As a specialist in the field of Intelligent Document Processing plus the recent intense interest in AI, I’m often asked, where do I start?
While this blog post isn’t intended as a definitive guide, here are six pointers that Admac Consultancy Services uses to narrow down candidate business processes for automation.
- Complexity
Generally, if the target process is complex, it’s a candidate for automation or, partial automation. The rationale is that humans often struggle with high complexity, especially if they’re under time, resource, and / or volume pressures. - Accuracy and precision
The need to ensure error-free and “right first time” processes places enormous strain on manual processes and frankly, these sorts of processes play into the hands of automated systems. An often-expressed point in Process Automation is that you can configure a software to perform intensive verification passes that would cause a “walk-out” of human operators. - Speed and deadlines
The fact is that some (or most) of the time, operators are working under the pressure of increased volumes and backlogs – this may be caused by understaffing (for the steady state) or by reduced budgets (getting more done but without additional staff). Sometimes, processes subject to regulatory requirements to attain a turnaround within a specified SLA. - Dynamic Decisioning
Where a process involves a change of process or priority based on real time data, it becomes more complex for a user to drive the process. - Continuous Process Improvement
Where there’s a desire or need to step up to a high-quality business culture where continuous business improvement is recognised as an important goal, process automation will yield the appropriate metrics and logs automatically. - Critical “Upstream” Processes
If an important business process is held up by a process that’s run manually, then an appropriate automation solution will clear the backlogs. The moral is – look at tasks and processes that impact downstream processes.
BTW, I deliberately, excluded an obvious one: high volumes of transactions or cases. High volume in any one of the above scenarios, will generally amplify and excerbate the challenges.
I hope you find this post thought provoking.
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