Digitisation is critical to business resiliency, and automation is now a vital part of any organisation’s tech stack.
By automating operational processes, such as sales order and invoice processing, companies can gain the agility to respond quickly to adverse events, like COVID-19. The following 3 tips can help you implement a digital transformation plan that keeps your business functional, and even opportunistic, in times of disruption.
COVID-19 has given IT leaders the momentum to accelerate digital business in their enterprises, with 65% of CEOs and 69% of Boards of Directors reporting wanting to do so.
Gartner®
As the current pandemic became a global phenomenon, automation quickly followed as an urgent initiative for businesses. As a result, digital transformation is now a mainstream initiative, often driven by board-level governance.
However, the process of automation can become complicated very quickly. It is a journey from simple process automation all the way through intelligent automation, which is applying machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to remove mundane, repetitive tasks from human beings and pass them to innovative technologies.
These 3 tips will help you wield automation to build a business resiliency initiative.
The purpose of automation is to improve execution velocity while optimising valuable resources—employees—to focus on creative, high-value tasks that machines cannot accomplish.
Therefore, operational efficiencies are highly dependent on process automation. For manufacturers and distributors, automating business processes:
With automation, orders can be processed, picked, packed, and shipped faster, often within 15 minutes. And without the manual entry of documents, such as sales orders, customer service representatives (CSRs) can focus on attending to customers’ needs.
To gain business agility and build resiliency, manufacturers and distributors need to streamline processes, reduce costs, and do more with less. Looking into business inefficiencies is the necessary starting point toward pivoting to a resilient operational structure.
According to Deloitte’s latest UK CFO survey, business transformation is the #1 area for business investment in 2021. 65% of UK CFOs expect to increase investment in organisation and business process improvements, such as restructuring, streamlining, and automation.
You have a voice in what business processes can be digitally transformed. Look at some of your core non–value–added processes and determine what can be automated.
According to Julian Burnett, VP Global Markets, Distribution, IBM, “Automation runs 25 times faster than the human brain. It works 24 hours a day and allows for 75% cost savings on repetitive tasks—all of which are necessary for businesses to remain resilient and scale appropriately.
Whereas employees can bring creativity, experience, and thoughtfulness to a business, trust and control are also vital to business health. These types of tasks are where automation shines, because it provides consistency, efficiencies, and effectiveness to key operations where compliance and repetitiveness are required.
Regarding purchase orders or invoices, for example, automation is generally recommended for high-volume orders. It’s an attractive option when consistent quality and repeatability is paramount.
Businesses are operating with constrained resources as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But where there is struggle, there also is opportunity. Automating the sales order management process is a guaranteed way to maximise revenue opportunities while also reducing costs.
By automating mundane processes, your staff is free to focus on analysing customer data, cross- or up-selling, or generating new ideas to acquire customers. It also ensures that you have enough staff to respond to customers’ requests or inquiries. Not only does this maximise revenue streams, it provides an elevated customer experience, which is essential to maintaining long-term clients.
As companies leverage digital transformation, they have the opportunity to capture market share. The most agile and nimble companies can maximise opportunities in their markets.
Mark Toffoli, Global Lead, Solutions Engineering, Conexiom
For organisations just beginning to build resiliency via automation technologies, start simply. After aligning all stakeholders—such as the C-suite and IT departments—on which operational process to automate, you can test, refine, retest, and perfect before expanding your digitisation efforts.
That’s why sales order automation usually serves as an optimal starting point; you see results nearly instantly, such as your CSRs gaining 30% of their time back to redeploy to high-value tasks, a significant reduction in order errors, and the ability to manage high order volumes.
“Modern intelligent process automation technologies have real value as business resilience enablers, and this represents a major shift in the value of how business automation is perceived. A significant opportunity is therefore present for vendors that can position themselves effectively.”
Neil Ward-Dutton, VP of AI and Automation Practices, IDC Europe
