Current situation of automation and digitization in business

Automating your business can dramatically improve operational efficiency. In the past, this advantage was limited to IT teams, but now a trend is occurring where entire corporate businesses are being automated. According to a report published by Workato, an enterprise automation platform, the departments that have begun to adopt business process automation are diversifying, with the finance department surpassing the IT department as the most automated department.

In this blog, we will discuss the current situation of business automation and digitization in companies, which is continuously accelerating by the pandemic.

66% of companies have 5 or more departments implementing automation processes

Between February 2021 and January 2022, Workato has surveyed 900 SMEs worldwide about automation softwares, the most automated processes and positions linked to automated tasks.

The accessibility and ease of use of low-code development platforms has led to a sharp increase in the adoption of automation by companies in 2021. The survey shows that 66% of companies have five or more departments implementing automated processes, and the number of companies with seven departments having automated processes had doubled compared to 2019.

Meanwhile, the increase in non-technical staff adopting automated processes is also significant. In 2020, most companies had only one or two departments having automated processes; while starting with 2021, the growth of business processes automation was 1,074%, customer service automation support 666%, and finance automation 659%. The finance department has surpassed the IT department to become the department with the largest automation rate, accounting for 26% of all automated processes.

In analyzing area data to track automation in each company, Workato found that automation rates for insight and analysis in Europe, Middle East and Africa grew 403% over the year before. In the APAC area, financial automation was more developed, with purchase-to-pay and record-to-report processes growing by 514% and 569%, respectively.

Performing Automation and Improving Security Hole Management

When companies upload documents to the cloud services and achieve digitized management, they can streamline their operations and save on storage costs and search time. However, according to a survey of 268 IT managers worldwide by Forrester Research in the US, 63% of respondents said their companies are lacking of basic equipments, especially for digitization tasks. 58% of respondents said their companies are lacking of IT basic equipments, including cloud computing, which not only exposes additional dangers to their network security, but also creates more operating costs and may limit their innovation capacity.

In Forrester Research’s opinion, with the increased demand for IT infrastructure automation, companies must analyze their own weaknesses and understand how these weaknesses affect business development and their employees’ work. When the infrastructure is fully automated, security holes can be better managed and risks could be avoided in the business.

Automation in IT basic facilities can increase developer’s efficiency and productivity and their improve delivery time. According to the report, nearly 60% of IT managers use those basic facilities to track KPIs in delivery times, system service levels and software release lifecycles. 46% of respondents indicated that their companies use automated foundations for even higher operational efficiency.

Data is the precious “oil resources” in digitization, bringing more value to companies

During the pandemic period, many companies are reconsidering their implementation of the latest technologies to their current operating patterns, in order to increase their pace of operational digitization. Application of cloud computing and data is very important while deciding a strategy for operational digitalization.

Not only for startups, but also traditional companies in the financial, insurance, and retail industries are actively using technology to develop a variety of digital products and operations to increase their competitiveness. Patrick Lo, the vice president of Oracle’s Hong Kong and Taiwan region, commented that data is the precious “oil resources” to this modern world, and data has significant value to companies. For example, data can help in improving long-term operating policies through detailed analysis. Therefore, while choosing a data center or online storage for bussiness, one must be careful about the legality of storage service providers and their guarantee of data security.

Currently, many technology services are using cloud computing. The advantages are that there are no regional restrictions. Offshore data centers can offer the same maximum latency reduction and data security guarantees as onshore ones. Also, data loss and business interruption can be avoided.

Capturing and analyzing big data properly can effectively increase a company’s competitiveness. Consumers in recent years are highly concerned about information privacy, and there are various measures to respond to this demand. For example, avoiding the collection of sensitive information, encrypting data, and introducing data masking that does not use personal information such as names and ID numbers, etc.

While data analysis technologies such as AI and machine learning are trending in today’s market, Patrick Lo said that many companies are lacking consistency in their data processing strategies.

If we see digitalization strategies that help business operations are the limbs of a company, data operations and analysis would be the brain of a company. However, many companies tend to overlook the importance of this “brain” during their IT projects executions. Data can benefit a company in many ways, such as analyzing what useful data could be collected from a business project, and data models that can be used to improve business operations.

SMEs had been greatly affected by the pandemic. However, the resources and the most updated technology required for their digitalization reform are too vast for most of the SMEs to access due to their company size and limited resources.

Experts of corporate digitalization offered the following advises for SMEs’ digitalization reform directions:

1. Adopt cloud computing such as SaaS to save development time, money and human resources, and to develop business more flexibly
2. Use the data generated from IT projects to analyze business improvement strategies effectively
3. Adopt OSI to store and align data

“Even if you start your digital transformation with small projects only instead of applying to the whole business at once, you will feel the effects right away.” Patrick Lo added. Technologies of cloud computing are evolving every day, so why not start your technology revolution now?

MAY Planning offers a variety of services including business automation and digitalization, IT solution proposals and consulting related to implementation and daily usage practical support. Please feel free to contact us if you are seeking a solution to your situation.