When we think "automation”, most of us probably visualise something like a robot factory with hordes of machines assembling cars that have replaced manual labour. Undoubtedly, manufacturing was the first wave of automation. Big, labour-intensive activities tend to make a very good business case for automation, particularly where those activities are routine and repetitive and where the systems can be established in relatively controlled environments - such as a factory floor.
However, now that most of those opportunities have been taken, the benefit for business lies in other areas where automation can be applied. Tools for automating our business processes are everywhere, and - as always - the challenge with digital automation tools is finding the best way to use them.
One of the things that makes factory robots exciting to watch is the speed and precision at which they operate, but that’s not how it starts out. When a factory installs a new robot machine, the installation process is slow and deliberate; every move of the machine is meticulously planned out manually. Only when the engineers are fully confident that the process the robot will execute is exactly correct will they start to speed up the process gradually until it reaches full production capacity and impressive speed is visible.
We never see the time-consuming installation process - we only ever see the finished result. This can lead us to underestimate the investment of time required to get it right at the beginning. This is where the value exists.
Most of us are not used to thinking of ordinary administrative tasks in process terms. When we create an invoice, we just create an invoice; but, in fact, all of these micro-tasks add up, and there is value in thinking of them in process terms.
The goal of business process automation is always to compress time. All of the management gurus from Peter Drucker to Steven Covey emphasize that time is the one commodity that will always be in short supply because no one is making any more of it.
Even simple processes can benefit from automation. There are many areas of business where activity is simply “busy work” not real value-added work, and this can be a considerable drain on valuable time.
If we calculate all the time that we spend each week on repetitive and boring tasks, we can start to see where the source of more time is to be found – and time is money. Progressively illuminating or reducing those sources of busywork adds up to significant additional time availability, both for the busy executive and the staff that can be deployed to better benefit elsewhere.
A useful reference in this area is The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, engagingly subtitled “How to get things right.” This book uses relatable areas such as air travel and surgery (Gawande was a surgeon before moving into health administration) to show how easily we can make a simple mistake even with tasks we perform regularly.
Of course, there is nothing new in this thinking. This has been the source of all forms of quality improvements and waste minimisation since Deming popularised them in the 1980s, which has now evolved into Agile methods.
A familiar example for many businesses is termed the “customer journey”. When we create sophisticated online experiences, it pays to think through the exact path that we would like to lead our customers down. Ideally, this reaches the point where they wish to do business with us. Companies offering digital marketing services have become extremely good at this mapping process. The same basic techniques can be used in almost any area of business and the likelihood is that whatever the process defined, there will be a product or service in the online digital world that is designed to automate that process.
The key lesson here is that choosing the tool before you have worked out the process is usually putting the cart before the horse. Think about how you would like the process to work (completely free of any restraints imposed by technology) and then find a product that best meets that need. If you choose the tool first you might be forced to shift your business process to meet the limitations of the tool.
That said, almost all online tools have been developed with a unique specialty in mind and the providers of those systems have studied the area that they operate in very carefully and probably know more about it than any individual business owner would. This means there are learnings to be obtained from these products. Software as a service (SaaS) makes money from charging you for the value inherent in the product and they are often happy to give you the knowledge associated with that process area as a free add-on. It encourages you to use the product effectively and trust that they know what they’re doing.
There is now a vast array of low-cost, zero-code easy-to-use tools that can make the benefits of going through this process much more dramatic (almost as dramatic as those exciting robots in factories.)
Highly competent business administrators at all levels can be reluctant to engage in business process automation because they have a level of comfort with the current state, and they are fully aware that any change always introduces some level of disruption. Another factor can be that they are the type of people who get great satisfaction from executing a familiar process precisely and well.
But it is also true that a well-executed automation process can be a source of real satisfaction, in fact, outright joy. When I worked for a major New Zealand manufacturer during a period of significant factory automation, everyone who worked in the office had a favourite machine on the factory floor. Mine was the vacuum forming machine.
We pride ourselves on helping others find joy in automation. It could end up being a new favourite tool or satisfaction in the overall process. You certainly will enjoy having more time (and money) on your hands.
Let us know if you’re ready for that journey and we will be there to guide you every step of the way.
Ray Delany is the Founder of CIO Studio, a company built to partner with SMEs and help them solve the “strategy” problem and align their digital investment with their business outcomes.
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