Three Pillars of Enterprise Automation Success

Today’s enterprises are under pressure to transform digitally. Globalization has increased competition. Tight labor markets are forcing companies to produce more with fewer resources. And emerging market trends are requiring enterprises to react swiftly - or miss out on new opportunities.

In response to these challenges, many organizations are embracing new - and disruptive - digital business models. But IT leaders don’t necessarily feel ready. In a recent Gartner study, 59% of the participating IT professionals said their IT organization is unprepared for the digital business of the next two years.

The reason? A perfect storm of complex technology integrations, legacy systems, siloed data, and dated business processes. Together, these factors prevent organizations from achieving the agility needed to launch new products and services, update technology stacks, and incorporate new product functionality. Large enterprises, for example, have hundreds of business systems, diverse product lines, distinct business units, and multiple data silos. This complex IT infrastructure makes it difficult to respond quickly to emerging customer needs and market fluctuations.

Fortunately, the right enterprise automation strategy can provide companies with the flexibility and speed to build compelling apps and deliver unified customer experiences, even in the face of complex technology environments. One such core enterprise automation strategy is BPM (Business process management) & RPA (Robotic Process Automation) that can be used to orchestrate an end-to-end business process while incorporating modern technologies at various places within the overall business process. In addition, it can be used to access enterprise data repositories, build modern user interfaces, integrate with business systems, and manage interactions with people to build game-changing enterprise automation solutions.

Despite the many benefits of enterprise automation, automation strategies can wrong - or, worse, fail to solve the highest-priority problems. There are three pillars of enterprise automation that can position enterprise automation initiatives for success. These include leading practices, change management strategies, and key alliances.

Pillar 1: Putting Leading Practices in Place

Creating an effective enterprise automation platform takes more than technology. These leading practices are integral for effective results:

• Establish a center of excellence. Create a centralized group that understands both RPA and BPM technologies and can help the business architect solutions across a variety of technologies.
• Select the right projects to automate. Keep in mind that not all tasks are a good fit for digital workforces.
• Calculate the impact of automation. Evaluate the organization’s bottom line, and make sure your investment will deliver value in months - not years.
• Don’t lose sight of automation’s organizational impact. Put a structured plan in place to track both impact and change components.
• Identify new potential cyberthreats. Automating business processes can, on occasion, create new security risks. Take time to develop a structured, regimented approach for preventing leaks or breaches.
• Encourage collaboration. Business leaders and IT teams should work together - rapidly and iteratively - on building new apps and automating repetitive tasks.
• Recognise that BPM, RPA, AI, and IoT are flexible. Sometimes the sum is greater than the parts: These complementary technologies can, when combined, solve many problems.

Pillar 2: Define and Execute a Change Management Strategy

As you pave a path for automation, you should establish a change management strategy. After all, overturning business processes and automating age-old tasks can have a considerable impact on employees. To oversee change management, an organization should do the following:

• Conduct a thorough assessment of the organizational impact of automation.
• Evaluate the need to redesign standard business processes.
• Determine the impact of a digital workforce on employees. For example, will the introduction of robots increase employee attrition, or will it present new and more rewarding opportunities for those employees?
• Review next steps after automation.
• Clarify new roles and responsibilities of employees as business processes grow and change.

Pillar 3: Forming Key Alliances

This combination of leading practices and change management strategies can set the stage for enterprise automation success. But understanding the interplay of automation technologies such as BPM, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI, and IoT requires the skills of an experienced technology cum solutions partner. Businesses need to form strategic alliances with partners that possess & exhibit,

• Intelligent automation products/software applications built on modern low-code/no-code methodology
• Automation products that are specifically built and supported for your industry
• Extensive qualifications assisting clients in defining and executing their digital transformation strategy, and implementing projects across diverse verticals.

Bottomline

As more and more companies realize automation as a solution for accelerating digital transformation, it is imperative they align their objectives with the the core pillars to mitigate the risks that comes with every automation strategy and ensure success in the long run.