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9 Task Automation Tools You Should Be Usingprocess.st/task-automation-tools/

Adam Henshall

January 13, 2017

Overlooking task automation is losing you money

According to Harvard Business Review, marketing executives are losing 10-15% of their time due to not automatingsimple tasks.

Task automation should already be saving you huge amounts of time and effort.

If it’s not, I can only assume that’s because you’re not using it!

If you’re a heavy user of different SaaS platforms, you’ve probably grown tired of having to jump back and forthfrom one to another to perform simple tasks.

Would it not be easier if you could click one button and the different platforms just spoke to each other and got thejob done for you?

Yes. Yes, it obviously would be.

In fact, according to Chui, Manyika, and Miremadi writing in the Harvard Business Review, not only could amarketing executive be automating activities which account for between 10-15% of their current time usingexisting technology, but for 60% of existing US jobs, 30% of their time could be reduced by automation.

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You can read the full report, Four Fundamentals of Workplace Automation , at McKinsey.

Note, that this important study is already over a year old, and the speed of technological advancements in availableautomation software has likely caused those given percentages to rise even further.

Task automation is where you doing one task results in multiple tasks being done. Bit of a mouthful, but let me givean example…

Or, if you want to watch a step by step example , check out this Process Street video about automating clientonboarding.

How can task automation be used?

Problem

Imagine you have a form on your website and you want to collect people for your mailing list with particularlyinterested ones converting to a sale.

You also want to send those sign ups a detailed questionnaire or survey and store the results. You want to sendthem a sales email before they receive the questionnaire to keep them interested. You want all of your surveyresponses to be stored centrally with the rest of your company data. You really like Typeform as a survey tool.

You also want your salesperson to be alerted to this action and for their Process Street sales checklist to begin sothey can chase up the lead.

Okay? Bear with me…

How many tasks does it take from processing a sign up to having your survey results stored centrally and the salesprocess launched?

The closer the answer can be to 0, the better. The lower the number of tasks, the less time you are expending andthe more time you can focus on the important parts of your business.

Solution

Well, you could use an email provider like ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, or Mailchimp to create the form you embedinto your webpage. Within your email provider, you can create a series of template emails and an automatedprocess which sends those emails to sign ups in a specified order with time delays .

One email has the link to your survey hosted on Typeform. The survey is filled in and through Zapier the results areautomatically saved in a Google Sheet within your G-Suite platform. At the same time, the Typeform entry, viaZapier, automatically launches your Process Street sales follow-up checklist for your sales rep.

You then use Zapier to send you a Slack notification to alert you as the manager that another response has beenrecorded.

How many tasks did you have to do? 0. And how many lines of code did you have to write to set this up? 0.

This aspect of your business is now operating smoothly without you having to lift a finger. Data is recorded,employees’ workflows are launched, and you’re given oversight throughout.

From task automation, you’ve graduated to task orchestration.

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Desktop vs cloud task automation

There’s a whole world of different ways you can automate tasks and become more productive. Some of thesesolutions might be using the approach documented above – integrating different web apps. Others might not relyon being online at all.

Desktop based tools can be used as hotkeys or to set a series of different triggers to automate a workflow withinyour computer. These kinds of tools can cut a lot of time out of regular manual processes and can be triggered witha click.

The real automation push in recent years, however, has been led by cloud-based providers who use API calls fromdifferent web apps to trigger preset actions. These allow you to perform functions inside platforms without youhaving to log into them in your browser.

Both desktop and cloud solutions provide significant value to increasing your productivity and streamlining youroperations. Which you find more useful will depend on what kind of work you’re doing and what kind of tasks youneed to automate.

The area to watch out for in 2017 is the increasing provision of task automation for mobile devices. As more andmore of our work is done on our mobiles and their omnipresence in our lives continues, expect your mobile to beginto change the way you approach tasks.

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9 task automation tools to check out

Zapier

Zapier is one of the leaders in task automation. Since being founded in 2012 and graduating from Y Combinator,Zapier has taken a central place as a third party connector of different web apps. With over 750 different apps youcan integrate with, Zapier should be your first stop on your automation journey.

If you want a thorough breakdown of Zapier’s features and how you can use them, watch this Process Streetvideo:

Flow

Microsoft launched Flow in 2016 as their answer to existing third party automation tools (coughZapiercough). Itcurrently boasts integrations with 83 different web apps , but the list will certainly grow. If you’re an existing Outlookuser and you rely heavily on Microsoft’s existing product line, this could prove a very useful automation tool.

Process Street

Not a true automation service like the others, sure, but Process Street links with a wide range of other services.Following Process Street checklists and making full use of the form fields means that all company activity can betracked and recorded, then exported for analysis in different formats. Process Street certainly automates a lot oftraditional managerial duties.

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Cron

If you’re a bit more tech savvy and operate in a Linux or Unix environment, you’ll probably benefit from investigatinghow cron can help you automate and schedule your activity. Setting up cron jobs to run for you could keep youfocused on the areas you need to pay attention to most.

Alfred

Alfred is a hidden gem for Mac users. It is both a hotkey tool which allows you to navigate your interface with yourkeyboard rapidly and a workflow automation tool. You can automate complex workflows which are triggered froma hotkey. The big sell is that Alfred has a library of community workflows created by other users to perform avariety of different tasks. You may not even have to build the workflow yourself!

IFTTT

There are a host of different services being offered by IFTTT (If This Then That) including their Do Note and DoCamera, but one interesting addition is the Applets. IFTTT are looking to bring the Internet of Things into yourpocket with mobile based automation tools. The future is now.

Shortcat

Shortcat describes its service as Spotlight for the user interface. What it means by this is that you can navigateyour screen through your keyboard with a search-like function. To click the “install” button, you start typing “i…n…s…t…” and it should already have figured out which button you want to click. For speed-typers, a tool likeShortcat could improve the way you interact with your work.

Robotask

For PC users committed to automating their workflows online or off, Robotask stands out as a powerful tool. As

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well as simple automated processes, this program provides a series of more complex features such as IF/ELSEstatements, loops, and custom variables.

Textexpander

Textexpander is in many ways a classic hotkey tool. You can save snippets of text or code and re-employ themelsewhere through typing a small shortcut. The feature which really makes Textexpander stand out is its focus onhow these snippets can help a team. They shift the hotkey approach from simple personal commands to longersections accessible from the cloud across a team. This emphasis on collaboration allows Textexpander to fitneatly within a business’ processes.

Make apps work so you don’t have to

You’ve seen our 9 recommendations of tools to try out.

Some will work for you in your business and others may not. Nevertheless, it is worth testing out these different bitsof software to find which one suits you .

Remember that 10-15% figure reported from the November 2015 report? How much time a marketing executivecould save?

I challenge you to beat that estimation and kick your personal and company productivity to new levels!

And if you haven’t already, check out our ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Automation with Zapier .

Happy automating!

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