airSlate’s legal automation pioneer

Misha’s position at airSlate is quite unique — he’s the first Legal Ops & Automation Manager in the company.

“I build Flows, automate processes, and manage documents that are not only limited to the Legal department. The purpose of this role is to transfer as many legal processes as possible to the airSlate platform to automate them,” says Misha.

It was Roman Perchyts, Head of Legal at airSlate, who came up with the idea of automating legal processes. Misha was a believer and became an enthusiastic implementer of the project!

Despite having had automated Flows in place for a long time, the Legal team wasn’t using airSlate to its full capacity. It was evident that a number of processes could be further streamlined for lawyers, raising their efficiency and productivity while minimizing the neverending paperwork.

“I started implementing automation gradually, so now we have fully-automated Flows for the Legal team to use daily,” Misha says. Today, the list of the most popular workflows includes the Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Flow, the Business Associate Agreement Flow, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Flow, and others. “These Flows improve our time management and help us deal with incoming requests.”

According to Misha, most requests come from the Sales department: “When a salesperson brings in a potential customer, the Legal team’s duty is to examine all the risks and approve or reject a contract before signing it. Plus, we work with the Customer Success team that manages relationships with our existing enterprise and SMB customers. We are also involved in vendor management processes and more.”

The most frequently implemented use case: The Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Flow

In his new position, Misha started by automating document workflows that the Legal department deals with on a daily basis. Most of these documents are non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) signed with customers, external stakeholders, and employees. 

“The MNDA Flow was the first Flow I designed,” Misha recalls.”There are 26 possible scenarios of what could happen within the MNDA Flow depending on the type of signatories. I needed to set up different conditions for it to run smoothly across all scenarios.”

Automating this Flow helped streamline the process for airSlate and made it more intuitive for customers who needed to countersign documents. Today, when the Sales team needs to sign an NDA, they no longer have to: 

• spend hours on end exchanging emails with customers;
• explain how to eSign documents using signNow;
• contact the Legal team if a third party wants to make changes to the initial document.

“I’d say that this Flow saves up to 70% of the time that the Legal team used to spend on signing Mutual Non-disclosure Agreements. And not only the Legal team, it’s a timesaver for the Sales team, and other teams having negotiations with external stakeholders.”

— Misha Kuzemskyi,
Legal Ops & Automation Manager at airSlate

The Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Flow visualization

Results achieved with airSlate

“After I built my first MNDA Flow, the procedure for processing a document manually for this type of agreement vanished,” Misha says. “Now, we simply get notifications for two cases: when we need to sign the MNDA and/or when a client offers some adjustments to a document.” 

Before this Flow, it took the Legal team more than five emails to finalize the process, not to mention the time needed for approvals and getting responses from third parties. 

Mundane tasks, such as organizing the incoming documents, renaming them, saving them, and so on have now been eliminated. Since all of the documents are now processed, named, and saved automatically, the entire NDA documentation Flow can be handled by a single person.

“Automation saves so much time, that’s why I’m always keeping an eye out for anything else that can be automated.”

— Misha Kuzemskyi,
Legal Ops & Automation Manager at airSlate

No-code automation transforms the Legal industry

Misha believes that the principles of no-code automation overlap with the Legal industry — structure and logic. That’s why they work perfectly together. 

“Back in the day, when I worked at my law firm, I realized that the industry and people working there were suffering from disorganization,” says Misha. “This may sound cliche, but this is how legal organizations and the labor market operate.”

“I was always drawn to things that could help me organize my working process and keep me focused on things that really matter. Automation features everything I need to take this routine off the backs of those processing legal documents.”

— Misha Kuzemskyi,
Legal Ops & Automation Manager at airSlate

‘Automate or you’ll lose to your competition’

The Legal industry is moving forward, so business efficiency largely depends on the pace at which customers are served.

“If you don’t keep up with the market conditions, you’ll lose to your competition,” Misha believes.  

Imagine setting up logic for all your documents to go back and forth among your employees and even to your external customers without any action from your side. Hundreds of hours can be saved over the long term by taking manual work out of this process and streamlining it.

“Based on my experience, everything that involves signing, filing requests, and filling out forms can be easily automated.”

— Misha Kuzemskyi,
Legal Ops & Automation Manager at airSlate

Automation can even help contract negotiations by taking the manual email correspondence out of the process. It’s the perfect remedy for eliminating the most common bottlenecks in the Legal industry and clearing out the paperwork that just sits there and blocks Legal departments from closing cases or finalizing deals. Misha firmly believes that Operations Managers across different industries will only win by implementing document workflow automation into their day-to-day tasks.

Watch the video interview with Misha below:

The post Automating legal operations with Misha from airSlate appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Maria Makhurenko joined airSlate as an office administrator in January 2020 right before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world as we knew it. Before airSlate, Maria had a long career as a flight attendant and was on her way to become a flight instructor and tutor other aspiring pilots.

“It happened that my friend recommended this company to me when I was thinking of trying something new,” Maria says. “I had this dream that I needed to try something else, so here I am at airSlate!”

Before airSlate, she didn’t know the first thing about workflow automation. Two and a half years later, Maria has grown to become an in-house automation guru – she’s mastered the art of Flow creation and is juggling 50 forms for different purposes.

We sat down with Maria to learn about how she’s using document workflow automation in her day-to-day work.

An office manager with no office

A month and a half after Maria started at airSlate, COVID-19 struck, and everyone switched to remote work.

“airSlate saved me because I learned how to make Flows and automate forms and questionnaires. That was my main responsibility during the pandemic since we had to monitor employee status, vaccinate, and do all sorts of things to maintain the WFH (work from home) transition.“

– Maria Makhurenko, airSlate office administrator

The remote work model generates the need to collect a lot of information from employees. At first, Maria and her colleagues wanted to use Google Forms but then they thought it’d be more convenient to collect information with airSlate instead. 

“The first time I tried using it was a total failure (laughs),” says Maria. “The good thing is that I remembered that we had all of these step-by-step video guides, so I glued myself to YouTube for a while. This is how I learned to create forms and understood how it all works.”

The first use case: The airSlate Delivery Flow

The first use case where Maria started using airSlate (and “failed”) was when an internal airSlate delivery campaign was launched during quarantine. The idea was to kick off the monthly swag delivery to airSlate employees to cheer them up. 

“At that time, I set up the Bot in a way that it uploaded information about all 900 employees into a single line of a spreadsheet, which, as you can guess, was a very long line,” Maria laughs. “From that moment on, I learned how to set up Bots correctly.”

The airSlate Delivery Flow visualization

Everyone’s favorite use case: The Food Order Flow

As an office-admin, perhaps the most stressful yet impactful work Maria has on her plate is ensuring the smooth delivery of food to feed over 900 employees. The company offers a lengthy menu for employees to choose from.

“When I started at the company, we used to order a lot of food, which we eventually had to donate to the shelter nearby at the end of the day,” Maria recalls. “Now, using the Food Order form, our people can choose what kind of food they want for the next week.” 

The Food Order Flow is extremely convenient because it eliminates the need to guesstimate the amount of food to order. People get to choose whatever they want to eat, and there aren’t so many leftovers at the end of the day. As a result, using airSlate’s Food Order Flow made the process much easier and also budget friendly!

The airSlate Food Order Flow visualization

Estimated time to set up the Flow:

• 30 min to set up a simple version of the Flow
• 2 hours to set up a complex version of the Flow

Maria primarily works with simple Flows like the airSlate Delivery or Food Order: “It takes a maximum of half an hour to set those up. A complex one can take up to about 2 hours.”

On the way to automation success

Not only does Maria operate the two Flows above, but she’s now also become a document workflow automation enthusiast who often helps employees from other departments set up task-specific Flows.

“I use at least five forms consistently and usually create a new form once a month. In general, I have more than 50 forms for different occasions. I also get asked by our accountants to create Flows for them once in a while.”

– Maria Makhurenko, airSlate office administrator

Within just two short years, Maria has evolved into a Citizen Developer, a non-technical user who’s skilled in automating workflows and building simple applications for a specific purpose.

People coming from a non-technical background want to know if airSlate is easy to use for someone with less tech knowledge. The beauty of airSlate is that it has been purpose-built for non-technical users so it is easy to get up and running. 

“Getting started with airSlate is quite easy,” Maria says. “It all depends on how you explain it. There were times when I showed my colleagues how I design a Flow, and that was all it took for them to start building their own Flows from scratch. It comes down to staying hungry for something new and probably the dopamine kick you get when everything starts working the way it should. That’s how you get hooked on automation. After seven years in aviation, I never used Google Docs or Google Forms, I was like a “blank slate” in the technical aspect, and airSlate filled this gap quite easily.”

“I was like a “blank slate” in the technical aspect, and airSlate filled this gap quite easily.”

– Maria Makhurenko, airSlate office administrator

The key to leveraging automation: “Don’t be afraid, just go for it!”

Maria believes that leveraging automation has had a positive impact on her performance. airSlate is a relatively new product, so there’s always room for discovery and experimentation. And yet, there’s something that keeps HR and/or office administration from implementing automation at scale. 

Here’s what Maria has to say to her colleagues who are still reluctant to automate their day-to-day workflows:

“I think that people are afraid of trying something new,” Maria says. “But hey, it played out well for me — from leaving aviation to making my own Flows and becoming, as you say, a Citizen Developer. So my piece of advice is – don’t be afraid, just go for it!”

Watch the video interview with Maria below:

The post Automating office administration with Maria from airSlate appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

According to KMPG research, only 54% of surveyed educational institutions build their workflows on digital platforms. So, what keeps the other 46% from implementing information technology and workflow automation in their day-to-day processes, and which challenges do they have to address?

In this blog, we’ll look to answer these questions as well as explore the three most typical workflows for higher education that can be automated with airSlate in mere minutes.

Take note: airSlate offers a library of ready-to-use Flow Templates for higher education institutions. But we’ll dwell on that more a little later.

What is workflow automation in Education?

In simple terms, workflow automation is the process of automating human tasks, data, and file routing between individuals or systems.

Speaking of higher education establishments, such processes include student registration, workshop application, checklist evaluation, lesson planning, student attendance checking, student data tracking, and many others.

The table below contains the main automation functions for higher education establishments and the impact of automation on education (improving the student experience, reducing errors, increasing efficiency, etc.):

Each workflow automation solution has a set list of steps a user has to follow to automate a certain process. The level of complexity depends on whether the platform is low-code or no-code. 

If you’re using a low-code solution, your educational establishment will most likely need a professional developer to set it up. In the case of no-code solutions, some organizations tend to rely on citizen developers. However, the key benefit of such platforms is that literally anyone can learn to use them, no coding skills required.

In one example, Claremont Graduate University used airSlate to streamline its adjunct contracting process. The university suffered from data errors, misplaced signatures, time loss, and additional expenses because most of its workflows were paper-based. airSlate enabled the Claremont Graduate University to create automated workflows across multiple departments and solved the establishment’s key issues by going paperless.

airSlate helps digitize and automate academic processes of any complexity. Take paper, confusion, and mistakes out of the equation and replace them with fast and simple forms for collecting more accurate data and saving time.

How to assess document workflow automation needs for colleges and universities

To derive maximum benefit from workflow automation for your institution, start by identifying:

• which processes should be automated
• how an automation system can increase a school’s efficiency
• what business process automation solution is best suited for this purpose

1. Conduct a workflow audit

Investigate and assess the structure of those workflows you’ve already been using to identify their strong and weak points.

Here are some useful questions to help you conduct an efficient workflow audit:

• Which workflows does your educational institution have in place?
• Which of them require the most paperwork?
• Which of them require the most people to sign off?
• Which automation tools are you already using? (if any)
• Which processes have been automated to a certain extent?
• What is the current state of data security within your educational institution?

2. Determine the key inefficiencies to work on

The next step is analyzing the processes that suffer from inefficiencies due to a lack of automation.

As a rule, these include:

• Manual tasks (data input and transfers, document sorting, and other routine, repeatable processes)
• Resource wastes (paper, ink, printing/scanning equipment, etc.)
• Communication challenges (reminders, notifications, scheduling, etc.)
• Educator and student satisfaction (suggestions, complaints, etc.)

3. Visualize your workflow

Simple though it may seem, workflow visualization is a highly useful technique. By creating a process diagram you observe:

• the parties involved 
• documents included
• document routing from one party to another 
• actions each party takes with those documents
• and more.

As a result, you will get a clear picture of which processes don’t require human involvement and can be automated or even eliminated.

4. Pick the right automation tool

And finally, select the automation solution that addresses the exact pains your current workflows suffer from. There are plenty of tools and techniques for automation of data sources in higher education, that’s why we advise focusing on the following key points:

• Functionality

Check whether the automation platform’s functionality fulfills the requirements of your educational establishment’s workflows. For example, if you work with external systems (cloud storage services, CRMs, etc.), the solution should support integrations with those systems.

• Required skills

Determine if the automation platform requires a certain level of programming skill (low-code) or doesn’t require coding at all (no-code). In the first case, you will need to involve professional developers, while no-code workflow automation solutions are easy for anyone to master.

• Deployment speed

This point is connected to the previous one: the simpler and more user-friendly the automation platform operating principles are, the faster it is to deploy.

• Price

‘The cheaper the better’ approach doesn’t work here. Even if the initial price is higher, you can end up paying less because there’s no need to organize special staff training, outsource to expensive developers, or buy additional tools (e.g., PDF editor, electronic signature).

3 airSlate Flow Templates for workflow automation in higher education

Here are the top 3 most popular airSlate Flow Templates for higher education:

1. Application Form for University Flow Template

Collecting and sorting applicant information is one of the biggest challenges for any educational institution that typically suffers from data loss, misplaced information, typos, and more. airSlate helps eliminate these issues with a fully automated Application Form for University Flow.

The configuration process is fast and simple:

1) Get registered with airSlate and create your Workspace.

2) Select the Flow library within your Workspace, enter the workflow keywords in the search field, select the flow template, and click Import.

3) Edit the default form or add more documents, if needed.

4) Visualize the process by adding workflow Steps and assigning access permissions to them.

5) Install and configure airSlate Bots to automatically transfer data, send notifications, archive completed documents, and more. The Bots are no-code so their configuration doesn’t require any technical skills.

That’s it! Just click the Send button and share your flow template with the specified recipients or create a sharable link for them to access.

2. Module Registration Form Flow Template

As a rule, module registration involves tons of paperwork and collects the usual types of data: student’s name, email, degree, selected courses, and so on. Education automation with airSlate solves this issue without hassle.

The template for proceeding with automation in the classroom is very similar to that of the previous Flow. 

The only difference is:

• the document to be used (you can add any document to the workflow but the default one in this flow template is a Module Registration Form):

• The workflow Steps and access permissions you assign (you can add the Steps you need and assign documents to them; the most typical Steps for this flow template are Student, Teacher, and Registrar):

• The Bots to add (this flow template has only one Email on Documents Completion Bot added, you can choose to add more Bots if needed):

Upon configuring the Bots, you can share the Module Registration Form Flow Template just like the Application Form for University Flow Template.

3. Student Attendance Form Flow Template

Be it college, or university, student attendance checks are an integral part of the educational process. That’s why the last on our list of airSlate Flow templates for higher education is the Student Attendance Form Flow Template.

You are already familiar with the flow configuration process from the previous two examples. Follow the same pattern, just:

• add the document you need for this flow template (the default one is a Student Attendance Form)

• add the necessary workflow Steps 
• install and configure the Bots you need
• Share the Student Attendance Form Flow Template with recipients just like in the previous two examples.

How to learn workflow automation in higher education?

To make matters more convenient, the airSlate Academy has created a compilation of courses dedicated to workflow automation in university or other education establishments.

For example, the Student Registration course demonstrates how to streamline and simplify the process of registration for any class, course, workshop, etc.

With the airSlate Academy, you get all the necessary information for setting up automatic workflows within your educational establishment quickly, easily, and without any coding skills required.

The bottom line

Regardless of your institutions’ education, profile, or size, workflow automation is capable of addressing its most common challenges by eliminating human errors, reducing resource waste, and streamlining the process from end to end. With airSlate Academy courses, you will learn to configure these types of workflows in a matter of minutes.

Stay tuned! Our upcoming posts will provide you with more information on the most popular workflows that other industries automate.

Contact us to explore the possibilities of business automation with airSlate.
Fill out the form below to request a free demo!

The post Workflow automation in higher education: 3 airSlate workflows for colleges and universities appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Efficient workflows in healthcare organizations require the use of automation to streamline tasks like appointments scheduling, medical records updates, generating reports, and more. Automation technology provides many benefits to the healthcare industry, including increased efficiency for healthcare providers, better patient care outcomes, and lower costs for patients. Here are the 5 examples of health care workflows you can automate:

1. Appointments scheduling and management 
2. Insurance pre-authorization
3. Medical coding and billing
4. Insurance claims processing
5. Revenue cycle management

The prerequisites of healthcare digitisation

While rates of COVID-19 infection may be declining, winter will eventually return and that will raise new concerns within the healthcare industry for keeping it at bay. However, beyond diseases and rates of infection, medical organizations have to address issues such as excessive paperwork, which consumes doctors’ time, data errors, missed appointments, and other small complications that affect the quality of patient care.

Within the past year, the demand for digital healthcare solutions and services has increased dramatically (e.g., in certain European countries, healthcare automation demand multiplied by a factor of 30). Meanwhile, the level of job resignations among healthcare workers increased by 35% because of the excessive pressure on the medical industry. Beyond this, medical workers were the first for whom a COVID-19 vaccine mandate became a necessity.

In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into the topic of document automation in the healthcare industry, why it is of critical importance in the upcoming year, and how your medical organization will benefit from implementing workflow automation.

So what’s wrong with paper-based hospital workflow processes?

When comparing an old-fashioned approach to a modern solution, paper-based workflows prove to be inefficient, time-consuming, and prone to error. The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the inadequacies of our paper-based medical industry.

Healthcare automation statistics 2022

Take a look at a few statistics that highlight the necessity of implementing healthcare workflow management solutions:

• Before COVID, medical errors cost more than $20 billion and over 100,000 patient lives every year. Mixed-up tests, erroneous appointments, unsigned documents — all this can ruin a company’s reputation. During the pandemic, errors only compounded as 44% of healthcare workers were unable to handle electronic health record systems due to inadequate training for using technology at work.
• At the beginning of 2020, 50% of physicians suffered from burnout, primarily due to a load of non-clinical tasks (e.g., reporting, billing, document management, etc.). With the COVID-19 outbreak, the stress levels among medical workers increased by almost 11% and the burnout rate by 13%.
• Before the pandemic, 32% of healthcare workers used to spend over 20 hours per week on administrative tasks. Since 2020, with the exponential growth of patients and the number of documents to be processed, not only has the number of hours increased but physicians state that 38% of the paper-based administrative work is unnecessary.

According to McKinsey analysts, about 50% of the current healthcare activities will be fully automated by 2055 with the vast majority of them being paper-based processes.

So, how to improve workflow in healthcare organizations? When looking for an adequate solution, hospitals face many obstacles. The cornerstones of efficiency for the healthcare industry are streamlined workflows, compliance with the regulations, and patient care. Doubts still exist about whether automation can cover all these needs and facilitate hospital workflow processes rather than hinder them and waste an organization’s resources.

Benefits of implementing automated workflow in healthcare organizations

Enhanced patient experience

Waiting for hours, days, or even weeks until you get your doctor’s appointment can be frustrating, especially during a pandemic. Other than promptness, patient satisfaction depends on the attention and care they receive from healthcare organization staff, as well as how easy/difficult it is to schedule an appointment.

By automating medical document workflows, healthcare workers and patients get a win-win solution because:

• automatic document processing frees up administrative time on in-person communication with patients to make them feel more comfortable and cared for;
• automation in healthcare streamlines document workflows, which significantly reduces the waiting time for patients.

Improved medical establishment productivity

Clerical, repetitive tasks are intrinsically linked to every healthcare establishment’s daily routine. This is one of the main reasons for the level of healthcare worker fatigue and low employee morale, which currently stands at 52% increasing year over year. Luckily, the majority of these tasks do not require human involvement.

With a reliable automation solution, it only takes a few minutes to set up automated hospital workflow processes to:

• collect patient data (patient intake forms, medical history documents, hospital discharge forms, etc.);
• securely sign sensitive medical documentation with legally-binding eSignature;
• sort and store the collected documents for quick and convenient access;
• transfer data between patient forms and administrative documents, spreadsheets, etc.

Data confidentiality and security

Paper documents have no security guarantee unless they are safely locked. Stanford University research claims that 88% of data breaches are caused by employee mistakes (Cisomag, 2020).

With a reliable healthcare workflow automation solution, document access permissions are easily configured to allow or restrict users from editing or even viewing certain documents. Certain healthcare automation solutions also allow admins to assign roles that grant specific access permissions, not only for a certain workflow but within an organization in general. A reliable software solution for healthcare automation should be HIPAA-ready to ensure a sufficient level of patient data protection.

Detailed workflow analytics

With paper-based healthcare workflows, tracking the editing history within documents is nearly impossible. Even with digital documents, if they are sent the old-fashioned way (e.g., via email), it’s unlikely you’ll be able to track who opened a document and viewed its contents. Workflow automation software addresses this challenge with analytics tools.

For example, a healthcare automation solution allows for tracking:

• Who opened a document, when, and how many times 
• Who made changes to a document (with detailed information about these changes)
• Which automatic actions (data transfers, document archiving, etc.) were performed successfully and which were not.

Just to name a few.

Reduced risk of errors

Statistics show that approximately 86% of errors in medical organizations are administrative and primarily caused by manual healthcare workflow management.

In the healthcare industry, even the slightest error can result in loss of life. One small inaccuracy in a medical record can have unintended and sometimes tragic consequences. Automation software is aimed at eliminating such errors.

To prove this point, here’s what a diagnostic solutions provider — T2 Biosystems — had to say about using the airSlate workflow automation solution for their document processes.

“airSlate’s ability to seamlessly integrate with Salesforce allowed us to easily disseminate important forms to end-users. The flexibility of airSlate allowed us to design a workflow that works for us. The automation built into airSlate helped us remove many manual steps in our old process.”

Anthony Matero,
Operations at T2 Biosystems

Discover the entire story of T2’s successful automation implementation in the airSlate blog.

What is healthcare administration?

Like in any other industry, administration in healthcare deals with managing healthcare workflows within a medical establishment.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for healthcare administration workers between 2018 and 2028 is expected to increase by 18%.

The list of key responsibilities medical administration has to fulfill includes managing:

• Patient documentation 
• Surgical equipment and inventory 
• Performance reports and budget expenses
• Treatment protocols
• Rules and policy implementation
• HR processes
• Communication 

In order to help medical administrative workers manage all of the above-mentioned responsibilities, electronic health record systems are now readily available.

EHR (Electronic Health Record) is a digitized version of a patient record that ensures the security of medical data and provides instant access to authorized users.

Electronic Health Record software enables healthcare providers to create and effectively manage patient medical data as well as share it with any authorized parties (e.g., other healthcare providers).

In a nutshell, the components of an EHR are as follows:

Though the first EHR system dates back to the 1960s, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 21st century that they experienced significant growth and demand in the healthcare industry worldwide.

With the rapid development of information technology, electronic health record software has become a must-have for any medical organization to maintain a competitive level of patient service.

The following chart displays the global growth rate of EHR applications in various medical processes:

However, data digitization alone is not enough to address all the challenges medical administrators face with their daily healthcare operations. This is where automation comes into play.

Healthcare administration automation implies freeing up medical workers’ time for more valuable and important tasks by automating repetitive, routine operations. In this blog, we’re focusing more on document workflow automation since it’s the main “black hole” that consumes the majority of healthcare administration hours.

How are automated hospital workflow processes changing the healthcare industry?

Healthcare workflows range from patient consent forms and blood donor registration to infection control plans and others. We’ve selected the most-used medical workflow, Patient Intake, as an example to demonstrate the practical application benefits of automation in healthcare.

As a rule, the process of patient registration is the first experience and impression a person has of a healthcare establishment. That’s why it’s so critical that this workflow be conducted as quickly and smoothly as possible.

With the airSlate workflow automation solution, it only takes you a couple of minutes to set up a fully automated Patient Intake workflow.

1. Documents

You can add any document(s) you need for this healthcare workflow from your device/cloud storage, create them from scratch, or access the rich library of airSlate document templates.

The user-friendly interface makes it easy to edit web forms and other documents to make them clear and understandable for patients and healthcare workers to complete.

2. Workflow visualization

One of the most beneficial features of airSlate is the drag and drop diagram that allows users to build a visual representation of their healthcare process. You can add as many steps as you need and assign documents and access permissions to them. Doing so allows you to clearly see how the documents are routed between the healthcare workflow participants.

3. Workflow automation (Bots)

The airSlate drag-and-drop diagram already allows you to set up automatic document routing. Yet, if you want to automate other routine repetitive tasks that don’t require human involvement, airSlate Bots are here to help.

Send out automatic notifications and reminders, automate integration with external services (e.g., CRM systems, cloud storage services) for transferring data, making updates, saving changes, and so on. with user-friendly no-code Bots.

To learn how to set up a more detailed Patient Intake workflow, sign up for the dedicated airSlate Academy course.

Beyond Patient Intake, the airSlate Flow library contains dozens of templates for healthcare workflows, including those related to Covid-19. Find instructions for automating the three most popular medical workflows in our blog — Healthcare automation: 3 airSlate Flows for hospitals and medical institutions.

Healthcare automation trends 2022

Digital technologies have been actively transforming healthcare operations management industry-wide. The most recent research shows that this trend is likely to continue in 2022.

According to the HIMSS Future of Healthcare Report, about 80% of healthcare providers are planning to significantly increase their investments in digital solutions for healthcare services within the next five years.

The most common upcoming trends for medical automation include:

1. Digitized healthcare

This implies wider digitization of the healthcare environment with things like digital health records, medical data integration between systems, etc. Facilitating greater remote access to healthcare as well as connecting and keeping track of relevant patient information will no longer be a challenge for automated health systems. Digitizing and automating healthcare services was largely accelerated by COVID-19 and will become a must for a medical establishment to remain competitive.

2. Datafication, AI, and RPA in healthcare

Medical data transmitted by modern smart devices is the main driver in the push towards more proactive and personalized medicine. Meanwhile, AI usage is already growing in applications such as chatbots for gathering information and directing inquiries to the right healthcare professionals. AI and RPA spot patterns across enormous datasets much sooner and more efficiently than traditional analytics tools, resulting in better patient outcomes.

3. Higher standards for patient service

With the increasing application of technologies discussed in the previous two paragraphs, the majority of medical document workflows will be delegated to automation software. As a result, healthcare workers will be able to devote most of their time, attention, and care to patients.

To round out the topic, here’s a bit of data to compare healthcare automation predictions for 2022 with recent research by Zebra Technologies and Deloitte.

In addition, with the advancement of digital technologies and medical automation, patients are becoming active participants in their own healthcare. In 2022, the percentage of patients using wearables to track health metrics is expected to increase to 57%, with 95% of them willing to share this data with hospital clinicians.

The bottom line

Healthcare digitization and automation is no longer a theoretical future but a current reality. With modern no-code solutions, like airSlate, delivering automation into the systems of medical organizations, fast, hassle-free, fully-automated, and HIPAA-compliant workflows can be created by healthcare workers in a matter of minutes.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 2, 2020 and was revamped and updated on April 28, 2022 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post How to make workflows in healthcare organizations more efficient appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

The key bottlenecks of HR workflows include (but are not limited to) excessive paperwork, data errors, redundant and duplicate work, inefficient use of resources, low employee morale, and many others. So, is it possible to address all of these issues with just one solution? As it turns out, there is!

In this blog, we’ll provide you with comprehensive information on how HR automation software helps businesses and describe the three most typical workflows for HR departments that can be automated with airSlate within minutes.

Take note, airSlate offers a library of ready-to-use flow templates for HR processes. But more on that later.

Document Workflow Automation for HRs

• E-payments
• Workflow optimization
• Business process automation

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What is an HR workflow?

A human resources workflow involves processing documents such as performance reviews, timesheets, onboarding documentation, sick leaves, or various surveys as well as submitting, approving, and tracking HR requests — all in one platform. In simple terms, it’s a set of routine, repetitive tasks related to document processing. Thus, as soon as a workflow starts, the HR manager is already aware of every step that comes next. However, this doesn’t make the human resources management process easier: a typical HR workflow, e.g., employee onboarding, can contain a number of documents as well as routing that goes back and forth between the newcomer, HR department, project manager, etc.

What does HRM mean?

HRM, or human resource management, is the practice of recruiting, hiring and managing employees within an organization. #nocode #automation
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Let’s have a look at the most typical human resources tasks and why automation is so critical to their success.

1. Onboarding new employees

The first step in managing human resources is onboarding new workers. HR managers not only need to provide newcomers with all the necessary documents (e.g., labor agreement) and get them signed, but also make sure the new employees are aware of the company’s policies, values, code of conduct, etc. Sending out every document manually, as well as checking whether all of them have been filled out and signed, is time-consuming and prone to error. By automating document routing, HR departments can devote more time to personal communication with newbies, thus helping them to adapt much faster and without stress.

2. Collecting employee surveys

HR departments have to deal with various types of surveys on a regular basis. These can be employee engagement surveys, employee performance surveys, professional development surveys, 360 surveys, employee opinion/satisfaction surveys, and many others. All of them have a similar workflow: the HR manager sends out the surveys so that employees fill them out and send them back. Automation is of high importance here because it ensures that all the fields in a survey are completed and nobody forgets to fill it out thanks to automatic notifications and reminders.

3. Managing employee requests

Employee requests can have many different purposes: business trips, vacations, sick leave, and so on. Processing them is a human resources task. The key challenge here is routing documents and transferring data. Workflow automation eliminates the risk of directing a document to the wrong recipient and significantly reduces the time it takes to complete a process by instantly transferring the necessary information between documents and systems of record.

4. Managing incident reports

From time to time, incidents are bound to occur at the workplace, regardless of the industry. To minimize the damage, it is necessary to analyze the situation, interview the people involved, and create a detailed report to help solve the issue and prevent it from recurring. Automation helps structure the process, collect, route, and sort all the necessary data to respond to the incident as soon as possible.

The above-mentioned examples as well as other human resources business processes have a more or less similar pattern. But before detailing the benefits of automation for HR workflows, let’s have a look at some statistics and research data to better understand why the future of human resource management is inconceivable without automation.

According to Deloitte, there are four possible scenarios for HR development within the upcoming decade:

As you can see, the majority of the scenarios above imply automation and there’s a good reason for that.

This HR flowchart will help you better understand the difference between manual and automated HR processes.

How well do you know HR processes? Test yourself.

Which of the following is NOT a process within an information system for human resource management?

• Staff training
• Peer review
• Firing decisions
• Recruitment process

*Find the correct answer at the end of this blog.

Every HR manager spends at least 8 hours per week completing manual and repetitive tasks. Plus, HR managers deal with the lion’s share of employee information and end up having to overcome a variety of challenges. Learn how to boost the efficiency of an HR Department in your organisation with the airSlate Academy:

How to assess the workflow automation needs of HR?

The future of human resource management is impossible without workflow automation. It’s a great option for reducing manual work in HR processes. However, it cannot replace HR managers completely. Keep this in mind when assessing the workflow automation needs of the human resources department at your organization.

Have a look at the diagram below to better understand which human resource activities can and should be automated in comparison to those that can’t.

Certainly, there are many more examples of HR workflows but even those presented above show that all the processes, except in-person communication or creative work, can and should be automated.

The next step is to put these workflows in the order of priority. And finally, identify which processes at the top of this list consume the most time.

Once you’ve identified the key inefficiencies, it’s time to select a tool for digital workflow automation that will help you address these issues. Here are some tips that will help you choose the right software for your human resources workflows.

• No-code automation

No-code software is worth paying attention to because your HR managers are unlikely to have coding experience and you probably don’t want to spend the extra money on outsourcing developers to help you set up automated HR systems.

No-code platforms allow you and your team members to build full-fledged automated workflows of any complexity without any coding skills. #nocode #automation
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• Cloud service integrations

Document sorting and storage is one of the key challenges HR departments face on a regular basis. The issue can be easily resolved with an HR automation software that supports integrations with cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and others. With such a tool, documents are automatically updated, attached, transferred, and saved to the selected folder of the cloud service you’re using.

• Workflow visualization

This feature might not seem crucial at first glance, but imagine that you can see the entire process right in front of you, visualized as a diagram (with all the participants, documents, access permissions, etc.). You can drag and drop the steps of the diagram to build document routing, add names to these steps to make it understandable for you and your team, assign fields in documents to specific recipients, set up conditions for the document to be sent to this or that recipient, and more.

• Training resources

Any software (including automated human resources systems), even the most user-friendly and intuitive ones, require instructions in order to work with a certain feature. Check if the HR automation software has dedicated training or courses to teach you and your team members how to work with their product. Also, check if these courses are free or you’ll have to pay extra.

3 airSlate Flow Templates for workflow automation in HR

As an all-in-one workflow automation software, airSlate has plenty of HR automation ideas for almost every business process within an HR department. We’ve compiled the top 3 most popular airSlate examples of automated HR experience that are relevant to any industry and organization.

Get familiar with the full list of flow templates dedicated to HR workflows in the airSlate library under the Human resources category.

1. Employee Onboarding Flow Template

Any person can start their journey in a company from the onboarding stage. With airSlate, this process goes fast, smooth, and stress-free for both newcomers and HR managers.

• Get registered with airSlate and create your Workspace.

• Select the Flow Template library within your Workspace. Since Employee Onboarding is one of the most popular workflows, you’ll see this template on the initial page. Click on it, then click Import.

• Edit the existing documents or add more, if needed.

• Visualize the process with the airSlate drag-and-drop workflow diagram. The Employee Onboarding Flow Template already contains a default diagram for this workflow but you can change and customize it the way you need: add or remove Steps, assign documents, change access permissions, and more.

• Install and configure airSlate Bots to automatically transfer data, send notifications, archive completed documents, and more. Use the Bots that are included in the flow template or add new ones. Every airSlate Bot is no-code. Meaning, their configuration doesn’t require any coding skills.

That’s it! Just click the Send button and share your flow template with the specified recipients or create a sharable link to the flow template.

If you want to get detailed, step-by-step guidance on how to set up an Employee Onboarding Flow Template, the airSlate Academy has prepared a dedicated Employee Onboarding course that you can access for free.

2. Vacation/Leave Request Flow Template

Vacation is an integral part of the working process, regardless of the position or industry. Besides, occasional one-two day leave requests from employees are also quite common for HR departments. That’s why airSlate prepared a separate flow template that is dedicated to requesting vacation or leave.

The workflow template is very similar to that of the previous flow template. The only differences are:

• the documents to be used (you can add any document to the vacation request workflow but the default one in this Template is a Vacation Request form)
• The workflow Steps and access permissions you assign (you can add the Steps you need and assign documents to them. The most typical Steps for this flow template are Requester and Manager as well as a branch for two possible outcomes: if the request has been approved or not):

• The Bots to add (the Template already has several Bots added by default, but you can remove them and add other Bots if needed)

Once the Template is configured, share it the same way as you did with the Employee Onboarding Flow Template.

3. Leave of Absence Request Flow Template

The final Template we’ll discuss is very similar to the previous one. The Leave of Absence Request Flow Template is also about taking some time off work. However, unlike the Vacation/Leave Request Flow Template, it doesn’t involve financial reimbursement. Thus, this HR workflow process template is slightly different, namely:

• the document to use (this flow template contains a Leave of absence request form as the default document, which you can replace or edit however you need)
• the workflow Steps and access permissions you assign (you can add the Steps you need and assign documents to them; this flow template contains two default Steps — Requester and Approver)
• The Bots to add (the flow template already contains a long list of Bots which you can configure, add new Bots, or remove any unnecessary ones):

Watch the video below for more information and insights:

The bottom line

No matter which industry you work in, education, healthcare, IT, etc., — the human resources department is an integral part of your organization. By automating HR processes with airSlate, you not only increase efficiency and eliminate endless paperwork for HR managers but also reduce the levels of stress for both newcomers and existing employees.

*Quiz answer: Firing decisions

Stay tuned! Our upcoming posts will provide you with more information on the most popular workflows that other industries automate.

It’s worth mentioning that we recently posted a blog on automation in healthcare containing examples of workflows that can be used right away.

Explore the possibilities of automation in HR
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The post HR automation: 3 airSlate workflows for human resources and recruitment professionals appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Teams and businesses of all sizes, use workflow diagrams to:

• Increase transparency and accountability when it comes to task progress and completion 
• Streamline processes by defining what needs to be done, by whom, and deadlines
• Identify potential bottlenecks in a business process along with areas for improvement

This blog will explore the possibilities of business process mapping and learn the difference between workflow diagrams and flowcharts for businesses. You’ll also learn how to use the airSlate Flow Creator to make your document workflows more streamlined in less than 15 minutes. Let’s get started!

What is business process mapping?

Business process mapping is used in business process management (BPM) to create a visual representation of the steps of a business process, such as hiring a new employee, and demonstrate how it functions from start to finish. By means of flowcharts, workflow diagrams, swimlane diagrams, etc., business processes are visually laid out for stakeholders to understand and adhere to the proper functioning.

Simply put, business process mapping allows for greater visibility into the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where”, and “how” for every step of a business process, and it helps to analyze the “why.”  Flowcharts and other types of process mapping use special symbols such as circles, rectangles, diamonds, and arrows to identify business activities and the correlations between them.

For instance, a typical hiring process flowchart may appear as follows (the number of steps and roles may vary):

Business process mapping symbols: a quick overview

According to standard Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) guidelines, there are a set of symbols and notations widely used today for business modeling. Here’s a list of the main components used in business process mapping to create a flowchart:

Flow objects are elements that are connected to form a process flow — events, activities, and gateways.

• Event is a trigger that starts, modifies, or completes a process. Event types include message, timer, error, compensation, signal, cancel, escalation, link, and others. They are represented by circles with symbols based on the event type.
• Activity (task) is a particular activity performed by a person or system represented by a rectangle with rounded corners. They can become more detailed with sub-processes, transactions, calls, and multiple instances.
• Gateway is a decision point that can adjust a path based on conditions or events represented by diamonds. They can be exclusive or inclusive, parallel, complex, event-based, and data-based.

Connecting objects visualize connections between the flow objects and represent the things that flow through a process.

• A Sequence Flow is a solid line with an arrowhead that shows the order in which activities are performed.
• A Message Flow is a dashed line with an open circle at the start of the line and open arrowhead at its end. It represents which messages flow across departments within an organization.
• An Association is a dotted line that shows the relationships between text and artifacts, data, and flow objects.

Swimlanes/Pools organize different aspects of a business process on a cross-functional flowchart, also known as a swimlane diagram. They appear as wide rectangles.

Artifacts are used to categorize activities and/or to include more information about a process that can bring a necessary level of detail to the diagram. There are three types of artifacts:

• A data object shows the data required for an activity.
• A group shows a logical grouping of activities but doesn’t change the diagram’s flow.
• An annotation provides further explanation to a part of the diagram.

What is a flowchart?

A flowchart is a step-by-step visualization of a business process. Flow charts are flexible tools that can be used to describe various processes in any field or industry — any manufacturing, administrative, service process, or project plan. Flow chart templates are aimed at improving and simplifying processes at different levels of complexity. Flowcharts use the BPMN diagram elements and symbols, such as flow objects, connecting objects, and artifacts to visualize a specific business process.

The four most common types of flowcharts:

1. A process flowchart, or a process flow diagram, is a popular flowchart type due to its flexibility. You can use a process flow diagram to:

• map out roles and responsibilities within an organization to increase transparency and visibility
• visualize the steps of a manufacturing process and/or inputs required to create a finished product
• draft a proposal for a new business process or project to assess the scope and completion steps

2. A workflow diagram, or a workflow chart, details how a specific business or process functions, how data and documents flow, and how areas of responsibility are distributed within an organization. A workflow diagram allows for visualizing specific tasks that must be completed within a given business process along with the team members responsible for executing these tasks. Such diagrams use arrows to visualize the connections between entities and workflow routing.

3. A data flow diagram, or data flowcharts, visualizes the information flows and ways data is processed within an organization. Although using data flowcharts is typical for software development and design, they can be leveraged to analyze different types of information flow in a given business, such as a sales funnel.

4. A swimlane diagram, or a swimlane chart, is used to define the responsibilities of the individuals assigned to complete a part of a business process. A swimlane diagram allows each individual or department to quickly and easily see what they’re required to accomplish. Swimlane diagrams are also referred to as functional bands, multi-column charts, or Rummler-Brache diagrams.

Flowchart vs data flow diagram: What’s the difference?

With so many types of data visualization, the terms “flowchart”, “workflow”, and “workflow diagram” are often confused. A “workflow” refers to a process for how an item of work should be done, while a “flowchart” is a diagram representing the process. In other words, a workflow can be described using a flowchart. Since workflows are commonly represented by flowcharts, some people may use both terms interchangeably.

When using the term “workflow diagram”, people often mean data flow diagrams visualizing how data is processed within an organization. With that being said, it’s more logical to draw a distinction between a data flow diagram and a process flowchart. The comparison below contains the key differences between a process flowchart and a data flow diagram:

The importance of workflow diagrams in a business flow

And now, let’s explore how different a contract negotiation workflow can be if conducted without and with a workflow diagram.

A contract management workflow without a diagram

Suppose two parties intend to negotiate and sign a contract. Each party should study the content, fill out the fields assigned to them, add suggestions, and reject or accept another party’s changes. This process implies that the contract is routed back and forth multiple times between the parties until all the changes are negotiated and accepted. Following this complex sequence of actions can be confusing if the contract negotiation process isn’t properly visualized.

A contract negotiation workflow with a diagram

Using a diagram makes the process simple by visualizing:

• the parties involved
• the documents and fields assigned to them
• the condition based on which the document will be routed between these parties

4 benefits of using a workflow diagram

Still in doubt as to whether you need to use workflow diagram templates in your business processes? Take a look at the list of key benefits workflow diagrams have to offer.

A workflow diagram helps you:

1. Eliminate unnecessary tasks and processes
   Workflow visualization allows for greater visibility into a process from start to finish. Thus, you see the changes a workflow requires along with the steps, roles, or activities you need to add or eliminate.
   
   
2. Promptly address business challenges
   As more and more organizations are digitizing their workflow management routines, drawing charts on paper is no longer required. Workflow diagram software, such as airSlate, allows for creating and customizing a process visualization within minutes. Whenever something goes wrong, at any stage of the process, you can instantly consult the diagram and identify the step that failed, the person and software bots involved in this step, as well as the documents attached. The sooner the issue is identified, the faster it can be resolved.
   
   
3. Reduce operational costs
   Using workflow diagrams helps streamline business processes. In turn, this decreases the human and time resources involved at different stages of the process, reducing the overall costs. Meeting the same goals with fewer resources lowers your organization’s expenses and increases profits.
   
   
4. Enhance business processes in general
   By creating a sequence of specific steps by visualizing a certain process, businesses can ensure that tasks are assigned to the right people and can be delivered in a predefined order within the indicated time frame. Regardless of the number of people and documents involved, a workflow diagram helps structure the process and makes it as clear as possible to all the participants and stakeholders.

What is the airSlate Flow Creator?

A workflow diagram creation isn’t about simply drawing geometric shapes filled with text and connecting them with arrows. The real magic happens ‘under the hood’ while a workflow diagram simply grants it a visual appearance.

The airSlate Flow Creator is a solution for designing end-to-end business processes using the drag-and-drop interface. As a document workflow automation platform, airSlate enables users to create and set up fully automated workflows without writing a single line of code. In airSlate, the workflow configuration process consists of four stages:

1. Adding documents to your Flow (workflow); you can either upload or create them from scratch. It’s also possible to import a ready-made workflow template from the airSlate Flow templates library.
2. Visualizing the process with the help of a Flow chart maker (create Steps, add recipients, assign documents to them, etc.)
3. Adding no-code Bots to automatically transfer data, archive documents, integrate with external systems, and more.
4. Sharing your Flow with recipients.

If you’re new to airSlate and want to start using it as soon as possible, make sure to enroll in the free airSlate Fundamentals certification program by the airSlate Academy.

Document workflow automation with airSlate’s Flow Chart Creator allows you to establish multi-role assignments and custom permissions for each of your documents. Simply put, it’s a diagram depicting an entire workflow you’ve set up (including participants, documents, sequences, etc.). This is what a regular workflow diagram in airSlate looks like:

Watch our latest webinar recording to learn how to create business workflows in the airSlate Flow Creator. Find out how to design and visualize automation with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Set up any no-code workflow in minutes by automating real-time conditional routing and role assignments:

How to build a workflow with the airSlate Flow Creator in less than 15 minutes

It might seem that the process of creating a diagram like this is time-consuming and significantly increases the amount of time spent on creating your workflow. In fact, it’s the other way around. A clearly visualized representation of a workflow has proven to simplify and accelerate processes in healthcare, sales, higher education, and many other industries.

” We probably have about 1,200 students or adult volunteers who’ve filled out our airSlate forms. Two of them at Rock The Street, Wall Street are currently using airSlate on a daily basis for their programs.”

Ashley Leftwich,

Partner Engagement Manager at Rock The Street, Wall Street

The process of creating a workflow diagram with the airSlate Flow Creator only takes minutes to complete. Take a look at how simple it is:

• Once you’ve added the necessary documents to your workflow template, select the Workflow option at the top of the screen to access the airSlate Flow Creator:

• Start creating your workflow diagram by configuring Step 1 (change its name, if necessary, choose document access permissions, and assign fields in the document to this Step).

• Add another Step using the drag and drop functionality or simply click the “+” icon. Then configure this Step the same way as Step 1.

• If you need to create two possible simultaneous Steps (e.g. if a specific field is filled with Yes, the document goes to one recipient; if it’s filled with No, the document goes to another recipient), use Branches.

• Add default recipients to each Step to automatically route the documents to them.

Top 5 flowchart software solutions for business

The chart below offers a comparison of the top 5 industry-leading flowchart software solutions for small-to-medium-sized businesses and enterprises based on the most in-demand features. airSlate, KissFlow, Nintex, K2, and SpringCM are used to create flowcharts and workflow diagrams to visualize business processes that typically involve document generation, eSignature, contract negotiation, workflow automation, no-code robotic process automation, and so on.

The bottom line

Whether your business process is simple or complex, involves two people or several dozen, one form, or a whole pack of documents — a workflow diagram ensures a clear and comprehensive overview, eliminates miscommunication, and streamlines the entire process. With the airSlate Flow Creator, you’ll be surprised how simple it is to build a workflow diagram quickly and hassle-free.

Stay tuned! Our upcoming posts will provide you with more information on simplifying and enhancing your business processes.

Contact us to learn how your business can benefit from using the airSlate Flow Creator.

Fill out the form below to request a free demo!

The post How to make a flowchart with the airSlate Flow Creator in less than 15 min appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

At airSlate, we understand how important it is for healthcare organizations and businesses of all shapes and sizes to find working solutions for the new federal vaccination and testing guidelines.

In this blog, we’ll share the top 10 airSlate Flow Templates for vaccination status checks developed to help organizations confirm an employee’s vaccination status, collect test results, and screen for COVID-19 symptoms.

What is a vaccine mandate?

In a very general sense, a vaccine mandate is a rule that requires individuals to get vaccinated to be able to work, travel, and maintain social life. In case an individual chooses to opt-out of vaccination, businesses, schools, and other organizations can legally stop them from entering the premises or using specific services if they choose to.

Is it legal to ask for proof of vaccination?

The right of the government to impose vaccine mandates was established in 1905 when the Supreme Court ruled that Cambridge, Massachusetts, could require mandatory vaccinations against smallpox.

The President of the United States has the power to require organizations to maintain safe workplaces through vaccination backed by the government’s constitutional power to regulate commerce and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) authority to issue emergency standards.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now working to create a rule to enforce mandatory vaccinations or weekly COVID-19 testing for organizations with over 100 employees. OSHA will also enforce a rule that requires these organizations to provide a paid leave for the time it takes employees to get vaccinated and recover from any symptoms.

What are the penalties for vaccine mandate violation?

Employees who fail to comply with the new mandates could face a range of consequences, including termination. Companies could face a $13,600 penalty per violation of the OSHA rule, though the new rules could take some time to implement and enforce.

Who will the COVID-19 Plan apply to:

• Organizations with 100 or more staff will be required to have their employees either fully vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis. The latter will mainly concern workers citing religious or health reasons for not getting vaccinated. 
• Employees that work for the federal government or healthcare organizations, and/or are federal contractors. 
• The Department of Health and Human Services will require vaccinations in Head Start Programs as well as schools run by the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Indian Education. 
• Healthcare workers that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, including hospitals and home health agencies.
• Individuals applying to become lawful permanent U.S. residents must be fully vaccinated, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

How employers can make the process of vaccination status verification smooth and compliant

At the moment, employers are considering possible tools and workflows to determine the status of an employee’s vaccination in a way that complies with their state’s laws and adheres to HIPAA regulatory standards. It is crucial to make the vaccination status verification process as smooth, convenient, legally compliant, and error-free as possible. And this is exactly what airSlate Flow Templates for COVID does.

Here’s why employers use airSlate for their vaccination and testing needs:

• All-in-one platform: Confirm vaccination status, collect vaccination consent, eSign pre-vaccination checklists, and check COVID-19 test results within a single platform.
• Quick setup: airSlate’s ready-made Flow Templates for vaccination checks are extremely easy to set up — just install and configure no-code Bots to start collecting the information you need right away.
• Industry-leading compliance: airSlate’s COVID workflows are HIPAA compliant, so you can rest assured your employees’ medical records are safe.

Top 10 airSlate Flow Templates for vaccination status checks

1. Employee Vaccination Status Flow Template

In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak at the workplace, employers that track the status of employee vaccinations will be able to identify and isolate employees that either haven’t been vaccinated or are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. The Employee Vaccination Status Flow Template allows employers to collect information about an employee’s vaccination status (fully, partially, or not vaccinated), vaccine name and manufacturer, inoculation dates, and more.

2. Request to Visit Office During COVID-19 Flow Template

Providing a safe workplace and promoting business continuity is crucial during a pandemic. By using the Request to Visit Office During COVID-19 Flow Template, employers can mitigate the risks of virus transmission within the workplace. With this flow template, you can track the number of employees visiting the office within a specific period of time, as well as screen employees for COVID-19 symptoms.

3. COVID-19 Questionnaire Flow Template

Conducting a simple screening questionnaire can help employers prevent the spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 Questionnaire Flow Template contains a number of questions that allow for assessing the risks of COVID-19 transmission from employees that traveled abroad or had close contact with or cared for someone diagnosed with COVID-19 within the last 30 days.

4. Vaccine Administration Record for Adults Flow Template

When it comes to routine vaccinations, keeping medical records in one place becomes a necessity. The Vaccine Administration Record for Adults Flow Template can help medical organizations administer and track routine and COVID-19 vaccinations. On the other hand, individuals can use these medical records to present proof of vaccination upon request by their employers.

5. COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Record Flow Template

Employers can take a set of actions in support of the COVID-19-vaccine adoption among employees. Using the COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Record Flow Template can help administer vaccines to unvaccinated employees, discover health limitations via the medical history questionnaire, and collect vaccination consent via the COVID-19 vaccine consent form.

6. Pre-vaccination Checklist for COVID-19 Vaccines Flow Template

Employers that mandate employees to get vaccinated will likely partner with a healthcare provider or other authorized entity to administer the vaccine. However, they may still be concerned about the potential legal liability in the event an employee has an allergic reaction. The Pre-vaccination Checklist for COVID-19 Vaccines Flow Template allows employers to determine if there is any reason an employee should not get the COVID-19 vaccine due to health issues.

7. Consent for COVID-19 Vaccination Flow Template

The Consent for COVID-19 Vaccination Flow Template is a detailed questionnaire that can be used by employers, vaccine providers, and healthcare organizations that administer a COVID-19 vaccine to get vaccination consent. The form contains detailed instructions for vaccinated individuals on how to behave in case of side effects after the vaccination.

8. COVID-19 Vaccine Consent Flow Template

The COVID-19 Vaccine Consent Flow Template is an alternative form that can be used by employers to collect vaccination consent from employees in the workplace. Using this flow template, employers can screen their employees for vaccination eligibility, as well as manage any liability issues.

9. Notification of Vaccination Letter Flow Template

The Notification of Vaccination Letter Flow Template can be used by vaccine providers to inform a patient’s primary care facility of the vaccine(s) administered. This flow template can also serve as proof of vaccination to provide to employers upon request.

10. COVID-19 Self-Reporting Flow Template

The COVID-19 Self-Reporting Flow Template is a short form for self-check that can be used by employees to assess the current state of their health and as a reason to work remotely or take a leave of absence to their employer.

Get prepared for new federal vaccination and testing guidelines with airSlate

Businesses and healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes will need to prepare their policies to confront the newest COVID-19 surge driven by the spread of the delta variant. Adopting workflow automation in healthcare and airSlate Flow Templates for COVID-19 may help in finding working solutions for the new federal vaccination and testing guidelines.

The post COVID-19 vaccine mandate: Top 10 airSlate workflows for vaccination status check for businesses appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Speed and precision have always been of high importance in the medical industry but the COVID-19 pandemic made maintaining document accuracy and processing speed a challenge for the entire healthcare system given the excess volumes of patient documents. On top of that, medical records contain the most sensitive and confidential information, such as medical history or treatment information that requires a high level of protection.

In a situation like this, healthcare organizations seek a HIPAA-compliant workflow automation solution capable of eliminating redundant document processes, while keeping the patient data secure.

The latest COVID-19 Action Plan introduced to contain the spread of the pandemic has put forth the requirements for companies to get their employees vaccinated while also deploying more testing, masking, and other safety measures. Make sure to check Top 10 airSlate Flow Templates for vaccination status check for businesses to access working solutions for the new federal vaccination and testing guidelines.

In this blog on healthcare automation, we’ll dive into the ready-made Healthcare Flow Templates airSlate has to offer, how to implement them, and the benefits they introduce to your medical institution and patients.

What is workflow automation in healthcare?

Medical organizations often have to deal with piles of documents, especially during the patient intake process. People need to get their vaccine or other treatments as soon as possible, while doctors want to minimize paperwork and focus on patients.

In a situation like this, medical institutions are striving to manage patient data transfers and keep medical records in order. Automation in medicine addresses all of these challenges in one stroke and a lot of medical institutions have already experienced these benefits in practice.

How does automation help healthcare services?

According to Statista, the adoption of AI and automation in healthcare has significantly increased within the past couple of years.

The survey results showed that in 2020:

• 90% of large medical organizations had an automation strategy in place, which is a 53% increase compared to 2019
• 66% of respondents were familiar with robotic process automation used in the healthcare industry, which also shows a 50% annual increase compared to 2019.

It’s worth noting that automation in healthcare is equally beneficial for the medical industry and patients. Take a look at the list of key benefits that healthcare automation solutions offer their users:

• Streamlined data collection and transfers

As already mentioned, collecting patient data is task number one for any medical establishment. Manual data input and transfers often result in certain inaccuracies and typos along with serious errors. Workflow automation in hospitals and healthcare establishments not only eliminates these issues but also significantly reduces the time required to complete these processes.

• Faster invoicing

With a workflow automation solution, payment documentation is processed much faster. Due to integrations with external systems (e.g., databases, CRMs) all the necessary patient data gets automatically incorporated into an invoice, payment form, etc., the document is instantly redirected to the respective signers, and the job is done!

• Better care for patients

When all the repetitive manual tasks are delegated to a healthcare process automation tool, doctors, administrators, and other medical workers can devote more time and attention to their clients, which significantly enhances customer satisfaction.

• Improved customer experience

Today, most people use their mobile phones whenever possible. Modern workflow automation solutions allow them to fill out registration forms, doctor appointment forms, and other documents right from their mobile device even on the go.

• Enhanced communication

Healthcare automation solutions enable medical institutions to set up notifications and reminders for their clients. Thus, patients won’t forget about their doctor’s appointments. They can also easily inform the healthcare establishment of appointment cancellation.

• More accurate diagnoses and treatment

Except for inconveniences and stress caused by human errors, data inaccuracies in medical records can result in faulty diagnoses and, consequently, improper treatment. Workflow automation in healthcare helps avoid such troublesome situations and might even save someone’s life.

• Reduced expenses and positive environmental impact

The last one among the key benefits of automation in healthcare is related to finances. Costs for printing equipment, paper, ink, and other resources required for manual paper workflows can add up fast. Besides, additional expenses can include a courier (if you need to get the patient’s legally binding signature on a paper document), a legal counsel (to ensure the legal compliance of documents), and so on. An all-in-one workflow automation solution provides your healthcare organization with all the necessary tools for timely document delivery, signing, and guaranteed HIPAA compliance.

How to assess the workflow automation needs of your healthcare organization

To make new technology implementation effective and efficient, it is first necessary to analyze and assess which processes of your healthcare institution suffer the most without automation. 

Here are the most useful questions to help you identify these bottlenecks.

Which hospital workflow processes consume an unusual amount of time?

Time expenditure is one of the main factors negatively affecting productivity. Certain processes are so complex that they cannot be completed quickly while others take a lot of time just because they are carried out manually. In the latter case, hospital automation is the cure.

Imagine COVID-19 vaccination, the most common medical procedure nowadays. The number of people waiting in line can be huge, thus the process should be as fast as possible. Yet, when conducted manually, the workflow requires the same data to be entered and transferred multiple times: by a patient, a healthcare establishment administrator, and a doctor. Automation of healthcare processes reduces this chain to one-time data input by automatically moving it to other databases and systems of record.

Which processes should be done first?

It’s not only the amount of time invested that workflow automation helps reduce. Proper healthcare automation solutions help prioritize tasks to ensure the most important processes are completed first.

For example, when creating a visual representation of your workflow with the drag-and-drop interface, you can make things first (in the literal sense).

Other than prioritizing, hospital automation technology solutions that provide workflow visualization enable users to clearly imagine the entire process from start to finish, its participants (patients, administrators, doctors, etc.), and the tasks that each of them should complete.

Once you have identified the key inefficiencies and priorities at your healthcare organization, the next step is to select a healthcare automation software. We’ve compiled a list of software characteristics for you to pay attention to when choosing the right solution.

• Smooth learning curve

As a rule, healthcare workers aren’t so familiar with IT or programming. That’s why it’s much more appropriate to select a no-code solution as it doesn’t require any skills in coding yet allows for creating automated medical workflows quickly and hassle-free.

• Support for integrations

The key bottlenecks you’ve identified should help determine the functions required to address the issues. Check the software functionality to ensure it contains all the necessary tools your healthcare organization needs. For example, you need to connect your patient database with a number of external systems (CRMs, cloud storage, etc.). In this case, the hospital automation solution must support integrations exactly with those systems you are working with.

• Reduced operational expenses

The main point here is not the price tag of the hospital automation technology solution but the money it saves at the end of the day. The initial price might not be cheap but eventually, you can save two or three times more money by reducing working hours and enhancing efficiency. Besides, fast and smooth medical workflows contribute to the level of customer satisfaction, which results in financial benefits in the long run.

HIPAA compliant healthcare automation

Medical records contain the most sensitive and confidential information, e.g. medical history or treatment information (you will find more examples of which items are considered PHI later in this blog). Consequently, an automation solution used by medical facilities should comply with certain health legislation.

Let’s take a closer look at what HIPAA stands for and its main requirements in a nutshell.

HIPAA is an abbreviation for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 which establishes the requirements for operating digital health care records and transactions.

The objective of HIPAA protection is PHI or Protected Health Information. It includes standard demographic information, details on medical insurance, data concerning diseases and their treatment, lab results, etc.

Any healthcare institution adopting new software should build user trust by becoming HIPAA and PHI compliant.

Understanding the key concepts for the HIPAA process is essential as they are directly linked to authorized access to data.

Both individuals and organizations required to comply with HIPAA are usually referred to as HIPAA-covered entities.

HIPAA-covered entities include health plans, clearinghouses, and certain health care providers.

So, what does it mean to be HIPAA compliant?

HIPAA compliance falls into three categories:

1. Physical compliance – The physical aspect of HIPAA compliance usually concerns common-sense rules of security, like locking a laptop with medical records at a reception desk, limiting direct access to printers, fax machines, and other data-bearing equipment.
2. Administrative compliance — This category includes training for all staff members and their subsequent compliant behavior in the office.
3. Digital compliance – Digital compliance under HIPAA starts once the BAA is signed (between the software provider and the medical organization). Digital HIPAA compliance adds an extra layer of encryption to all documents processed and stored online.

Is it safe to use airSlate for medical records?

Let’s take a look at one of the healthcare automation examples. airSlate, the workflow automation solution, ensures HIPAA compliance for its customers in the following way:

Once a medical organization decides to apply for HIPAA compliance, its representative should contact airSlate support as HIPAA compliance settings are switched on manually.

On the practical side of what the user will notice as changed (since you can’t really see changes in the encryption method) is that once HIPAA compliance has been activated, emailing e-signed documents to signers will be switched off. This additional measure guarantees extra security in cases when access to an email account could be compromised or when the same email is used by several signers (which happens in many households).

It is important to remember that airSlate cannot access protected health information, but may store this information on its servers and send it using certified encryption protocols (AES-256 bit encryption).

One of the most important elements of digital compliance under HIPAA is the Audit trail.

By definition, an Audit trail refers to records being secure, computer-generated, and time-stamped, to independently record the date and time of the operator entries and actions that create, modify, or delete electronic records.

In airSlate, the Audit trail displays every action performed in a Workspace.

• It ensures that the progress of all the processes within your organization are well documented, traceable to a specific creator, and have a linked audit history. The audit history is automatically generated and cannot be modified.
• You can also select a period of time in the calendar and download an Audit trail for that period in .csv or .pdf format.

3 airSlate workflows for healthcare automation

Now let’s see how airSlate helps enhance hospital workflow processes in practice. We’ve compiled the top 3 most popular clinical workflows in healthcare organizations that your medical establishment will definitely benefit from.

Get familiar with the full list of templates dedicated to hospital workflows in the airSlate library under the Healthcare category.

1. Patient Intake Flow Template

Before proceeding with treatment, any new patient should undergo the registration process. airSlate helps overcome all the bottlenecks presented in the comparative diagram above within a few simple steps:

1. Get registered with airSlate and create your Workspace.

2. Select the Flow library within your Workspace, enter the hospital workflow keywords in the search field, select the flow template, and click Import.

3. Edit the default form or add more documents, if needed.

4. Visualize the process by adding workflow Steps and assigning access permissions to them.

5. Install and configure airSlate Bots to automatically transfer data, send notifications, archive completed documents, and more. The Bots are no-code so their configuration doesn’t require any technical skills.

That’s it! Just click the Send button and share your flow template with the specified recipients or create a sharable link for them to access.

2. Hospital Discharge Form Flow Template

Once a patient recovers, they need to be discharged from the medical facility. This is where the Hospital Discharge Form Flow Template comes in handy.

The one is very similar to that of the previous flow template. The only differences include the following:

• the document to be used (you can add any document to the hospital workflow but the default one in this flow template is a Hospital Discharge Form):

• The workflow Steps and access permissions you assign (you can add the Steps you need and assign documents to them; the most typical Steps for this flow template are Patient, Doctor, and Administrator):

• The Bots to add (this flow template has only one Email on Documents Completion Bot added by default, you can choose to add more Bots if needed):

Upon configuring the Bots, you can share the Hospital Discharge Form Flow Template just like the Patient Intake Flow Template.

3. COVID-19 Release of Liability Waiver Form Flow Template

COVID-19 has been the biggest buzz topic for almost two years and doesn’t seem to be fading away. That’s why coronavirus-connected hospital workflows are among the most popular. With airSlate, workflows such as the COVID-19 Release of Liability Waiver Form Flow Template can be automated within minutes. The process is similar to that of the previous two examples with several minor differences:

• the document to be used (you can add any document to the hospital workflow but the default one in this flow template is a COVID-19 Release of Liability Waiver Form):

• the workflow Steps and access permissions you assign (you can add the Steps you need and assign documents to them; this flow template doesn’t contain any default Steps)
• The Bots to add (this flow template has only one Email on Documents Completion Bot added by default, you can choose to add more Bots if needed):

Upon configuring the Bots, you can share the COVID-19 Release of Liability Waiver Form Flow Template just like the Hospital Discharge Form Flow Template or the Patient Intake Flow Template.

The bottom line

The name Healthcare industry speaks for itself — it takes care of health, not paperwork or bureaucracy. Workflow automation in medicine takes on all the red-tape stuff which allows your medical organization to focus on patients instead of documents, and increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Stay tuned! Our upcoming posts will provide you with more information on the most popular workflows that other industries automate.

It’s worth mentioning that we recently posted a blog on automation in higher education with examples of workflows that can be used right away.

The post Healthcare automation: 3 airSlate workflows for hospitals and medical institutions appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

Let’s dive deeper into the functionality of Flow Creator with Aaron Brennan, our Director of Product Marketing.

What’s the idea behind Flow Creator?

The main idea was to give our current and future users a visual representation of how documents pass through a workflow. With Flow Creator, users can visualize (and not have to visualize it in their head) all the necessary steps from start to finish, ensuring that each of these steps is what they need, and see how documents move step by step. What this does is makes sure that nothing in a process is missed, there are no questions about what’s going on, and that all possible capabilities are clearly understood.

Could you please briefly explain to our readers how Flow Creator works?

Yes, sure. Everything revolves around documents. By creating a document you establish what the document is, what using it should accomplish, and what data or information you’re trying to get from customers. After that, use the drag-and-drop functionality within Flow Creator to drag and drop steps where each should take place within a specific process.

For example, you can start by sending a document to a client, then to a manager, then to finance, or to operations. With the drag-and-drop functionality, you can actually visualize the entire process and add steps where needed.

Who will benefit from this feature the most?

Flow creators – in-team innovators tackling complex workflows are set to benefit the most. The Flow Creator feature empowers them by making document workflows simple. It gives them the reliability needed to understand where particular actions are going to take place with each document. This visualization ensures that anyone building a Flow knows exactly how a document is going to move through its lifecycle.

How does Flow Creator improve remote working conditions?

Flow Creator improves remote working conditions by creating transparency in document workflows; helping everyone understand what, when, where, and who a document gets sent to.

In short, it removes the need for yourself or Flow participants to manually check steps or directly manage how documents are delivered to recipients and if those recipients complete what’s required of them. If everything is set up properly, a document will automatically be routed to recipients and notified when they’re required to complete their step. Once a recipient completes their role, the document will route itself to the next recipient.

There’s no more need to email or call someone who’s out and about to come back to the office to complete something. This makes processes smooth and managing remote workflows easy.

A growing number of remote team members are looking for tools that allow them to access data and use applications without needing the immediate support of an IT department. Flow Creator is empowering no-code developers to become  innovators within their teams and giving them the tools they need to streamline workflows while remote.

Does a user have to have special skills to use this feature?

No! This is a no-code functionality with drag-and-drop capabilities and makes it super easy to visualize your Flow. There’s no need to code and no advanced logic to understand. You just drag-and-drop steps in the order you need them to be done in and who they should be routed to.

What are your expectations from this feature?

We want to give users confidence that their document is going where they need it to. In addition to that, adding fields and assigning them to different people is easier with Flow Creator. Get the best experience for you and your Flow’s participants.

Flow Creator allows us to move data in documents through an organization automatically. The direct benefit of that is not having to spend time tracking down data or the people who are responsible for next steps. Eliminate manual steps, and gain the freedom to focus on more valuable tasks.

The post Introducing Flow Creator: an interview with Aaron Brennan, airSlate’s Director of Product Marketing appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.

In an age of digital technology, workflow management is absolutely crucial. As more and more specializations are created through technological development, which is evermore accelerated as a result of the available population that can be freed up to contribute to research and development; many specialized jobs are created every year, meaning that less people are available, or willing, to handle specific tasks such as the tedium of paperwork. Additionally, as automation improves, so does the potential for faster results at a lower running cost. Couple this with a smaller and more production focused staffing requirement and you have yourself a business that’s able to process and handle a lot more than previously thought possible with the amount of staff in your employ.

Business process automation (BPA) and workflows still lagging behind but quickly catching up with business needs

In the video below, we cover how to automate business prcesses without touching a line of code or learning about APIs:

Unfortunately, automation has only come so far as many businesses find a niche and stick to what turns a profit. This can result in one company handling one part of a process very well, and in an automated way, but you will need to find seven more niche focused companies to capably handle other steps in your workflow. Furthermore, you will need professionals to manually move data, compile sheets, convert data between formats such as csv to xls, or create every client order form individually. By the end of it you have cloud storage in every known service in the world and absolutely no idea how to access it all.

Do you know the Corporate password and login credentials for your company’s DropBox account? What about Box, Google Drive, Magento, HubSpot, or Github? Sure, you can ask the IT department for it, if they have it, but you shouldn’t have to. What if each department uses a different service or master account? And what happens if the master account(s) is compromised, or there is a breach in data security on one of these cloud or data services? You might read the headline that a data leak occurred on one cloud service and dismiss it not knowing that you have 7.3 terabytes of data there. This poses a real risk for any business with proprietary information that could cause financial damages. Machine patents can be worked around by simply separating one machine into two and cola formulae patents can be recreated with simply one substitute ingredient.

And it all comes down to a lack of standardization of the workflow pipeline, and of course breakdowns in interdepartmental communications; this can, and does happen all the time. There are solutions such as rigid Corporate guidelines which are too strict for work to be done in a timely manner or at all, especially if software becomes incompatible and your staff are unable to use alternatives; another potential solution, and one we will pose here, is a unified approach to workflow management and workflow automation.

Let’s start by talking about what the meaning of workflow automation is.

1. What is workflow automation?
2. Benefits of business process workflow automation
3. The troubles of workflow automation systems
4. Workflow management with airSlate
5. Automated workflow
6. Completing our automated tasks

What is workflow automation?

Workflow automation is a pipeline of automated actions for business processes which aids in integrated solutions that provide a hands-off solution; thereby freeing up personnel and resources for tasks related to productivity instead of information management and support roles.

That, in a general sense, is the workflow automation definition; but what are the benefits?

Benefits of business process workflow automation

Accountability and time management

When you implement business workflow automation you are causing there to be a large reduction in the amount of staff responsible for creating and managing tasks and processes. For example, when you have only the immediate subordinates of heads of departments, or a handful of people in their own space working with workflow automation software, those employees are able to organize and orchestrate a large number of tasks. And as a result, everyone in the organization immediately knows what must be done and when, and the time to accomplish a vast array of tasks is reduced significantly.

When Joe knows what he needs to do, he’ll try his best to get it done. When Joe has no idea what’s going on (and in some cases, where he is), he plays Candy Crush.

Improved organization and communication

Workflow management tools (systems) bring everyone to the same place whereby everyone is able to see what must be done without needing to call Janice from accounting. This not only frees up Janice to finally have a full lunch break for the first time in seven years, it also means that breakdowns in communication are significantly mitigated and as a result, productivity or client retention, if you implement sales process automation, is a lot easier to manage.

Let’s try to use workflow automation examples for the next one.

Time management

Imagine the recruitment process of an IT company looking to hire new developers. In such an environment, even with the application bar set to a medium standard to attract only qualified individuals, the inflow of applications will be overwhelming to deal with if the allotted time to fill positions isn’t very long; or the incentives for HR’s key performance indicators are very strict.

When processing applications, you must look at every single one to find details to follow-up with them, or manually create spreadsheets. Both of these take a lot of time and energy, especially when using some of the applicant’s information to build rapport with.

Even with some software that is available, you cannot always rely on its stability or performance, and the results may be a shuffled mix of information that a cryptologist couldn’t read.

Now imagine the recruitment department creates an application form, adds it to their HR workflow automation, and connects it to Google Sheets to auto-fill the spreadsheet for each applicant with the relevant data automatically and inserted correctly. The applicants simply fill in the forms online from the comfort of their home, and automatically, HR now has an easy-reference spreadsheet to call one at a time while only looking at one browser window.

Anyone who has ever visited their company’s HR recruitment office has seen the hundreds of tabs they somehow manage to keep track of. The speed and efficiency of your human resources department would be transformed after such implementation, that level of automation would save them more time and stress than giving them a vacation.

Six sigma-esque cost and error reduction

Automating workflows not only reduces the human error factor tremendously, it also saves time and money. Every business owner knows that saving money where possible is the key to making more by securing tomorrow.

Not only is a reduction in staffing requirements helpful for the Corporate credit card’s balance, but by implementing automation workflow software, you are also preventing error-based risks associated with accidental purchases, overcharges, inaccurate shipments, client loss due to negligence, etc.

There really are many more advantages to automated workflows, those are just the highlights.

The troubles of workflow automation systems

Many of the platforms, services, and systems we rely on for our most critical activities are completely disconnected from each other. This is especially true when dealing with workflow automation tools.

Often you will find that a service may handle online forms very well, or processing payments, but the data available for records or handling the next steps are either individually saved, like in a CSV export, or disconnected from the next stage of your process. Mind you, it’s possible to copy the CSV data but then you have to organize it manually. Anytime there is an addition or revision you need to track it down, one by one, adding columns or editing cells. When it comes to disconnection, you might receive orders but the process between orders and getting payments are done in completely different systems, tabs, applications, or platforms.

Sometimes, when your workflow automation is out of whack or incomplete, your staff has no choice but to use alternatives to fill gaps, fix problems, circumvent bugs, or stop working altogether until a problem is fixed.

Is there a unified solution out there? Yes, there most definitely is.

Workflow management with airSlate

With airSlate, all of your processes can be managed in one place. With native multi-cloud support, you can choose which cloud service is best for you, not which one is best for the workflow management software  that you choose. With the ability to natively interface with spreadsheets in the cloud, the interaction between your records, data, and processes are seamless and instantaneous. With our list of quite literally over one hundred codeless Bots, automation is easy to manage, understand, and quick to implement for the rapid execution of complex business maneuvers.

In addition, our Flows system organically supports a wide swath of file types in the order you choose. There is nothing to fight with, everything happens the way it should; in one place, seamlessly, and following a logical sequence.

Let’s talk more about automation later, first let’s dive into creating a Flow to see what that entails.

Automated workflow

When creating a Flow, we can start in several places. In airSlate, there are a number of ways to find yourself at the desired result; there isn’t a right way, there is only your way.

Let’s start by visiting the Dashboard, the landing page when you first sign-in and select your desired Workspace.

On the Dashboard you will find a button named Create New Flow on the top-left of the page, located just under you Workspace’s name, and your role within that Workspace.

Before we do that, let’s make sure we have a spreadsheet on Google Sheets, just for the sake of this guide. In our example, it will be a mockup client-product list for our customers to choose a product to order from.

We can either make our Flow from the options Create from scratch or Choose from library, we are going to create our Flow from scratch.

After we have made our selection to create from scratch, we will be greeted with the page Create a Flow Template. Currently we only have one document, but for our current example it’s all we need.

To create a form such as our Order Request, simply click Add or drag & drop documents. We will be greeted with a number of options.

Each of these options are very powerful. For our purposes, we will use Form or Survey and Accept Payments. Though, we will focus on the former for the time being.

When creating a new form, if you don’t have a pane showing you the available elements that you can use, select Elements on the top-right to expand it.

There are a lot to choose from, but it’s not too overwhelming.

Let’s take a look at a few, the rest will generally make sense by their title. Single and Multi line text are entry elements which allow the recipient to write whatever information you requested of them; e.g., their name.

• Signature allows you to have the user sign your form with an electronic signature in several ways. This can be useful for contracts, agreements, internal processes which require formal approval, etc.
• Currency handles the entry of an amount by the recipient. For example, if you are trying to negotiate a deal with a prospective client or even negotiating the salary of new employees, you can set an acceptable minimum or maximum amount depending on the circumstances. Additionally, you can also use this field for the recipient to enter the price of their products. It can be whatever you need it to be.
• Formula is a very powerful element. You can use this to calculate VAT taxes, percentages, dividends, profits, or anything you need to. You can also use different display styles such as Default, Currency, Percentage, or None. This field also has the ability to take inputs from other fields within the document and turn them into a variable using the $ dollar sign. For example, you have one field that’s a Number input for the customer to select how many of an item they’d like to order. Imagine that the input amount is 10, and the cost is $15.00. You can write the equation (($orderAmount * 15.00) * 0.06) + ($orderAmount * 15.00) to get a total of $159.00, including a 6% tax.
• The Dropdown and Radio buttons operate in a similar manner, with different visualizations. Both of these can be used to have the user select one from a list of items and both can also have an “other” option attached, if desired. Radio buttons however, can have several columns to condense the space they take up. Albeit, all fields may be sized as Full page or Half page.
• Checkbox allows users to select items or tick to show they have read something. Again, the uses can be anything you need them to be.
• Matrix is like a Radio button, where users can select one from an array of items; however, this style is arranged in a table format represented by a standard spreadsheet format. Each row can only have one response. Some possible uses for the Matrix field could be ratings of job satisfaction, surveys, or employee reviews.
• Group allows you to put various elements together as a group.
• A Divider is a separator, like a line across the page with some buffer space to highlight the separation between elements.
• HTML allows you to insert custom Hypertext Markup Language code to show or display something. This could be, for example, an iFrame with an embedded link, image, video, etc.
• Table allows you to create a table, whereby each column can be a specific element type. Not all field types are covered however, the base form of each field type is. The elements you can use within a table on Forms and Surveys are:

• Single line text
• Multi line text
• Checkbox
• Radio Button
• Dropdown
• Email
• Date
• Number
• Phone
• Currency
• Formula

When you select an element that you’ve placed, the panel on the right side of your window will expand. Here you will find element specific settings, whether or not the field is required or enabled, change it’s internal name for organizational purposes, or give the element a title for your recipients to see, or to give them instructions on what to do.

If you have any issues in understanding what a field is or how it will be displayed, either hover your mouse over the ‘i’ for a tooltip helper to appear, or alternatively, try looking for that text within the element on the form.

In our example here, Dropdown placeholder is the text that appears before an option is selected by the user.

Dropdown Title is the name of the Element.

Field name is an important one to remember. If you are going to automate your workflow, it’s very important that you give every element a Field name to quickly identify it later as you set-up your Bots or formulae.

This should cover the fundamentals of field types and their settings, so let’s get started by dressing up our document for success.

Here we can see our form has a dropdown list of the available companies to order from, and the Dropdown placeholder from earlier is visible; “Select an option”. Additionally, we can also see our Dropdown title of “Company List” just above it.

We have also added a Number element for the recipient to choose how many he or she is going to order.

We have also added a Signature element to verify their choice via electronic signature which can be drawn, typed, captured from their mobile device’s camera, or uploaded as an image. We can restrict which form of signature is acceptable to use as per our Corporate policies, local laws, or personal preference.

Although we could visit the Conditions tab, we will skip that for now. Conditions is yet another powerful feature that requires quite a few paragraphs to express its phenomenal capabilities. Let’s press Complete to continue.

When we do continue we will be sent to the Create a Flow Template which we started at. Let’s first press Go to List of Slates.

When we are sent to our Flows, we will find our documents ready and waiting for us. This happens automatically when you finish a Flow, but we are not done quite yet.

To continue the set up process, you will need to delete the Flow that was just created. The reason for this is to protect both sender and recipient in the event the Flow was already signed and/or completed. And the reason for making you take this extra step was so you remembered it in the future.

Let’s return to editing our Flow by going to All Flows and selecting the three dotted-button on the right. We will proceed by clicking Configure Flow.

Now that we are back in our Flow, let’s take a look at the top of the page and break them down one at a time.

Roles

Roles are users who can be assigned to specific elements within our documents; for example, if you have a document which needs three users to complete segments of it, you can create three roles and assign the appropriate Field names we talked about earlier.

Additionally, you can select if the role has the ability to fill the elements or fields, only read the document, block access to the role, or enable comments for that role.

Distribute Flow

Distributing your flow can be done either via public link or sent in bulk.

Sending in bulk requires a .csv (comma separated value) template to associate the correct email addresses to the correct roles that were defined earlier.

CSV files are like tables in a spreadsheet, but separated only by commas in their raw form. A template is available for you to download and is typically accepted by your spreadsheet software which automatically converts it into a spreadsheet.

If your office software doesn’t have an export as .csv option for when you finish, you can create a Google Sheet and convert it there through File -> Download -> Comma-Separated Values.

Audit Trail

Flow Options

The first option available in Flow Options is Redirect Recipient. This allows you to send the recipients to a specific webpage when they’ve completed your Flow’s process. This could be a welcome page for new-hires or a private YouTube video of an internal corporate seminar. It can be anything you need it to be.

The second option is Duplicate Flow. This will simply duplicate everything in the Flow into a new one.

The third option is Archive Flow, which is helpful for clearing the lists of old Flows that aren’t in use anymore, without deleting them. This can be great for when improved processes are created, decluttering the Workspace, or dealing with archaic processes which are no longer in use.

Next up is Move to Trash, followed by Hide Flow. Both of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Lastly, we have Leave Flow.

Settings

The cogwheel representing the Settings of our Flow exposes a pane which displays who the Flow has been shared with and what their roles are. You can invite people to the Flow by email address, customize the message you are sending them, and set their permission level within the Flow. Additionally, you can insert a CSV contacts file here as well.

The last item here is Bots; however, it deserves a header of its own.

Bots

When it comes to enterprise workflow automation, document workflow automation, and business process automation (BPA), Bots (software robots that act based on “if-this-then-that conditions) make the entire topic come full circle.

Bots are codeless to implement and use, meaning you do not need an IT specialist to configure or deploy them. They detect the conditions and parameters you define and interact with the digital world like bees spreading pollen. If it wasn’t for Bots, automation would be significantly less robust as a whole.

You can think of Bots as listeners, and when they hear the battle cry of a completed Flow, a signed form, or really an infinite combination of parameters, they spring into action; tirelessly and without complaint. They don’t need food, water, a recreation room, bean bag chairs, or a coffee machine. Bots are the digital masterminds that make the automation process possible.

When we go to the Bots page, we will be greeted with default Bots already available. Typically this is the Configure and send out email notification Bot. But as you’ve probably guessed, there is a near infinite amount of possibilities of actions to take and battle cries for our digital minions to listen for.

We have over 100 Bots and counting so far covering everything from MySQL database interactions to reminding recipients to fill out forms.

We are going to continue with our example of a simple order form interacting with Google Sheets.

For our needs, we are going to be using the Export to Google Sheets Bot. We need our digital minion to take the amount of items the customer ordered and add it to our colorful spreadsheet.

Once we install the Bot, we will have a new panel for us to explore. Because we need to connect to Google’s system to locate our spreadsheet, we are going to press Connect, and login or select our account.

Now that we have logged into our Google account, we can select our spreadsheet and the sheet within it.

Next up, we need to tell the Bot what to listen for and what to do when it hears it.

Right now, we need to hear what the company selection is so we can find it within the spreadsheet. Once we have done that, it knows which row to use and we can tell our little ball of one’s-and-zero’s to push the data from the order amount into the sheet in the correct column.

After that, we need to tell our Bot when to jump into action. In our case, we will wait for the customer to have signed the form. We can add more conditions, parameters, data points, or whatever it is you need; however, in our situation we are going to press Apply setup.

You are finished, your Bot is ready to dutifully carry out his orders. We have created a system of automation workflows in the breadth of this article and, while simple, the process was smooth, easy, and logical.

If you ever have any questions regarding any of our tools, services, or features; never be afraid of our Help center. We are here for you.

Completing our automated tasks

To return to our Flow, we need to go back on the top-left of the screen. From here, we can immediately create a Slate by clicking Go to List of Slates, Send a Slate, or hold off on that and simply press our Company logo to return to the Dashboard.

If we decide to send out a Slate for customers, clients, or colleagues at any time using a Flow, we only need to ensure that the assigned fields match the role’s recipient’s email address. We can also add personalized messages for that special touch, specific to every individual recipient.

When you send out your Slate, there is nothing else you need to do but wait for the Bots, Conditions, and recipients to do all of the work for you. What kinds of productivity and professional growth can you accomplish in the time you’ve saved?

In conclusion

Automation workflow tools are a great solution for every business model. Marketing automation workflows could see vast improvements from campaign beginning-to-end. CRM workflow automation could significantly improve accessibility to information about the client so when the call starts to get cold, they might find some information to be relatable with, such as the client’s favorite team. Automation workflows are accessible for anyone to try using our free trial, no credit card required.

Trusted by millions of daily users

Join the millions of others who have already made the decision to onboard airSlate. Companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes, industries and niche sectors, including governments use airSlate’s no-code Bots for automating business processes, eliminating bottlenecks and routine steps, and improving overall ROI.

Some heavy hitters automating with airSlate are:

• AGMEN
• GoFundMe
• CBS Sports
• Colliers International

However, those are just some of the heavy hitters. There are millions of active users ranging from SMBs to enterprises. If you are a mid-sized organization, do not think airSlate isn’t right for your team. Call in and ask for a demo. We’d be happy to talk with you and give more details about how we can automate your operations, or even what should be automated within your business, if you do not already know.

Try airSlate, a powerful automation software application, and adopt a Bot for enhancing your business processes today.

The post How to quickly onboard workflow automation software that works for your team appeared first on airSlate Blog | Business automation.