Automation is a word that inspires horror in some and unbridled enthusiasm in others. On the one hand, we associate it with the loss of work and replacement by artificial intelligence. But on the other hand, automation helps businesses save a lot of time and avoid performing repetitive tasks. So what’s it like? In this article, we’ll focus on why you should be interested in business automation and not be afraid of the word itself.
The latest State of Digital Maturity report shows that 51% of employees spend at least two hours daily on repetitive tasks. Two. Hours. Daily.
That seems like a lot, indeed. Anyway, let’s count what it means for a company.
– The median annual salary in Poland is 78,000 PLN gross (according to the Central Statistical Office, GUS).
– One employee spending two hours a day on unproductive tasks costs the organization PLN 19,578 a year.
– That is, 100 employees cost almost 2 million PLN a year.
Is there lot of potential for automation? Certainly. But let’s first find out what it is.
What is business process automation?
Business process automation is the use of technologies that take over the performance of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. It is one way to optimize work – reduce errors and allow employees to avoid monotonous tasks.
The most glaring examples of automation can be seen in customer service departments. The implementation of automated systems for answering frequently asked questions or chatbots significantly relieves the burden on consultants and, above all, allows them to focus on problems that require more attention.
Similarly with financial processes such as invoicing: thanks to automation, invoices can be generated, entered and sent almost effortlessly. Again – this saves time and reduces the risk of errors.
BPA, BPM and RPA – what do these terms mean and what makes them different?
There are several key terms in business process automation that are worth knowing, and most importantly, what makes them different:
- BPA (Business Process Automation) – which is the simplification and automation of a company’s workflow. BPA are solutions that streamline the entire process, from start to finish.
- BPM (Business Process Management) – it is not only automation but also process optimization and analysis. With BPM, a company can monitor, evaluate and improve its internal processes.
- RPA (Robotic Process Automation) – robotization of business processes, i.e. technology that allows creating “robots”. Of course, these are not cyborgs straight out of the movie “Terminator”, but computer programs that perform specific, repetitive activities. RPA finds application in tasks that require a lot of interaction with computer systems, such as transferring data between systems.
Automating a company’s business processes can involve a combination of these three approaches. In practice, however, choosing the right approach depends on the specifics of the company’s processes and goals.
What does business process automation bring to a company?
As mentioned in the introduction – we will focus mainly on the advantages of automation. Some of them have already been mentioned earlier:
- Saving time and resources – by automating processes in the company, you can save the time employees would have to spend on manual tasks. Document management activities are worth mentioning here again – systems that automate workflows eliminate the need for manual transcription of data (using technologies such as OCR).
- Reduce errors – automation of business processes avoids mistakes that can result from human fatigue or distraction. For example, automating the invoicing process eliminates errors that often occur with manual data entry.
- Improving the efficiency and quality of customer service – automation in a company can significantly improve the level of customer service, for example, by quickly responding to customer inquiries or automatically generating quotes.
You can read more about the applications of automation in a company here.
How to automate business/processes in a company?
Implementing process automation in a company obviously requires preparation. First of all, you need to count the ROI (return of investment). This involves calculations similar to those presented at the beginning of the article – how much do repetitive activities take and how much does it cost?
Automation for companies is an investment whose return is calculated in years. However, it’s worth the trouble and see at least if there’s a chance that the cost will pay off in the next 3-5 years.
Once you have decided on automation, implement it in the following steps:
- Needs and priorities analysis – at the beginning, it is worth identifying the processes that take the most time and are most prone to errors, such as order management. Let’s start automation with them.
- Selecting the right tools – the most time-consuming stage. It is best to gather offers from several vendors and see which one will give the best ROI results (depending on the price and number of automated processes). It’s also a good idea to ask companies to prepare a free demo version to get better acquainted with the system. On the other hand, once we are convinced about the supplier, we can still ask for a Proof of Concept (PoC) – a test implementation of the proposed solutions to see how they will look in practice. Most often, however, the PoC has to be paid for.
- Implementation and testing – once the tools have been selected, it is worth conducting pilot tests on selected processes to monitor their effectiveness.
What are the consequences of process automation?
Automation of a company’s business processes can raise concerns, especially among employees who worry about the future of their employment. At this point, however, it is worth quoting data from a World Economic Forum report from 2020. At the time, it was predicted that artificial intelligence could displace 85 million jobs within 5 years. However, at the same time, it predicted that 97 million new jobs would be created. So it’s hard to know the consequences of automation, but it’s worth knowing what the whole phenomenon entails.
Automation benefits:
Cost reduction – thanks to automation, you can minimize expenditures on repetitive tasks, which translates into savings in the company’s budget (previously mentioned ROI).
Employee satisfaction – automation relieves employees of monotonous tasks, allowing them to focus on more developing activities, which increases their job satisfaction (let’s not forget this aspect!).
Better business performance – automation of business processes promotes better financial and operational performance through improvements in time and resource management.
Finally
Business process automation is an investment that can be considered on many levels – financial, technological, but also social. It is impossible to exhaust such a complex topic in one article, and it would certainly be useful to have a second perspective focusing on the disadvantages of automation. Although much has already been written on this topic, there is still considerable room for debate. Probably never in the history of mankind have we had to deal with so much change.
He feels best creating, that’s why he is in charge of creative marketing at the company. He writes a lot – mostly popular science articles for Holistic.news but other times fantasy "drawer novels". He also designs tabletop games and likes to treat it as a "break from digitization".
