Why your organization should invest in efficiency and automation

Today, digitalization is moving at a faster pace than ever and we are becoming more and more digital with each passing day. This development means that organizations and operations need to adapt to keep up.

One of the most important success factors in the digital transformation that many organizations are undergoing is to develop and work with streamlining and intelligent automation.

Carin Strindmark at Knowit Insight is one of our specialists and has many years’ experience in the area. She is convinced that organizations – in both the private and the public sector – must dare to take the step into the world of streamlining and automation.

“When we help our clients minimize burdensome, time-consuming work tasks through automation, we free up their time, which adds value. The employees get time for more developing – and maybe interesting! – tasks and activities that can create greater value for the end customer or end user. Through streamlining and automation, it becomes possible to invest time and resources in developing the operations in other areas,” says Carin.

As changes will occur more quickly with time, we must – from a leadership perspective – make greater efforts to improve the sense of security, transparency and expectation in the organization.

“Streamlining parts of an organization’s processes is a never-ending task. It is a transformation process that must be allowed to take time and become part of the operations,” she says.

As an experienced specialist in the field, Carin shares her knowledge of the most important benefits from streamlining and automating parts of the daily work processes.

Six reasons to invest time and resources in streamlining and automation

• In the changeable world of today, everything has to move quickly. An understanding is needed regarding why it is important to streamline and automate the customer process on the one hand, and internal processes on the other. This is done simply to ensure that the entire process and interaction can run even more smoothly. Customers expect to be able to use a service quickly and easily. Customer loyalty has fallen and we no longer have the patience to wait, unless we as customers get added value or some sign of appreciation.
• Automation minimizes churn and leads to cross-selling. By noticing signs and listening closely to existing customers, there are many possibilities for minimizing churn and generating cross-sales. An example could be to determine specific words that a chat bot should react to in a chat, so it can send people on to customer support. For instance, if the term “period of notice” is used, the customer can be connected to customer support right away, so they can follow up on this, identify why the person is considering terminating their agreement, and present tailored offers to retain the person as a customer.
• Efficient internal processes free up more time for focusing on customers. When internal work processes are streamlined, this frees up more time for the employees. This means that more people within the organization can interact with customers, working more intensively and with greater focus on creating added value and increasing sales.
• Employees and potential employees expect it. Many candidates in recruitment processes now demand automated processes. The reason for this is that they want more room for their competence to be used and developed in the best possible way. For employers, it is important to be attractive by using the competence of employees for the right tasks. Today, more and more people expect to work in a modern way, where streamlining and automation are part of the picture.
• It creates more jobs. When new work methods are implemented, new competence is needed. Figures* show that this kind of streamlining within operations generates new job openings. There is a need for knowledge of how to manage maintenance and development of new technology, such as robots, chat bots, and social robotics.
• You save time and money. Streamlining of work processes opens vast possibilities for saving time and money, but also to improve business. To achieve results and improve profitability, you don’t need particularly large changes. Small, goal-oriented decisions and changes made today carry a high potential for large effects in the future.
  
  

*See for example this article and this article.