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Navigating tough economic conditions: Automation as a driver for increased operational efficiencies

Emerging automation technologies like intelligent document processing (IDP) are key to weathering the economic storm. IDP solutions enable organizations to achieve cost reductions or avoid costs in the future as well as increase productivity through business process automation.

Organizations are reliant on technology to run their day-to-day operations as well as grow their businesses. But in the current economic climate, budgets and resources for non-critical IT projects are coming under increasing scrutiny. The transformational impact of automation technologies can bring about multiple benefits. One of those benefits is being able to control, reduce or avoid some of the operational costs of doing business.

Across industries and functions, people are feeling the pressure to do more with less. For many, the ratio of manual tasks to people is unfavourably stacked on the side of work. And more than ever, thanks to technology, there’s a constant sense of urgency and a desire for immediate results.

Undertaking an automation project may seem like one more thing you don’t have time to do right now but it’s a way to address some of the workload worries in a cost-effective, time-sensitive and scalable way.

Focus on fixing specific problems

The key to delivering automation projects that provide real value and tangible benefits is to focus on the problems and inefficiencies that need solving right now. It sounds obvious but it’s easy to get swayed by the hype of the latest cool new technology or the promise of a future end-state of seamless end-to-end digitization when what you actually need to solve is operational bottlenecks and inefficient processes. Focus on what’s currently hindering your people, stifling progress and is proving to be cost-ineffective.

The dream for most is enterprise-wide automation and digitization that enables their business to increase productivity, performance and profitability. The reality is there are points of weakness or failure in most processes that create problems for your people that result in more work, more cost and more dissatisfaction with the situation.

Whether you’re onboarding new customers, triaging and servicing incoming requests or trying to stay on top of compliance requirements, there are steps in your process that continuously slow you down and create problems. The good news is there are software solutions available to address these process weaknesses and failures that get you closer to your dream of enterprise-wide automation while delivering value where and when it’s most needed.

Solve challenges and save costs

Remember that old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’? That rationale should be applied to your automation efforts. If a process is adequate, efficient and doesn’t create problems for your people, then leave it be. Focus instead on automating or optimizing those processes that are a source of ongoing pain and friction. Place a high priority on those processes where there is a financial, operational and reputational risk or opportunity and you’ll be on to a winner.

By taking this approach we’ve seen our customers within financial services, insurance and supply chain make significant process improvements that drive efficiencies and provide a healthy return on investment. Our customers have made efficiency gains of 75% or more on their processes and have been able to refocus their people on higher-value work or avoid hiring additional resources. You can download the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study to learn more about the financial benefits of using Eigen.

Starting with small manageable projects enables businesses to de-risk leveraging the latest technologies before they undertake broader, more expensive and more disruptive automation efforts. Companies can test automation solutions on one or two problematic processes and gauge the impact and ROI before they commit to using them in other areas.

Technology solutions market trends

In the current economic climate, many companies are looking for ways to streamline their operations and run things more efficiently. Process automation solutions help you to achieve these goals by reducing, and in some cases eliminating, the need for manual error-prone human input.

Experts predict that the demand for such automation solutions will continue to grow in the coming months, as more and more organizations look for ways to optimize operations and cut costs. Our research and consultancy partners highlight the growing importance of process and data automation as a way for companies to make operational improvements and control costs. And as businesses continue to feel pressure on IT budgets, they predict that the focus will increasingly shift towards solutions that can deliver immediate benefits.

Another trend emerging in the market is the increasing popularity of low-code and no-code intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions that enable business users themselves to automate document processing activities. As awareness of these automation solutions grows, and more businesses reap the benefits of implementing them, the demand for IDP increases.

As more vendors enter the market, buyers need to consider which providers best meet their needs and whose solution can be integrated with existing systems to ensure they gain maximum operational efficiencies through automation.

Eigen’s AI-powered, intelligent document processing capabilities provide financial services, insurance and supply chain companies with the ability to quickly and accurately extract, classify and interpret virtually any information from any document to make smarter business decisions, eliminate manual processing and optimize data flow. Find out more about ways we can help your organization reduce costs and increase productivity while improving data availability and quality.