For many businesses, approvals are a vital step on the path to quality, compliance and accuracy. Yet, 43% of businesses struggle with document approval processes, resulting in delays. Imagine important deliveries, mission-critical tasks or exciting campaigns – all put on hold because approvals weren’t ready on time.
This raises the question: “What is causing delays in approval processes, and how can we fix it?”
Many issues within approval processes are merely symptoms of a deeper problem: the approval workflow methodology. Managing approvals with emails, messaging applications, phone calls, Excel spreadsheets or costly, complex software can result in fragmented communication, a lack of centralized information and increased errors.
When these common methods fall short – and approvals are left hanging – businesses are left looking for a more effective solution.
Introducing a digital transformation to your business is the perfect solution. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary way for businesses to transform ineffective manual approval forms into customizable digitized versions in a matter of minutes. With this method, you can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your intelligent approval processes.
SOTI Snap is a cross-platform solution that enables organizations to rapidly create mobile apps that digitize business processes and boost worker productivity. Let’s dive into what approval workflow processes are, how AI supports digitization and the benefits of SOTI Snap.
Exploring Approval Workflow Processes
Business approvals involve formal processes that ensure decisions and actions are authorized and reviewed by the appropriate stakeholders. Check out this blog to learn more about how they are essential to the productivity and success of a business.
Some examples of common approval processes include:
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Submitting an expense report after a client outing or trip to a conference.
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Creating a budget for a department or project.
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Completing safety inspections to ensure a work environment is compliant, up to code and safe for all employees.
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Publishing content that will be visible to customers.
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Requesting time off for a vacation.
Approval processes are put in place for many reasons, such as: compliance, quality assurance, accurate documentation, safety or customer or employee satisfaction. However, at their foundation, these checkpoints are meant to help streamline operations and prevent mishaps that can affect a business’ reputation and a customer’s experience.
However, not all approval processes achieve these goals. Let’s explore how the traditional approval methods might be working against your business.
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Verbal approvals require people to remember what was said, which can lead to inaccurate expectations, additional conversations or wrongly completed tasks.
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37% of incoming emails that require a reply are delayed by the receiver, often due to the need for more information or additional context, which prolongs the email approval process.
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Tracking paper forms is difficult, with 15% of paper forms misplaced and 7.5% lost forever. The cost of producing and storing these forms also significantly adds to a business’s operational costs.
The Emergence of Artificial Intelligence in Business Process Automation
Imagine if you could write a prompt to generate a customized digital approval process form, that can be installed automatically as an app on the business-critical mobile devices your company already manages.
No more lost paper requests, forgotten email deadlines or inefficient back-and-forth communication – the bottlenecks of traditional approval delays.
Instead, simple, seamless digital approval processes.
SOTI Snap features AI capabilities, enabling organizations to rapidly create apps that automate business processes. By digitizing paper documents and workflows, you can streamline operations, boost worker productivity and optimize your mobile device investment. You can even ensure business operations progress with near real-time visibility into approval-based requests.
Within SOTI Snap, there are two types of digital transformations for your approval processes:
Automated Form Creation
Instead of outsourcing the creation of an automated form – which can cost your business both time and money – SOTI Snap allows you to create a digital form in minutes by uploading one of the following options:
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Hand-drawn ideas
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PDFs
- Written prompts
You may be wondering, “What if the digital form isn’t exactly what I wanted?” We know that AI isn’t always perfect. With countless widget options to choose from, the Drag-and-Drop feature allows you to modify or customize any form that SOTI Snap creates, ensuring the information included is exactly what you need.
Efficient Workflow Design
A key aspect of approvals is the workflow from the requester to the approver. If an approval is lost or sent to the wrong place, delays ensue until the workflow is restored. With the help of SOTI Snap, the process of requesting approvals and providing approvals is easier and faster.
Workflow is a drag-and-drop process builder that creates approval workflows. With it, businesses can design Workflow applications that collect data, send it for approval and monitor where it is in the process. This ensures that when a request is submitted, it is seamlessly routed to the correct manager for instant visibility and quick action from the SOTI Snap mobile app or via any Internet-connected device’s web browser.
Workflow can even automatically route approvals based on preset criteria, such as vacation status. For example, if a manager is on vacation, SOTI Snap will reroute an approval to a secondary approver. This way, operations can continue moving along efficiently, despite a slight change in process.
Unlock the Benefits of Approval Processes with SOTI Snap
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Enhance Operational Efficiency: With streamlined and standardized workflows, you can prevent operational process delays and increase overall efficiency.
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Improve Compliance: Automated records make it easier to track and verify compliance with industry regulations, prioritizing transparency and accountability.
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Unlock Customization: With the Drag-and-Drop feature, you can effortlessly customize forms to reflect your unique approval processes.
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Reduce Delays: With SOTI Snap, you remove the likelihood of approvals being lost, forgotten or misdirected, preventing delays and ensuring efficient operations.
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Mitigate Risks: Instead of verbal or physical approval forms, which can result in manual recording errors, digital approval processes ensure your records are accurate and complete.
47% of businesses that digitized their document processes said it enabled them to gain new customers. With SOTI Snap, your business can unlock an effective way to elevate approval processes, which optimizes your mobile device investment and may lead to new revenue opportunities.
Learn more about how simple and seamless AI-driven approval workflows can be with SOTI Snap.
