Automation Can Save Your Business
Navigating the Era of Change
For centuries, businesses have evolved based on the volume of manual labor.
Focusing on doing it yourself or finding someone who can do it for you.
26 years ago, the internet connected the world to each other.
This allowed larger groups of people to be able to help businesses in areas where they were weak.
Businesses have adopted the internet and technology to grow exponentially.
Nowadays, the businesses that can operate the quickest are the ones that perform and beat their competition.
Businesses that cannot readily analyze their processes, improve what is not efficient, and reduce operational costs are the ones that will fail.
In this new digital era, the business world is changing rapidly with challenges that prevent growth and minimize efficiency.
Businesses are finding the foundational operational models are not able to handle the pace and must adopt automation in order to stay in business and stay competitive.
Embracing AI and Automation
With the introduction of AI and automation, you can now substitute manual, tedious tasks with automated workflows.
AI has accelerated the use of technology and altered how businesses perform tasks on a daily basis.
Automation paired with AI allows you to reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, enhance accuracy, and improve scalability.
I will be diving into a case study on how automation took 451 days of work and reduced it to 23 days of work and how it directly impacted the business's bottom line in 2024.
By the end of this, my goal is to help you assess whether your business needs automation or not, how automation will impact your business's future, and where to find resources that can help you out.
Automation and Operational Challenges Across Industries
Automation isn’t industry-specific.
When it comes to systems and processes, there is always room to incorporate optimal practices.
The type of automation a business needs depends on the problem they are trying to solve.
Types of problems:
High operational costs
Inefficient business practices
Manual mistakes and inaccuracies
Inability to scale
These are all incorporated into every type of business, but there are a select number of industries that need automation in 2024.
To include a few:
Automation can address each of the problems above.
High operational costs?
Reduce manual workload by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
Minimize human error by reducing costly mistakes.
Align and speed up processes by creating automated workflows.
Boost morale and productivity by reducing mundane tasks and allowing employees to focus on meaningful work.
Real-World Evidence: A Closer Look at Automation Success
Businesses are realizing the benefits of automation after seeing the sheer amount of work that can be minimized, leading to millions of dollars in savings.
The main focal points for a business in retail are customer service, inventory management, and return processing.
BEFORE AUTOMATION:
This specific business customer service has typically relied on call center staff to navigate through multiple systems to retrieve customer information in order to answer questions or solve problems.
Main Problems:
High turnover
Long wait times
High customer churn
Low first-call resolution rates
Lack of reporting and analytics
AFTER AUTOMATION:
Recode Solutions (an intelligent automation provider) automated AP invoice processing, customer service tasks, and loan servicing requests.
Results:
Time to process an invoice: 10 minutes to 30 seconds (average of 65,000 invoices annually) 451 days of work were reduced to roughly 23 days.
The average call handling time was reduced to 85 seconds, saving the company $2 million annually.
See For Yourself
Now, how can you see these same results? First, you need to assess if your business has the systems in place to handle automation.
Take this 7-question quiz to see if your business is ready for automation.
The Blockbuster Warning
One of the worst examples of not optimizing business practices is the rise and fall of Blockbuster.
When the market was ripe for automation in content delivery and recommendation systems for digital streaming, Blockbuster failed to act and was left behind by Netflix, which saw the next evolution of business systems.
If you do not automate your business systems, you will begin to find yourself unable to respond to customer needs as quickly as you should and will be at a strategic disadvantage.
Manual tasks will overburden your workforce and lead to lower morale and productivity.
This will be paired with a higher chance of errors and security breaches.
Automation is not just about becoming the best in your niche.
It is about surviving in a digital world. Ignoring this will keep your business less efficient, less responsive to market changes, and more vulnerable to time- and money-consuming disruptions.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Embracing Automation
In order to stay ahead of the curve, you must incorporate a process for analyzing your business.
Businesses are all different, but a process that can be universally utilized is as follows:
Discovery
Business Analysis
Solution Design
Agile Development
Step 1:
To start, you must understand the processes that are currently at work. Focus on one process at a time.
Write down the current steps of that process and identify bottlenecks, roadblocks, and issues with that process.
Pro Tip: Make sure the data you collect and use is clean and accurate. If it is not, I would start by cleaning up your data with a CRM like Salesforce or Dubsado.
Here is a quick breakdown of each one:
Step 2:
Look for processes that you do manually over and over again.
These are the first processes that will be able to be automated.
Then develop a system that can handle smart automation.
Pro Tip: The automation will only be as good as the foundation you build it upon. Make sure your systems can handle it, and check out different ones like Zapier and Microsoft Power.
Here is a quick breakdown of each one:
Step 3:
Adopt software to solve these easy manual tasks and assess your system's capabilities.
If your foundation is solid, then move on to using AI to handle more complex tasks.
Pro Tip: AI can now learn from the data it analyzes to understand the business better and create a more personalized tool for the business they work within.
Step 4:
Reassess and invest in systems that can improve themselves and fix problems on their own. This machine learning will be able to predict and recommend solutions for you to move forward.
Pro Tip: Always implement one ingredient at a time until you have ample data to analyze what is working and what is not.
Step 5:
Focus more on developing your people.
Automation gives you and your employees the freedom to do more creative and revenue-generating activities.
Help them understand how to utilize technology to their advantage and foster growth.
Pro Tip: The Predictive Index is the #1 software for upskilling your current talent.
At the end of the day, businesses aim for a future where every person finds fulfillment and purpose in their roles.
Automating manual tasks frees up our team members to focus on work that demands critical thinking and innovation, building confidence in their careers and the value they bring to their businesses.
Conclusion
Your Next Steps Toward Automation
If you would like to explore more about business automation, I highly recommend conducting a business analysis first to see what your business capabilities are and what it needs.
If you are ready to analyze your business systems and begin the process of reducing operational costs, improving efficiency, enhancing accuracy, and improving scalability, then book a time to talk here!
