Automation. We’ve all heard about it (a lot), and it’ll likely remain a hot topic for centuries. But just because modern automation is a trend doesn’t mean it’s a new concept. People and businesses have used automation for hundreds of years across all sectors.The difference, however, is that automation only recently made its way into our daily personal and professional lives, causing mass confusion in offices and local convenience stores.
For example, Paula from accounting might resist learning to use automated software if her trusty Croxley book and spreadsheets worked perfectly for 30 years. In contrast, Barry from HR feels more productive now that the manual task of processing leave applications that would take hours is a past frustration.
The point is, that every employee and customer will react differently toward automation, making the implementation process critical to the employee and customer experience.
Automation remains critically important in this day and age and can mean the difference between being competitive and falling behind in the evolving business landscape.
“What makes automation so important?”
Apart from enhancing business competitiveness, automation can:
- Increase efficiency
- Reduce costs
- Promote collaboration
- Improve customer experience
- Enhance cybersecurity and risk management
- Streamline workflows, admin tasks, and KPI tracking
- Save time
- Drive innovation
- Keep systems updated and current
- Reduce downtime
- Increase productivity
- Make your company more attractive to top talent
6 Areas to automate without causing company-wide hysteria
1. Time-consuming data entry
Manual processes not only take longer but also increase the risk of human error. Manually capturing and storing data consumes hours of valuable time that could be spent doing other, more important tasks.
Benefits of automated data entry:
- Reduces human error
- More time to focus on urgent tasks
- Increases productivity
- Improves employee and customer experience
2. Customer service
We live in a society where people want instant access to their purchases. While it’s challenging to speed up physical deliveries, automation gets the nitty-gritty admin and payment processing out of the way so staff can simply pack and ship orders. In addition, live chatbots allow customers to get help at any time without needing to contact call centres.
Benefits of automated customer service:
- Streamlines sales
- More time to strengthen customer experience
- Increases brand reputation
- Enhances product or service quality
3. Automated marketing
Marketing teams are inundated with campaigns, posts, research, and scheduling, constantly racing against time to meet deadlines. However, replace repetitive tasks with automation, and your marketing teams will have more time and money to focus on innovation and creativity.
Benefits of automated marketing:
- Supports marketing projects
- Automates email and social media posting
- Automates lead generation
- More time and resources to drive user experience and business growth
4. Accounting
Gone are the days of Excel spreadsheets and Croxley books (sorry, Paula). Accounting automation software streamlines invoicing, expense reports, and bookkeeping tasks, reducing human error and giving accountants ready-to-use data to compile and share insights and perform financial analyses.
Benefits of automated accounting:
- Reduces human error
- Provides “plug-and-play” financial data
- Automates the billing process
- Automates financial reports, insights, and budgeting
5. HR and payroll
HR and payroll professionals have platefuls of responsibilities, including onboarding, training, company culture initiatives, policies, employee data capturing and processing, and more – talk about time constraints! Automated HR and payroll software alleviates many time-consuming tasks from your teams’ to-do lists, reducing stress, human error, and costs.
Benefits of automated HR and payroll software:
- Recruitment: Automated job listings, talent screening, application tracking, etc.
- Onboarding: Automated welcome emails, internal software access, company info sharing, etc.
- Data analytics and risk management: Automated trends, risk patterns, need forecasts, employee KPI tracking, etc.
- Training and upskilling: Automated training software, electronic training material, progress tracking, etc.
- Payroll: Automated benefits administration, salary distribution, and other payroll calculations such as PAYE, UIF, tax, commission, etc.
- Employee management: Self-service leave application processing, automated policy and legislation compliance, etc.
6. IT automation
Automation is the engine powering the IT department’s race car – one can’t perform without the other. It helps automate server admin, network management, and cybersecurity. This enables more time for IT teams to support and upskill employees on cybersecurity, workflow automation, and software challenges.
Benefits of IT automation:
- Automated software upgrades reduce downtime and improve hardware functionality
- Workflow automation increases performance tracking while streamlining tasks
- Saves time and money
- Features multiple digital tools
- Enhances cybersecurity and risk management
How to implement automation in a few easy steps
- Determine why you’re switching:
A problem/solution approach allows you to identify existing inefficiencies and develop a clear objective for the solutions you need. - Involve employees and managers:
Ask leaders and colleagues about their needs and the challenges they want to overcome. - Consult the pros:
Vendors and IT specialists know more about software solutions than anyone. Ask for advice, ROI information, details on the integration process, employee buy-in strategies, aligning the solution with your business goals, etc. - Create an automation checklist:
Once you know what you need, compare providers, pros and cons, costs, and time-to-integration using a checklist. This ensures your goals are always top of mind. - Choose the right IT partner:
The right IT providers deal with software integrations daily, giving them the experience and expertise to customise, implement, and support your digital transformation journey. - Get constant feedback:
Ask your employees and leaders how they cope with the new processes to gain insight into performance changes and employee experience. Don’t forget to get customer feedback as well! - Reflect, realign, repeat:
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and you’ll likely need to trim odds and ends to get the best outcome. Most importantly, keep communication lines open between you and your IT provider to ensure you’re getting the most out of your solution.
Stick to the process and don’t give up
Implementing new systems and processes is no easy feat and shouldn’t be rushed. Don’t dive into a solution just because other companies use it. Ensure your business goals and desired outcomes match the solution, and try not to integrate too many features simultaneously.
The last thing you want is to confuse and frustrate your employees with a solution designed to help them. Take it slow and implement the system in bite-sized chunks to allow easy integration and employee buy-in.
Lastly, don’t give up. Automation can revolutionise your SME’s performance and budget while making your business a top contender in the market.
Feeling overwhelmed in the process? No need to worry, that's where a Managed Services Provider (MSP) comes in! Numata offers seamless integration and support every step of the way during your digital transformation journey. Reach out to us; let's work together to elevate your business to new heights of success.
