THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF PROCESS AUTOMATION IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
No matter which industry you are in, you would surely find an increase in the use of process automation. Instead of humans, software bots mimic our activities and intelligently interact with applications. They effortlessly complete tedious tasks, working as a virtual business assistant, freeing up more time for the leadership and employees to focus on more innovative, revenue-generating tasks.
PROCESS AUTOMATION A KEY DRIVER FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Process automation has brought on a complete metamorphosis, with future-ready businesses. It has successfully dismantled the traditional siloed ways of business operation. Automating workflows, infrastructure, back-office processes which are labour intensive, and repetitive tasks are handled by the virtual workforce. More importantly, it has gifted leadership with enough time and space to think and come up with ideas, valuable initiatives and formulate actionable strategies.
A combination of algorithmic, natural language processing and machine learning capabilities have allowed organizations to automate task just like people across application and systems. A study by Deloitte in 2017, shows 53% of organizations have started RPA processes, increasing to 72% by 2020 and reaching a near-universal adoption by 2022.
UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF THE INVALUABLE DATA
An overwhelming level of data and insights are available in today’s digital world. Utilizing these vast new flows of information can help your organization, as they provide astute insights into critical elements of the business. A key aspect of analytics technologies and deep learning is that they rely on data, and the more data, more accurate and meaningful are the insights.
The world is gradually shifting towards open systems and open data. Organizations and businesses that leverage open data will dominate the future. Leaders are now challenged to find ways to overcome current organizational boundaries, and deciding how to assign and share data among departments. Also to spot new trends and work to ensure that data is used to its fullest potential.
MAKING THE JOURNEY CUSTOMER CENTRIC
The customer experience landscape is changing rapidly so knowing how to operate in it is becoming a key priority. In a study by McKinsey over 70% of app users preferred added functionality over “look and feel” of any app. Automation is therefore here to stay and enhance human activities enabling higher value delivery, speed and innovation.
Successful leaders pursue digital transformation by launching an integrated operating model organized around customer journeys. The starting point would be to begin the process of developing an agile digital delivery system within a cross-functional team.
A TRANSFORMATIVE STEP-UP
Process Automation is becoming increasingly refined with groundbreaking technologies and smarter with time, introducing minimalism in place of myriad complex processes. The advent of disruptive technologies has brought in speed and cost optimization elevating business processing centres on the technology curve.
BPA can be applied in different departments within an organization, such as operations, IT, sales, marketing, business development, human resources, legal, financial and administration departments. Business process automation involves automating the recurring tasks of a business process rather than doing it manually.
Let’s examine a manual and an e-purchase order process. A manual PO process tends to have problems, incorrect data entry, or delay in documentation etc. It is also time-consuming as it involves manually raising a purchase order requisition, then going and getting approvals from various departments, verifying the order and raising invoices before getting final approval. As compared to an e-procurement system, where purchase requests are digitally initiated, routed to the appropriate stakeholders for quick approval. Making it much easier to use and e-process, as all its computations are automatically handled.
THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF PROCESS AUTOMATION
That would be to improve the work environment for people who are the driving force and not to replace them. As a leader your task is to ensure that all of the team and staff understand this fact, enabling people and machines to interact more naturally.
In the end, it is a human analysis that provides real value and contextual insight. There is also a clear need for organizations to empower the workforce by creating an exponential Agile learning environment.
Are you interested in learning more? Stay tuned. We shall try to clear some of the common misconceptions in our next blog. Meantime, invite you to read some of our recent blog posts and share your comments.
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