In recent years, we have been at the center of the information overload on the robotization of office work. “Robotics Process Automation” sounds really great, although it happens that for people who have encountered the subject in practice, it is of greater value as a factor of employee competency development, and not a real economic value.
The issue of applying process robotization is not easy: it requires scale, time, budget and patience, and at the same time is able to cover usually only a limited area of the organization. Fortunately, along with the popularization of the technology commonly known as “RPA”, the methods and tools of automation have also evolved. Both the popularization of new technologies, such as: AI, ETL, BI, as well as innovative business applications improve the efficiency of processes and lead to significant savings. These technologies can be implemented in a short time, focusing on a specific problem, with relatively little investment. Traditional automation “with a capital A” always means universality, standardization, and central control, while agile automation is the rapid deployment of flexible technologies or applications that fill the gaps left by current enterprise systems. Therefore, agile automation means delivering a new – higher level of performance.
A PERFECT MARRIAGE
Agile automation does not replace, but complements traditional automation. It is based on new technologies, digitization and previously standardized processes. The most popular solutions that could complement or replace automation based on robotics are divided into categories:
- E-2-E (End-to-End) applications – applications which cover and automate the full business process. Usually these are innovative applications based on new technologies, provided by the incubation and startup ecosystem and used in cash-flow planning, management of sales processes, purchases, business trips and employee expenses,
- ETL (Extract Transform Load) tools that automate time-consuming, manual tasks related to collecting and cleaning data, and then loading them for further use, e.g. reports.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING AGILE AUTOMATION?
The use of agile automation has several undoubted advantages over traditional automation.
Benefit #1
Agile automation is much cheaper and the rate of return on investment (ROI) is high and practically immediate. The solution may cost several or even tens of thousands of zlotys, which is a small amount compared to the hundreds of thousands spent on large projects. Usually the payback is already in the first year thanks to fast deployments and immediate results with a relatively low initial investment,
Benefit #2
The speed of implementation is achieved through a short decision path, as agile automation most often concerns single processes. When large IT initiatives require coordination between different functional leaders and employees of a given function in the organization.
Benefit #3
Agile automation is also much more flexible. Traditionally, companies could not benefit from automation technology until they standardized their processes. Moreover, agile automation is IT neutral and relies on configuration rather than standardization, harmonization and optimization of predefined rules,
Benefit #4
Agile automation can improve the performance of individual processes by 20-30 percent for general functions and by 70 to 80 percent for individual tasks,
Benefit #5
Low entry and exit barrier.
HOW TO BEGIN?
Value first and foremost
This game is not about setting too ambitious goals, it’s about taking the chance to collect what we have at our fingertips, the so-called “low hanging fruits”. Agile automation solves targeted problems rather than changing paradigms of the company’s business model. Agile automation works well at the level of individual processes or tasks. Therefore, the company should introduce some framework and then allow business units to adopt the tools as they see fit.
Check the trends
New technologies are becoming more and more available, which has changed the supplier structure of many companies. Alongside the traditional sharks and swordfish, who annexed the largest buyers in the past, there is a mass of digital piranhas whose presence was unthinkable five years ago. It is this group that provides the greatest innovations and introduces a mix of B2B and B2C products, combining solutions and relying on disintermediation.
Don’t hesitate too long
The low barrier of using and resignation from agile automation makes time the key. The one who makes decisions and starts to use it, wins.
