Delivering Hyper Automation:
Connecting the Front & Back Office
Hyper Automation is starting to become one of the key terms cited by both analysts and businesses alike. However, as with any new terminology, particularly within the automation space, there is still some confusion over what it is and why it is important.
According to Gartner, Hyper Automation is “a business-driven, disciplined approach that organisations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.” (Definition of Hyperautomation – Gartner Information Technology Glossary). Additionally, in the same way as Intelligent Automation, Hyper Automation combines multiple technologies such as AI, RPA, and Intelligent Business Process Management (iBPM) to deliver the most effective solutions.
The key difference from other technology concepts or terminology used previously is that Hyper Automation aims to deliver automation efficiencies across an organisation and its processes at speed. This difference is significant because it has been widely reported that one of the many challenges facing organisations to date with automation is scalability, with only 4% of business leaders achieving this (Deloitte).
Typically, technologies such as RPA have been deployed within back-office processes, such as invoice processing, which are labour intensive and repetitive. RPA has been very successful in these areas, however, many have struggled to move automation beyond these initial deployments or to front office processes such as customer support where a real impact could be made on a business’s revenues and financial success. One of the reasons for this is user adoption or acceptance of the technology.
There is still a lot of fear around automation, and this has been compounded by the economic effects of the pandemic, with many employees fearing job losses. This fear and resulting lack of adoption are exacerbated by the complexity of many of these tools, typically requiring IT departments or developers to implement and manage.
Hyper automation could help overcome this challenge by combining technologies such as RPA or BPM tools with Conversational Assistants to connect people more effectively with technology and front and back-office processes by allowing employees and customers to communicate with technology easier within a language they understand.
Combining Technology
By combining these technologies, organisations can not only enable subject matter experts to manage automation processes, but also utilise real-time communications to trigger automation processes.
This is particularly relevant for delivering hyper automation and efficiencies to the front office process. For example, a customer can interact with Conversational Assistant via a bank’s website to find out information regarding applying for a credit card and apply for the card using the same service. This delivers an improved experience to the customer through increased self-service and efficiencies to a business through deflecting inbound queries to contact centers teams, delivering time savings through automatic application processing, and directly contributing to the profitability.
If adopted in the same way Intelligent Automation and other technology concepts have been, Hyper Automation has the potential to transform processes for businesses. Through integrating multiple technologies, as detailed above, organisations can significantly speed up deployments, user adoption, and scalability across their processes. Helping them to deliver substantial benefits and cost savings through connecting back and front office processes.
Want to find out more?