without automated processes, manual tasks like sorting through documents or cross-checking data can take hours, while a robust business process automation strategy allows you to optimize functions that drain valuable resources and time.
• Real-time collaboration: With BPA, businesses streamline the flow of updates and notifications, enabling teams to respond quickly to changes and keep collaborative project planning on track. For instance, automated alerts can notify stakeholders of project milestones in real time, minimizing delays due to back-and-forth emails.
• Enhanced compliance: Automated workflows enforce document audit trails, approvals, and adherence to retention schedules, reducing the risk of missing regulatory requirements. For instance, BPA can flag incomplete compliance forms or send reminders ahead of deadlines, ensuring teams stay on track and avoid penalties.
• Improved customer experience: Per The State of Process Orchestration 2024 Report, 93% of IT decision-makers and business leaders state that automation has improved customer experiences, while 90% indicate their organization plans to increase investments in BPA. Automation reduces response times and maintains consistency in communication and service delivery, increasing customer satisfaction.

Building a winning plan for the automation of business processes

Before creating a plan to automate business processes, remember that the success of BPA depends on a strong foundation. To make sure automation aligns with your goals, start by identifying your core processes. 

Once you have a clear understanding of these key areas, follow these steps to build a winning enterprise process automation strategy.

1. Identify key processes for automation

Gartner forecasts that by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities, an increase from less than 10% in the middle of 2023. This growth comes from the increasing use of AI and intelligent automation, which help businesses analyze large datasets quickly and streamline decision-making based on data-driven insights.

To determine how to automate business processes and which technologies to implement, identify which areas to prioritize. Analyze which tasks or workflows are repetitive, manual, and time-consuming, such as content approvals, document retrieval, or data backup and recovery. Set clear metrics for each process, such as reduced turnaround times for content approvals or higher productivity, and regularly measure performance to make necessary adjustments.

2. Prioritize data quality and consistency

To maximize the effectiveness of BPA, you must assess your data integrity, accuracy, and accessibility to make sure automation operates on reliable, up-to-date information. According to a Box-sponsored IDC survey, 50% of businesses said their unstructured data (data that doesn’t fit into traditional databases, like documents or multimedia assets) is mostly or completely isolated within departments or systems, making it difficult to access or use.

For example, when automating document management workflows, make sure all records have the right metadata tags and consistent formats, so automated systems can easily categorize and route them. Also, consider using metadata management best practices to maintain accurate data tagging and improve the overall efficiency of your workflows.

Explore top ways to streamline processes.

3. Select the right business process automation tools

Now, it’s time to choose the right business process automation solutions. Focus on platforms that align with the complexity and scale of your processes, offering features like:

• Intuitive user interface: Overcoming team members’ resistance to new technologies requires clear communication about the benefits of BPA, training, and a user-friendly interface that makes the transition seamless
• Seamless integration with other platforms: Business process automation services that offer pre-built integrations or open application programming interfaces (APIs) allow for quick connections to your current systems, like CRM or project management, reducing the need for custom development
• Flexible storage: Look for BPA platforms that offer scalable cloud data storage, allowing you to easily adjust your capacity without disrupting your workflows or worrying about performance issues
• Security and compliance controls: Consider platforms with encryption, advanced authentication, and file and folder permissions to prevent data breaches and non-compliance violations when automating processes that handle sensitive data
• AI-powered tools: Automation technologies like machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) help you analyze large datasets faster, detect inconsistencies in documents, and generate actionable insights on customer behavior and market trends

Examples of automated business processes across departments

By incorporating AI technologies, particularly generative AI (GenAI), BPA opens up new use cases. Here are examples to consider in your business process automation strategies.

Check out other uses of AI for businesses.

Power automation in business processes with Box

What if you could combine advanced automation features with the power of AI in a secure platform? With Intelligent Content Management from Box, you gain an all-in-one solution to create, organize, edit, and share your content while leveraging AI-powered capabilities to automate workflows and maximize the value of your data.

Enable easy automation of business processes with Box Relay — streamline processes with pre-built templates, track progress using audit history, and leverage integrations with apps like Microsoft 365, Slack, Salesforce, and more. Plus, use Box AI to summarize extensive documents and draft personalized emails in seconds, allowing your team to quickly move on to higher-priority work.

Box also offers storage, e-signature, content portals, and enterprise-grade security to keep your sensitive information safe, compliant, and accessible wherever you need it.

Let’s connect and discuss solutions to supercharge your business process automation strategy.

While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blog post is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.