While Intelligent Automation has numerous benefits, reducing operational costs and expenses may be the most notable. A recent report notes that 52% of financial services organizations said automation helps them save $100k+ annually.
Companies spend a massive chunk of their resources on human labor. It’s more than compensation (although that makes up the lion’s share of those expenses), it’s also recruiting, training, payroll… the actual cost of an individual employees is significantly higher than their salary.
This isn’t one of those automation blogs that says you need less people and software can fix all your problems. At SimpliSmart, we love individual contributors and see their value, so automation isn’t about replacing them. It’s about freeing them to do the tasks only they can do. Clerical tasks and mundane, low-value activities eat up to a third of a person’s work day according to Slack.
So how can automation help your organization save money and boost productivity?
Managing Expenses and Travel
Automation solutions can help manage travel expenses, for starters, which is one of the top three most troublesome costs to control.
An automation solution can be used to create a rule-based process that stems from things like receipts, emails, and more.
The solution can then approve the correct claims while also highlighting expensive issues amongst the employees. This can be beneficial for a business that doesn’t have a designated accountant or financial advisor, and it can also speed the process along.
In the long run, money is saved because the employer doesn’t need to hire a financial advisor or pay for expensive financial tools. As the business grows, the automation processes can be updated. Fraud risks are also reduced, and automation can make them more identifiable if they happen later down the road.
Reducing Operational Costs
IT services are expensive and can take a long time to implement.
Automation solutions can reduce the need for some IT services and save costs at an operational level.
When there’s a workflow in a business, a brief evaluation can let the employer know if it’s suitable for an automation process. It can also let you know what your savings are going to be. By identifying the areas where the most savings can occur, savings can be seen in a quick and timely manner.
Freeing Employee Time (and Reducing Their Costs)
Repetitive, mundane tasks are a productivity killer, and represent a significant spend for most companies. Intelligent Automation can quickly handle these tasks, running in the background 24/7, allowing human workers to focus on more important, fulfilling things.
If there are positions inside of a business that only focuses on mundane, repetitive tasks, and the employer is looking to reduce the number of people in this position, then Intelligent Automation could of course be used to take over this area.
Intelligent Automation solutions aren’t meant to put people out of work, but they can take over “low-value” activities positions. While those positions aren’t available for human workers any longer, the move has the potential to create new positions within the organization, and to allow other colleagues to expand their skills and do more within their position, making themselves more valuable to business.
Bringing Offshore Tasks Back into the Workplace
Offshoring mundane and repetitive tasks has been a broadly accepted approach and cost-reduction measure. With the increase in Intelligent Automation’s capabilities and the advent of AI, re-shoring tasks and bringing them in-house allows organizations to shrink the gap in labor costs.
Offshore tasks could include filing, data entry, customer service interactions (like chat bots), and even accounting tasks.
Cutting or eliminating offshoring bills through low-cost automation solutions can also help keep valuable (and sometimes confidential) company data inside of the business.
Simplifying Accounting
Even small business can achieve significant savings from an Intelligent Automation solution, reducing the amount of mundane work finance officers and accountants must do.
There are many use cases, like accounts payable and reconciling, that show how easy the solutions can be. With error reduction, quick turnaround, and cost savings, an Intelligent Automation solution in finance or accounting can help increase value in many ways while also acting as a base for future development of automation implementation across all kinds of departments in a business.
Going Beyond Cost Savings with Automation
Intelligent process automation is always evolving, and automation can offer many benefits other than cost savings. It can also be used to deliver a solution that has been proven to work, is easy to deliver, and can work inside any sized business. It truly is “one-size-fits-all” if the implementation is done correctly.
Outside of savings, executives can also look at the benefits of improving their workforce’s productivity by giving them more valuable and meaningful work. This can affirm their purpose in the business, and can also boost employee morale.
Finally, Intelligent Automation solutions can also be a catalyst for technological transformation inside of business by creating intelligent workflows/processes that get the most out of data and human resources.
Intelligent Automation is a workplace solution that takes time to understand. If you or a business partner has questions regarding intelligent process automation, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, or intelligent automation, get in contact with a SimpliSmart representative today!
