5 Entry Points to Enterprise Automation
Key benefits of enterprise automation, common misconceptions and steps to kickstart your journey.
Imagine a workforce that is excited to go to work because they can fully unleash their true talents, such as complex problem-solving and strategic thinking. Preeti Lobo of Apps Associates discusses the key benefits of enterprise automation, common misconceptions around the technology, and how to successfully start your automation journey.
The recent boom in generative AI models has demonstrated the tremendous impact augmentative technology can offer to humans. And with the right level of employee education and awareness, it can play a critical role in building a more productive workforce. What’s more, organizations that have already embraced automation have seen significant process improvements, directly translating into higher revenue recognition and higher customer satisfaction.
However, some organizations remain hesitant to incorporate automation into their corporate workflows due to the perceived costly undertaking and fear that jobs will be displaced. Despite these misconceptions, it’s vital for modern organizations to befriend and trust these evolutionary advancements that can streamline simple tasks currently consuming precious time that could be spent on higher-value endeavors, such as innovating and positively impacting their companies’ bottom line and customer experience.
Key Benefits of Automation
To maintain a competitive edge and increase the speed of innovation, organizations need to embrace new technologies.
Beyond the bottom line and relief for employees, automation can also heighten productivity for duties that don’t require a high level of cognitive thinking, creating a layer of efficiency that previously did not exist. On average, 57% of IT leaders say that automation technology is helping them reallocate time from manual tasks to strategic initiatives, saving departments between 10% and 50% on costs previously associated with manual processing.
However, it doesn’t only benefit the employee; it also directly benefits the customer experience by helping to resolve more issues faster.
See More: The Many Flavors of Automation: Which One Do You Need?
Common Automation Misconceptions
So, if automation is so wonderful, why is it that more corporations aren’t jumping at the chance to implement it? There are still looming fears about bots taking over jobs. As such, it’s critical to communicate to employees that the bot’s intention is to get them out of the weeds and elevate their role and career potential. According to a report, automation has improved jobs for 90% of knowledge workers and productivity for 66% of them.
Another major misconception is that implementing automation is a complicated process. While all businesses are not created for the same intent and purpose, when an organization has defined clear goals and objectives they would like to achieve, along with a partner who can help ease the transition, the process can be quite simple—no matter the industry or focus area.
Consider the following automation success story from a UK-based investment company. The company’s leadership team realized that there were a handful of daily operational activities that, while invaluable, were unnecessarily time-intensive and mundane for their employees. They needed a solution that would speed up their laborious manual activities (i.e., processing investor applications), so their employees would have more time for personal engagements with clients. They decided to tap an enterprise application services partner for help. Through the partnership and the successful implementation of automation, the company was able to save countless hours on processing applications, and even paved the way for the deployment of automation in other areas of the business – ultimately enabling the company to keep up with its tasks so it could scale.
IT software development is expected to launch and update at a breakneck pace, but an API-first platform can help companies do more than simply keep up. As demonstrated, it allows them the opportunity to set the pace with their own business growth, by enabling everyone within the organization, regardless of skill level, to build exactly what they need, when they need it.
How to Get Started on Your Automation Journey
Some of the most common challenges that automation can solve include connecting multiple systems, minimizing data entry errors, streamlining orders and approvals, enhancing customer service, and automating tedious reporting.
To realize these benefits, IT leaders should start small instead of trying to boil the ocean. Start by identifying a handful of low-risk tasks within one department that have been in place for more than six months and require an unchanging sequence of events—migrating a physical document system to a cloud-based one, for example. By starting small, organizations get used to incremental changes and see quick returns, before graduating to the next level of a larger automation strategy.
For more ideas of where to consider starting your automation journey, here is a list of common types of automation processes that apply to most enterprise-specific needs:
- Rules-based process: While not the quickest option to begin with, consider optimizing processes where a series of simple “if…then” logic can be applied without involving any human decision. These systems have been around for a long time and rely on a set of template-driven instructions to mimic human reasoning and solve problems. It can help reduce processing time and costs.
- Stable process: Workflows performed in the same way for a period no fewer than six months, where frequent changes aren’t expected in the near future. Repetition should be the key identifier to consider these workflows as starting points, because if it is a new process, some of the nuances haven’t been flushed out yet and therefore can’t be programmed for if/then logic. Use six months as a standard benchmark for processes that fall within this category.
- Standard inputs: These are workflows where the system is programmed to know where information comes from. For example, a document with data stored in a predefined format, versus things like handwritten documents or images– e.g., word documents, emails, database fields, reports, etc. Across organizations, starting points with standard inputs require consistency, readability, process, and rules.
- Repetitive manual process: Select this process for automation to gain full-time equivalent (FTE) reduction cost benefit. Every day a user performs a series of tasks in the system that don’t require human decision-making. By automating these types of processes, organizations can expect to see a boost in overall employee morale as a result of increased bandwidth to do other more meaningful tasks on their to-do list.
- High volume: Processes that have a large volume of records/transactions enable a better ROI for automation. Similar to repetitive manual processes, by automating high volume processes, employees will have more time to focus on high-priority work, and organizations can realize economies of scale.
Thriving with Enterprise Automation
Once automated processes have been successfully implemented, monitor performance indicators around those tasks‚ such as improved employee bandwidth, customer experience, or increased ROI – communicate these positive outcomes with others in the organization to determine if it could be replicated and optimized across other divisions.
In today’s competitive and high-demand environment, data and workloads have grown beyond human capacity alone. Automating workflows provides tremendous value to employees, companies, and customers alike. With clear goals in mind and taking the right steps to identify and define the right strategy, any organization can overcome the common misconceptions and fears to scale and thrive in the future of work.
Where are you on your enterprise automation journey? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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