Grant Thornton SA has partnered with business process automation software provider SoftCo to jointly deliver automation solutions organisations in southern Africa.
Grant Thornton says it will be driving the sales, implementation and support services for SoftCo's technology on the continent.
In addition, the partnership allows Grant Thornton to offer SoftCo's cloud and outsourcing solutions to its customers in southern Africa.
To help businesses in automating their processes, Grant Thornton says it has a two-pronged approach. The company has established a bureau-type scanning service to digitise stored and archived documents, says Ian Scott, managing partner of Grant Thornton Cape.
This will not only alleviate the immediate space-storage challenges which many of its clients are facing, but it will also automate the process of retrieving archived documents, he adds.
The other service will be to provide an automated solution for processes including, procure to pay, invoice process automation, accounts receivable e-invoicing, e-health records and electronic content management.
"While our initial focus will be to deliver SoftCo's technology to key clients in SA, we look forward to opportunities where we can extend our offering to neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe," Scott elaborates.
As SA businesses continue to focus on reducing costs, improving efficiency and facilitating compliance, the demand for business process automation solutions that can meet these needs is on the increase, continues Scott.
"In this digital age, especially post-financial crisis, businesses are looking to technology at an ever-increasing pace as we strive for greater efficiency and better productivity."
Scott says the International Business Report in 2015, which focused on automation, discovered that South African business executives are motivated by three factors to automate their businesses: greater accuracy or efficiency in production, lower long-term costs and more flexibility to increase or decrease production.
The report states the manufacturing, cleantech, technology expect the greatest upheaval - with more than a third of companies in all four sectors expecting automation to replace at least 5% of their workforce, says Scott.
While the majority of organisations worldwide are planning to automate business practices, with some jobs being discontinued as a result, fewer than a third of SA businesses are considering this course of action, says Michiel Jonker, director: IT Advisory at Grant Thornton Johannesburg in a blog.
"The local situation is different for many reasons - including the high number of unskilled people, making it difficult for employees to operate more advanced machines or computers."
A failing government education system is not preparing young people for jobs in the 21st century, which is also referred to as the 'second machine age' and this is a major cause of the unacceptably high percentage of unskilled labour in this country, he notes.
For the country to become globally competitive automation will have to be introduced, suggests Scott.
"SA needs to accept that automation is going to happen, and that innovation will be key for economic growth. We need to start encouraging our young people to consider jobs that cannot be replaced by automation.
"They must design those robots, rather than going into occupations that will be replaced by robots."
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