Are these questions and objections stopping you from unlocking the potential of Hyper Automation?

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard the buzz around Hyper Automation. You may have even realized and accepted that Hyper Automation is a mandate for future enterprise sustenance. But what’s stopping you from taking that step to embrace it?

Many organizations grapple with questions and objections that slow down their pursuit or even deter them from pursuing Hyper Automation. Let’s look at and address a few of them.

1. Hyper Automation is not for us!

Well, nay-sayers will always be there. In some cases, they might also be in influential roles, which makes it a little harder to get them on board. To get their buy-in, a good approach is to start by qualifying that Hyper Automation is not a product or a one size fits all solution. Instead, emphasize that it is a framework to approach an enterprise goal in various business scenarios.

Then take a leaf from others’ books. There are umpteen examples of success, learnings from every domain, that can be emulated within similar enterprises. You could take inspiration to innovate a business process based on what you see in another domain. An interesting example is where one of our in the Insurance / Benefits segment revamped their claims process being inspired by the Quote-to-Order transformation done at Manufacturing major. Likewise, we had one of our Banking clients got started with rejigging their mortgage warehouse business process, proving the value potential across the bank.

Finally, curate possibilities to break apprehensions early and find a champion within the business team to be your sponsor of change. 

2. Oh, Automation! That’s an IT project

Nope, you have got this a little off. The idea of Hyper Automation is curtailed to a task automation initiative if handled siloed into one team, department, or simply as an IT project. The problem with such an approach is that the focus, often, is limited to overcoming immediate burning issues. On the other hand, a Hyper Automation mindset is about looking at the end-to-end process, scouting ideas to reinvent it, and remodeling it to attain goals. Now the solution possibilities are rarely limited to IT.

3. Does Hyper Automation mean bringing new technology?

The short answer is not necessarily. Hyper Automation is about applying multi-tech levers to deliver a higher-order experience to your user. The technology needed will depend on the business scenario, existing app systems, etc. The idea is to generate this value with the technology that is readily available within your ecosystem, retuning the applications where possible. There might be one or two areas where the systems cannot interact with each other or are dated systems etc. In such situations, it would be better to bring in tech like RPA to enable seamless processing, use process/task mining technology to accelerate the study of your current processes, and use AI/ML to help step up your business.

4. Is it hard to find Hyper Automation Talent?

You will not find Hyper Automation Engineers in the market, as it is not a specific technology or business expertise stream. A Hyper Automation solution needs multiple tools curated for a specific business scenario, so we don’t recommend hiring Hyper Automation specific talent. Multi-tech, multi-discipline professionals are the future. So, look at building your existing talent base into multi-tech discipline professionals. To kickstart certain segments like process automation, AI/ML, process/task mining, charting your transformation journey, etc., it would be good to onboard specialists in those areas with a Hyper Automation mindset and then upskill your current talent pool. You could also engage consultants like SLK to enable you to kickstart and transform ahead.

5. Can we apply Hyper Automation to immediate issues?

Absolutely! The Hyper Automation framework can be applied to small or big scenarios. The core technique of Hyper Automation is to apply task mining, lean / process optimization, RPA, intelligent document processing, AI/ML, etc., and enable rapid solution development. As an enterprise, when you get to the rhythm of Hyper Automation, you will naturally apply it to all ideas and take it forward to value generation. As you gain on the Hyper Automation experiences, the action plans become sharper and the time to value is quicker.  

6. What are some of the critical elements that can make or break the Hyper Automation pursuit?

1. Acceptance and Realization that Hyper Automation is a mandate for future enterprise sustenance
2. Rigidity during transformation and thereafter. Setting the approach and architecture in stone would add extra layers of governance, which will hardly allow any ideas to take off
3. These transformations cannot be siloed into one team or department or as an IT project. This needs to be an enterprise initiative.
4. Culture of punishing failed experiments. Learn from experiments and recalibrate. True innovations have several failed experiments behind them.

Authored by Gireesh Ullody