Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 67 | Page 56

FEATURE : AUTOMATION

REGULAR COMMUNICATION WITH EMPLOYEES ABOUT IMPLEMENTING NEW AUTOMATION TOOLS WILL BE VITAL TO MAINTAIN TRUST .

can you ensure that employees remain at the centre of decision-making ?
Streamlining workplace activity
In our world of apparent immediacy , manual processes are a huge no-no for customers and employees . Human processing creates unnecessary delays and causes errors . Accounting teams , for example , reportedly misclassify one in 20 invoices as a result of doing things manually . Customers expect a perfect and fast service , with digital transactions becoming a minimum expectation rather than an added bonus . Standardising processes with automation helps to improve customer service by speeding up responses , reducing the margin of error and boosting quality of work .
Meanwhile , employees are craving automation so they can focus on more fulfilling work that drives innovation . Processing paper-based documents requires time and patience , leaving less time for the creative projects and problem solving that will move the dial for the business . Our research showed that 64 % of European workers would find work more enjoyable , if only they had time for creative tasks . Ridding employees of their heavy admin burdens and boring manual processes helps to improve engagement and make them feel more valued .
As well as boosting workplace culture , automation has clear productivity benefits . For businesses , manual processes represent a high labour cost and low valueadd . Not to mention the compliance and security challenges associated with physical documents . Along with optimising resource and offering peace of mind that documents are securely stored , process automation also offers environmental benefits as businesses use less paper .
Workflow vs . process automation
Transformation often exists in pockets across an organisation . Some may have automated individual processes , such as digitalising receipts . Others have automated entire workflows within a department , like the full HR onboarding process . Before implementing new technology to digitalise a process , IT teams need to understand the finer details of the problem . Would automating one specific workflow solve the issue , or
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