Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack Technologies, says, “There’s a lot of automation that can happen that isn’t a replacement of humans but of mind-numbing behavior.”
If you can automate something, why would you do it manually?
Without automation, businesses spend more (i.e. waste) more time on #repetitive, manual, and often paper-based processes. Manual processes are errors more and expensive mistakes could happen, documents get lost, misplaced inventory, incorrect orders processing leading to customer dissatisfaction.
Business process automation #businessprocessautomation in today's world is no longer nice to have but is required where necessary. The need for automation is inevitable—it results in saving time and money, increased efficiencies, higher accuracy, and empowering businesses to do more with less.
If IT budgets were unlimited, businesses would automate everything. But since that’s not the case, businesses must choose their automation wisely.
But often times businesses do not know where to start and looks for #ROI
Small and midsize businesses rarely undertake a complete automation strategy overnight. Automation projects typically happen one small step at a time. A minor change can significantly and positively affect operations while initiating digital transformation.
Breaking a larger automation strategy into manageable pieces enables a business to identify its biggest pain point, find the right technology—or modify existing technology—to solve it, then proceed to the next pain point when budget and time permit.
Many businesses address automation needs when a department reports a problem. For example, the finance team finds a cash flow issue and traces it to un-invoiced service calls.
Other businesses don't know where to start. They know there’s a problem—like customer churn is rising—but don't know what's causing it.
If you’re trying to decide the best place to start automating, follow these steps. Or, to evaluate the effect of a specific problem area, scroll to #6.
1. Assemble a committee with a team member from each major business line, like IT, accounting and finance, and operations and logistics.
2. Identify problem areas for stakeholders and teams. Ask teams to list problematic tasks, processes, or known business issues. If they’re not sure where to start, ask them questions like:
3. Give the group a template to ensure everyone submits the right information. It will be easier to evaluate and prioritize the automation candidates. Here are some suggestions:
4. Organize the information, prepare an initial analysis of your findings, and discuss them with the group.
5. Foster open discussion among committee members to decide which issues are the most critical and deserve further evaluation. Rank them by importance.
6. Perform a cost/benefit analysis of the highest-ranked issues using these criteria. This process will provide the business justification for the investment and validate the importance of automating a manual task.
For example: Customers are complaining about delayed shipments. The cause may be data entry mistakes in subassembly production orders. Those mistakes hold up production, which delays shipping.
How much money is the business crediting to customers monthly and annually to satisfy them? Compare that to the cost of licensing software that automates the entire process. Embracing technology to solve the problem saves time and money.
7. Build an action plan based on your cost/benefit analysis. When you quantify and compare the costs of the attributes above to the cost of an automation solution, you’ll identify the projects that will yield the highest return.
8. Make a plan—but make sure it supports and aligns with a broader strategic objective. That objective could be at the team, department, or company level.
Here are some examples:
Manual processes bog down critical resources and prevent you from spending time on strategy and innovation.
Automation saves time, eliminates mistakes, increases process efficiency, and improves cash flow. Automation is also an ideal starting point for digital transformation, empowering growing businesses to become flexible, resilient enterprises that thrive in changing market conditions.
Let Vanguard Infotech Solutions help small and mid-size companies build Automations for any solution. Reach out to Vanguard Infotech Solutions Inc. for a personalized consultation to revolutionize your operations! Let's innovate together!
