The 5 software you need to automate everything

The 5 software you need to automate everything

Automation software may seem a little complicated at first, but that shouldn’t put you off from trying to get the best out of it. Software is supposed to make your work and life easier, so you should adapt it to your business needs rather than the other way around.

Especially for businesses that need to optimize their workflow to keep up with the changing world, this type of software helps you differentiate yourself from competitors. When picking out which apps to integrate into your day-to-day, it's important to choose a program that will make sure your business:

• Saves time

• Increases productivity

• Increases consistency

• Reduces Human Error

Each app on the list below has a different specialty and will accommodate various needs to suit your business.

Atto is the perfect tool to track locations, optimize routes, easily track working hours and see time spent at different job sites. You can install it on any device and employees can track hours and locations with just a few taps. What’s more is that you can see every job, project, and employee on the clock at a glance. A central hub to streamline your management process makes all of your day-to-day tasks automated and easily accessible when you need to check on things.

Besides being able to stay on top of everything, you’d have ample data to generate detailed timesheets to create more accurate invoices, pay your employees fairly, and generate better forecasts. The GPS tracking feature also helps track your field service teams’ routes and offers the possibility of a live map view, so you can see where everyone is at all times.

Hive

If you’re looking for a project management program that also allows a lot of integrations with third-party tools, then Hive is the one for you. To create a more streamlined workflow, not only can you use Hive’s in-app automation, but also link tools like Zoom, Gmail, Dropbox, and Slack. Within one workspace, you can access all of these integrations as well as harness the power of “Hive Automate”, a feature that allows you to automate everyday tasks inside and outside of Hive. This is perfect for organizations that work with multiple tools on a day-to-day basis.With Hive, businesses can build automated workflows across many programs and apps to better connect the workforce. All employees will be connected and can easily work with other teams that may not use the same apps. The way this works is by building workflows (called “Recipes”) that use a trigger-response type of logic. Each “Recipe” is assigned a trigger and a series of actions that come as a result of this trigger being activated. Have you ever worked with Microsoft Excel’s conditions and formulas? Then your move to Hive will become even more seamless, as these “Recipes” focus on IF conditions, IF/ELSE conditions, Repeat Actions, and more. With these variables, you’re not only able to create workflows that span different apps and teams, but that also include multiple steps to make everything automated and error-proof.

HubSpot

If you’ve known about automation apps for a while, then you have probably heard of HubSpot at some point. HubSpot is a well-known tool that has been around for a long time. Its main automation tools feature email marketing, sales funnel templates, and customer service. The primary focus of all of these tools is creating the best possible user journey and being able to track customer behavior. 

With HubSpot, you have a directory of customers, contacts, and prospective clients. This way, you can create email workflows in real-time through a visual editor that can be either complex multi-branch journeys, or simple follow-up campaigns. And since every business needs to put a lot of focus on communication with current and potential customers, HubSpot allows you to use workflows to automate tasks like rotating leads across sales teams or updating data properties in bulk. 

Airtable

Airtable is an amazing tool that offers an easy and low-code platform to track workflow and build collaborative apps. It’s perfect for teams who need automation but don’t necessarily want to go tech-heavy with coding and personalization. If readily available templates are what you’re looking for, then Airtable is perfect for you. Onboarding is made incredibly simple because of these templates and users can integrate third-party tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Facebook, and Twitter seamlessly. If your organization manages projects and jobs with various visual methods, then Airtable makes this process easily automated and collaborative. Its interface offers the ability to view projects on a grid, through Kanban boards, calendars, and even Gantt charts. This way, not all teams have to stick to one method of project management. Rather, every team has the option of using what works best for them, leading to higher productivity and motivation among employees because you cater to everyone’s needs.

Salesforce (with Field Service add-on)

Besides the importance of having a time and location tracking tool (like Atto), Field Service businesses can benefit a lot from using Salesforce. Specifically its Field Service add-on. This solution aims to improve delivery times, mobile service operations, smarter workflows, and even more personalized service. This field service management software gives you one central workspace to connect agents, field technicians, assets, and customers. If you want to deliver exceptional on-site service, then Salesforce is a great tool to use to achieve that. As an industry that relies heavily on efficiency and customer satisfaction, field service businesses can benefit greatly by using Salesforce. You’re able to schedule appointments easier, view your entire service chain, and even equip your field technicians with the appropriate and fast information and workflow to deliver the best service possible. A cool feature that Salesforce offers is the “Einstein Vision”, a feature that mobile employees can use to immediately identify parts and assets via image recognition. 

We can comfortably say that automation has become incredibly important. Without it, your business risks falling behind as your competition becomes more efficient in adapting to customer needs. With these 5 tools, you’ll automate the most important parts of your everyday tasks and workflow. Your entire workforce will become more connected than ever, while still making sure that you save time, increase productivity and minimize (if not eliminate) human errors in tasks. Start automating your workflows today!