CEO Dilemma: How to Choose Which Processes to Automate

Automation is here to stay, and now is a great time to start using its benefits instead of spending hours on routine tasks.

Original KRC 2020 Research showed that nearly 80% of executives agreed that they could save a lot of time through automation, and 61% of business leaders polled believe that implementing automation is easier than it seems. Sounds pretty exciting, but we still have a tough question to answer, “Where to begin?”

Do Your Homework

The popular belief that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has to be in dystopian ‘man vs machine’ extreme, which is, by the way, mainly a Western idea, creates an unnecessary barrier for entrepreneurs to start using artificially intelligent products/processes designed to optimize business workflow. One such AI process is Robotic Process Automation (RPA), that is hugely effective in automating repetitive tasks that might consume valuable employee work time. As a human-led automation process, however, RPA is neither the downfall of human capital nor the revenge of the bots. RPA tools imitate human decisions when executing vital business tasks in an optimized work process. The real value of RPA concentrates in a strategic collaboration between employee direction and automation software.

Case Study #1: Email Management with RPA

A common illustration of workflow disruption is the automation of data entry and email management.

Step 1: Bot extracts attachments from emails

When emails with different attachments arrive, the bot extracts data from them and sorts the information according to the performance rules it was assigned.

Step 2: Data scraped into a created spreadsheet

The information is categorically transposed into a row on a master excel sheet while the original file is saved in the computer.

Step 3: Bot accesses related web application

As this task is completed, the bot uses its assigned credentials to log into an enterprise web application that registers data from each excel record.

Step 4: Bot informs supervisor of work completion

The bot creates new invoice reports, completes compliance forms then sends out an email confirming process completion to the relevant human supervisor.

Stay Focused

After your first RPA research, you might find out that, first of all, it is incredibly useful, and secondly, not everything can be automated, so it’s your decision to make on where to begin.

Thankfully, we are not at “Family Feud”, and you don’t have to choose a random answer and there’s no one with a mustache who’ll blame you if you’re wrong. Testing is undoubtedly essential, but we’ve put together a list of characteristics that can help you detect a perfect process for automation anyway:

• It has high transaction volume and runs periodically (on a daily or weekly basis)
• It is rule-based which means that a decision is made based on predictive rules
• It is well-documented, stable, and has predictable operational costs
• It has low variation scenarios in the activities that could lead to different handling of procedures
• It can potentially provide significant automation savings
• There are no upcoming changes in methodology
• It has to have inputs in typical formats (JPG, XML, PDFs, etc.)

Note. Operations that hit all these criteria are generally back-office processes in HR, Finance, and IT as well as front office processes such as Retail and Customer Support.

Case Study #2: Working on Leads with RPA

An essential part of any business processes is the work with potential clients.

Step 1: Bot gets a new potential lead (from website or email)

Step 2: Bot identifies the type of lead and sends information to the right department

Step 3: Bot connects to CRM (e.g. Salesforce) and checks the list of employees at work

Step 4: Bot sends all the data about potential lead to a less busy manager

Step 5: Bot creates a task to contact with a potential client

Step 6: After a while (you can choose time frame) the bot checks whether the task is completed

(additional) Step 6.1: If the task isn’t completed, bot sends the lead to another manager

(additional) Step 6.2: Bot reports to VP of Sales that a manager has failed to comply with the established regulations

Step 7: After completion of the task, bot starts to work on a new potential lead

Instead of Conclusion

Regardless of a company’s size, industry or software exposure, RPA tools add value by increased accuracy, speed, and flexibility. Even though bots imitate human activity, they don’t respond to minor changes in UI or data like humans can do.

The automation of routine tasks relieves workers of time-consuming duties so that they can focus on higher value work with clients. When it comes to choosing which processes to automate with RPA, it’s vital that talent management is balanced with AI so that people can fulfill their potential without getting burnt out.

electroNeek can help you, and your employees save valuable time spent on routine desktop and browser tasks by extracting and interpreting information from business documents (e.g. invoices or purchase orders), Desktop and SaaS applications (e.g. Salesforce), processing it, filling out a form or creating a custom report. It also can move the data between any desktop or cloud app, following business instructions. With electroNeek, one doesn’t require IT skills to build simple bots (e.g. creating a report or sending personalized emails to a list of co-workers or customers). You can try it out for free here.

One more thing

Being an entrepreneur is hard, we get it, so here’s Keanu with a reminder that you’re doing a great job by reading this article till the end and trying to learn new tricks for your business.

CEO Dilemma: How to Choose Which Processes to Automate was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.