Workato, an automation platform for your needs?

7 minutes
Workato

Workato is a business process automation platform that integrates all your company’s relevant software (ERP, CRM, HRIS, project management, ticketing…).

The Workato platform uses no-code and low-code designers , enabling, on paper, non-technical profiles to create their own automations. Nevertheless, even if you don’t need to know how to code to use it, Workato is still aimed at IT department staff.

Without directly talking about operational efficiency, profitability, resilience or productivity, this article will help you find out if Workato is right for your company OR NOT.

Discover comparison of automation softwares

Contact us if you think we have made a mistake in this article.

Introducing Workato

Workato is an American company founded in 2013 in San Francisco. Analyst Gartner classifies it in the IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) box. However, you’ll find that Workato offers much broader functionality, such as task and workflow automation.

Workato presentation video

3 examples of use cases

Sales administration

By connecting all your sales and marketing tools. You can enrich your CRM, generate quotes from your quotation tools, send them automatically to the prospect, put them away, rename them in a drive, update the status in the CRM, follow up with the prospect – and all this effortlessly. The salesperson can concentrate on what’s most valuable: customer relations and building the offer.

Purchasing process

By integrating your inventory tracking, operations planning and accounting tools, you can create a dynamic purchasing approval circuit, triggered by a certain level of inventory or orders. In addition, Workato could handle supplier management and control throughout the process, as well as supplier invoice payment processing.

HR

Following a recruitment process that can also be managed with Workato. You can automate many of the tasks involved in onboarding a new employee, such as generating the contract, signing it, ordering a computer, creating accounts in the company’s various software applications, scheduling job training and any other relevant step.

Find out more in our article on process automation

Automated process

Its 3 main functions

The Workato software consists of 3 major functions:

  • Integration of enterprise applications and software via native connectors or APIs. You can connect software such as Salesforce, Slack, Google Sheets, Excel, Sage, Zendesk, SAP, Hubspot, Jira, Netsuite, Docusign…
  • The automation of tasks in an organization’s internal processes. Automation can be broken down into 2 parts:
    • A single trigger. For example, receiving an email with the word “Request” in the subject line.
    • A set of actions that follow on from each other in a linear fashion, with no turning back. However, conditions and filters are available to create different paths according to configurable criteria. For example, if the request contains the word logistics, then the request is sent to Marc, otherwise a transaction is created in the company’s ticketing tool.
  • The creation and management of databases and applications or user interfaces to enable the simple digitization of certain activities.

Its functionalities are managed by no-code and low-code designers, enabling applications to be created easily and without code skills, to meet the needs of both IT and business departments.

What type of company is Workato designed for?

Like Microsoft Power Automate, Workato is a tool for companies with more than 500 employees and an in-house IT department, or with the means (budget and time) to call on Workato service providers.

Indeed, even if the designers are no-code and low-code (thus requiring little or no IT development skills). However, process automation does require a certain level of knowledge and skill. This constraint is notably linked to the complexity of IS architecture, system maintenance and the management of functional upgrades.

If you have fewer than 500 employees, we advise you to look at tools such as Lapala or Zapier. In fact, we’ve written an article comparing all automation software.

Discover comparison of automation softwares

What are the advantages of Workato?

The main advantage and drawback: price and return on investment

Workato’s drawbacks

Examples of automation and digitalization

Workato covers a wide range of areas, from sales administration to logistics, purchasing, HR, customer service…

Sales administration

  • Create, send, follow-up and sign quotations
  • Ditto for invoices
  • Ditto for contracts
  • Automated sales reports

Accounting

  • Payment management
  • Payment reminders
  • Monitoring cash receipts
  • Importing invoices into accounting software
  • Expense management

Marketing / Sales

  • Automatic opportunity identification
  • Qualifying requests in CRM
  • Information gathering
  • Making an appointment

Customer service

  • Qualifying requests
  • Handling certain customer requests
  • Sending out questionnaires
  • Reporting
  • Monitoring quality indicators

Production management

  • Alert and boost
  • Collecting data
  • Automated data entry
  • Tidying up notes
  • Planning

Purchasing

  • Inventory tracking
  • Alerting and notification
  • Order entry
  • Controlling the validation circuit

HR

  • Notifications related to the recruitment process
  • Leave request process management
  • Onboarding management

Information systems

  • Qualification of support requests
  • Processing certain tickets
  • Computer security alerts

Getting to grips with the tool

If you think Workato isn’t for you, let us introduce you to Lapala.

Lapapa, the human-centered automation platform

It’s easy to use, intuitive and no-code. Its configuration is not dependent on technical teams or the IT department.


Now you know all about Workato. Now it’s your turn! See you soon for more content!


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