Modern automation capabilities can free up workers' valuable time to help them be more productive and focus on big picture tasks that will further a company's vision. With so many tools available, how can you determine which automation technologies would be best for your company?
To help you decide, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share a few of their favorite tools that have helped them automate their work and boost productivity.
What’s the best piece of automation (e.g., a tool or software) you’ve incorporated into your company’s workflow, and how has it helped your overall productivity?
1. Jira
For our custom software development business, it was the implementation of Jira. Although it is known primarily as a platform for project management, we were able to set up boards for marketing, sales, and accounting. As a result, we have an all-in-one analytical platform that helps us to track different processes and see how they connect and interact. —Maksym Babych, SpdLoad
2. Process Street
We use a tool called Process Street. We primarily [conduct] phone-based sales and the tool allows us to run a custom script based on the answers to various questions. While lots of script tools exist natively in various calling tools, with Process Street you can integrate easily with other tools for notices, data, and updates. It's been a powerful addition to the team. —JT Allen, myFootpath LLC
3. Time Doctor
We use Time Doctor to help track the work of our employees in a fair and automated way. You can download an app for your mobile devices and use it to organize your tasks, set goals, and record the work being done. It saves people a great deal of time and effort from having to track their work manually. It also gives you automated reports you can use to be more effective. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
4. TexAu
I would say TexAu [has been] our lifesaver. If you're in sales, it saves you time by building the right contacts and generating data. It's great for automating marketing tasks, enabling us to extract data and generate leads. It speeds up our lead generation process for social media, and review and news sites. This frees our time to focus on other tasks for clients. —Tonika Bruce, Lead Nicely, Inc.
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5. Trello
Trello is essentially a one-stop-shop for project management. I say that because, for the most part, you can integrate all of your relevant email accounts and apps into this product, which means the management of your projects and other tasks is as streamlined as it can possibly be. —Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
6. monday.com
Monday.com is an excellent automation tool for leaders who need help managing their teams' workflow. It allows you to quickly and easily create project boards for your team members and includes subtasks, the ability to assign tasks to specific employees, and more. We use this tool to manage our content marketing team. If you find that your team is disorganized and needs a little structure, check it out. —John Turner, SeedProd LLC
7. Asana
Asana has been one of the best project management tools we’ve ever incorporated. It allows you to effectively communicate in one space with clients or team members about tasks. You end up with a thread of comments that are easy to track related to a specific task. It also is incredibly simple to sync Asana and its capabilities with other platforms. —Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker
8. Droplr
Our company uses Droplr to take screenshots and share photos with other colleagues or to use in content. This expedites the process of adding and sharing images so we spend less time on the smaller stuff and can focus on bigger projects and tasks. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
9. Notion
Notion has transformed our workflow. We have managed to build a virtual office on Notion, which is further divided into departments and teams. Personal to-do lists, team-wide briefs, department-wise checklists, organization-wide notice boards—it all happens on Notion. We are more productive as everything happens in one space and we don’t have to switch between five apps to get work done. —Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
10. Slack
We use Slack's automated reminders to touch base with our team about meetings, events, and deadlines. I've found this tool extremely helpful when I'm laser-focused on the task at hand and lose track of time—and our employees say the same thing. I find this feature particularly helpful around daylight saving time when we need to get our global team on the same page again for weekly meetings. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
