The advent of digital transformation comes with a much broader sense to business automation. It has expanded from the mere machinery automation we’ve seen in factories years back. Now it has embarked to digital and data-driven actions and responses backed with artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, and cloud technology. With these technologies, business automation branching out to automatable workflows is almost inevitable.
Little did we know that business automation would improve ten folds to service a diverse population few decades back. Along with this industrial surprise is its relevance to the pool of businesses capitalizing on data.
Business automation has become a vital part of each modern business. Here’s why:
It builds up the business holistically
Don’t get the idea that once you automate a workflow, it’ll then smoothen everything. Automation is still a puzzle piece that needs a perfect blank slot to fill in. As it will be affecting the company inside and out, here are 10 points to think of when considering automation:
- Implement it where it makes sense – meaning, not all business processes are a good fit for automation.
- Take existing manual processes and slowly insert tools to improve them – because automation could be a bitter pill to take. Do it gradually, let those tools mature in use, and eventually evolve to a fully automated process.
- Automate for internal and external engagement – this way, you serve not just clients but also your workforce.
- Implement it to handle repetitive tasks – like invoices, attendance tracking, front-desk customer data acquisition, and many others.
- Automate small tasks for a large impact – start with the menial tasks save time and allocate it to more important tasks.
- Create automated connections between various software solutions – have an automation that can easily be integrated with other technologies such as business intelligence, document management systems, cloud storage, chatbots, and many others.
- Audit your processes for potential optimization – stay on top of your processes by doing an optimization audit. Have a keen eye to your data entry, approval, and review processes that require inputs from the user mostly. Gauge the processes with the clicks, cycles, levels, and interactions. The highest figures accrued equates to strong importance and high return on investment.
- Leverage transformational projects to kick off automation – moving from on-premise to a cloud-based document management system as the storage backend of your files would be a great start. This doesn’t just modernize the process but also making it more integrative to future automation tools.
- Fully understand the manual process that you want to automate, then code them step-by-step – because that’s the only way you can thoroughly translate each part of the process into an automated workflow and determine which step can be simply coded. Check each process and fine-tune and let every step be flexible enough to evolve and communicate with the other parts of the system.
- Focus on your core and automate everything else – because your main competencies matter more and cannot be fostered with automation. Automate what could be automated but never forget the wisdom behind your choice for automation.
It increases productivity and improves customer service
Mckinsey has it that automation could raise global productivity by 0.8% to 1.4% annually. This automation covers the improvement of business performance, reduction of human errors, refining of quality and speed of work, and even going beyond human capabilities.
Tied in is Statista’s worldwide survey in 2017 tackling about the reception of chatbots among people. 34% of respondents prefer to answer questions from an AI through a chatbot or a virtual assistant for e-commerce transactions, followed by healthcare on 27%, and telecommunications at 25%.
These are safe figures to conclude that automation through AI can reduce human errors and streamline customer service, thus the growing features for preferred avenues for purchases and inquiries. Failing to provide a prompt and accurate response even for five minutes will lessens the chance for an effective contact or service up to 400%.
Chatbots tied with a sturdy cloud storage to pull up consumer analytics for response accuracy is clearly the embodiment of seamless machine learning happening today. Also, increased productivity and customer service would always lead to ROI.
It disrupts jobs and create new waves of employment
Though many are skeptic about this, economists still strongly support the job creation that automation can bring by putting the history in the picture. Taking the advent of ATMs in the banking sector, on average there were 20 bank tellers per bank back in 1988 and shrank down to 13 in 2004. Though with the lessening of bank teller posts, banks had opened 43% more branches, thus has increased the demand as well for bank-teller jobs.
Also, a study in the UK found out that 800,000 low-skilled jobs were abolished because of automation. Despite this, it has paved a way to 3.5 million newer jobs paid on average of $13, 000 or more per year.
Automation speeds up the workflows that can be automated. It also lets the workforce to do the surrounding tasks that can’t be automated yet and along the way, it creating more handsomely-paying jobs while with honing a pool of workforce that has more future-relevant skillsets.
Who can’t say no to a sturdy business identity that drives ROI and provides jobs for the people? Go for automation and let it streamline your business processes.
Still skeptic about it? We’re here to help. Talk to us.
