Business Process Automation (BPA)

We help companies model and execute their business processes.

We lift your processes into an overarching layer above departmental boundaries and IT systems. We at Cognosys call this topware.

BPA is the core of digitisation and your gateway to the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).

To remain competitive, you'd have to modernise. BPA is a modern imperative!

So which processes are eligible to be systemised? Any! Even the smallest and least glamorous! Even something as elementary as keeping a spreadsheet up to date by adding a new row can be automated, rather than manually done so by a human. Or the routing of an email to different parties depending on the context. What about creating a web form for clients to fill in and submit rather than receiving the same instructions in the content of an email.

Think about it, your financial accounting processes are no doubt already systemised by your accounting software. Likewise, you might already have a multitude of other systems in place which automates a variety of processes. However, every business is unique and no single software application will fulfil all of your requirements. There is invariably a missing (sub)process, irrespective of how small, which is nevertheless crucial for your organisation to operate effectively. Resorting to a human intervention is not the best solution. Only by systemising it can you truely operate efficiently.

Add to that the emerging complexity of keeping various software applications talking to each other. Exchanging data between two existing systems so that a business process can uninterruptedly span both systems is the bulk of what we assist our clients with.

The first process to be automated differs substantially amongst our clients. It can be as elementary as helping you to incorporate dynamic content into an existing static web page. Or to create a web form for your customers to fill-in and submit and then to use the collected data in a subsequent automated process. Or to craft a complete web application with various user interfaces for different audiences such as the public in general, clients, suppliers, staff, etc.

Your first process can also be a backoffice routine, currently maintained by a human, which you just cannot afford to be prone to errors and not rendered on time. Such process as the daily extraction and consolidation of data for further dissemination amongst staff, defining their daily workload. Or integration with an online service such as getting the daily exchange rate from Yahoo Finance or uploading a file on a regular interval to Dropbox.

You could also embark on a much more ambitious journey, to automate a complete workflow. Such an initiative either demand the mapping and coding of the processes as a brand new system, alternatively augmenting one of your existing systems to incorporate the new workflow. The architecture of such an initiative calls for prudency in order to sweat the system for maximum ROI over it's anticipated lifetime. All of which we have substantial competency and experience in assisting you with.

Model your Business Processes digitally

We assist you to capture policies and procedures as process models. Tie in human participants and IT systems. Since this digital model is executable, it reifies the enactment of your operating model. It's the conductor's score in the orchestration of your company!

Nothing to download, nothing to install

We deploy your process models to our hosted servers. It is a cloud-based solution. We integrate your internal IT systems (ERP, CRM, etc) and external services. We take care of all the geeky stuff which allows you to focus on what you do best: To execute your processes!

Intuitive for both business users and your customers

User-friendly web interfaces make it easy for both staff and customers to participate in the processes. Using your favourite device, all communication is secure and encrypted. No more dropping of the ball, taking shortcuts, "wait until I'm back at the office"... Log in and go!

Continuously evaluate a process for improvements

Look for bottlenecks, underutilised personnel, and any monotony which can be done magnitudes more efficiently by a machine. Incorporate IoT, machine learning and AI. Readily and iteratively respond to the demands of your customers. Your organisational agility has become your most cherished asset!

BPMN is an ISO 19510 standard for modelling business processes. Even the process of embarking on a BPA journey, in other words automating your processes, can be modeled in BPMN, as is done here.

This process has two participants, as can be gleaned from the two lanes. Tasks are rectangular, with an icon indicating the nature of the participant, either a human using a GUI or a service utilizing an API. Decision points are diamond, with multiple emanating branches.

System integrations are indicated, and once sufficient metadata is provided, automated integration with systems such as ERP and CRM are readily achieved.

This is a generic process used by financial services companies such as auditors. We regularly amend and adapt this process to suit the needs and idiosyncratic nature of each new auditing client.

It depicts the modelling phase (the above step 1), where the exact nature of the business process is captured using BPMN modelling.

Once this model is embellished with all of the required metadata, it then becomes an executable artifact. In other words it is a computer programme which can be invoked to execute the depicted process.

This model is then handed over to a server for execution. It automates the integration with existing systems such as ERP and CRM via APIs, and renders the GUI forms for users to participate manually.