Enterprise automation is a framework for more efficient and consistent operations. It positions businesses to take full advantage of robotic process automation (RPA) across the many areas where this transformative technology can improve current workflows and support key goals.
Understanding leading trends in the world of RPA and enterprise automation can help your organization select relevant, emerging strategies for implementation and use. Read on to learn more about the top five trends in enterprise automation.
1. RPA’s growing role in risk management
Every business works with sensitive information, whether it’s trade secrets, client payment and personal information or something else entirely. There is data on hand that your company needs to keep as secure as possible, but there are also processes to automate. In this context, the growing use of enterprise automation to address risk management is certainly worth keeping an eye on.
The Enterprisers Project identified RPA bots used for risk management and security applications as a trend to keep an eye on. The key advantage of RPA when it comes to security is the lack of potential for human error. With the right structure in place and appropriate scripts to follow, RPA eliminates the possibility of employees accidentally or intentionally divulging information that could damage an organization’s reputation and relationships with customers and vendors. This type of process improvement thus results in collateral benefits throughout the entire ecosystem of a business and its many partners and workers.
Risk management is one area where the defining attributes of RPA – like consistent performance, lack of human error and predictable results – can lead to major advantages. It’s a great use case that exemplifies how an organization can automate in greater security and reliability while automating out inherent human weaknesses.
2. More complete buy-in from top leadership
The value of automation in an enterprise grows clearer by the day. As larger numbers of businesses continue to implement and enjoy the benefits of RPA, artificial intelligence (AI) and similarly powerful solutions, it’s harder to ignore or remain unaware of enterprise automation’s power.
Forbes contributor Daniel Newman pointed out that, in terms of AI and automation, senior executives must take both a greater interest in and a stronger ownership of implementation and general leadership. That’s not to say that a Center of Excellence (CoE) or group of expert advisers isn’t needed to make enterprise automation a reality. These groups are critical for success, but they must be supported by a company’s top executives for the greatest chance of success. Leaders can encourage adoption and effective use of their company’s own automation stack through support of key objectives, strategies for effective resource allocation and much more.
The same goes for the motivation to retire legacy applications, migrate toward cloud infrastructure and generally pursue automation capabilities wherever they may exist – it all starts at the top.
3. Identifying new opportunities to broaden the use of enterprise automation
Enterprise automation is increasingly popular, but there is still plenty of room for businesses to identify new and valuable use cases. While some companies have mature enterprise automaton programs in place, many others are only scratching the surface of a broader companywide automation initiative.
The benefits that come with RPA are clear. Repetitive, monotonous work that is prone to human error becomes something easily and efficiently managed. Companies can count on this advantage as soon as an RPA project is up and running, as well as in the long term. The more areas where a strong connection can be drawn between an existing workflow and the ability of RPA to successfully complete it, the better.
Opportunities can differ greatly from one industry and individual company to the next. The blueprint for automation outside of its most basic uses needs to be carefully considered by leadership to create the most positive outcome.
4. Hyperautomation’s extension of enterprise automation benefits
Gartner pointed to hyperautomation as a leading trend for 2020, not only in the world of enterprise automation but for business technology, as general Hyperautomation can be seen as the next step in enterprise automation, extending the benefits of basic automation to more complex processes by combining it with advanced solutions such as AI and machine learning.
The value of automation for basic, labor-intensive processes is clear. Businesses benefit from more efficient allocation of resources and better outcomes in terms of where staff and RPA assets are directed. Humans can focus on areas where critical, complex thinking, deep understanding of context and other skills robots simply don’t possess have to be applied. RPA bots can then be directed toward areas where their consistency in terms of action and output are most valuable. Functions that handle large volumes of data, like finance, accounting and HR, are ripe for an RPA tool or enterprise platform that can automate and manage these types of tasks without much human intervention.
Hyperautomation extends the potential capabilities of RPA, allowing businesses to utilize bots in one application after the other, creating a chain reaction of automation. This can lead to automation in areas like analysis, monitoring, design and other similarly advanced tasks. Wherever there is data to be crawled or productivity to be increased, automation technology is likely within reach to accomplish exactly that.
5. IT as an early leader in broader adoption
Enterprise automation is still a goal as opposed to a reality for many companies, as ZDNet explained. However, organizations are starting to get closer to the goal of widespread, useful and financially beneficial implementation through relatively early gains realized in IT departments. With IT staff playing a crucial role in establishing enterprise automation within organizations and the fact that many IT workflows can be reliably automated, it’s not surprising that this is the area where more substantial improvement is often seen early on.
Enterprise automation provides full value only when it’s implemented broadly across an organization. However, improvements specifically in the IT realm can go a long way toward making the case to support, fast-track or otherwise enable the actions necessary for a full-scale implementation. With the advantages of automation visible, it’s that much easier to convince decision-makers to take the final steps toward broader adoption.
The support your company needs to achieve enterprise automation goals
Scaling RPA programs to extend across an entire enterprise is a clear way to maximize value and create the greatest return on investment possible. With careful planning and execution, enterprise automation can provide valuable options for businesses that understand they must continually adapt and improve to remain relevant and competitive in their chosen marketplace.
To learn how Shibumi can help you achieve and exceed your enterprise automation goals, get in touch with us today to request a free demo.