‘Doing more with less‘ is a catchy phrase being bandied about a lot in this economy.
For this to work, companies need to act strategically. Ultimately thinking along the lines of doing more, by doing less manually.
This can be done by cutting out mundane, labour-intensive tasks. An automated system can make those processes quicker & cheaper whilst also eliminating human error.
We’re not talking about robots taking over, either. Businesses will never thrive without intelligent, creative & engaged staff.
But you don’t want your best employees channelling all of their energy in to repetitive, process-driven tasks that could be completed by software at the touch of the button.
If internal communications are handled properly, staff aren’t left to view automation as a threat to their livelihood and concerns can be dealt with. Instead, staff can positively embrace software which frees them up from thankless tasks and assists better customer interactions.
We all need automation in our lives
Automation is a very intelligent approach to reducing costs and streamlining business processes.
Research shows that primary benefits include cost reduction, productivity, availability, reliability and performance. All easily delivered with the correct package.
Off-the-shelf purchases and in-house bespoke services offer equal amounts of benefits and obstacles. But the key thing to remember is that systems are only ever as good as the people who use it.
Years ago, it was acceptable to have elements of downtime while new systems or products were being installed. Now, with the evolution of 24-hour customers, any sort of downtime is bad for business, bad for brand and bad for profits.
Upgrading current hardware and integrating new systems can create short-term problems and issues. It’s this initial period of disruption that often puts people off.
But these issues are easily outweighed by the long-term impact the new system has on minimising human intervention and dynamically handling complex tasks.
So let’s look at the main benefits of automation:
- The right system can consolidate processes on a shared platform, retire legacy systems and save money on maintenance.
- It can minimise manual actions; limiting the room for human error and also (due to human nature) the chance of bureaucracy.
- It’s easier to track progress and workloads. Project managers can get real-time overviews quickly and remotely of what work has been done and what is left to do.
- Urgent matters can be flagged up and monitored.
The positives are endless, the negatives are short-lived.
Automated systems can easily deal with high volume requests. Business who have seasonal peaks and troughs can relax as their software responds to increased activity without intervention from staff – and the risk for human error that brings.
Standards are easily maintained which means that compliance with certain regulations is easier. And because everything is on one system, auditing is simple because company information is always retained and doesn’t leave with departing employees.
If you’re operating in an environment you know could be more efficient but don’t have time to look in to automation, that’s like saying you are exercising a flagging body but you don’t have time to stop for rest and refuelling. It’s not a long-term solution.
It’s going to slow you down. Eventually, it’s going to stop you. Talk to someone about the costs and work involved in implementing a software solution. With the right team, it could be a lot easier than you think.
Corporates need help with disparate tech from AccessPay on Vimeo.
