What Businesses Still Get Wrong About Process Automation
In a world where support teams are expected to be available 24/7 and provide support quickly at all hours, automation can speed up processes, handle repetitive tasks and reduce errors.
Process automation can optimize business by completing repeatable tasks and giving teams time back spent on mind-numbing and meaningless work, but many companies struggle to make the most of process automation because they make mistakes in implementation. David Karandish, founder and CEO of Capacity, delineates common mistakes enterprises make and how to avoid them.
In a world where support teams are expected to be available 24/7 and provide support quickly, automation can speed up processes, handle repetitive tasks and reduce errors. Almost all (95%) IT and engineering leaders told Salesforce their organizations have prioritized workflow automation, and 3 out of 4 leaders said automation frees up time to let teams focus on strategic work. This improves the team member experience and leads to improved customer support experiences. Team satisfaction is a revenue multiplier, so giving support teams time for more complex work is crucial. Support automation is the key to success in today’s fast-paced business world.
Robotic process automation (RPA) uses technology to automate repetitive tasks that humans often do. Businesses can streamline their workflows and improve customer service by relying on virtual robots to complete these tasks. Any organization can incorporate RPA for use in support automation to make operations more efficient and streamlined.
Process automation lowers operational costs and boosts efficiency. Many organizations, though, continue to make the same mistakes along the road to implementing process automation, making it more difficult for their people to reap the benefits of the technology.
See More: Moving the Needle on Process Automation
Common Mistakes Companies Make in Process Automation
Here’s a look at three ways businesses go wrong and what they should do instead.
1. Approaching automation as an indivisible task
Many businesses try to automate entire workflows at once, but this can be a recipe for disaster. The one common theme I’ve noticed in every workflow I’ve seen is that everything moves faster when you break down the process into smaller stages. Maybe you’ve heard Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu’s saying about the only way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time. I have to agree. Automation is easier to implement when you approach the automation transition as a group of manageable tasks, and the system can change as your needs change. So how does a company take steps toward implementation? It starts with an enterprise automation roadmap.
Most businesses have many processes that are ripe for automation. However, many organizations don’t know where to start when developing an enterprise automation roadmap. To get started, you need to identify the structured systems that are already digitized and use standardized rules. From there, isolate the points where humans currently come in to transfer data from one location to another manually.
Once you understand these processes well, it’s important to meet with leaders to determine which tasks can be automated. Pay particular attention to process changes that would benefit customer and team member experiences by speeding up tedious activities. Before moving forward, it’s critical to assess the risks associated with automation and develop a plan to mitigate those risks.
2. Being unwilling to adjust their processes for automation
Most people think their business processes are immutable, and unable to be changed. In reality, most processes evolve and can withstand change to improve the use of automation. When you’re identifying a good place to start with process automation, it’s important to seek out simple, repeatable tasks that create bottlenecks, high error rates or hampered productivity. This will help you identify business areas where automation can have the biggest impact.
Once you’ve identified potential areas for automation, map out those task workflows before implementing anything. Mapping workflows will help you see what’s required and whether each element will work within automation parameters. Consider these questions:
- Are the workflows rule-based? Automated processes do best when they follow specific rules.
- Are the workflows company-specific, or do any organizations use them? An existing solution may integrate with your process automation platform if it’s a common workflow.
- Do the workflows change very often? While some periodic adjustments are expected with any workflow, automating processes that change often will result in developers spending significant time on maintenance.
Being willing to adapt workflows and thoroughly examine each element of those processes will help your team reach their short-term goals as you attempt to put automation into action.
3.Not asking the right questions
Implementing process automation can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t start with the answers you need. Include some crucial questions in your discussion with automation vendors to ensure they can satisfy your organization’s timeline and goals.
Ask for details about implementation timelines, prior experience automating workflows and what systems their technology can integrate with. This will help you better understand whether a vendor is a good fit for your needs. In addition, find out who will be responsible for building the workflow — the vendor, the client or both — so you know what level of support you can expect.
Choosing the right support automation solution doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By asking the right questions, you can narrow down your options. Ask these questions at the beginning so vendors have a chance to explain how they would meet your company’s unique demands and accommodate your existing systems. Doing so can help you avoid the hassle of cobbling together multiple solutions to meet those needs.
Plenty of options out there offer point solutions only, and your organization could collect those products and try to automate each part of your business through disparate systems. Ultimately, that strategy increases the potential for errors, maintenance issues and things falling through the cracks. Most importantly, you’ll lack a big-picture view of how automation is optimizing your work, and the time you save through automation will be taken up by trying to force those separate systems to talk to each other. A single, connected platform can do the heavy lifting of automation across your organization and integrate easily with all your systems, allowing your team members to retrieve information and advance through complicated workflows quickly. With all your data in one place and all your systems communicating, you’ll be surprised by the difference automation can make.
See More: How Automation Is Driving the Evolution of Work
Automatic Success in a Demanding Market
The global business process automation market is anticipated to reach $19.6 billion by 2026. When properly implemented, process automation helps lower costs, minimize errors, streamline time-consuming procedures, improve customer service and boost team member satisfaction. Consumer demands show no sign of slowing, and the struggle for talent is growing. Process automation can help your business stand out from the competition – for both team members and customers – if it’s put into action successfully.
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