Where to Automate? Identifying Key Opportunities for Business Efficiency

Automation software does more than just run tasks. It speeds up digital change across teams, freeing up employees’ time to focus on more mission-critical projects instead of routine admin work.

In an article featured on Harvard Business Review, Juan Perez, EVP and CIO of Salesforce, stated: “Automation is an immediate way to improve efficiency and productivity across every department.” [1]

The article also highlights some interesting statistics:

– 90% of workers said automation solutions increased their productivity

– 85% said these tools boosted collaboration across teams

– 90% trusted these solutions to get more done without errors and help them make decisions faster

These statistics emphasise that the right automation software is not merely a desirable upgrade, but a critical strategic priority to reshape business operations.

First things first, what is automation?

Automation is a process in which technology is leveraged to handle labour-intensive, repetitive tasks. These solutions “learn” human actions to run processes the same way every time. Unlike manual workflows, automation software runs nonstop and delivers reliable results day and night.

Automation encompasses a broad range of technologies and applications, developed with the purpose of:

– Minimise or eliminate human involvement

– Automate repetitive, routine tasks

– Enhance efficiency, productivity, and accuracy by streamlining processes

– Optimise resource utilisation and minimise labour costs

Types of business automation solutions

You may associate automation with artificial intelligence (AI) as a fundamental component that facilitates the sequence of actions. Although AI can be integrated with automation, not all automation solutions are AI-driven; many rely on predefined rules and programmed instructions.

Workflow automation

Manual processes often lead to information loss or errors. When tasks get backlogged or employees are overworked, steps may be skipped.

Workflow automation enhances processes by replacing manual tasks with software that carries out all or part of a procedure, freeing employees for other work and ensuring no steps are missed. For instance, in customer service, automated systems can handle routine queries, allowing staff to focus on complex issues.

Process automation

Compared to workflow automation, business process automation (BPA) goes beyond individual tasks and focuses on automating end-to-end processes that encompass multiple steps, systems, and stakeholders.

BPA aims to enhance operational efficiency, cut costs, reduce errors, and boost productivity by consolidating data from various sources to create analyses that would otherwise be challenging to achieve manually.

From recruitment to email marketing and accounting, almost every aspect of a business’s operations can benefit from BPA. When a business process is automated, entire steps in the current workflow, such as sending individual emails in a chain or transferring documents, are removed.

Intelligent automation

Intelligent automation (IA) represents the most advanced form of automation, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) technologies.

IA systems can:

– Understand context

– Learn from data

– Make decisions

– Adapt to dynamic environments

It enables automation of complex, unstructured tasks that require cognitive abilities. Essentially, IA can “learn” and change its process based on the information it receives.

For example, in customer service, AI-powered virtual assistants can stand in for their human colleagues, addressing routine questions or providing information to customers. This approach can lower expenses while facilitating more intelligent interactions between customers and human representatives. Consequently, the customer service experience is enhanced.

How can business functions leverage automation?

Now let’s talk real business implications. How can automation be applied and leveraged by different departments within the business?

Marketing automation

Marketing is a crucial business function that can be both time-consuming and expensive, making it ideal for streamlining through automation.

By using marketing automation tools or software, companies can produce highly qualified leads for sales engagement, better align email campaigns, monitor and assess a prospect’s activity, determine when a lead satisfies established buyer-readiness conditions, and promptly deliver leads to sales once they meet predefined criteria.

Accounting and bookkeeping automation

In a 2024 report in collaboration with SAP Concur, the Institute of Financial Operations & Leadership (IFOL) revealed that 52% of Accounts Payable professionals spent over ten hours weekly on invoice processing, a 10% decrease from last year. Additionally, the manual entry of invoices into ERP/accounting software dropped to 60%, down from 85% in 2023. In the same report, only 7.1% of respondents say no to automation solutions. [2]

Accounting function as a whole is notoriously known as a labour-intensive task involving numerous manual steps. Besides accounts payable, automation also allows businesses to significantly reduce the time spent on activities such as accounts receivable (AR), billing, collections, credit card applications, data backup, and other financial processes that require daily or weekly management.

Automation can also be applied to essential processes like closing the books, managing the general ledger (GL), and overseeing bank accounts. By eliminating manual components from the accounting team’s duties (the calculations and transactional tasks), automation simplifies a complex process, making it more manageable.

HR automation

The recruitment process involves multiple steps, beginning with a job advertisement and concluding when the employee is officially onboarded. Numerous stages within this process can be automated to boost recruiters’ efficiency and improve the candidate experience—from application submission to resume management, interview scheduling, offer making, and right through to onboarding.

For example, automated job offers can be sent directly to external applicants and current employees who might be interested in internal positions or making referrals.

But the bigger question is: How do you know where to automate?

A methodical review of your current operations helps you find the right automation opportunities in your organisation, and it all starts with identifying processes that will give maximum value through automation.

Identifying automation opportunities in your business

Recognising high-volume repetitive tasks

Here are what businesses should look for to identify areas with high-volume repetitive tasks ready for automation:

– Tasks that teams perform multiple times daily or weekly

– Processes that need extensive manual data entry

– Actions that move data between systems

– Routine report generation and distribution

– Standardised document processing

Any process that employees perform three or more times deserves a look for automation. Financial departments offer a prime example. Their receivables and payables, as mentioned in earlier parts, require substantial manual effort, but finance professionals could add more value elsewhere.

Spotting error-prone manual processes

Some might view manual processing, for instance, data entry or invoice re-keying, as “just how things are done.” However, they can lead to far-reaching consequences, riddled with errors, inconsistencies, and delays. Poor data management costs organisations an average of $12.9 million annually [3]. This makes error-prone processes excellent candidates for automation.

To effectively target automation efforts, businesses need to pinpoint specific areas where manual processes pose the greatest risks and inefficiencies.

Here are some key indicators that a process is ripe for automation:

– Areas prone to critical errors with significant consequences: These require meticulous attention and are prime candidates for automation to ensure accuracy and consistency.In regulated industries like finance and healthcare, even minor errors can lead to severe penalties, compliance breaches, and reputational damage.Similarly, in customer-facing interactions, inaccuracies can erode trust, damage customer relationships, and lead to lost revenue.

– Tasks involving data aggregation from multiple sources: Employees often waste time and struggle to reconcile conflicting data, leading to inconsistencies and inaccuracies that impact decision-making.

– Manual calculations and data manipulation: Hand-calculated figures are susceptible to human error, especially when dealing with complex formulas or large datasets. This can result in inaccurate financial reports, flawed analyses, and ultimately, poor business decisions.

– Repetitive and time-consuming tasks: Any task that requires the same actions to be completed over and over is ideal for automation. These tasks drain employee time and can lead to burnout.

– Processes with high volume and tight deadlines: Manual methods become increasingly challenging when high volumes of data need to be processed within short timeframes.

Evaluating customer-facing workflows

Companies with many repetitive tickets will benefit the most from chatbots and automation. As technology progresses, 81% of customers expect faster service [4], and 84% prefer a simple solution to their issue [5].

Customers should not be put in long queues, waiting for a basic answer like how to reset a password. Likewise, customer representatives should not have to repeatedly explain the same process multiple times a day.

Automation can help businesses decrease these repetitive inquiries while offering an enhanced user experience. This approach saves the customer time, resolves their issue, and allows them to return to interacting with the business’s site or application more quickly. Meanwhile, the customer reps can avoid low-value inquiries and dedicate more time to higher-stakes interactions.

Automation can start small, but for the project to reach its success stage, businesses must identify all possible bottlenecks, frequent errors, and time-consuming processes. Leaders should talk to their staff to understand why these issues exist and whether there are other potential alternative solutions besides or alongside automation. This combined approach helps businesses discover obvious and hidden automation opportunities in the workplace.

This article is a part of our latest whitepaper; in it, we dive deep into the benefits of automation and lay out the step-by-step foundation for businesses of all sizes to can get started right away.

So, if you are striving to improve your business efficiency, look at potential areas that can be transformed through the power of automation. Download this free guide today and learn more about this topic!

Sources:

1. https://hbr.org/sponsored/2023/04/how-automation-drives-business-growth-and-efficiency

2. http://acarp-edu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Accounts-Payable-Automation-Trends-2024-RESEARCH-REPORT_compressed.pdf

3. https://www.cloverdx.com/blog/is-manual-data-processing-making-your-organization-error-prone

4. https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/research/State-of-the-Connected-Customer.pdf

5. https://hbr.org/2017/01/kick-ass-customer-service