Automation in the Enterprise
There is great value to automating business processes, since manual processes can be error-prone and inefficient. Efficiency is a key target for any organization, and accordingly, our research finds that more than 4 in 10 (44%) organizations are planning to change their technology assessment and selection process to improve operational efficiency and save costs. Of those planning to change, 1 in 5 are making the change because errors and mistakes are impacting their business. Automation can also improve customer experiences by providing immediate responses to customer needs. These reasons and more are why we find that nearly one-half (49%) of organizations consider process automation important.
There are a variety of approaches to automation within the context of business processes. Organizations can purchase prebuilt applications which include automated processes such as notifying customers when a support or service issue has been submitted. Custom-coded solutions are also popular: more than one-half (59%) of organizations are using custom coding and scripts as part of their analytics processes. More recently, a variety of low-code/no-code technologies have become popular. These tools are designed to make the development process easier and to enable a broader audience of users. Process automation tools, also referred to as robotic process automation (RPA), offer a way to connect various business systems and processes. In effect, RPA can provide the “glue” between those systems and processes.