Over the past decade, automation has increased across sector and it is imperative to consider multiple approaches in order to vercome the challenges posed by them.
What is the significance of automation at present times?
Automation is the fourth irreversible trend after globalization, digitization and mobility.
According to a report by McKinsey, around 88% of finance and insurance executives, and 76% of IT executives reported an increased implementation of automation since the pandemic.
Robotic Process Automation - RPA is a software technology that is used to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate humans actions interacting with digital systems and software.
Intelligent automation – IA, also called as cognitive automation is a combination RPA , business process management (BPM) and artificial intelligence (AI) that streamlines and scales decision-making across organizations.
Intelligent automation is comprised of three cognitive technologies.
Artificial intelligence - This is the decision engine of IA which uses machine learning and complex algorithms.
Business process management - It automates workflows to provide greater consistency to business processes.
Robotic process automation - It uses software robots, or bots, to complete back-office tasks, such as extracting data or filling out forms.
What are the benefits of automation?
Accelerated transformation
Major cost savings
Greater resilience
Higher accuracy
Improved compliance
Boosted productivity
Increased employee satisfaction
Improve customer experience
What are the challenges in the automation?
Selecting the right adoption approach - In a bottoms-up approach, automation is usually seen as a back-office necessity, restricting its value and benefits to a few departments.
In a top-down approach, creating a fully automated enterprise is seen as a strategic business enabler that promotes competitive advantage.
Employee involvement – Only if large number of employees use automation, it will result in greater return on investment.
Using low-code and citizen developer concepts - Low-code platforms employ visual, drag-and-drop techniques instead of traditional lines of programming.
However, it might lead to difficulties in enforcing standards and could also cause security issues.
How to overcome these challenges?
Task mining and process mining capabilities of an automation platform can be determined to determine the best way for enterprise automation.
Business leaders must also deploy multiple integrated automation solutions to benefit the overall business.
A hybrid approach can be used to determine what to automate in which a feedback loop is created that amplifies use cases and drives adoption.
It is imperative to have a mechanism to regulate citizen developer concepts and to ensure alignment with the organizational strategy.
