Even before the pandemic, technology has become an increasingly important part of the business. Organisations were looking for creative uses of technology to streamline their processes, improve operations and reduce the impact of obsolete and dated methods. However, the necessity to introduce remote work, as well as limitations on in-person meetings for non-essential businesses was what really accelerated the process of digital transformation. It forced businesses to look for digital solutions to improve their performance. And one such solution is hyperautomation.
According to Gartner, hyperautomation is one of the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2022. And that’s a big deal, as their survey showed that 85% of participants will either increase or sustain their organization’s hyperautomation investments over the next 12 months, and over 56% already have four or more concurrent hyperautomation initiatives.
Let’s find out what the fuss is about.
Benefits and Challenges of Hyperautomation
OK, but what’s the actual deal with hyperautomation? Let me explain.
As defined by IBM, hyperautomation is the concept of automating everything in an organization that can be automated. The point of adopting hyperautomation is to streamline processes using artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and other technologies to run without human intervention.
And how exactly does it work? By incorporating modern technologies, hyperautomation eliminates repetitive tasks and automates manual ones. It obviously comes with numerous advantages; it increases organisation’s consistency, accuracy, and speed. It also reduces employee fatigue, as well as the risk of human error. This, in turn, minimises costs, saves time and positively affects the general condition of the company.
Of course, any ground-breaking approach to business processes is bound to come with some challenges, and hyperautomation is no exception. Many organisations don’t feel mature enough to implement such far-reaching changes due to poor-quality data and lack of resources and technical skills. However, for those who are brave enough to take a leap of faith, there are retraining programmes available to help address the needs and develop a well-suited approach.
Hyperautomation in Action
Having the term defined, now it’s time to get down to business. Let’s explore potential business applications of hyperautomation.
One of the industries that can greatly benefit from introducing hyperautomation is healthcare. From providing a better patient experience and more accurate data to ensuring compliance with regulations, the list of potential benefits for the healthcare industry seems endless.
Hyperautomation is also used to automate billing cycles and customer communication. It can also address patient record management, collecting and analysing data to provide useful output for more accurate treatment plans. And that’s not all. It can also be used to manage drug inventory, schedule staff and organise resources.
Other industries that can capitalise on hyperautomation are banking and finance. Being under constant pressure to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and provide better customer experience, banking and finance industries strive for innovations.
On top of that, both banking and finance industries use large volumes of data. With hyperautomation, it’s easier to manage data, making the processes quicker, more consistent, and less prone to error. Moreover, hyperautomation can also support 24x7 availability of online banking and finance apps.
Hyperautomation also comes in handy in supply chains. RPA can support inventory stock checks around the clock, ensuring a current view of inventory levels and product availability. In addition to inventory control, RPA can be used for pricing, invoicing, follow-up and data input, as well as system maintenance and repair. By eliminating the reliance on manual intervention in repetitive processes, hyperautomation can increase speed, efficiency and accuracy.
What’s next
Even though hyperautomation seems like a great business opportunity, don’t jump to conclusions right away. Before any automation project, remember to map out your processes and create process models to help identify the current state of operations in your organization. Before jumping into action, identify any bottlenecks or areas of improvement.
Having done that, it will be way easier to identify the best place to start with hyperautomation.
