Intelligent automation can completely transform your organization’s workflow, driving efficiencies to cut costs without reducing the quality of work. The technology learns with you, forecasting and anticipating what may happen based on historical data as well as current trends.

However, there is an upfront cost to implement the tool, as well as maintenance costs to keep it up and running. It’s critical that you understand how to maximize your return on investment (ROI). 

We’ll delve into four things to look out for as you look to make the most of intelligent automation in your business. 

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How to Maximize Intelligent Automation ROI

Market Research Future projects the overall intelligent process automation market to grow to $42.1 billion by 2032. Companies are looking to enhance their business processes while reducing their overall operating expenses, and as a result, the demand for automation tools is not slowing down.

However, many companies struggle with properly putting automation in place, leading to lost resources and capabilities. Avoid these common mistakes to make the most of intelligent automation at your business. 

1. Choose the Right Processes 

You need to find the right fit when it comes to automated tasks. Otherwise, you’ll be disappointed in the results. 

The most important question you want to ask yourself is: What are the pain points you are trying to solve? Once you have a clear idea, you can start to look at the processes that support those pain points. 

Many manual processes, especially when it comes to data and analytics, benefit from automation. For example, intelligent automation like process mining can help you understand, track, and improve your overall performance by analyzing data from your systems. 

Remember, your automation will only be as good as the data you can provide it. Make sure whatever process you choose has a clear and structured data input before you start feeding into the software for seamless integration.

2. Group Similar Processes 

Make sure you understand the capabilities of automated intelligence, especially when it comes to streamlining multiple processes.

For example, if there is a process that takes about 20 hours a week to complete, and your employee makes $50/hour, it costs the business a minimum of $52,000 annually. That doesn’t include additional hours spent troubleshooting or manual reporting processes. 

Identify synergies between your operations and look for ways you can automate similar processes using the same learning protocol. These efforts will compound on one another, yielding significant savings to your bottom line without significant additional effort. 

3. Identify Best Practices for Automation

There are different types of automation you can use, so go back to your pain point to understand which is best for you. What were you trying to solve for? 

If they were manual data entry processes or simple, repetitive tasks, you may want to look into robotic process automation. It’s not high-think work, but they’re mission-critical activities that your employees must complete. They are often tasks that are high in volume, and process efficiencies could help you improve productivity and save money. 

If you were focusing on more complex data and analytics or tasks that require a human element, then artificial intelligence (AI) may be a better fit. These systems learn with you based on the data you put in them. 

If you need a mixture of both of these processes, then you may be looking at intelligent automation. It leverages the best parts of both to come up with unique solutions to drive change.

4. Implement Change Management Practices 

Automation can be an intimidating process, especially when people fear losing their jobs, so it’s critical that you implement change management practices to reduce implementation costs. 

a. Be clear about what is changing, who it will impact, and why it is changing.
b. Develop a clear plan about how you will roll out the automation while minimizing the impact on the business.
c. Assess your capabilities and make sure that you have the IT infrastructure in place to support the automation.
d. Execute the automation in a phased approach with support on hand as needed.
e. Communicate to bring the company with you.

You want to be planful and thoughtful while still leaving a margin of error for surprise costs. Change management can help you garner buy-in from key stakeholders who can act as your champion throughout the process. 

This will ultimately save you money during setup and maintenance, helping you manage the overall project cost more effectively. 

Conclusion

Intelligent automation isn’t going to magically transform your operations and save you millions. It takes intentional, thoughtful implementation to make the most of it.

You can maximize your ROI on this software by choosing the right process, grouping like processes as you can, identifying the right type of automation for your business, and implementing thoughtful change management practices to put it all in place.

Intelligent automation can help reduce manual processes, cut costs, and transform your ways of working when done right. 

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