Automating IT Requests and Approvals
About this course
This course provides step-by-step instructions on how to build fully-automated approval workflows. You’ll learn how to transform routine paper-based processes into automated approval workflows, reduce delays, and improve visibility, all without coding.
By the end of the course, you will be equipped with all the knowledge necessary to create, visualize, and automate approval workflows and similar use cases, eliminating hassle and inefficiencies.
What’s included?
What will you learn?
Who is this course for?
More courses you might like
What our students say
Start learning today
Sign now for freeThe Requests and Approvals Workflow: Power your Business with IT Automation
As Robert A. Heinlein used to say, «Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.» No wonder why within the latest two decades businesses have made a huge transition from paper-based flows to digital ones. But there is no limit to perfection and companies are constantly investing in new ways to streamline and enhance internal business processes, including document workflows. This article aims to introduce you to the basics of workflow automation, list multiple benefits of advanced approaches over outdated ones, and show a practical example of how to automate the IT requests and approvals workflow with airSlate. airSlate is the only holistic workflow automation software that simplifies working with pre-filled templates to automation Bots.
Why are common IT requests models inefficient?
IT requests and approvals are common pieces of any company workflow. When an employee is onboarded they have to fill out a request to get the hardware and software they need to do their job correctly. Usually, the documents have to undergo a long procedure of multi-level approvals before being fulfilled.
- An employee sends an IT request with all the related information to the manager.
- The manager reviews it and either approves or rejects it.
- In case the manager approves the request, it is forwarded to the IT Department.
- The IT Department selects a service and sends a purchase order to the vendor.
- The vendor makes an invoice and sends it to the Finance Department.
- The Finance Department settles the invoice and proceeds with payments.
- Once the invoice is paid the IT Department receives the order.
That process can take days and even weeks from start to finish before the employee receives their tools without workflow automation. The scary thing is, days and weeks are if everything happens correctly. Errors can lead to prolonged delays. Bureaucracy and errors bring chaos to the process and undermine efficiency, create bottlenecks and even delays. The longer it takes to get an employee their tools, the longer it takes to start making money.
How IT process automation improves request and approval procedures?
Companies are usually reluctant to try new approaches and employ workflow automation regardless of the long list of benefits offered in return. Most simply fear change and are intimidated by what changing the process can create. However, those companies, which dare to take the risk, eventually experience great benefits, including saving on time and costs, fewer errors, seamless data transfer, enhanced performance, etc.
This is how an IT requests and approvals procedure looks when automated:- An employee fills in a request form. Once completed, the form is automatically forwarded to the manager.
- The manager approves the form with an electronic signature and then automatically forwards it to the IT Department. If declined, the employee receives automatic feedback from the manager explaining the denial.
- The IT specialist selects a supplier and fills in the respective form with the vendor’s details.
- The Finance manager receives a payment form, which is partially pre-filled from the request form and processes it.
- The employee and the IT Department receive notifications via automation Bots: once the invoice is paid and as soon as the hardware and/or software is delivered.
With the automated IT requests and approvals flow, forget about emails and attached documents. You just need two forms: the request form and the payment form. Notification Bots will keep you updated throughout the whole process, so you can plan your activities accordingly.
Why is airSlate the best automation software for IT requests and approvals?
To automate the IT requests and approvals flow, all companies need to do is utilize an online editor to fill out forms, an eSignature tool to validate the documents and Bot automation software to manage the document workflow. Traditionally, the key risk here is that three different platforms can be incompatible and/or expensive. airSlate is a holistic all-in-one solution, featuring document generation, two editors, eSignature, automation Bots, and Audit Trail. It’s compatible with major CRMs, cloud storages and doesn’t require code or additional investments for integration with your existing solutions. As a full-featured solution, airSlate leads to significant cost-savings.
Some more benefits of employing airSlate for business are as follows:- Speeds up and streamlines business processes
- Removes human errors
- Allows the setting up reminders and notifications
- Simplifies planning
- Enables statistic data
- Allows tracking activities
- Accelerates payments
- Archives documents
For smooth integration into your business processes airSlate has developed a training course on workflow automation and IT requests and approvals automation. Discover airSlate’s practical benefits and advantages over competitors and learn how to smoothly integrate it into your business processes.
Questions & answers
Create a request form using the built-in editor. After that, insert fillable fields for text, images, digits, and so on. Create roles (e.g., Employee and Manager) and assign them fields to fill out. After that, set up bots to automate and speed up the process and archive data. That's it. You are ready to run your new workflow.
A workflow approval process is a common procedure for any company. For example, from onboarding until offboarding, each employee goes through various approvals to get hardware, software, invoices, etc. Process bottlenecks hinder everyone. Without streamlined approval, other processes may get slow and inefficient.
Workflow approval software serves to save time and reduce errors. Therefore, the solution you pick should be easy to use. It's great if such service includes examples of use cases and training courses like airSlate Academy does. Also, pay attention to security, compliance certificates, the number of features offered, and the pricing factor.
There are two types of approval workflows with slight differences between them: self-approval and entire approval workflows. Self-approvals are automated processes that don't require any human intervention. In approval workflows, you need a manager or other approver to check and verify your requests.
airSlate WorkFlow helps you create a reusable fillable document template for approval requests. Use the platform's built-in editor to equip your form with text, signature, data, and other types of fillable fields with pre-defined roles. When it comes to invoices, add calculation fields to eliminate errors for good.
A request can be automatically approved if it doesn't need additional verification. Use the appropriate conditions when configuring a bot to apply your request auto-approval. Once the conditions are set, other approvers, like managers, are only involved in essential matters, while the rest of the requests go through the whole process on their own.
Workflow approval processes are valuable for any department. If you need to send a request for software or to start a development process, approval workflows are 100% necessary. To better understand this, imagine you’re going to quit your job. To do so, you’ll need to fill out a leave request for the HR department. In Sales, different approvals are necessary for purchase processes. airSlate WorkFlow helps simplify such repeatable processes, putting them on autopilot. Check the airSlate Academy courses to explore how our platform works for typical business use cases like approval workflows.
An approval workflow starts another company process. Without completed approval requests, your organization can't handle and close deals. Hiring, selling, doing payroll, etc., begin with orders, invoices, or offers that must be approved.
airSlate Academy is the best way to learn how to work with an approval workflow using BPA tools. Eliminate errors and reduce human intervention in your approval requests in clicks. airSlate WorkFlow, with its numerous bots, is here to help you route, filter, and set up your auto-approval process.
The best way to do it is to use a ready-made fillable form to avoid missing any critical information. Be sure to include your full name and your department, and CC all interested parties.