The Age of Automation and How it Impacts Business and Workflow

From improving efficiency and productivity to making it easier than ever for your team to process orders and complete projects rapidly.

Automation is already having a significant impact on how businesses handle orders, complete projects and serve customers. From machine learning to creating software robots that perform the kinds of repetitive tasks that most humans avoid. Robots are not only capable replacements for people for these types of jobs; they can perform data entry and simple processing more quickly too. Best of all, when you incorporate automation into your workflow, your employees end up with more time to work effectively and can perform their jobs more efficiently as well.

When you add machine learning into the mix, those automated features and functions can perform tasks that require logic and learn as they do so. Each time a robot completes a task, it remembers what steps and changes were needed to make the next project or process even more streamlined. An automated robot can also learn to spot problematic orders or interactions and alert a human operator to intervene or quarantine the order or data until it can, but it also enhances.

Machines and automation excel at logic and defined tasks but are not ideal candidates for creative projects or those requiring creative thinking to resolve. Automation can recognize and flag projects or processes that require human intervention, but can’t come up with any “outside the box” solutions.

What Does the Growing Interest in Automation Mean for Employees and Employers?

Automation changes the way we work and could eliminate some jobs and even fields in the coming years. Some industries will be impacted more than others, but automation reduces the need for people to handle rote tasks – and increases the need for individuals with critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. Every industry is different, and some will be impacted more than others:

Healthcare: Automation and robotics are already in use for everything from surgery to training and the handling of patient data and records. Automation will continue to be useful for the processing of insurance claims to the patient intake process; actual patient care requires empathy, experience, and even creativity and is unlikely to be altered much soon.

Entertainment Computers dominate the actual processes involved in making everything from video games to movies and television programs, and automation can be used to perform critical tasks – but it is not creative or forward thinking. Expect to see humans using tech to produce entertainment, not the other way around.

Service Industries: Machines can and do complete tasks and services, but a real human is still best of the social and emotional side of things. Automation can be used to enter customer data, engage clients and even ensure that prospects get the correct documents and information when they are shopping around; the human element is still needed to pull everything together.

Insurance: The insurance industry has already begun to embrace automation for claims intake, and processing and automated robots could start to edge out their human counterparts in some areas or positions. Data entry and similar roles are easily filled by automated robots, but actual decisions on claims will still require human involvement.

Accounting Perhaps the heaviest hit industry by automation – bookkeepers, and CPAs are already being replaced by automated programs and solutions. Automation is changing this industry and the way we attend to our taxes and personal finances.

How Can Automation Benefit your Business?

Improved Efficiency

Automation streamlines your processes without sacrificing accuracy or quality. When your team can access the accurate data they need to perform their jobs, efficiency naturally goes up.

Heightened Productivity

The best tasks for automation are those that are repetitive and boring for human workers. Automated robots don’t get bored – and can make rapid work of multiple pages or reams of data that could take a human worker day to get through. If you have a workflow process that starts with client and customer data, you’ll experience delays at the start of projects if there is too much initial information to enter.

A human operator will naturally take a longer amount of time to get everything inputted and handle any processing or early stage tasks that need to be done. By automating these tasks, you can improve the speed of your entire workflow and make it easy for your team to tackle more projects per year.

Boosted Accuracy

Automated systems are a natural match for any process that require entirely accurate information and figures. Robots don’t get fatigued or bored and won’t misread a word. Your 1,000^th entry will be as precise and reliable as your first. The accuracy of an automated system not only helps when it comes to having confidence in your data, it enhances the customer experience, reduces frustration and even allows your team to process workflow more efficiently than ever before.

Easier Collaboration and Tracking of Progress and Changes

Without automation, your employees need to accurately input information, complete tasks and then remember to alert other workers to move the project along or complete essential duties. Once you automate critical tasks, they can be completed swiftly and then the proper teams or groups can be notified. An automated system doesn’t need to be prompted to update or track progress, will never forget to move a project along and can keep track of both progress and changes. Real-time alerts allow you to have a birds’ eye view of the process and your progress so you can allocate more or fewer resources as needed.

Your employees will be better able to collaborate when they can instantly access a project or file and know it has everything it needs and that all data is correct. Your team can proceed with confidence, knowing that they are working with the latest and most accurate information about the project or the client. At its best, automation does not replace human workers, it enhanced their roles and made their jobs easier and more efficient.

Enhanced Flexibility

Automation is not a one-size-fits-all solution; you can pick and choose how you integrate the latest innovations in automation so they most benefit your business and workflow. Careful consideration of which tasks in your different procedures and methods are the best candidates for automation can help you make the most of the technology.

When you decide which tasks can be automated, look for those that are mundane, repetitive and that require a large degree of accuracy without a lot of creative thought. From data entry to simple processing and even tracking of your documents, automation works best when you have given careful thought to the best places to incorporate it.

Make the most of the age of automation by learning more about what this dynamic and innovative solution can do for you. At Raleigh IT Support Company and IT Services Provider | CSP Inc., we’re committed to not only keeping up but staying ahead of trends and securing the latest innovations for our clients. Contact us at (919) 424-2000 or info@cspinc.com to learn just how big of a difference automation can make for your organization.