f you’ve not been living under a rock these past years, you are aware of what is automation and how can business process automation help businesses grow. The
word “automation” has become a buzzword, as more companies attempt to automate their operations and workflows. Not many succeed, that’s for sure - but the ones that do will never have to worry about improved productivity or cost savings.
Technology has been part of our daily lives since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Initially, technology was limited to basic machines, but their purpose has always been to simplify our lives. Today, with the introduction of automation technology, we have finally accomplished this objective.
So, what does business process automation for a company and how does it affect its day-to-day operations and prospects?
We got you, do not worry. Many businesses succeeded in employing automation in their work model - and we will go through some of the best examples.
What is Automation?
Automation refers to the reduction of human intervention in a particular process. Automation technology can be used in various ways and is often leveraged to enhance efficiency by saving time and reducing costs. Automation technology's ultimate aim is to enable us to complete tasks more easily and conveniently.
Life before automation - time-consuming and error-prone.
Think about it like this. You are the owner of a modest retail store in a bustling metropolis, with an ever-growing customer base and rising demands for your products and services. Your team puts in long hours handling everything from inventory and sales to customer service and marketing. While this scenario is great at the start - as every employee can get accustomed to the day-to-day work life, in the long run, it will only lead to burnout and unhappiness for the staff.
I mean, keeping track of inventory levels and spending hours and hours to manually process orders, leaves too little time to focus on other important aspects of a business. If your competition is catching up with you, it will become a struggle to keep up with customer tastes and trends.
To make matters worse, these challenges are beginning to have an impact on your results. Your sales are stagnating and your profits are declining. You’re paying more and more on labor, but in return you get nothing. That’s the moment when you realize that you need to make a change.
If you find yourself in this scenario, do not worry. Some companies struggled with the same problems we mentioned here - and they were able to overcome them. And, a perfect example of this is Amazon.
Here’s the deal. Amazon’s massive inventory was one of the most complicated factors the company faced. Think about their position. Their stock was so vast, ranging around a million of products. It was almost impossible to keep track of everything! And this impacted Amazon’s capacity to fulfill their orders. Everything was manual in the early days of the company, and orders were shipped from a single warehouse in Seattle.
To address this issue, Amazon established a worldwide network of fulfillment facilities. These facilities utilize modern automated technologies, such as robots and conveyors, to rapidly and effectively select, pack, and dispatch orders.
And that’s not all! Customer service was also an overwhelming subject. Imagine if your client base were skyrocketing and you did not implement a productive customer service program. Well, I think we all know that it won’t take long till everything will get ruined. You can’t possibly take care of every client that you have. And, you are not the only one. Big names like Amazon, also struggled with this for a long time.
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However, automation tools and technology help improve (almost) everything!
Here we find ourselves in the “after” scenario. After employing business automation tools, any company will feel like they’ve gained superpowers. It suddenly feels like a team of superheroes is at our disposal, marching in unison and carrying out our missions.
Business automation increases efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. These are the most substantial advantages, and as you can see, it resolves the challenges that we mentioned earlier. Now, a company can handle orders at lightning speed while decreasing the number of mistakes.
And yes - while the benefits are many out there and they’re amazing - we cannot lie to ourselves and say that automation doesn’t come with its own set of drawbacks. That’s why we said that it almost improves everything.
Remember that team of superheroes we mentioned before? They have their quirks and personalities - so you’ll want to teach them how to manage and comprehend every piece of information that you feed them. Automation at first costs a lot, so you do not want your investment to go into the ground.
Going back to Amazon, it’s safe to say that they were able to leverage business automation to solve the problems that they had. Inventory-wise, they created a sophisticated management system that predicted demand and optimized inventory levels. How? By using data analytics and machine learning, AI automation, and algorithms. The result? Amazon can now maintain a huge number of products in stock while avoiding overstocking and stockouts.
And regarding the order issues - that’s gone too, thanks to automation and AI automation. The company established a worldwide network of fulfillment facilities. These warehouses utilize modern automated technologies, such as robots and conveyors, to select, pack, and dispatch orders in the fastest and most efficient way possible!
We also mentioned Amazon’s struggles with keeping up with its customers. It was one of the things that they were infamous for. By incorporating chatbots and automated email responses, they can now respond to consumer concerns more quickly. And do not worry - you can always get in touch with a human if you cannot get the problem solved by a robot.
See? That’s the power of automation! If your company struggles with the same challenges we mentioned here - maybe it’s time for some automation. If done correctly, it will bring you a lot of benefits. If not? Well, let’s stop and focus on the positives! But for real, if you want to go down the automation path - you need people that know everything about it.
By
Bill O'Neill
•
February 17, 2025 9:00 PM
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