As a subset of overall business process management (BPM), business process automation (BPA) allows you to cut out manual labor and replace it with fast, efficient processes that preserve and enhance quality while also providing more responsive, scalable services.
Automation improves your integrations between different software and business processes. It can also improve communication around key business processes to reduce organizational waste.
But these benefits can’t be fully realized if you don’t combine BPA with a business rules engine. If you’re looking to implement BPA without a business rules solution in place, you’re taking on unnecessary risks in your workflow management—and missing out on the full potential of process automation.
The Danger of Adopting Automation Without Rules
When it comes to automating business processes, a rules engine offers a series of checks and balances to make sure automation is also making progress toward the right outcomes.
Automation can do such things as accelerate workflows and facilitate data-driven processes, but BPA can’t effectively validate and clean data as it enters and informs these workflows. BPA can automate production for a order, but it might not detect data discrepancies caused by the wrong data being added into the wrong form field—which could affect the production run and cost your organization money.
Similarly, automation on its own can’t ensure that workflows and tasks are executed according to regulatory compliance or company policy. Without a business rules engine to enforce a complex ecosystem of rules governing your business processes, unchecked automation could quickly pile up violations that counteract any benefits you might otherwise achieve.
