How To Explain Process Automation To Your Board Members

In today's world there are a plethora of new technologies that companies are being asked to consider, in order to improve revenue and drive operational efficiencies such as machine learning, IoT (Internet of Things) and predictive analytics.

However the starting point for any company must be around their processes and there are a number of relevant facts to back this assertion. 

• Forbes, has predicted that by 2020, half of organizations globally, believe that nearly 50% of their revenue will be impacted by digital in some way.
  
  
• Digital Transformation is providing organizations with the digital ability to improve processes, products and resources. Digital Transformation journeys start at the core of the organization through every day processes.
  
  
• Organizations that have core operations that are manual, relying on paper or email and brimming with workarounds, put their long term survival and future growth objectives at risk.
  
  
• The flexibility and agility, to quickly create and modify a business processes is crucial.
  
  
• Traditionally, organizations had to wait from six to eighteen months to have their processes digitized. Manufacturers for example cannot wait this long as they require faster agility to automate processes, as their Supply Chain Process in particular must be quickly re-configured in weeks rather than months to keep up with the uncertainty of the market.
  

Benefits of Automating Processes

Traditionally, there is a perception when you hear “process automation” that this specifically refers to the supporting functions of an organization e.g. HR and Finance. Process automation can help companies drive more revenue, improve customer services around their core sales, marketing, and customer service functions such as:

1)  Efficiency Gains

The first and most valuable benefit through process automation is time-savings. Providing your employees with the right information at the right time (and in the correct context), will help them do their tasks more quickly and easily while reducing manual tasks. Automating many of these repetitive tasks can save hundreds, even thousands of working hours for organizations.

2) Ability to Respond to Market Demands 

The ability to automate processes allows for easy adaptations and improvements, enabling organizations to quickly launch new solutions to scale and adjust to the needs of the market. The ability to adapt to the current market demands is what gives your organization the necessary competitive edge.

3) Improve Customer Satisfaction

The time saving benefits your organization can benefit from process automation will give employees the time to focus on better customer service.

By enabling external customers to input into internal business processes customers can submit forms without logging into a portal with a username and password. These are typically used for once-off transactions/submissions (such as business vetting/visitor access etc.).

4) Governance & Compliance

Another significant advantage of process automation is adherence to company regulations and audits. Data integrity in an internal audit process is crucial as it provides a clear digital audit trail, including all personnel and comments for internal governance processes which acts as a single source of truth.

By following fixed guidelines, process automation eliminates situations in which documents may be displaced, or where processing steps might be missed. This allows your employees to effortlessly provide value to clients while the software handles all the necessary steps to ensure accuracy and security of the process.

Myth Busting

There is a perception that to enable process automation solution, users must experience a lengthy process of twelve to eighteen months including expensive up-front costs through solutions such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or BPM (Business Process Management) solutions.

This is no longer the case, as Digital Process Automation technology enables organizations to accelerate the creation of a business process 10 times faster than traditional technologies such as ERP and BPM. Digital Process Automation is enabling business process users (non-IT) to achieve these results through:

• No code platforms
• A“test and learn” approach allowing flexibility to quickly configure/change a business process
• Cloud based architectures (subscription license model) rather than the traditional CAPEX upfront cost model of on-premise solutions

Looking to find out more about process automation and how it can drive digital transformation in your organization? Reach out to our product experts today or why not take a free 30 day trial today, no credit - card no commitment!