Automation - Need of an Hour - Post Covid19 Pandemic (#automation)(#businessprocesses)(#ipumusings)
Automation - Need of an Hour - Post Covid19 Pandemic
Covid19 has led the world to think that uncertainty plays a major role in the near future. To stay in the game, enterprises must adopt measures to survive and sustain. It is imperative the emerging technologies will play a larger role in the near future. Automation in different sectors of the industry has become a necessity in the present scenario.
Automation is not new to the industry. Robots based manufacturing has been there for decades. Earlier there was focus to reduce mean time to resolution (MMTR) led to automation in IT-based industry. The emerging technologies based on IoT, AI, machine learning and cognitive methods have boosted the demand for a new level of automation. In Covid19 scenario, the industry is struggling with lesser man-power and implementing new regulations like social distancing and safety environment. Automation appears as a complement rather a replacement of workers.
In the present scenario, the following are the business needs that automation can address:
❒ Cost reduction
❒ Safety Environment
❒ Productivity
❒ Business continuity
Cost reduction
In COVID-19 situation, many businesses have suffered sharp drops in volume and revenue. Many companies are on the verge of closure. Markets are no longer stable. In this crisis, companies are under tremendous pressure to cut their costs and manage revenue losses. Managers are reassessing their strategies and exploring new ways of working. In the current state of the world, manpower is not readily available due to lockdowns in several places. Moreover, owning a real estate big enough for all employees to maintain a safe distance from each other is impossible for most companies. To combat this problem, several businesses have gone completely online, but processes that require human contact can be automated that will not only decrease the risk of infection, but it will also eliminate the cost of scarce manpower.
Safety Environment
Social distancing, face mask compliance, mandatory use of PPE kits are the new safety norms of the industry. Implementing automation technology helps the industry to free up their human employees from working on dangerous production tasks and limits human interaction. AI-based CCTV cameras and drone monitoring analyse and manage physical distancing issues. Deep learning methods help to identify whether persons wear personal protective equipment while working in proximity.
Productivity
Intelligent automation enables organizations to digitally transform business processes and thus making a more productive and efficient system. It reduces manual errors, improves the quality of product and hence productivity. For example, chatbots not only save costs but have improved customer service. Businesses can leverage chatbots to automate customer queries, bookings of orders and appointments from websites and allowing customer service teams to focus on more important tasks.
Business Continuity
Business interruption like COVID19 can have a deleterious impact on a company's reputation. Enterprises realize that adopting cloud-based automation and digital transformation can help in creating a secure, resilient business continuity plan. Every business organisation is looking for new methods to transform their engagements with customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. Automating your business continuity and keeping it on cloud-based central repository ensures secure access to up to date documents to every stakeholder. It streamlines maintenance and reporting, thus fostering a strong business continuity plan.
There lies a big opportunity for enterprises to learn lessons from the present crisis and design a robust automated system. No doubt it can stoke up significant growth for both mankind and businesses.
