What are the main categories of benefits that we are already achieving thanks to automation?

What do we expect from automation in the coming years?

The discussion about the goals of automation usually takes place against an ethical background, referring to the intentions towards employees. However, properly directed automation can also support sustainable technological development. Currently, automation allows us to achieve mainly optimization goals. In the future, managers most often want to combine cost reduction goals with the goals of strategic growth of the organization.

So what benefits can automation bring us today? Acceleration, quality, organizational improvements, employee relief, competitive position and compliance with regulations – these are the categories most often mentioned by automation managers.

All the data I discuss in this article is based on my own research conducted as part of my doctoral dissertation.1 What benefits do your organizations expect? I encourage you to discuss under the article!

Reducing process execution time

Time is one of the key determinants of competitiveness. When making a purchase, customers take into account the expected delivery time of a product or service. Time also plays a key role in the case of returns or complaints. Automation affects time optimization in several dimensions through:

• shortening the execution of a single process,
• the ability to perform tasks in parallel,
• elimination of bottlenecks and
• 24/7 operation without downtime.

As many as 87% of surveyed organizations confirm that automation is already contributing to shortening the time of business process execution. Although this is the most frequently mentioned benefit of automation, is its achievement obvious?

When planning the implementation of automation, it is worth first undertaking a detailed analysis of the process itself, taking into account both the total time and the division into value-creating and ineffective activities. First of all, it is worth eliminating fruitless activities. Here, it is impossible not to refer to the already famous words of Bill Gates: automating ineffective processes will only deepen inefficiency.

If we automate the entire process, we can count on a real shortening of the total time of a given task. However, if we automate only a fragment of the process, we should approach the measurement of effects carefully, so as not to overestimate the role of automation. The correct assessment of the real impact of automation on the time of process execution will only be ensured by a coherent measurement system, taking into account the previously mentioned factors. This is illustrated by the following example:

Example of assessing the impact of automation on reducing process execution time

Obszar:	Obsługa zapytań klientów
Proces:	Kategoryzacja zapytań klientów	Odpowiedź na zapytanie klienta
Opis:	Robot stale analizuje skrzynkę odbiorczą maili od klientów i na podstawie słów kluczowych kategoryzuje i kolejkuje maile do odpowiednich konsultantów.	Jedną z kategorii zapytań klientów są zapytania o status zlecenia. Robot wyszukuje zlecenia z tej kategorii, następnie wyszukuje informacje o zleceniu w bazie danych, uzupełnia te dane w formatce zwrotnej wiadomości e-mail i odpowiada klientowi.
Wpływ na czas pracownika:	Skrócenie czasu przełączania się konsultantów pomiędzy różnymi typami zapytań o 0,5 minuty.	Wolumen zapytań do obsługi przez konsultantów zmniejsza się o 90%.
Wpływ na czas klienta:	Ocena wpływu na całkowity czas procesu obsługi zapytań wymagała szczegółowego pomiaru, czy zmienił się średni czas odpowiedzi na zapytanie?	Realne skrócenie czasu oczekiwania klienta na odpowiedź z kilku godzin do kilku minut.

Source: own study, Klaudia Martinek-Jaguszewska

Improving the quality of processes

81% of surveyed organizations confirm that automation supports their pro-quality activities. Improving quality using technology is embedded in key concepts such as Lean.

How does automation affect quality improvement?

Quality is a very broad issue, defined by numerous parameters of compliance with expectations. They all contribute to user satisfaction. The quality of service processes is evidenced by features such as responsibility, reliability, competence, availability and quality of information. In the table below, I present examples of support for these areas by automation.

How does automation support improving the quality of business processes?

Area	Quality feature	Example of support through automation
Responsibility	Punctuality of service, prompt execution of service, speed of service	Shortening the service process execution time compared to manual execution, possibility of using schedules for the execution of individual process steps, no downtime.
Solidity	Accurate execution of the service in accordance with the contract, reliability, no errors	The process is always carried out in accordance with the same definition of its course, which limits the possibility of making an error and delivering a service that is not in accordance with the order.
Competencies	Knowledge in response to questions asked	Automation based on artificial intelligence systems with access to wide databases, which is not limited to the knowledge of a single employee providing the answer.
Availability	Accessibility of communication	Virtual assistants available 24/7 and without restrictions for simultaneous conversations with several customers; immediate responses to customer inquiries
Quality of information	Adequacy of information, timeliness	Source: own study based on quality features listed in W. Dobrowolski, A. Dobrowolska, Ensuring the quality of IT-supported service processes, in: Pluciński M. (ed.), Digitization and virtualization of the economy, “Zeszyty Naukowe” 2015, no. 852, “Ekonomiczne Problemy”, no. 117, University of Szczecin, p. 54.

Internal organizational improvements

Automation not only brings direct benefits, but for 81% of the surveyed organizations it is also a starting point for internal improvements. Every automation project begins with a process analysis and definition of the steps of the tasks to be performed. Especially in smaller organizations, this is often the first attempt to formalize processes in this way, which opens the eyes to the possibilities of reorganization.

The best effects of automation are achieved by including technological activities in a comprehensive approach to continuous improvement. Here, you can use, for example, the ESISA2 approach:

1. Eliminate	eliminate activities that do not generate value
2. Simplify	simplify what remains, look for synergies and optimize
3. Intergrate	integrate the activities of suppliers, employees and customers
4. Standardize	standardize, ensuring consistent execution of tasks
5. Automate	automate repetitive tasks

That’s not all!

Automation is an indisputably proven way to optimize internal business processes. Automation can relieve employees of administrative and repetitive tasks and shift their attention to activities that generate real value for customers and the company. Research also confirms that most organizations are already strengthening their competitive position and ensuring compliance with regulations thanks to automation.

More than half of the surveyed organizations appreciate the possibility of continuous monitoring of the course of processes, improving the functionality and quality of the delivered product, and ensuring business continuity. More than 40% of organizations, thanks to automation, provide their customers with services with higher availability, increase the innovativeness of the products offered, and increase the scale and scope of their operations.

But that’s still not all! The full list of 25 benefits that the surveyed organizations achieved thanks to automation can be found in the graphic below:

Achieving the intended benefits is not obvious. First, it requires defining the goals that automation is to meet. I have already written about how to approach defining them in a separate article: straight to the goal with automation. Then it is necessary to develop a coherent system for measuring the effects, which will be the topic of subsequent articles. I cordially invite you to subscribe, thanks to which I will be able to inform you about them.

1 K. Martinek-Jaguszewska, Automation maturity of business processes, doctoral dissertation, Warsaw School of Economics, 2021.

2 The ESIA concept was first presented in: J. Peppard, P. Rowland, The Essence of Business Process Re-engineering, Prentice Hall, New York 1995. Then, for many years, it was developed, modified and adapted by scientists and corporations.