How to prepare for a recession with intelligent automation

Businesses of all sizes are gearing up for a recession. But while it sounds counterintuitive, now is actually the right time to accelerate digital transformation.

Historically, an economic downturn has been a boon to innovation. According to Morgan Stanleyabout half of the Fortune 500 companies were founded in times of recession or economic crisis.

Investing in digital transformation will help companies overcome a slowdown and address talent shortages. Organizations can also get ahead of their competitors by implementing budget cuts and delaying digital transformation plans. a Harvard Business Review Analyzing the results of three recessions showed that those most likely to thrive after the recession were those who successfully implemented efficiencies and invested in the future.

Short-sighted savings will cost you in the long run

Businesses are facing a looming recession, a tight labor market and ongoing supply chain disruptions. It may be counterintuitive, but cost-cutting measures against such headwinds are not the answer.

The pandemic has inadvertently shown us unprecedented innovation born of necessity and has spurred its adoption digital technologies to meet consumer demand. This innovation allowed R&D timelines to skip vaccine development in less than a year – a process that normally takes about 10 years from concept to approval.

The looming economic downturn and growing skills gaps provide a new opportunity to boost innovation. Accelerating digital transformation will help companies overcome the slowdown and address talent shortages.

Companies are expected to invest a total of €5 $3.4 trillion to fund their digital transformation strategies by 2026. And those best positioned to meet rapidly changing consumer needs and embrace innovation are leveraging intelligent automation.

All-in on automation

Digital transformation enables businesses to mitigate impact and promote agility and resilience, making future volatility easier to withstand. The benefits of accelerating digital transformation are many, from productivity and efficiency improvements to better supply chain management, customer experience and asset visibility.

No-code automation platforms ease the burden of retraining employees to use advanced automation technologies. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can then be used to automate time-consuming, repetitive, laborious and often error-prone tasks. Linking this cutting-edge technology to artificial intelligence (AI) brings scalability and decision-making capabilities within business process automation. By automating these processes, employees have more time and access to invaluable insights for creative efforts to improve the customer experience and drive growth and revenue.

Even implementing a simple automation solution like intelligent document processing is a powerful step towards digitization. It has the potential to save tens of thousands of hours, including those spent reworking errors, and create tremendous value.

American companies spend an astonishing amount $5.3 billion a year on payroll for manual document processing. By automating processes, resources can be used to improve other important business objectives, such as customer and employee experience.

Common mistakes to avoid

Digital transformation is great and exciting, but only if it’s done right. Companies are sold on all the wonders of digitization and start implementing solutions. This is an easy obstacle to avoid.

Companies need a well thought-out digital transformation plan. This is often most successfully achieved with the right digital transformation partner who can help them mine processes for automation, select the right solutions, integrate automation into their existing infrastructure and train/upskill existing employees — or, if desired, keep their new digital infrastructure online. on their behalf.

Expertise is another key differentiator, as a supplier who offers deep industry knowledge will understand the pain points where automation will add the most value. Suppose a hedge fund wants to invest in more digitization. In that case, they want to work with a supplier who understands processing in their industry and can perform tasks such as net asset value calculations.

Stakeholder support is essential

Another common pitfall that companies fall into is not investing in the cultural transformation needed to make a digital transformation plan successful. To get the most out of business process automation during a global talent shortage, upskill engaged employees with aptitude for such training.

It would help if you also educate all employees about the purpose of a digitization plan. Why should they care? How will they benefit? These are key questions; if your employees don’t know the answers, you’re already positioning your plan to fail. Employees play an important role in overseeing the implementation of digitization; if they feel hostile about it, their chances of success decrease.

Estimates suggest that for every dollar companies spend on licensing an automation solution, they spend five times more figuring out how to deploy and scale. This is an avoidable waste of resources, especially when many cannot afford it. All it takes is a well-developed strategy.

Doubling investment in intelligent automation will help companies get through tough times. The power of advanced automation technologies is that they improve efficiency and free up resources for innovation and investment in human capital, paving the way for long-term success.

Colin Redbond is global SVP for product and strategy at SS&C blue prism