Why Should you Automate?

A Digital Workforce can be made to do many of the monotonous tasks while keeping the integrity of the business data. Automation in the financial sector started with slow growth but now more and more companies are opting for automation for the tedious and mundane processes. Opting for automation increases the overall productivity, cost savings and improvement in client experiences.

Major factors why you should invest in Automation are –

1. Efficient Use of Man Hours
   With automation in place for processes which can be done without human supervision, the employees are being utilized for efficient tasks which need human intervention.
2. Speeding the process
   Mundane and no brainer tasks can be executed quickly using the machine without any scope of errors.
3. Scheduling the repetitive, mundane tasks
   Tasks that are to be done on a regular interval of time can be scheduled using automation tools
4. Automation reduces risk of error
   Error rate is visible when work is done manually by human, however with automation one can expect error free work
5. Cost Savings
   The labour cost can be saved and in fact be used more efficiently for bigger and difficult tasks

McKinsey forecasts that in the next few years machines will do up to 10 to 25 percent of work across financial functions, increasing capacity of the employees to focus on tasks requiring manual intervention of human.

However, not every task is worthy of automation, you need to take care of the following before investing on automation –

1. Start small and expand gradually
   Having a larger picture in mind is good but always start with small objectives. Evaluating the efficiency for smaller processes being automated and then expanding the solutions as per the bigger picture is the correct approach.
2. Over automation is not a good practice
   Organizations often aim at automating the entire processes, eliminating human intervention completely. Usually it is better to automate only those parts of the process where automation adds the most value. This also ensures some human oversight.
3. Measure pros and cons
   When deciding to automate complex processes always analyse if it would offer a good margin of savings. Processes that are subject to frequent changes are not a good target for automation.

With the constant emergence of challenges driven by disruptive technologies, intense competition, and complex market, companies are looking at optimizing costs, improving accuracy and maximizing returns. Automation can be used to quickly automate key processes to achieve higher efficiencies and streamline operational costs. Thus, professionals can focus more on value-added functions driven by smart solutions and contribute efficiently to overall organization objectives.