Demystifying the Imperatives of Successful Automation in Organizations

For the success of automation in organizations, strategic approach towards its application, is imperative for reaping maximum benefits.

Even before the pandemic had economies spiralling down, most of the business organizations were indulging to apply automation in their businesses. A survey by Mckinsey Insight states that 61% of the respondents, who are company executives agreed to have applied automation in their organizations. However, the imperativeness of applying automation have shifted from Strategising Automation to putting automation as a Priority.

Automation enables organizations to pull out strategies that would be lucrative for reforming organizations in the later stage. However, for the success of automation, organizations need to apply strategies that would render them with the complete benefits of automation.

Prioritising Automation

Most of the organizations are undergoing a phase, where the focus has been shifted from using automation as a strategic tool, to applying automation as a priority. By applying automation as a priority, it has been observed that operational cost can be reduced. Automating organizations along with ongoing business models, would also enable strategic process for the development of organization to be four times faster than those of other companies. The survey by Mckinsey Insight states that almost 38% of the respondents agreed that automation has enhanced their strategic process.

The Business process management platforms, RPA, image recognition technologies, Machine learning, documentation tools are some of the areas that require successful automation for positive outcome.

For those organizations which are not successful in achieving their targets of automation or are yet to apply automation, and who are planning for piloting automation by pursuing automation programs, it has been observed that these organizations are already prioritising automation for the long-term cost-saving, to keep pace with competitors or to address concerns for the business processes.

The organizations that have achieved the target of applying automation are nearly five times more likely to enjoy the benefits of automation.

Aligning Human Skills with Technology

The need for the technology and the employees to work together, have been felt across the sectors where automation is applied. For any automating process to be successful and to deliver benefits within its full capacity, the involvement of human skill and expertise is becoming imperative. This approach render organizations to work efficiently and also to acknowledge the skill gap required for automation.

Organizations that are undergoing the process of automation must involve the employee training and capability building, so that individuals expertise gets embedded in the automation process. Organizations must also encourage the employees by establishing a learning culture of different technologies. With this approach, not only the employees will get diversified amount of knowledge, but the time for the redundant task, that could be done with automation would be decreased as well. This will help organizations in addressing those areas which require focus.

The organisations that have successful automation is observed to have the involvement of human related solution, by training individuals for automation process. This enables for a smooth flow of communication across organizations.

Scaling up Automation Tools

Automation is complex and continue to grow, when applied in organizations. As it continues to expand amongst different areas of the organizations, keeping track of the automating process amongst the various departments becomes challenging. Also, lack of communication between the departments and the pre-existing silos amongst departments is often observed to be a hinderance for delivering the benefits of automation. That's why it becomes imperative that communication is regulated and maintained, so that the automation process across all the departments are maintained. This would help in developing efficiency amongst the process of automation. A Coordinated business unit would reap the maximum benefit for automation outcomes.

Identifying the Necessary area of Automation

The success of automation also involves identifying the area that requires immediate need for automation. This type of approach, would enable organizations to take a systematic approach for addressing the need for automation.

Thus for the automation to be successful, organizations must address the loopholes associated with various areas and sectors. A strategic approach of applying automation, would enable organizations to have a positive outcome of automation.