Adoption of IT automation solutions has increased rapidly in recent years as organizations look to become more efficient and competitive by streamlining numerous time-consuming and mistake-prone manual tasks. However, many are still struggling to realize the full value of their efforts.
Benefits are often limited by a piecemeal approach in which only individual, isolated processes such as billing and invoicing are automated. In many cases, different business units within the same organization will design and deploy their own solutions. Only about a third of companies using automation technologies have adopted an organization-wide approach, according to research from Deloitte.
Hyperautomation is a far more holistic and effective strategy. It involves the orchestration of multiple technologies and tools in order to automate entire workflows from end to end. Gartner recently named hyperautomation one of its top strategic technology trends for 2022, and Sheer Analytics and Insights predicts its market value will increase tenfold over the next decade.
Seeing the Big Picture
By integrating robotic process automation (RPA) solutions with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), low-code application platforms (LCAP) and other technologies, hyperautomation enables a more universal approach to automation. You might say it automates automation.
A common reason automation projects don’t deliver desired results is that organizations don’t take the time to map dependencies. Complex business processes comprise myriad interconnected activities and tasks that are completed in sequence to serve a particular business purpose or workflow. Automating one process can have cascading effects on other linked services.
Manually mapping and adjusting all those dependencies is an incredibly time-consuming task, but hyperautomation makes it possible to rapidly identify and automate all tasks involved in a workflow. Process mining and dependency mapping features extract data from event logs and other sources to create a clear picture of processes and all their dependencies.
Additionally, low-code development makes automation a repeatable process. Low-code platforms come with pre-designed workflow patterns and drag-and-drop user interfaces for building workflows that can be stored and reused. In fact, the same automation workflow can be used to streamline multiple business processes simultaneously.
SMBs Can Leverage Hyperautomation, Too
That’s a game-changing capability. Although spending on automation technologies has quadrupled since 2018, a recent Forrester Consulting survey finds that IT professionals remain “continuously overwhelmed” by the number of manual tasks they must regularly perform. The study found that only about a quarter of processes are currently automated, and that nearly half of organizations perform mission-critical tasks on an entirely manual basis.
As IT infrastructures become increasingly complex and decentralized, that level of hands-on management is no longer sustainable. It’s particularly burdensome for small to midsized businesses (SMBs) with limited resources. They simply don’t have the time, personnel or budget to effectively keep all those balls in the air.
Although enterprise organizations have driven much of the demand for hyperautomation, SMBs can also benefit from the ability to streamline tasks. In fact, up to 80 percent of SMB decision-makers say automation is essential for their survival, according to a recent Xerox study.
We recognize that many SMBs lack the depth of in-house IT expertise to effectively take on a hyperautomation initiative. With years of experience in helping customers automate tasks throughout the IT environment, we are uniquely positioned to help you achieve end-to-end process automation. Give us a call to set up a consultation.
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