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Automation is central to healthy digital ecosystems

To enable an efficient digital ecosystem, users must be able to access and process the correct data, in a secure and compliant way, as swiftly as possible.
Russell Glover
By Russell Glover, MD of Linxus.
Johannesburg, 02 Dec 2020

Creating, participating in and exploiting digital ecosystems is at the heart of digital transformation strategy. If anything, COVID has taught us that we need to be even more aggressive about digitisation to adapt and meet the needs of employees, suppliers and customers in the value chain.

And with digital transformation accelerating at a rapid pace because of this, it’s no surprise that the impact of harnessing these digital ecosystems brings some challenges.

Customer expectations are driving business transformation faster than ever before. As customer interactions shift further to digital in the new normal, leaders have accelerated the digitisation of customer and supply chain interactions by years. Industry is leaping ahead to meet changing customer demands by digitising business processes and workflows.

The impact of digital transactions, payment innovations and online interfaces are assisting to radically transform how we view digital transformation strategies and frameworks. This new-found digital enthusiasm translates directly into workflow efficiencies and the end-to-end integration of processes.

A recent poll by The Harris Poll proves process automation is key to thriving in the post-COVID world. With nearly six in 10 businesses facing challenges maintaining operational efficiencies in a distributed environment, there is a heavy reliance on developing new processes and automating legacy ones.

Fintech has leapfrogged legacy systems by reshaping financial services at a rapid pace.

In financial services, for example, consumers live in micro-moments, with ease of access and exposure to a large and diverse set of digital services. They are no longer satisfied with just getting what they want.

Today’s consumer demands flexibility in how and where they engage financial services to get what they want.

Fintech has leapfrogged legacy systems by reshaping financial services at a rapid pace. EY’s Global Fintech Adoption Index 2019 shows 82% consumer fintech adoption in South Africa and is expected to increase even further, with the country ranking third in future growth behind only China and India, and sharing the position with Russia.

A key factor is ensuring remote workers can view and modify data applicable to their role, and have tasks assigned to them based on their responsibilities. Having access to the right information at the right time could be the difference between success and failure for an automated process and ultimately, the business. With vast quantities of data now available, obtaining the ‘right’ information by the ‘right’ person is pivotal.

In a digital ecosystem, data streams in from multiple sources, in diverse formats, and new technologies are applied to help organise and distribute this overwhelming influx. And with a more distributed workforce, users want increased access to collaborate in shared digital workspaces via mobile devices or online platforms.

Data, both structured and unstructured, plays an integral role in almost every business process, from onboarding clients at a bank, to providing healthcare services to patients in a hospital. People have been separated from paper files, person-to-person processes have been disrupted, and companies have had to take on new automation priorities. There are new loads on back-office systems that simply cannot be supported with current technologies.

To automate at scale, businesses need to consider technology governance. They need to ensure the right people are making decisions and executing change, from technology experts to business experts to change managers, and people who inform their decisions, like customer experience and governance, risk and compliance professionals.

Easy and secure access to information is critical in any business environment. As data is easily accessed and distributed, it’s equally important to ensure it is secure and only accessed by authorised users.

The bottom line is that to enable a swift and efficient digital ecosystem, users must be able to access and process the correct data, in a secure and compliant way, as swiftly as possible.

Automated workflow platforms, and integrated e-mail access, make it possible to track how content is being used from any system across workflows, which makes it easier to monitor compliance with internal rules and regulatory obligations.

Data trails support evidence of compliance, should this ever be required by auditors or regulatory authorities. Finally, IT can maintain all regulatory and compliance standards, no matter whether people are working remotely or not.

Legacy workflows and manual systems can take years to transform. Embedded in cultural, technological, and systemic complexities, change has often been expensive and time-consuming to execute. The micro-moments in a customer journey translate into micro-processes and workflows that can be automated, accelerated and innovated.

Remote work, contactless delivery and online transactions, among many other factors, are now helping us push the tipping point, and customer journeys can be tailored across healthy and automated digital ecosystems.

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