When a company enters a phase of hyper growth, the time-consuming tasks must, as far as possible to be automated. Manually perform an operation quickly becomes unsuitable especially if it exceeds a certain volume. But what are these automizable tasks and how?

Ecommerce development or ecommerce Development Company accompanies us in a change throughout our project, by its design and its provision in the automation process.

Automation is one of the keys to this change. Top performing companies have automated up to 75% of all management processes.

According to the survey conducted by the Institute of Occurrence among 2,046 people representing the active population in September, «45% of assets are worried about the development of automation in the workplace «, but at the same time,» 57% of respondents think that automation creates jobs or has no effect on employment within their structure «. In addition, 74% of them believe that automation has a positive influence on quality of life at work, and 75% that automation helps to improve their work organization.

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

Why Automate and improve project and time management?

To stop doing the same tasks several times. To free the time needed for the expression of creativity & energy renewal. It is above all a necessary element of the current digital transition.

Also, to propose solutions to the cognitive load too heavy in the current processes. Thus, implement automation and optimization with the appropriate software, tools and techniques.

Stress and error emerge from mismanagement of priorities and repetition of unnecessary tasks to repeat. Digital evolution went very fast, but not our related uses. It’s time to update our structures.

The benefits of automation & optimization of our work processes?

• Focus actions on priorities, on tasks that are useful for performance.
• Switch from an alienating rehearsal system to a dynamic & creative system.
• Catalyze daily energy on «what counts and makes sense».

Implementation: Starting from current repetitive habits, analyze the needs of projects and activities to deduce uses and new habits based on the use of appropriate software and practices.

Ex: Using «Trello» for a dynamic and collaborative project management, with Zapier for the link between the project applications of each collaborator.

Gain?

Do not remake and redo the same things again. No longer duplicate the same topics. Allow, following the implementation and adapted training, a focused and optimized work process on the real creation of value. Increase the period of «flow», ie the productive section where energy is catalyzing on a priority subject.

Ex: Using «Airtable» to quickly and easily build collaborative databases. Document by automation to share in common and improve the tasks of the entire team.

Start automating your back office tasks

Today’s technology makes it possible to automate boring and time-consuming tasks. This allows you to focus on higher value-added tasks.

Summer is the perfect time to refocus on its activities. This way, you will be able to see what are the most «automatable» tasks that you will get rid of, thus improving your productivity.

Your employees have better things to do than tackling unattractive and often tedious tasks such as relaunching receivables. Often, you have a lot less bills during the summer. This is a good opportunity to digitize your company and be ready for the rush of the season. To do this, we can talk about our intelligent virtual assistant, which simplifies the customer recovery process by intelligently automating it and protecting your customer relationship.

Set up automation in your structure

How to set up automation?

• Start with an analysis of current processes and uses
• Select together appropriate tools and technologies
• Train teams to create new habits
• Do not suddenly switch to new systems. Gradually build the alternative based on current habits.
• Use free time for «invigorating» activities: energy, creativity, research, exploration.

Do not repeat again and again the same tasks necessary for the creation of value and no longer waste energy and time unnecessarily. Automate and optimize thanks to adapted technologies, software and habits, step by step, starting from the current one. Using 3h focus and energy per day is more efficient and productive than a poorly optimized and forced 8h day.

Automate its processes, why?

The main benefit of process automation for your business is the significant time savings it entails. Avoiding human action on a lot of tasks rather than doing them manually makes the company more agile and more efficient. This change facilitates, in general, the exchange of information. Indicators delivering real-time information as well as detailed performance reports provide a clearer view. On the other hand, the automation of certain tasks, including repetitive tasks, reduces the risk of errors and delivers better quality data.

In short, by using it, your employees have more time to focus on higher value-added tasks. And when it comes to business,

«time is money»!

Define what needs to be automated

Before you jump in, you need to focus on tasks where automation is relevant. You must keep in mind that this type of process is not intended to completely replace the human but rather to lighten the work for some tasks to perform. It is a question of eliminating chronophagous, repetitive or standardized ones. You will have to break down the day of your collaborators to understand where they «lose» time so that they concentrate on more complex and intellectual operations, better to adapt to the work of the Man.

The main challenge remains to prioritize the activities for which automation has the greatest impact on the company’s performance.

Follow up with a road map

Automating all or part of its activities is one thing, but it must still have positive effects on your company. To ensure this, the establishment of a road map is essential. This allows the tracking of each indicator. Once the automation processes have been put in place, you must strictly follow, for each one of them, their impact as well as their evolutions.

Establishing a roadmap is the way to measure the gap between expected results of automation and actual results.

Automate smartly

Automation frees your employees from many tedious processes. It allows them to focus on higher value-added tasks. In addition, it helps to avoid human errors and ensure smooth operations.

But not all processes can be automated and you need to evaluate before you start. Evaluate the feasibility. Study each process you plan to automate using a grid of several dimensions:

• Is it a determining factor in achieving the company’s results?
• What are the attributes of processes?
• Does the associated data enable automation?
• Can the hardware and software technologies of the company support this automation?

Here are some examples of components of these dimensions that will allow you to determine which process to automate intelligently to drive a better change management approach:

1. The volume of transactions: the greater the volume of transactions supported by a process, the more interesting it is to automate it. Indeed, automation will be profitable from the moment when the gains (of time, money, productivity) will be greater than its cost. However, if automation serves higher interests for your business such as data compliance, for example, automating a process that would support a small amount of data would be interesting. ]
2. The definition of the process. Strictly speaking, the chosen process should only be based on logic. It should not involve human judgment. However, with the evolution of artificial intelligence it is now possible to envisage possibilities for processes requiring some form of judgment.
3. The availability of data. Is your data scanned? If this is not the case, you will have to think about using character recognition technologies that will allow you to dematerialize your paper documents.
4. Stability of computer systems. Although the process is stable in itself, it interacts with other software and applications that must be stable too. It is necessary to check that all the IT tools available in the company (emails, CRM, ERP, Excel …) will be able to support the new requests.
5. The staff. Once relieved by these new processes, you need to define what new tasks and tasks your employees will need. Once you have answered these questions you will be able to embark on the implementation of intelligent automation.

Anticipate the roles of each

The key to an effective change management strategy is managing permissions. On the one hand, it is imperative to give managers sufficient visibility into operations for:

• Limit human errors.
• Provide assistance on complex tasks.
• Ensure that transactions are processed efficiently

On the other hand, too much permission can slow the pace of change. It is therefore essential to find the right balance.

Train the teams

Effective training sets standards across the organization for all employees. In addition, the training allows gathering all the comments in order to fight as effectively as possible the brakes to the implementation of the change. It is very rare to see an entire organization embrace change.

You must therefore prepare for resistance. Dealing with rejection behaviors must be included in any communication plan that aims to drive change in the workplace.

Communicating, asking questions and responding to comments will lift the brakes of the toughest. Always make sure that automation is not a computing resource but rather a benefit to the user.

Build on those who will be most impacted

Of course, getting management buy-in is necessary to start such an approach. However, identifying who will be most impacted by change and rallying them to your cause will amplify the propensity of teams to embrace change.

Communicate with them regularly and become interested in the issues they face in implementing change. You will make allies of it.

Communicate regularly

The role of communication is essential. The more your employees are aware of the processes implemented in the company, the results and expectations of the organization, the more involved they will be in the project. Show your teams the importance of the project and help them realize the benefits it will bring to them.

In the end, automating the process in business requires discipline that will pay off. You can engage your teams and management to get on the path to change if you follow these tips.

About the Author:

Junaid Ali Qureshi is an ecommerce entrepreneur with a passion for emerging tech marketing and ecommerce development. Some of his current ventures include Progos Tech (an ecommerce development company) , Elabelz.com , Titan Tech and Smart Marketing.

» 16 abril, 2019 | Sin comentarios
» Categoría: Post in English, Project Management » Etiquetas: Automation, PM tools, PM2.0, Project Management