How Business Process Automation Works
At its core, Business Process Automation takes repetitive, manual tasks and replaces them with automated workflows and end-to-end processes. It ensures process consistency and frees employees to focus on higher-value work.
Process Mapping: Identify steps in a process (like invoice approval, onboarding, or service requests).
Automation Design: Build rules and triggers — e.g., “when an invoice is received, route to finance for approval.”
Integration: Connect systems (ERP, CRM, email, databases) so data moves without human intervention.
Monitoring & Optimization: Track performance, find bottlenecks, and refine over time.
Business Process Automation Examples
Business process automation is quite common in everyday business operations, more often than most people realize. Here are a few practical examples:
Employee Onboarding (HR): Instead of HR manually following up with IT, payroll, and managers across multiple systems, a single entry by HR can create the user account in Active Directory and assign the right group policies. Other workflows like tool provisioning, delivery of welcome resources, and automated alerts to IT and managers are also handled via business process automation.
Invoice Processing: Incoming invoices are scanned, approved, and pushed into accounting software with little to no manual data entry.
Customer Support Chatbots: Simple customer questions are answered instantly, often by pulling together information from multiple backend systems, improving the overall customer experience.
Automated Order Fulfillment: From online purchase to shipping label, the process flows without human intervention.
Compliance & Document Approvals: Policies and contracts move through approval chains with built-in reminders and audit trails.
IT Helpdesk Automation: Common requests like password resets or VPN access are handled automatically.
Self-Service Portals: Employees can request time off, equipment, or access permissions through an automated system that routes approvals to the right manager.
These examples show how BPA reduces manual work, saves time, and ensures consistency across departments. Nonetheless, Business Process Automation (BPA) platforms have grown far beyond “if-this-then-that” workflows.
Dynamic Process Patterns in BPA Platforms
Today’s mature platforms, including ServiceNow, Microsoft Power Automate, AgilePoint, Nintex, and Camunda, are sophisticated enough to handle dynamic process patterns that reflect the real-world complexity of business operations.
These patterns let you suspend and resume work, branch flows in parallel, roll back or skip steps, rework parts of a process, or even migrate running workflows to a newer version without disruption. In other words: your process automation doesn’t break when business conditions change, it adapts dynamically.
AgilePoint is well known for explicitly supporting 15+ dynamic process patterns, giving business users direct tools to manage exceptions.
Nintex and ServiceNow embed similar capabilities under workflow rules, approvals, and orchestration logic.
Power Automate provides patterns through conditions, approvals, retry policies, and parallel branches within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Camunda, built on BPMN and DMN standards, approaches patterns from a developer-first angle, enabling highly complex orchestration at enterprise scale (with support for in-flight migration, compensation, and case management).
Still, some BPA platforms are inherently better in certain types of process automation compared to others. For instance, some platforms are well-situated for automating long-running processes whereas others are not. Consult your IT Services partner to determine the best-fit BPA platform for your process automation needs.
Below are some of the most common process patterns found across these platforms:
Process Pattern | What It Allows You to Do | Why It’s Valuable |
Suspend/Resume | Pause a process when something unexpected comes up (e.g. waiting for external input), then resume later. | Avoids lost work and gives time to gather needed info. |
Rollback / Skip | Undo or skip steps if certain criteria fail or if something changes mid-process. | Reduces errors and makes the process more fault tolerant. |
Split / Merge | Branch the process flow into multiple paths (parallel), later combine them back. | Speeds execution and handles complex workflows. |
Milestone / Wait Milestone | Set stages or checkpoints where the process waits until certain conditions are met. | Ensures preconditions are satisfied before moving forward. |
Partial Rework / Revision | Rework or revise just part of the process instead of restarting the entire workflow. | It saves time and reduces rework. |
In-flight Migration | Change the process logic or version while instances are running (without stopping them). | Keeps processes evolving without disrupting ongoing work. |
Business Process Languages
Equally important is how processes are described and modeled. Without a common language, business and IT teams end up speaking past each other. That’s why BPA platforms increasingly rely on standards such as:
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation): A visual mapping standard that creates a “blueprint” everyone can understand. Originally developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) in the early 2000s, BPMN has been maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG) since BPMI’s merger in 2005. Today, it’s the most widely used standard for process modeling.
BPEL (Business Process Execution Language): Used to define how web services interact, often in combination with BPMN. It was first created by IBM, Microsoft, and BEA Systems in 2003 as a way to orchestrate web services in service-oriented architectures (SOA). BPEL is often used alongside BPMN when processes need to be automated at the system-to-system level.
BPML (Business Process Modeling Language): An older XML-based approach, now mostly replaced by BPMN and BPEL.
Together, process patterns and process languages make modern BPA platforms resilient and collaborative. They ensure your automation doesn’t break when business conditions change, and they give teams a common framework to design, analyze, and continuously improve workflows.
Popular Platforms Used for Business Process Automation
Several BPA platforms have become mainstream in mid-market and enterprise environments:
Mendix – strong for rapid application development with BPA built in.
Nintex – well-known for workflow automation and document management.
ServiceNow – widely used in IT service management and enterprise workflows.
AgilePoint – strong for low-code custom apps and automation of long-running processes.
Power Automate (Microsoft) – used for task and process automation and integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, making it attractive for organizations already in the Microsoft ecosystem
The right platform depends on business needs, IT environment, and integration complexity, which is where expert guidance comes in.
Role of IT Consulting Firms in Implementing BPA Platforms
BPA tools are powerful, but many organizations get stuck between ‘we bought the license’ and ‘we transformed how we work.’
IT consulting firms bridge this gap, and because their consultants are often the first to experiment with, train on, and deploy these automation platforms, they bring hands-on expertise in selecting, implementing, and customizing BPA tools to deliver real results.
Typically, an IT consultant can help:
Implement pilot processes to enable automation opportunities that deliver business value.
Advising on platform choice (e.g., whether Power Automate is enough, or if ServiceNow is better for scale).
Implementing and customizing workflows to fit business rules.
Integrating BPA with legacy systems that don’t always “play nice” out of the box.
Training staff so automation doesn’t just live in IT but is adopted by the business.
For firms in Wisconsin, this often means partnering with consulting firms like X-Centric IT Solutions to avoid wasted spending and ensure the automation strategy aligns with growth goals.
BPA vs. RPA
Although often confused, BPA and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) are not the same:
Business Process Automation – Focuses on automating end-to-end business processes (e.g., customer onboarding, HR approvals).
Robotic Process Automation – Focuses on automating individual tasks (e.g., extracting data from invoices, moving it into a database). It mimics what a human would do with a keyboard and mouse.
Organizational Triggers of Business Process Automation
Organizational triggers for business process automation arise from identified inefficiencies like repetitive tasks, high error rates, and slow turnaround times. Strategic goals such as reducing operational costs, improving customer experience, and freeing up employees for strategic work also serve as powerful triggers.
For Wisconsin’s mid-market organizations, business process automation has many benefits:
Reducing operational costs by cutting manual workloads.
Improving compliance through standardized processes.
Enabling scalability without increasing headcount.
Freeing employees to focus on customer experience and innovation instead of paperwork.
