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The new intelligence of business process automation


Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2016
Whitepaper: The new intelligence of business process automation
Whitepaper: The new intelligence of business process automation

Business processes

Processes are what make organisations tick. If you think about it, what is an organisation but a set of processes and the people who implement them? In most cases, how well an organisation implements its key business processes plays a huge role in determining its overall success.

Unfortunately, even well-run organisations often implement important processes informally, mainly relying on knowledgeable employees to make sure things run smoothly. Although various process automation tools have been around for years, few organisations have the time or money it takes to implement and use such tools. Instead, organisations rely on various combinations of e-mail, spreadsheets, Word documents, and three-ring binders to get the job done. The incongruity is obvious. How can we reconcile the importance of these processes, their impact on the customer experience, and the lack of effort to streamline or even automate them?

The answer - it's just too hard. Yes, it would be possible to hire a huge consulting company to come in, interview the key players, design a system, develop it, deploy it, and train everyone to use it. But, how much would that cost? How much time would it take? How long before changing business conditions would render the whole thing obsolete? Horror stories abound regarding ambitious automation projects that were cancelled after hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars and years of time were wasted. That's why the spreadsheet remains the most common basis for business processes today. It's cheap. It's simple.

And it works - up to a point. However, the inefficiency of this more or less manual approach to process implementation can become a drag on profitability, and can have significant impact on the customer experience. As the organisation expands and must handle more leads, orders, returns, employees, and so on, more information flows through the organisation, and more people are required to run the processes. And as more people are layered on, the potential for expensive mistakes and lost revenue opportunities increases. Even worse, processes take a long time, and even then are unpredictable at best.

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