IDC predicts that by 2024, 60% of A2000 investments in business automation will be for multimodal codeless automation platforms that support digital enablement by both professional developers and business users.
The vendor community is salivating at this opportunity and is pushing messages designed to get them on your automation radar.
But not all approaches to automation are created equal and more likely than not, what works for one company will not work for another company even from the same industry. Likewise, automation applied by the finance team might need tweaking to make it work for another department.
FutureCIO spoke to IDC analysts for their take on automation and how organisations can improve their odds of getting value from automation.
From traditional Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots to today’s sophisticated digital AI workforce, how has automation advanced as a business solution?
Dr Lily Phan, research director, future of work practice, IDC Asia/Pacific, says automation is changing how employees approach work and there is a stronger need for organisations to accelerate their automation strategies and deployment plans.
In the IDC report, Work automation and digital skills – Essential for the Future of Work, she noted that automation needs are fueling investments in diverse technologies. Fifty-nine per cent of Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) organisations say process automation software is at the top of their organisations’ deployment plans in the next two years.
“The other investments in automation technology are in task-focused apps on mobile devices, intelligent predictions and recommendations, robotic process automation (RPA), and smart virtual assistants.”
Dr Lily Phan
For his part, Pushkaraksh Shanbhag, associate director, IDC Asia/Pacific IT Services Research, cautioned that while automation (both within technology silos as well as for business processes) has historically been delivered through a plethora of standalone tools, enterprises are now beginning to take an expansive, enterprise-wide view of their automation requirements and needs.
Indeed, data from IDC's Asia/Pacific Software Survey 2022 reveals that the "ability to handle automation across both IT Operations and business processes" is a key capability that enterprises expect from future-ready automation solutions.
What are the benefits of intelligent automation (IA) and how does it directly correlate with business operations, efficiencies, and cost?
Further drawing from the report she co-authored, Phan said that automation becomes embedded in is becoming embedded in day-to-day work – a third of APeJ employees collaborate with a bot/automated technology for up to 40% of their work.
But as noted in the beginning adoption rates are not the same across industries. Phan noted that automation usage rates are lower in the public sector and retail/wholesale sector.
What are some things that organisations can do to ensure and scale long-term successes with IA?
Shanbhag acknowledged that the value of automation has rapidly expanded beyond the traditional constructs of efficiency and productivity, and automation technologies have emerged as an increasingly important enabler of operational resilience and business continuity in the face of unplanned and large-scale disruptions.
“In this enhanced context, enterprises urgently need the support of IA services vendors that can help them define a path to rapid and scalable adoption of IA, and unify disparate silos of automation into a unified enterprise-wide framework that spans data, intelligence, and automation.”
Pushkaraksh Shanbhag
“IA services vendors can also assist with the necessary change management to ensure that the automation initiatives are fully embraced and championed by the enterprise workforce,” he continued.
What challenges must organisations overcome to enable the implementation of IA solutions?
Phan believes that organisations must understand employees' perceptions toward automation. Although employees in APeJ see the positive impacts of automation on their jobs, they also do recognise that they will need reskilling/retraining so that they can focus on higher-value tasks.
According to IDC, only 7% of APeJ employees fear job loss from automation. Our data points out that for employees to automate their work, they need stronger collaboration with IT (21%), easy-to-use tools (21%), clear guidance on best practices (19%) and approval from senior leadership (16%).
Phan suggests that it is imperative for organisations to clearly define their vision of the role of automation in their rapidly changing digital environment and aim to equip employees with the IT support and automation skills they need.
“To retain the right talent and make their workforce future-ready, they should build their employees’ confidence in their automation skills and knowledge. Organisations should be able to identify the skills gaps and provide relevant training to expand the digital competencies of their workforce – including what formats these should be delivered and by whom,” she added.
Shanbhag adds that apart from the people and change management aspects relating to automation adoption, some other areas that enterprises need assistance with on their automation journey include the development of a robust business case/cost-benefit analysis for automation projects, scaling automation from proof of concepts (POC) to production, continuous innovation/improvement, and seamless operations.
IDC's Asia/Pacific Enterprise Services Sourcing Survey 2021 reveals that "ongoing monitoring and operations management" is the capability most desired by enterprises from their Intelligent Automation services partners, highlighting the importance of continuous and ongoing professional engagement to optimise the benefits that can be realised from enterprise-wide automation.
“These are just some of the considerations organisations should be mindful of when embarking on an automation journey,” added Shanbhag.
How can organisations build trust and collaboration between both the human and digital workforce to optimise productivity?
The IDC PeerScape: Practices in the Planning and Management of Intelligent Process Automation Solutions report outlines some best practices to plan and manage IPAs, including taking more measured approaches to position the AI component in the process flow. It also suggests applying AI to support the continued modelling and streamlining of the business processes, ensuring governance internally with the business users and externally with the solution providers, and having human supervisors actively managing RPA bots.
