Automation is not a zero-sum game. If business leaders let data drive their decisions, it will be clear that automation, if done right, will bolster their organizations and help them race towards growth and profitability by taking their most talented people and getting them involved in higher order work. Businesses today are dealing with compounding problems, rising Fed rates, a talent bulge due to excess hiring during COVID, an impending recession and ongoing geopolitical unrest, firmly putting business process automation in the spotlight. The role of automation is no longer just about how to make processes more efficient. It is about really catering to the changing customer, partner, and employee priorities, solvable in real-time, while making experiences more curated and seamless.
Powering the Systems of eXperience (SOX)
Business process automation is more often than not treated as a means to drive cost savings, triggered by reducing or repurposing talent within a company. While this is critical from an ROI perspective, Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX) and Partner Experience (PX) often get overlooked. These provide more qualitative outcomes, shifting from purely ROI to ROI + ROX (Return on Experience) – keeping automation at the heart of a System of eXperience (SOX). While layoffs by Twitter, Meta, Amazon and Snap can be attributed to “rightsizing” after a period of accelerated growth, the experience that companies provide downstream is what stays with the affected employees.
As key determinants of an employer brand, these processes and touchpoints will have long-term ramifications; hence, the onus of executing it effectively will fall on HR teams. By automating HR processes like deboarding and payroll, the affected employees can receive real-time responses and status updates on queries which will help them navigate a difficult period with more ease.
Unlocking digital transformation 2.0
Intelligent automation is at the epicenter of Digital Transformation 2.0. Through DT 2.0, companies are striving for integrated experience outcomes across employees, customers, partners and investors. These are driven by agile, configurable workflows built on a converged modern technology stack.
Enterprises that bet on automation experience higher earnings as well as elevated productivity. In fact, our Hyper Intelligent Automation Foundational report highlights that enterprises with a larger focus on automation have been able to increase their profit-per-employee (PPE) by 7 times, compared to those with a lesser focus. It’s not a question of " if" companies need automation, but ‘when.’ And the sooner it is, the better. A case in point is Pfizer, an early adopter.
Beginning in 2018, Pfizer set up a Robotics & Automation Center of Excellence to streamline operations, improve employee experience, and reduce costs. In the first 2 years, it deployed 450+ automations across IT, Sales and Talent Management, which brought down costs by a staggering USD $35 million.
The business process automation playbook
Companies need to approach business process automation with a 4-pronged strategy.
- Define the vision for the automation program in a holistic manner that aligns with enterprise needs and goals. ABInBev adopted automation to achieve the goal of net zero by 2025 and lower the carbon footprint of its logistics arm by driving the use of most optimal route choices. A US retail giant achieved 100% order fulfilment by automating vendor managed inventory, providing end-to-end visibility and enhancing the vendor experience.
- Leverage Process Intelligence focused on integrated experience outcomes and agile configurable workflows. Auswide Bank visualized and improved 900+ core banking processes and also prioritized processes for deployment of RPA based on opportunities to enhance customer and employee experience.
- Set up an automation center of excellence (COE) to drive program design, execution and governance. While a COE is not necessary to implement automation in an enterprise, it can accelerate the scaling process. It provides governance, standard procedures, communication, resources and technology platforms to support operations. It also helps optimize business processes and guides the enterprise through change. A classic example is Nike, where the Digital Product Creation BU has deployed over 100 process automations, saving 200K man-hours per year.
- Govern through a converged ownership structure. The three personas of leaders who are running automation charters today include line of business (LOB)/operations leaders, technology leaders and global business services/shared services leaders. They need to come together for effective ownership and governance of automation initiatives.
Some of the key considerations that enterprises on their automation journeys need to be cognizant of include structuring of functions to achieve efficiencies, consolidating knowledge, setting up COEs to ensure centralized execution, and elimination of teams working in silos. Another important driver is the measurability of automation programs–having the right metrics to quantify the gains are critical. ROI calculators, profit per employee (PPE), cost savings, hours saved, experience enhancements (through CSAT, ESAT and NPS) will ensure accountability.
What’s next for automation?
Enterprises have a long way to go in capitalizing on business process automation and its potential benefits. Only a third of Fortune 250 enterprises have taken full advantage of the most comprehensive and advanced approaches to scale automation effectively. The narrative around automation needs to move beyond the fear of job loss to focus on creating stakeholder value through SOX. While there will be some job upheavals, data shows that automation will generate about 6 million net-new employment opportunities with skills of a higher magnitude. This requires targeted upskilling and reskilling programs to mitigate the job losses.
With automation set to grow exponentially through 2025, highly structured automation programs run by COEs will become commonplace. Companies will transition into fully autonomous enterprises that drive integrated experience outcomes and derive increased value from their digital transformation journeys. Nischay Mittal leads the global charter for automation /AI at Zinnov, a leading global management consulting & strategy advisory firm, that has partnered with Global Enterprises and Fortune 2000 companies across their value creation journeys to develop actionable insights–across revenue, talent, innovation, scale and optimization. He has spearheaded multiple engagements across automation, cloud, AI/cognitive computing, and low-code/no-code domains.