by
August 17, 2022
Learn why companies use automation for their business & the latest automation trends to watch out for in 2022.
In a world where technology is constantly advancing, it's no surprise that automation is becoming more and more popular. Companies are discovering that there are many benefits to using automation in their operations, including increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved quality, and greater scalability. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the top seven benefits of automation and explore why so many businesses are making the switch.
To establish the role that automation technology can have in your work life, it’s essential to understand what exactly automation is. Simply put, automation is the implementation of a system that completes easily replicated tasks. Once you’ve found a task that you’re regularly repeating that doesn’t require extensive thought or creativity, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to teach a computer how to automate it.
31% of businesses have fully automated at least one function. —McKinsey
Almost every department in every company has at least one process that could be improved with automation. There are countless systems on the market that are built for specific departments, while others offer solutions to tedious processes for organizations as a whole. They can be as broad or as specific as your needs are.
Here are some examples of how tasks can be automated in various departments:
Customer Service—Automate customer inquiries with an AI chatbot.
Marketing—Automate emails based on an action that a lead has taken.
Sales—Automate research on leads to make future contact with them seamless.
With a little imagination, you’d be surprised at what you can automate within your organization. Beyond simplifying tedious processes, automation technology offers many advantages to your company. A few common benefits that organizations can gain out of automation are-
Automation has become increasingly popular in recent years as businesses look for ways to improve efficiency and cut costs. By definition, automation is the use of technology to automate tasks that would otherwise be performed by human workers. This can include everything from simple tasks like data entry and scheduling to more complex processes like customer service and order fulfillment. In many cases, automating a task can help to eliminate errors and speed up the overall process. Additionally, it can free up employees to focus on more value-added activities. As a result, automation can offer significant benefits for businesses of all sizes.
Costs are an important factor to consider when determining whether or not to automate a process. The initial investment in automation equipment can be significant, but the long-term cost savings can be even greater. In many cases, automated systems require less effort to operate than their manual counterparts, and they often have a lower rate of errors and defects. As a result, companies that automate their processes often see a dramatic reduction in their operating costs. In addition, automated systems can often be operated with a smaller workforce, leading to additional labor cost savings. When all of these factors are considered, it is clear that the cost savings associated with automation can be significant.
In many industries, automation is playing an increasingly important role in improving quality and efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can free up employees to focus on more value-added activities. In addition, automated systems can often perform tasks more accurately and consistently than human workers. As a result, businesses that embrace automation often find that they are able to improve quality while also reducing costs. While automated systems are not a panacea, they offer a powerful tool that can help businesses to achieve their quality goals.
Any business will likely face scalability issues at some point - that is, the ability to accommodate increased demand without becoming less efficient. One way to address this challenge is through automation. By automating processes and tasks, businesses can boost efficiency and output without needing to add more personnel. This can help businesses to keep costs down while still meeting customer demand. Automation can also help businesses to improve accuracy and quality control, as well as free up employees to focus on more creative or strategic tasks. In short, automation can be a powerful tool for businesses seeking to scale up their operations in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
Marketers have a lot to gain from automation processes, going from data enrichment to lead scoring and customer monitoring, just to name a few. Marketers can make use of automation to better plan, coordinate, measure and manage all aspects of a marketing campaign, be it online or offline. Roughly 17% of marketers currently integrate automation or artificial intelligence as part of their marketing strategy.
In contrast to the myth related to automation; many enterprises have experienced a reduction in employee turnover since the introduction of automation. Executing recurring activities on a daily basis gets mundane and monotonous for employees. Automation solves this problem and allows people to take up more challenging and rewarding activities, leading to employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees tend to perform better and stay with organizations for longer times.
Everyone does things a little differently, so by using automation technology for your repetitive tasks, you can standardize your processes. This will be very beneficial to your company as you bring on new hires and roles change. Automation systems also record the standardized processes so you can pinpoint exactly where its weak spots are. You can also make a minimal change and easily see how it affects the outcome. This means that you can play around to find the most efficient workflow. Automation really is today’s technology. The transition from manual to automated processes may seem difficult, but all you need is to find a small problem to get started. Once you’ve identified your repetitive and time-consuming tasks, it’s time to see how automation technology can work for you.
Enterprises worldwide are adopting automation solutions across various departments to streamline business operations. Some of the key areas where automation software and tools are being used widely are customer support, marketing, social media engagement, administrative activities, sales and analytics. Regardless of the size or nature of your business, introducing automation can prove to be a winning strategy and transform your business significantly.
Automation’s promise is not about replacing people. It’s about using technology to streamline and automate tedious manual work so human experts have more time to solve business problems. It’s empowering people with tech skills so they can automate data-handling tasks themselves, freeing up time to focus on more creative and valuable work. Employee engagement, productivity and creativity skyrocket — and everybody wins. In fact, many leaders now see automation as a path to growth.
Right now, the low-hanging fruit for automation is boring repetitive work. Automating front-office functions may be more challenging but it’s becoming more common. More organizations will soon be using technology to automate quality customer experiences (CX).
As sales and marketing teams realize the potential of automation to tackle repetitive tasks, more of the top CRM tools are developing powerful automation features.These will enable companies to automate routine tasks to speed up sales cycles, send personalized marketing messages, and proactively resolve customer service cases without lifting a finger.
Decision-making is tiring.You need the right data at your fingertips, to look beyond your biases and get agreement from other stakeholders. AI will increasingly provide a solution to this, delivering high-quality data that can help inform the best decisions. In a 2021 State of B2B Marketing Automation Report, 58% of B2B professionals say the #1 tactic that most amplifies the success of their marketing automation tool is quality data. While some decisions can be instantly acted on with automation, many will – and should – go back to humans for consideration from an emotional and empathetic side.
The short answer is yes, but for the better. A 2021 PWC survey found that 61% of people globally believe that automation is putting people’s jobs at risk. However, the truth is automation is not removing employment opportunities, it’s redefining roles. The role of automation is to take care of the tasks that machines can do better than us, removing human error and allowing for scalability. One common misconception about automation is that it’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. While it does free up time, that time is used to feed and optimize to produce better results. So, automation doesn’t mean losing the human side, it means empowering workers to focus on more impactful work.
As you can see, there are many reasons why businesses use automation. Automation can lead to increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved quality, and greater scalability. If you're considering automating your business operations, these are just a few of the benefits you may be able to enjoy.
What do you think? Are there any other benefits of automation that you can think of? Connect with us using our contact us page and let us know!
About us: AmyGB is a automation solution provider. We provide VisionERA Intelligent Document Processing for automating document processing for SMEs and Large Scale Organization. With VisionERA, we are capable of providing end-to-end automation of multiple use cases for any industry. VisionERA is capable of processing a range of structured to unstructured documents with minimal intervention.
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