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Financial technology, aka fintech, recently experienced its first wave of growth and adoption in the United States, where it’s fast becoming integral to financial services companies’ operations.

What is workflow automation? Workflow automation designs and executes a series of repetitive business tasks based on business rules to reduce human interactions and increase productivity. Workflow is a series of tasks that has to be accomplished to achieve a business objective. Most businesses’ daily operations depend on repetitive tasks such as sending email verification, completing forms, and so on. When doing something repetitive, human errors may occur, for instance, the employee might email the wrong recipient with a similar name or forget to include the completed document. Human error is an inevitable problem for most business processes so companies use workflow management software and automation software to simplify the human interaction of a process. Workflow automation is performed using robotic process automation (RPA) software and is also referred to as RPA. 

What is email automation? Email automation is the use of email messages to drive sales and engagements and expand the reach of a business. This practice is typically used with email marketing software and in marketing automation software. Examples of email automation include a welcome message for a new customer, a reminder that they left something in their cart, or recommendations for similar products to purchase. Essentially, email automation is the practice of implementing a process for repetitive tasks to free up valuable time. 

Big tech companies are expanding their financial services offerings across the globe, but the landscape and opportunities differ depending on the region.

No matter how dry or stale people think accounting and finance is, these functions are vital to the health of any company. Felipe Torres, a financial analyst at G2, further explains that finance and accounting functions “...help us prepare for the future and drive strategies that ensure we're maximizing our potential.”

The concept of automation is straightforward: create tools that perform tasks with minimal human involvement. And the motivation for more automation is simple: Companies can do more with less. “More” means companies can sell and deliver a higher volume of products and services than ever before. “Less” refers to the fact that, thanks to automation, fewer resources are required.

The phrase “time is money” has never been more true than it is now. 

To work in human resources is to be inundated with repetitive, time-intensive and error-sensitive tasks, day in and day out. Fortunately, it’s become easier to automate these tedious tasks and allow HR personnel to focus their time and energy on expanding their strategic and creative thinking. 

In a digital age, data security is a top priority, but it can be difficult to know who exactly is  responsible for securing sensitive information. While companies may feel they have sufficiently secured their own data, those that utilize SaaS vendors in their business put their sensitive information and business data in the hands of these vendors, who store it in the cloud or on-premises at their location. There are a number of security considerations and variables a business should keep in mind, especially related to cloud security. But it's helpful to remember one simple question when considering vendors or evaluating current protection efforts: Does the country housing my data care about security? Countries that do have taken action to protect personal and business data stored in their country or region. Other efforts to protect personal information include enforcing security standards, developing national cybersecurity strategies, and providing public awareness campaigns, among others. Countries that received lower scores have done less to ensure businesses are protecting data and require less transparency between data collectors and individuals.  In a globalized world, servers could be housed in any number of countries other than the one your business or a software vendor operates in. Still, it should be considered a potential red flag if vendors operate out of extremely vulnerable geographical regions.  Every year, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) releases the results of a worldwide security survey titled the United Nations Global Cybersecurity Index (CGI). The index provides an overall security rating based on a number of factors related to legislative, organizational, technical, capacity building, and international cooperation.

One of the hottest topics in data privacy management in 2020 is automation—specifically, automated data discovery and classification.