Supercharge your workflows: 4 game-changing ways to streamline your processes

From healthcare and government to manufacturing and retail, companies across all industries are hard at work implementing new productivity-boosting apps and technologies into their daily operations. If your company wants to remain competitive in this technological landscape, it’s time to start looking for tools you can add to your tech stack.

Explore how to streamline work processes and improve workflows using modern cloud computing solutions.

Understanding the power of workflow automation in process optimization

Many cloud computing service providers have incorporated advanced automation technologies into their offerings to maximize value for the customer and improve ROI.

Automation improves efficiency, accuracy, decision-making, and cost savings

The benefits of features like intelligent workflow automation include:

  • Increased efficiency: The automation algorithm operates according to clear rules that cut out the unnecessary steps in a workflow, so your organization can do more in less time
  • Improved accuracy: It’s easy for humans to switch into autopilot when completing repetitive tasks like data entry, introducing errors into your content — workflow automation features eliminate this risk by taking over these menial tasks
  • Cost savings: Greater efficiency means less time wasted looking for documents, correcting errors, or repeating work, which improves job satisfaction and reduces employee burnout
  • Enhanced decision-making capabilities: A virtual assistant digests and analyzes tons of highly complex content in seconds, generating clear and actionable insights for better business decisions

Many companies have tailored their tech stacks to fit their unique business practices. The technology you need ultimately depends on factors like your business model, company size, and future plans.

4 ways intelligent technology can optimize your business processes

We are in the middle of a massive shift toward a digital age driven by data. When you understand how to streamline workflows within the cloud, you’re on your way to becoming a digital-first organization.

1. Intelligent process automation

Repetitive manual tasks like data entry and document management often suffer from inefficiencies that reduce productivity and your bottom line. While automating these tasks saves time and money, there are still opportunities to improve your return on investment (ROI).

Intelligent process automation (IPA) levels up standard robotic process automation (RPA) — the basic software automating backend tasks based on clearly defined rules — with capabilities like natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision. You may also have seen it referred to as “intelligent automation” or “digital process automation.”

Your organization can leverage IPA to streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks, freeing up your people to tackle complex or creative projects that are more fulfilling. 

You can also use IPA to more efficiently complete high-value projects your people may not have the skills to take on. For example, the system can quickly review large amounts of customer survey data and generate actionable insights that empower your design team to create a more cohesive brand image. 

2. Automated analysis and extraction

It’s a massive understatement to say companies collect a lot of data. While extracting insights from all the data typically requires you to enlist the help of a data scientist or analyst, you need those insights ASAP. That’s where cloud analytics tools come in.

Automated analytics tools extract insights from data quickly (without needing a data scientist)

Intelligent analytic algorithms rapidly digest tons of content and provide invaluable insights your team needs to become more agile in your decision-making processes. Here are some of the techniques your solution might use:

  • Named entity recognition (NER): If you need to analyze large or highly complex pieces of content, a trained NER algorithm can quickly identify relevant categories within the content and group them together based on similarities
  • Sentiment analysis: Sometimes called “opinion mining,” sentiment analysis algorithms analyze written content, like customer reviews and social media posts, to determine how audiences feel about the topic
  • Topic classification: A trained topic classification algorithm analyzes written content to identify what people are talking about

With these capabilities, a modern cloud software solution delivers real-time insights to your decision-makers so they stay ahead of the game, eliminating lengthy back-and-forth exchanges with IT.

3. Personalized recommendations

One of the most well-known examples of how advanced cloud platforms work to deliver value is the way social media apps recommend content to you based on your browsing habits. The algorithm behind the app pays attention to behaviors such as the types of posts you like, which videos you watch to completion, and the creators you follow, and adds content to your feed that matches your likes and dislikes.

Today’s cloud computing solutions do the same thing. These tools analyze user behavior to understand their preferences, content consumption habits, and demographics to deliver recommendations tailored specifically to each user. 

For example, if you frequently search your company’s cloud drive for marketing email templates at certain times of day, the software could pick up on your behavior and populate the template at the top of the search results so you could save time looking for it. 

4. Closer collaboration

Maintaining a strong collaborative culture is often challenging for organizations with remote or hybrid teams, especially when team members are spread out across different countries and time zones. Applications with built-in collaborative capabilities facilitate more effective teamwork and bring coworkers closer together, even when they’re in vastly different geographical locations.

Improve collaboration and teamwork, especially among remote and hybrid teams, with smart cloud technology

Some possible examples include:

  • Asynchronous communication: People can use instant messaging apps and comment features on cloud documents to keep their team members in the loop, even if they have to log off at different times
  • Brainstorming: Cloud tools like virtual whiteboards and real-time document collaboration platforms enable team members to bounce ideas off each other in the same virtual space, which helps spark creativity
  • Connecting team members: Smart cloud technology helps you break geographical and language barriers between distributed remote and hybrid team members by sending automated message notifications, translating content in real time, and creating streamlined meeting summaries
  • Integrations: An automated tool that integrates with the rest of your tech stack keeps everyone on the same page with a centralized data repository and modernized workflows

The possibilities are endless, and businesses are constantly unlocking new ways to put this technology to work. 

How to enhance your cloud-based workflows

What can you do to take advantage of these benefits in your company’s processes and workflows? Investing in a top-shelf cloud computing service is a simple, cost-effective answer.

Look for a cloud services provider that’s transparent and upfront about how their products protect your content. For example, does the provider have access to your content? What security tools do they use to mitigate cyber threats? You should be able to trust your vendor to keep your content safe, so don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions during your research.

Discover the power of the Content Cloud

With a single secure platform for all your content, Box enables you to manage the entire content lifecycle: file creation, co-editing, sharing, e-signature, classification, retention, and so much more. We make it easy for you to collaborate on content with anyone, both inside and outside your organization. Frictionless, enterprise-grade security and compliance are built into our DNA, so you get total peace of mind that your content is protected. And with 1,500+ seamless integrations — as well as a range of native capabilities like built-in e-signatures — you get a single content layer that ensures your teams can work the way they want.

The Content Cloud is a game changer for the entire organization, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity across every team. Contact us today, and explore what you can do with Box.

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.

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