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The Entrepreneurial Operating System can help your business focus on growth. As IT professionals, we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about operating systems.

Without Windows, your computer is just a useless lump of metal and plastic. But have you realized that your business needs an operating system? It’s an unusual concept, but one that’s really working well for thousands of companies around the world. It’s called EOS - or the Entrepreneurial Operating System. We don’t sell it. But some of the businesses we work with have been interested in knowing more, so we’ve written a short easy-to-read guide for you to check out.

Check out the latest BlueCastle IT Tech Tip video. Does your team forget to track their mileage when driving for business? It can be a real pain. Luckily there’s an app that can track mileage automatically for you.

And you probably already have it, as it’s part of Microsoft 365.

Here are the details:

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Check out our other videos over at castleblue.mysites.io/videos

Productivity is the great goal of business. If you’re a Microsoft 365 user, you have access to a tool that can easily increase your process efficiency. Here’s what you need to know about Microsoft’s Power Automate.

Power Automate is a cloud-based product available to Windows 10 users. The tool, formerly known as Microsoft Flows, brings intelligent automation to business processes. Harness the benefits of artificial intelligence developing workflows and creating data dashboards.

Power Automate hands over mundane tasks and manual processes to robotic process automation (RPA). With RPA you can:

• understand bottlenecks;

• map and analyze processes;

• identify time savings opportunities;

• capture institutional knowledge;

• track important metrics;

• make data-driven decisions;

• empower users to share processes and collaborate;

• break down internal business silos moving data between departmental systems on a schedule.

Power Automate is available online, as a desktop client, or as a mobile application, and for both iOS and Android devices. Best of all, it’s included in your Microsoft cost.

How Does Power Automate Work?

In Power Automate you build time-saving workflows using a low-code or no-code experience. The software offers templates or step-by-step guidance to help create automated workflows.

The secure and scalable technology connects with other Microsoft products, of course. It can also link new and legacy systems and allows users to integrate or create their own connectors.

You might set up a notification in Teams when a new Microsoft Forms response comes in, or when a Microsoft Planner task updates, or configure workflows to move documents between different SharePoint folders, or hand over Excel calculations to the AI.

Don’t trust RPA to do the work on its own? You can set up attended or unattended workflows. Attended workflows need humans to start the task or provide Yes or No feedback at workflow sequence stages.

You might use unattended for boring, time-consuming tasks. Think of the time saved in accounting with Power Automate:

• printing an invoice hard copy;

• creating a new Outlook task to follow up on that invoice in 30 days;

• forwarding the submitted invoice to the next person in the operations chain.

Is Power Automate for Us?

RPA can help any business save time and reduce operating costs. Plus, Power Automate doesn’t work solely in the Microsoft environment. You might connect a Customer Relationship Management tool. Then, you could automate appointment scheduling and trigger file sending from One Drive.

The uses of RPA abound across industries. You might use Power Automate to:

• process forms;

• extract information;

• perform sentiment analysis;

• read business cards;

• classify files;

• track mailboxes;

• orchestrate your pipeline;

• automate auditing;

• manage inventory levels.

Create workflows using templates or design your own with what Microsoft touts as “point-and-click simplicity.” Don’t find it that simple? We can do it for you.

Streamline repetitive tasks and operational processes with Power Automate. Turn your attention instead to areas that grow business and boost innovation. Need assistance setting up the workflows in Power Automate? Our BlueCastle IT experts can help. Contact us today at 860-215-8960!

There is always information being collected and shared at a law firm. Files go between employees and back and forth among clients, too, and these can contain critical data. One mistake could cost the firm money – and reputation. Workflow automation technology tackles document sharing and data collection to offer several benefits.

#1 Improved accuracy

Collecting information using workflow automation saves a menial task. The client entering the data saves the paralegal manually, keying it in from a paper form. This also cuts the back and forth over email or time spent on phone calls confirming intake details. Plus, there is less risk of a mistake in the data entry.

#2 Greater productivity

Some software notifies the lawyer or associate a document is ready for review. The firm can even set up reminders to ensure timely document processing. The software may integrate with billable hours tracking to enhance time-spent analysis.

#3 Enhanced customer satisfaction

We’re in a digital age, no matter how old-school your firm, and clients want to take advantage of digital signing options. For example, Adobe Sign and DocuSign integrate with many different software packages. They appreciate uploading documents to cloud storage (such as Dropbox or OneDrive) from the comfort of their own homes.

#4 Freedom from the humdrum

No one becomes a lawyer to push paper. With the right automation tools, lawyers can use technology to:

· start document requests;

· obtain internal approval;

· document dates, signatures, and other information receipt;

· organize finalized documents.

Workflow software configurations set conditions to trigger the next action. For example, if the firm is trying to collect prospective client details or if someone signs up for the firm’s newsletter, their email address is automatically added to an Excel spreadsheet.

#5 Collaboration and Mobility

Moving document workflow to the cloud supports improved collaboration. With more people working remotely, sharing information online is beneficial. With many tools, people can work together in real-time online. Even those back in the office enjoy keeping up with case documents and communications on the go. With cloud software, staff and clients can stay involved from any mobile device.

#6 Added security

A law firm relying on paper documents risks all its institutional history going up in flames, or being destroyed in flooding or another extreme weather event. Workflow automation digitizes documents and provides an online backup of the information. It’s still a good idea to have another backup, though, and we recommend keeping a current data backup in three different places.

#7 Cost savings

Workflow software handles administrative tasks more accurately and efficiently, which can mean hiring fewer admin personnel. Plus, with digital documentation, think of the file storage space you’ll no longer need. You might be able to add some offices or meeting rooms, or cut your real estate and off-site document storage budget.

Conclusion

Workflow automation is available to any law firm. You can start out with Microsoft Forms or Google Forms, and DocuSign or Dropbox. Intermediate automation tools such as Zapier and IFTTT take it up a notch. Or you can invest in the workflow automation software targeting law firm management.

Need help selecting the best automation options for your office? BlueCastle IT can help. We’re here to set up, secure, and keep your software and systems running smoothly. Contact us today at 860-215-8960!