The Ultimate Business Process Automation Software — Microsoft Office 365

As someone who runs his own business, I know the struggle. The laundry list of repetitive administrative tasks necessary to stay afloat never ends. And if you’re a small or medium-sized business without the budget to resource these tasks, it can feel like you’re never actually getting around to the most important one — growing your company. But what if I told you that there was a business process automation software that could revolutionize your productivity and level the playing field so you could compete with businesses larger than yours? And better yet, these workflow automation tools are probably already sitting on your desktop.

This incredible productivity and automation tool is called — drum roll, please…Microsoft Office 365. And to get a rundown on all its remarkable capabilities, I sat down with Dustin Sitton, founder of Incite Automation, who has been shouting from the hilltops about this exact subject for a while now.

LENNY: Hey Dustin. Thanks for talking with us today. To get started, maybe you could share just a bit about what your business does?

DUSTIN: Sure! So, at Incite Automation, we provide business process automation services. We help businesses leverage the power of low code, workflow automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Now, when I say that, people immediately think I’m going to recommend a million high-tech business process automation solutions they’ve never heard of. But actually, the main way we help is by showing people the value of the tools they already have and how to make the most of them.

LENNY: Specifically, we’re talking about Microsoft Office 365, a business process automation software, and the related Power Platform tools, right? Why are you so bullish on these particular solutions?

DUSTIN: I’m not a Microsoft spokesperson. These are just tools that most businesses likely already use in some capacity but rarely maximize for business process management. And, even better, they are specifically designed to work together.

In my work, as part of business process management, I consistently see business leaders fighting to tie together many different products they’ve bought because they’ve heard, “This is the best expense tracker,” and “This is the best signature tool.” And I’m not saying they’re not, but are those extra expenses and the pain of retyping your client’s name over and over again into different systems worth it?

When I approach business leaders, I always tell them, “When you get a new customer, how often do you type their name? If it’s more than once, here’s my card.”

LENNY: Great line! So, could you walk us through an example of what you mean?

DUSTIN: Of course! So, for example, because we’re a workflow automation consulting firm, I like to set up a “team” within Microsoft Teams for every client I work with.

DUSTIN: Now, here’s the thing: I didn’t actually sit there and create all of these “teams” or the channels within this project through a manual process. Instead, I used Microsoft Power Automate, a business process automation software, which is part of the Power Platform included in your Office 365 subscription, to automate that task.

So, whenever I get a new client and create a new entry, Microsoft Power Automate automatically creates the “team” for me and also sets up all the relevant tabs I need at the top of the screen.

Now, our main CRM system is Microsoft Dynamics , another product that integrates with Teams, so I set it up to have that on the screen here as well. And with this, I can see all my emails with this client and any records I have about them inside of Teams directly.

Then, all of my notes about this client are in Microsoft One Note, which I access through Teams.

And all of the relevant files about this client or project are stored in SharePoint, which I, again, access through Teams.

Any conversation I have about this project or client is also never through email, which would require my employees to constantly search for all the emails relevant to a specific client task or project. Having those communications in Teams is more efficient unless we’re talking externally to our customers.

I set this up this way, not just because it’s organized and convenient, but because if one day I bring on a new employee and they say, “Hey Dustin, can you forward me all the email threads of how we came to that decision about the project I’m working on?” I don’t have to. They can just go into Teams and see a breakdown of how we got to this point and find any conversations, notes, or files they need in one place.

LENNY: Amazing use of this business process automation software.

DUSTIN: Yeah. But this is just one example of how we use these business automation tools all across our organization. Like, Human Resources (HR) is a great example of another area littered with small repetitive tasks that these programs can take off your plate.

For example, here at Incite Automation, we keep our HR center in Sharepoint. And in there we have a folder for every staff member who works here.

And when I press that, it starts asking me, “What’s their salary going to be?” “How many vacation days do they get?” and all the questions I need to generate this document. 

Then, it will ask me, “Do you want me to prepare this for E-Signature?” If I say yes, it auto-sends it to our new employee. Once they return it, it automatically puts the signed copy in this folder, generates a new Office 365 account for them, and puts a task on my calendar to buy them a laptop.

LENNY: Wow. Incredible business process automation tool.

DUSTIN: Yeah, and we’re really just scratching the surface here, so it just depends how specific you want to be.

You can have Power Automate read documents for you and then populate spreadsheets with that information. With Microsoft Syntax, another AI-powered business process automation software, you can have it read contracts, teach it the different important terms, and then have it write new versions. You can hook Microsoft Copilot Studio into your processes and essentially create a chatbot assistant.

For instance, I had Copilot Studio study our processes for our business, define our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and write our employee handbook in less than an hour.

LENNY: Now, what if people already like the tools they are using? Maybe they actually love that signature tool they spent a bunch of money on?

DUSTIN: Even though Microsoft tools work best with each other, just having one or a few pieces of the puzzle exist outside of the Microsoft ecosystem doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of them. Office 365 can integrate with all types of other solutions, such as Google Drive, DocuSign, Quickbooks, etc.

Ultimately, what I find is that businesses that have 17 different solutions, none of which talk to each other, will use these tools to stitch those systems together at the expense of their time and efficiency. Or, they can start from scratch and build one unified business automation system to run their organization from end to end faster and more efficiently. The possibilities are really endless with automating business processes because you have all these fantastic building blocks at your disposal.

LENNY: So, for people who are excited by these building blocks and want to jump in right away, can they just sit down and create an intelligent automation for a complex process on their own?

DUSTIN: Well, it depends on what you need, obviously. I mean, we are low-code software developers. Meaning that we don’t have to write a lot of code to do most of the automated workflows. It’s definitely closer to clicking and configuring.

I would say it can be a little bit daunting for someone to create an automated process from the ground up if they have no experience with automation technology. But it’s not as bad if you’ve had someone set it up for you and you just want to maintain it.

If you’re looking to maximize these systems quickly and you don’t have a ton of free time, then partnering with a company like ours could be an ideal solution for you. But if you’re tech-savvy and you have the time, automating much of your workflow management can be learned through Google or various internet resources.

That said, if you just want all the business process automation information in one place, we’ve also created a fantastic resource called Incite Discovery. This platform not only walks you through all these features but also helps you strategize how to best take advantage of them for your specific business.

LENNY: Perfect! One last question for you. Any pitfalls people should be wary of when using these productivity tools?

DUSTIN: Sure. Like all AI tools, they’re not perfect, so you should just periodically double-check that they are doing what they should be. And it’s obviously important to make sure you don’t abuse these technologies by say, tracking employees silently or automating complex workflows just because people don’t feel like doing them.

But the biggest thing to be aware of is that the more we start relying on automated process to handle these tasks, the more important it is to invest in the infrastructure that supports them. It becomes even more critical to have strong cybersecurity solutions and make sure all that data you’re generating is being backed up.

LENNY: Thanks, Dustin. Really powerful stuff here. Any last thoughts you want to leave our readers with regarding business process automation?

DUSTIN: Well, look, we live in a time now where small and medium-sized businesses can use business process automation tools to compete with organizations larger than theirs. Essentially, they have the same tools available to them; you just have to have the imagination to use them. So, I guess what I’d say is – don’t miss out improving your business process management!

LENNY: Amen to that.

Don’t forget to visit Incite Automation and their training platform Incite Discovery if you’d like to learn how to automate your business processes too.

If you need help building an infrastructure that can support these powerful business process automation tools or don’t have an Office 365 setup and want to discuss how to automate your day-to-day workflow, feel free to contact Lenny Giller at lenny@reliabletechnology.com.