Imagine what life would be like if it were completely automated.
The alarm clock goes off at 8:00 a.m., and your phone automatically unmutes to nudge you up. Overnight, you received a few non-urgent emails, but your phone remained silent because it was set to do so automatically.
You proceed to the kitchen to retrieve a glass of orange juice. You consume the final glass and discard the empty jug. Your refrigerator detects this and adds orange juice to your online shopping cart.
Then, you report to work and email your subordinates numerous demands. You are assigned tasks, and once each one is performed, you are automatically updated. You have a dozen subordinates and a mountain of complex chores, but much of the management is automated, allowing you to focus on more intricate responsibilities.
When travelling home from work when your GPS alerts you to impending accidents and resulting traffic bottlenecks. Your auto proposes another route, and after a few turns, you arrive at your residence. Your fridge bought groceries, and there is a box containing your eagerly anticipated orange juice.
A few hours later, the lights dim and you prepare for bed automatically. As you drift off to sleep after plugging in your phone, it mutes itself for the night.
This is the appearance of “Automation as a Service” (AaaS).
What is the Meaning of Automation as a Service?
A growing number of daily tasks, both personal and professional, are being managed through automation, which also offers better business process management. And by doing this, AaaS enables you to have more time to concentrate on issues and problems that are more urgent.
AaaS can seem like a huge windfall to business owners, executives, IT teams, and ambitious staff. Let’s examine the reasons why.
How the internet of things is bringing in Automation as a Service?
Consider the day described above. Take note of how many gadgets are utilised. You also have a smart or genius phone, a refrigerator, a car, and a computer at work. We might discover intelligent toasters, security systems, health monitors, and other devices if we look deeper.
These devices, in addition to a growing number of others, are all internet-connected and packed with AI and other software. The IoT will enable users to automate a growing number of chores, which is essential for AaaS. By 2030, according to Accenture, industrial IoT, will contribute roughly $14.2 trillion to global output.
The enormous amount of data being produced by IoT devices is a major source of value for AaaS and IoT. More decisions can be automated in real-time as data flows grow, making service administration simpler and more feasible. Additionally, using the best available data, data-based judgments enable businesses and individuals to make decisions (manually or automatically).
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Business Process Automation (BPA) are also integrated, enabling businesses to significantly improve the management, resolution, and delivery of business processes. Let’s understand them in more detail.
Robotic Process Automation
The term “Robotic Process Automation” (RPA) refers to the technology that enables firms to automate monotonous processes. These bots carry out mundane and repetitive chores, allowing humans to concentrate on the work that requires a higher level of emotional intelligence and reasoning.
Business Process Automation
The use of software to automate business activities that include multiple steps and are performed repeatedly is referred to as Business Process Automation or BPA. In contrast to other forms of automation, Business Process Automation solutions are typically more complicated, connected to a variety of enterprise information technology (IT) systems, and individualised to meet the specific requirements of a company.
It is typical practice for businesses to implement BPA as a component of their digital transformation strategies with the goal of streamlining their workflows and improving their operational efficiencies.
Benefits of Automation
In many cases, the majority of the IT resources, which may include people, time, and money, are devoted solely to the maintenance of basic operations, such as keeping the doors open and the lights on. As a result of the fact that IT departments frequently respond to issues rather than proactively addressing them, they frequently do not adopt new technologies or concepts, making service management more difficult. In spite of this, AaaS can assist IT departments in reversing the script.
Facetiously, AaaS implementation can provide:
- Enhanced speed and agility together with accelerated service delivery
- The difficulty of processing manual requests
- Less money spent on IT
- Every department’s production has increased universally.
- Faster problem-solving
Disadvantages of Automation
Today’s society relies heavily on various forms of mechanisation. Automation may be a beneficial tool provided that it is utilised correctly and put into practice. It can save you both time and money, in addition to assisting you in doing tasks more accurately. The expense that is incurred when human labour is replaced by automated technology is one of the drawbacks of automation. The following is a list of additional drawbacks to automation:
1. Worker displacement
It is the most important drawback that automation has, as it results in less need for humans to do labor-intensive tasks. This is due to the fact that a computer can complete a task both more quickly and accurately than a human being is capable of doing so on their own. For several years now, for instance, Disney World has been transporting tourists all over the park with the help of automobiles that drive themselves. There is widespread concern that this will lead to a reduction in the number of jobs available to humans.
2. Needs large capital expenditure
For many decades, automation has been an indispensable component of the industry. However, before making the changeover to automation, producers need to take into consideration a few repercussions that were not expected to occur as a result of the automation. One of these effects is the requirement for a significant amount of capital expenditure to keep automated systems maintained and serviced. These automated methods are also more prone to cyber-attacks than manual systems would be, which can leave businesses vulnerable if their infrastructure is not adequately safeguarded.
3. Can become redundant
Automation is a time-saving solution that can be applied to a variety of issues. Nevertheless, this convenience may become unnecessary in circumstances in which a change is presented that necessitates the modification of the automation. These kinds of adjustments will simply serve to add more work for the organisation, which could result in a loss of valuable time and resources for the business.
4. Could introduce new safety hazards
Automation has the potential to bring about new safety hazards if there is an unanticipated change in the working environment. For instance, it’s feasible that a driverless automobile may be designed to drive independently, but it’s still possible for it to be involved in an accident if a pedestrian crosses the street when conditions are less than perfect (such as at night or when sight is poor).
5. Still requires the participation of humans
Even if it’s been demonstrated that automation has positive effects across the board, there are still particular activities that need human involvement. Let’s take the previously mentioned case of self-driving automobiles as an example; these robots are able to identify the majority of road hazards and can be instructed to come to a halt. Nevertheless, there are certain circumstances that can lead to these computers misinterpreting information and producing outcomes that are not wanted. Example of this would be a car driving past a barrier that is not clearly visible to the car’s sensor.
How to set up Automation as a Service
- From the information that is currently available, it is possible to deduce that the client and the vendor need to work together to identify automation use cases before they can decide which procedures will be fully automated.
- The vendor is the subject matter expert or specialist, the client anticipates that they will receive assistance from the vendor in this process in the form of a list of the most popular use cases. On the other hand, it is anticipated that the client will make use of these typical use cases as a foundation for determining their very own one-of-a-kind automated use cases.
- Additionally, it is expected of the vendor to provide guidance to the client regarding any infrastructure requirements.
- AaaS requires both the customer and the vendor to work together, it is imperative that both parties determine who will serve as their representatives or point persons.
How do you select the best Process Automation tool for your Business?
Here are 3 essential steps to help you:
1. Make a process checklist
You can clearly identify which process is essential and has to be automated as soon as possible by studying and outlining the process requirements.
2. Assess process tool quality
Examine the various tools available and confirm that they meet every condition on your process checklist.
3. Goals that are in line
Verify that the instrument under evaluation is properly aligned with your business’s and your processes’ goals. Following implementation, this stage aids in gauging the effectiveness of process automation.
Conclusion
Under automation-as-a-Service, your customers are at the core of service. You can save valuable resources (such as time and money) usually used for implementing and managing technology by using AaaS. This enables you to concentrate on fulfilling your primary goals and providing the goods and services your clients demand.
FAQs
1. Why is service automation important?
Ans: The practice of integrating all domain and functionality tools into different automation layers to provide a single user interface for all operations is known as service automation.
2. What is Business Process Automation?
Ans: The use of software to automate business activities that include multiple steps and are performed repeatedly is referred to as Business Process Automation or BPA.
3. What is the meaning of finance automation?
Ans: Finance automation refers to the use of technology to execute financial processes and operations.
4. How can Business Process Automation and robotic process automation help my business?
Ans: Business Process Automation and Robotic Process Automation can help your business in several ways such as streamlined processes, cost optimization, enhanced productivity, increased reliability, and improved scalability.
5. What are the steps to select the best tool for Process Automation for my Business?
Ans: There are three major steps to select the best tool for process automation for the business which we have already discussed in this blog.
