The COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably changed the way we work, shop, and access services. Today, businesses are leveraging emerging technologies including automation to achieve comprehensive digital transformation. In fact, automation is fast emerging as an enabler for IT-led transformation across industries. Enterprises are embracing scaled automation solutions to not only enhance customer experiences but also to optimize operational efficiencies.
A suite of automation and intelligent technologies are empowering businesses to achieve transformational capabilities. This includes Digital Process Automation (DPA), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Workflow Automation, each of which addresses specific process inefficiencies. However, the benefits amplify and deliver game-changing capabilities when these technologies are put into a unified toolkit. Intelligent automation simplifies the complexity of enterprise operations and drives success by maximizing efficiency, improving customer experiences, and fostering flexibility and agility.
Leveraging Unified Automation
Unified automation or hyper-automation is a business-driven, disciplined approach to rapidly automate business and IT processes. The need for digital transformation in the face of talent shortages, economic pressures, and competitive challenges is driving its unprecedented growth.
According to Gartner, the market for software enabling hyper-automation is projected to reach nearly $1.04 trillion by 2026, translating to a CAGR of 11.9%. Gartner defines hyper-automation as comprising multiple business and IT processes that leverage orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools, or platforms, including intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS), integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and low-code/no-code tools.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, productivity is expected to figure in the top five business priorities for CEOs, and enterprises and start-ups are building completely automated value chains for higher productivity. This is also being propelled by the increasing diversity of data and the adoption of innovative computing and storage technologies.
By combining artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to streamline and optimize repetitive tasks, intelligent automation empowers line managers and customer care executives to enhance decision-making, reduce errors, and boost operational efficiency. Consider a customer service center implementing a chatbot powered by natural language processing. This intelligent system can handle routine customer queries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues which will not only accelerate response times but also free up valuable human resources.
At the same time, integration of IT automation is poised to revolutionize workplaces. Organizations are projected to spend 30% of their time on IT operations management and the remaining on engineering and designing, according to Gartner. This shift will allow businesses to allocate scare resources to engineering as maintenance and endpoint support are seamlessly handled by automation tools.
Another study conducted by Forrester to gauge the economic value of Pega’s intelligent automation capabilities revealed compelling insights. Organizations adopting intelligent automation witnessed up to 45% increase in operational efficiencies in the back office through baseline automation capabilities, RPA, and task mining. Moreover, there was a 20% reduction in process deployment times, allowing organizations to deploy more processes with fewer resources. The study also highlighted a 70% reduction in time spent on routine tasks and a 20% decrease in average contact center handle time. Notably, there was a meaningful reduction in technical debt through the retirement of legacy solutions, coupled with compliance, regulatory, and audit savings through improved workflow transparency and tracking.
For example, a software development company implementing automated testing processes can significantly reduce the time spent on manual testing. This not only accelerates the product development cycle but also provides room for developers to concentrate on creating innovative features.
Intelligent Automation – Foundation of Agile Enterprises
As the business landscape continues to evolve, the integration of intelligent automation is becoming increasingly indispensable for enterprises to stay ahead in the digital race. The transformative power of unified automation not only streamlines operations but also enhances customer engagement and adaptability. A spectrum of use cases across industries underscores the critical role that intelligent automation plays in driving operational efficiency, innovation, and overall success. Intelligent automation is leading the next wave of digital transformation, shaping the way businesses operate and thrive.
