Automation has emerged as an effective, efficiency-enhancing solution to every known problem in every known industry of the world. Even complex processeses like accounting cycle, quotation management, automotive manufacturing, etc, have been totally automated today.
Once automated, all these everyday operations run like clockwork, never taking a day off.
But not everything in this world is a fairytale. Is it?
Even advanced automation fails when not effectively handled. A study shows that around 50% of initial automation solutions fail to meet the basic benchmarks, heavily impacting the return on investment on such solutions.
Here are two popular situations when the ROI of automation solutions was greatly affected –
- Knight Capital lost nearly half a billion on a tiny trading glitch when they automated their IT process and trading algorithm.
- Delta Airlines flight operations were interrupted, and planes were delayed costing the airline around $150 million because of a glitch in their automated system.
The root cause of such failures lies in negligence and ineffective handling of the automation. Organizations and employees think that once a process is automated, their responsibilities end. This is a blunder, as Josh Kaufman rightly points out –
“The more efficient the automated system, the more crucial the contributions of the human operators of that system.”
Now the big question is ‘How do you ensure a good ROI from your existing automation solutions’. This post is your answer as we bring you 5 ways to improve the ROI of your automation solution –
#1 Automate only the required processes
Automation is not required for processes that are too simple, too qualitative, too infrequent, or too irregular. If these processes are automated, the results would be disappointing. Your ROI will be low. Instead, try automating repetitive processes, high-volume workflows, and those that require minimal human intervention.
Conduct a brainstorming session. Outline the processes that need to be automated. Also, try aligning the automation solution to your overall functional objective. Understand the workflow, workforce, and other activities of the process, starting from input to output. And finally changes the processes that need to be automated.
#2 Try bringing in other technologies
Automation increases scalability and reduces operational costs – This is a given. But when you integrate technology like AI into it, the solution is no longer ‘a simple automation’ anymore. The amalgamation is responsible for automating analytical tasks and helping you make hassle-free decisions instantly. The whole system learns from the outputs and produces valuable suggestions, which significantly increases the efficiency, eliminates errors, and elevates your overall ROI.
#3 Take the People-First Approach
Another reason for the low ROI of automation solutions is that most of them are designed to be task-oriented and not people-oriented. The solution is not designed to help people who actually need the help. In a task-first approach, an individual task may become more efficient, but it might not benefit the employees as they will not know how to use the saved time for other processes—the end result – poor ROI. So transform your automation process to make it people-first. Involve your employees and their goals while redesigning the automation process.
#4 Choose the right payment plan
Automation is all about scaling up. Some vendors might charge you purely based on usage. Though this might sound quite promising, it doesn’t work well for all types of businesses. This is true especially, if you plan to scale up in future. For instance, some of their plans may be based on the number of inputs to the system. As time progresses and your operations expand, the number of inputs will significantly rise. Soon, you will realize that you’re spending more than you’d anticipated. So change to a plan that helps you to scale up without breaking the bank.
#5 Pick a different solution that’s tailored for you
There’s no point in crying over spilt milk. If none of the above solutions are working for you, it is time to change the solution. Maybe the old solution wasn’t tailored for you.
Maybe you picked it because it worked brilliantly well for somebody else. But just because an automation solution worked for another business doesn’t mean it will work for you. You should embrace a solution that aligns perfectly with your workforce, processes, and goals. Every organization and its automation requirements are different, if not unique. One-size-fits-all automation approaches have a higher probability of failure.
Find a tailored solution that gives returns both to you and your customers. The ROI will be enhanced even further if you could integrate the solution to all your existing tools and processes so that you do not have to spend time on integrating them individually.
Conclusion
By now, you would have realized that just automating your processes isn’t enough; instead, you need the right techniques to maximize the returns you get out of the investment. When you do it right, all the resources of your organization will be utilized on creative tasks. Your organization can offer better customer experiences, and the workforce’s morale will be lifted. In short, you can see the returns rise in multiple fronts and not just monetarily.
If you’re interested in exploring Intelligent Automation to enhance your firm’s mortgage processing, Rapid Acceleration Partners would be glad to help. Our next-gen, AI-powered content intelligence platform RAPFlow enables full lifecycle AI orchestration on a single platform. When used in tandem with our RPA tool RAPBot, it provides end-to-end workflow automation capabilities that can be deployed in just weeks. You can even build your own use case and the platform can easily integrate with your existing systems. Book a demo to get a more detailed understanding of how our products can transform your business.
