Many recent initiatives have been introduced in Australia to strengthen competitiveness, boost productivity and support local communities. However, despite the clear benefits that intelligent automation brings to businesses across various sectors, most Australian businesses are being left behind.
According to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian businesses are innovating less due to economic challenges and lack of skilled workers. The data also found businesses shifted away from process innovation after the pandemic, prioritising goods and services innovation.
While Australia may have established itself as a testbed for innovation, it often fails to follow through sufficiently enough to reap the benefits of new technologies to keep pace with its global competitors. The current operating environment adds another barrier to taking proactive measures for longer-term business gains, as heightened cost sensitivity makes businesses even more risk-averse and gravitate towards quick ROI.
However, this focus on quick ROI can be a barrier to taking actions that benefit the business in the long term. A holistic and strategic approach to automation helps achieve more with less, go further faster, and make significant improvements in performance.
Unparalleled business benefits
Hyperautomation involves the utilisation of a variety of technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Low Code, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), brought together to solve specific business challenges or problems.
The advantages of adopting hyperautomation are clear. From shifting performance gains to future-proofing digital operations and liberating workforces, hyperautomation is the key to outpacing disruption and outperforming the market.
Hyperautomation is a strategic imperative for businesses regardless of industry or sector. According to research by UiPath, 84% of organisations in Australia agree that automation will be critical for business excellence, customer experience, and competitive success within the next 3 years.
In what is believed to be a world first initiative, the Queensland Government introduced a financial provisioning scheme for the rehabilitation of mines. Roboyo adopted an agile approach to quickly deliver a Financial Assurance Information Registry (FAIR) application using a low-code platform which reduced the average time taken to complete risk assessments, increased cross-departmental collaboration and more streamlined processes resulting in better outcomes.
Automation starts with people and processes
To achieve the full benefits of hyperautomation, it needs to be applied where it can make the greatest difference to the business. While this approach can help
address an organisation's biggest strategic challenges, the first attempt should focus on a smaller, specific challenge that can help employees gain confidence in automation.
Some key considerations for businesses starting their hyperautomation journey:
1. Start small.
To demonstrate the benefits not just to senior decision-makers but also to the workforce, companies new to hyperautomation can often place too much emphasis on achieving quick results. This usually leads to selecting the first process to automate based solely on potential cost savings. However, such processes often have complex requirements that delay implementation and lead to negative perceptions of automation.
Instead, begin by automating a smaller, simpler process to quickly showcase the benefits of automation. This approach helps engage the business early on and fosters collaboration between employees and automation.
2. Find a single use case.
By successfully solving a single process, businesses can gain confidence in the value of broader transformation through hyperautomation. Find a task that is time-consuming and repetitive to automate. When team members have to perform these tasks hundreds of times a week, then errors (and frustration) will inevitably creep in. Over time, this can lead to high staff turnover and a demotivated workforce.
3. Maintain a healthy automation ecosystem.
Automating a process isn't a one-time task; it requires ongoing maintenance and adaptation. While RPA thrives in stable environments, websites, applications, and other crucial elements of your automation frequently update. Therefore, bots need to be continuously adapted to keep up with this rapidly changing environment.
4. Take it to the next level
While automating a single task or process can bring noticeable benefits, hyperautomation takes these advantages to a whole new level by creating a more comprehensive and integrated approach to automation.
Once the first use case has been successfully implemented, the business can start to reap the benefits of end-to-end optimisation, which will bring seamlessness, scalability, cost savings and greater customer experience.
Businesses can no longer afford to ignore the need to embrace automation in the fast evolving digital economy. Hyperautomation ensures businesses remain competitive and ready for new opportunities while driving efficiency and innovation.
Australian organisations are at serious risk of falling further behind if they delay their shift to automation. In order to remain competitive and drive value, automation should be a top priority on every leadership agenda and strategy. Only by adopting current technologies and methodologies to modernise outdated processes can organisations optimise workflows, lift innovation, and take performance and productivity to the next level.
