If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that technology has played a key role in helping businesses cope and thrive. The way we see automation has changed. No longer a distant aim, it’s now a must have.
Covid-19 disruption has accelerated the pace of business change. Faced with numerous challenges, ever-changing rules, and restrictions, companies had to ‘’jump years ahead’’ in their digitalisation efforts to keep their customer base and survive in the new normal.
Forrester (2020) suggests this spirit will define 2021. Read this insight to see what, according to McKinsey, business leaders of tomorrow should focus on in order to meet the challenges of 2021 and successfully deliver their digital transformation beyond Covid.
As many businesses look to deliver their digital transformation in 2021, here are three things business leaders should consider to maximise the success of their automation.
Make Intelligent Automation your priority
Findings from the McKinsey Global Survey 20202 suggest that companies who had automation as a strategic priority were more likely than others to report successful automation efforts. The responses have reinforced the findings from the 2018 survey.
72% of those reporting successes claimed that making automation a priority was the most important contributor to their companies’ achievements with automation.
Moreover, successful companies were five times more likely than others to scale automation across the entire business rather than individual processes or departments.
‘’Remote work, support of remote business, recessionary pressures, new digital muscles for employees and customers, and pandemic constraints will force millions of pragmatic automations to production levels in 2021’’ (Forrester, 2020).
This shows that Intelligent Automation needs to be at the top of your business agenda in order to bring real results to your top and bottom line and enable you to deliver key insights into business processes and operational performance.
Empower your employees – they are as important as the technology
Intelligent Automation can mean empowering your own employees. Companies that have seen success with transformation, see the pivotal role that their own workforce can play in automation, in three key areas:
Up-skilling:
Providing employees with training and development opportunities to build and enhance the digital skills required to harness technology and deliver the benefits of intelligent automation.
Leveraging Knowledge:
Using the expertise and experience of employees by leveraging the knowledge of current teams and embedding it into the design of automation solutions. McKinsey refers to this solution as ‘’human in the loops’’ – training automation platforms with people input over time.
Communication and collaboration:
Prioritising strong lines of communication across the company and between employees, so that everyone is working on the latest information and understands the objectives, processes, and results of the transformation. Focus on collaboration allows the bringing together of capabilities from across the organisation that is imperative for digital change.
“Employees are well prepared to cultivate new skills and capabilities related to their work if they are required. Firms need to emphasize learning as a core part of work and for management to make continued training and learning more accessible and effective.’’ (Deloitte, 2019)
Develop a next-generation operating model that enables scaling
Another differentiator of Intelligent Automation success is the operating model that allows automation programs to efficiently manage and control the complexities involved in deploying technology solutions while driving agility, scale, and growth.
‘’Coordination across business units or functions is one of the elements that will have the greatest influence on automation efforts’ outcomes in the coming years’’ (McKinsey, 2020).
46% of companies that reported successful delivery suggested that business leaders had a full view of the costs of the automation programs. Findings show that as the operating model becomes more complex, it is vital for change agents to have a complete understanding of the costs involved in automation initiatives that may span across the whole organisation.
Forrester (2020) suggests that a successful next-generation operating model should enable you to plan and test automation before fully introducing it in production or exposing it to the workforce. That in turn will drive better quality and excellence.
‘’Transformation cannot be a siloed effort. The full impact of the next-generation operating model comes from combining operational improvement efforts around customer-facing and internal journeys with the integrated use of approaches and capabilities.’’ (McKinsey, 2017)
Automate with Aurora and make Intelligent Automation your priority in 2021
Aurora knows what is required for successful intelligent automation and what is key to delivering your digital destination. In 2021 any business will need to focus on agility, resilience, and an ability to meet customer’s needs to thrive in the new normal.
A cloud-based Intelligent Automation Platform equipped with the latest AI and digital solutions could be the engine at the core of your company’s next-generation operating model (McKinsey) driving your business forward in the disrupted landscape of the next normal.
This platform will give you the ability to deliver seamless smart workflows while accelerating your digital transformation, driving innovation, and elevating customer satisfaction.
Automating with Aurora means empowering your employees who will learn new digital skills as they easily create and deliver the process automations that you need, using our no-code, AI-enabled, Catalytic technology. By taking this approach you’ll achieve your primary objectives and minimise the use of external resources whilst your teams will experience increased engagement, job satisfaction, and well-being.
Your people, your business, your outcomes!
Discover how our AI-enabled, no- code Intelligent Automation Platform could accelerate your business growth in 2021, book a free consultation.
Sources:
https://go.forrester.com/blogs/predictions-2021-automation-becomes-a-business-imperative/
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-imperatives-for-automation-success
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/monitor-institute/us-monitor-institute-supporting-worker-success-in-the-age-of-automation.pdf
https://go.forrester.com/predictions-2021/
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/McKinsey%20Digital/Our%20Insights/Introducing%20the%20next-generation%20operating%20model/Introducing-the-next-gen-operating-model.ashx
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