Automation Strategy

Why are Automation Strategies Important?

Businesses rely on automation to function effectively in today’s fast-paced modern world. Artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and robotics are being utilized by businesses to streamline processes and alleviate the stress of repetitive tasks. 

Automation strategies are being used by businesses to boost productivity and free up valuable employee time. In recent years, there has been a shift towards allowing employees more freedom and autonomy in the workplace. This shift wouldn’t have been possible without automation strategies because, without them, employees would be stuck carrying out monotonous daily tasks. 

There are several benefits associated with automation strategies including: 

• Reduced time to fill crucial roles 
• Better employee onboarding 
• Greater employee retention and a more productive working environment 
• Stronger employer brand 
• Faster growth

How to Build an Automation Strategy Roadmap

An automation strategy roadmap is a framework for providing end-to-end guidance for automation platforms and projects. The success of an automation project depends on three crucial areas that include planning, front-end loading (FEL), and execution. 

Process automation technology such as robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent process automation (IPA) are proving that innovative technology is continuing to offer gains in efficiency and cost-saving that far outweigh the initial investment. 

The following components outline the necessary steps needed to build an automation strategy roadmap: 

1. Build the Plan:
   Businesses need to establish a framework that allows for next-level control management. A pane view of essential process automation, creation, execution, and orchestration should be easily accessible on a single dashboard regardless of the platform source. This comprehensive approach helps businesses to establish continued success with minimal risk.
2. Design a Governance Structure:
   A governance structure that is competent and well-built is an essential component of transformative technology. A healthy governance strategy should offer businesses the ability to scale whilst performing ongoing risk management exercises that reduce obstacles.
   While your governance framework will be unique to the nature of your business, the following key elements should be included:

   1. A Communications Strategy
   2. A Security Strategy
   3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
   4. Strike Teams
   5. The Acquisition of Licenses

3. Develop Process Automation:
   This stage incorporates the creation of bots that automate given tasks. This once required advanced coding and would be carried out by cross-departmental IT teams and fusion teams, but today, no-code platforms are democratizing this type of content creation.

   User acceptance tests (UAT) are also incorporated at this stage and are delivered by testing teams in pre-production environments to access the complete execution of a given task. The automated process is only considered to be ready for deployment when it passes a stringent test. If the automation fails, it’ll be shifted back to the development stage for corrections and analysis.

4. Deploy Process Automation:
   This stage incorporates the actual deployment of automated processes. This phase isn’t static and instead requires maintenance and an ongoing emphasis on optimization.

   Technology research company Gartner suggests modest rollouts that are scaled into bigger operations down the road tend to be more successful. At this stage, businesses should be able to easily build, integrate. and deploy automation through orchestration frameworks that offer more opportunities to scale technology to its full potential.

5. Test, Manage & Monitor:
   Businesses use this stage to track their wins, recognize threats and challenges, and adapt strategic frameworks as needed. Using hyper-focused efficiency and a comprehensive governance structure enables development at the enterprise level by translating problems at the task level.

   This helps businesses to promote productivity and creates an empowered workforce that all have the same business goals at the heart of their employee experience.

6. Scale:
   Scaling is achieved through the proper execution of the aforementioned stages and giving each one the weight and consideration needed to fully evaluate and measure success.

   A comprehensive overview of the entire roadmap should be established before businesses attempt to scale automated processes.

Why is an Automation Strategy Important For Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation and automation are often used interchangeably but have two very different meanings. Whilst automation strategies focus on the application of technology to make processes autonomous, digital transformation is the greater desired outcome of an effective automation strategy. 

Gartner argues that digital transformation requires not only making existing processes more efficient but creating or unlocking new value for customers. This means that process automation is a necessary step towards comprehensive digital transformation.

Socializing and implementing automation across the entire business structure requires cross-departmental input to fully reap the benefits of new workflows. 

The automation of daily workflows is the most important component of a successful digital transformation strategy. Without workflow automation, manual processes pose an underlying disruption threat that causes businesses a lot of harm.

Conclusion

The benefits of an automation strategy are vast and include increased productivity, reliability, availability, better performance, and reduced operating costs. New technologies and innovations are making it possible to remove the human effort from repetitive tasks such as data entry and typing. 

Leveraging the use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and robotic process automation (RPA) gives businesses the ability to enhance the efficiency of business rules whilst using data to learn, grow, and make informed future decisions.