It’s a common mis-perception that the majority of businesses and employers in America are large corporations such as Google or Apple. But the reality is that 99% of all business in America are technically Small to Medium Businesses (SMB). The United States Department of State reports that over 19 Million people work for businesses employing less than 20 people with 18 Million employed by businesses with 20-99 workers.
SMB Challenges
Small business owners face unique challenges, from cash flow to staying current with trends in their industry. This article on Hiveage lists 6 challenges that are common themes in business forums:
- Cash Flow Issues
- Tiredness
- Finding and Retaining Profitable Customers
- Motivating Employees
- Having too many overheads
- Staying Current
All of these can leave small business owners up at night with anxiety and heartburn. Owning a business is a complex web of compliance, regulation, taxes and relationships. But there are Business Process Management (BPM) tools out there as well as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) that large enterprises are using to help them manage these types of issues. For a SMB, using a virtual robot like James, a Hybrid Robotic Process Automation tool (Hybrid-RPA) of BPM and RPA and offered as a turn-key service, can help SMBs keep their business running smoothly.
So how can virtual robots help your SMB? We’ve compiled this list of 3 things that every small business can use a virtual robot like James for:
1. Monitor Payroll Software functionality.
Payroll software is mission critical and time sensitive, so any issue that may arise in the process can lead to unhappy and frustrated employees. Missed or delayed salary and commissions could cause employees to delay their mortgage payments, car lease, Amazon prime subscription and anything that is critical to them leading to demotivation, disloyalty and hence productivity loss.
With a Business Process Management tool like James, a Virtual Robot, issues can be identified ahead of time (proactive approach). James triggers alerts and communicates them to the responsible personnel who can make sure issues get resolved before anyone actually knows there is a problem, ensuring that your business operates as usual.
2. Proactively monitor the health of your IT Systems.
The same can be said for your IT Systems. IT personnel spend a lot of time ensuring that the systems are up and running at the optimum level, but they largely rely on employees to bring problems to their attention. With James, who is actively logging in from the users perspective and notifying IT at the first sign of trouble, IT can be notified before an employee even knows there is an issue.
3. Ensure maximum uptime of your Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) implementation.
Cloud Software dominates the business landscape. Gone are the days of a physical CD and needing to install software from a CD-ROM drive. Instead, users are directed to download the product from a website that also ensures regular updates as they are pushed out. Users regularly must log in to the software in order to use it. While this is most definitely a step forward, it does bring it own set of challenges for IT. Business Process Management Tools Virtual robots, like James, can ensure uptime through proactive monitoring of the implementation from the users perspective.
Being a business owner is hard enough. James, the Virtual Robot, can take one thing off of your shoulders. Learn more about how James can keep your business running smoothly, by setting up an “interview” or reading further here:
Robotic Process Automation and Quality Assurance: What does this mean for your business?
3 Reasons Why You Need James the Virtual Robot as Your QA Tester
