Hyperautomation: An essential part of SA business landscape

Hyperautomation is about marrying the old with the new

Despite what many consultants would have one believe, legacy systems are not going away. Hyperautomation is therefore not something that will replace existing solutions. Instead, they will integrate with what is currently in place and assist organisations with their transition to the cloud.

If there is one thing that the lockdown has shown businesses, it is that people should not work harder or longer. Rather, it is about using advanced technologies like hyperautomation to become more productive.

Take chasing people for paperwork as an example. Some employees can end up spending three hours (if not more) a day just running around to get signatures, documents, and other information between those in the office. Automation eliminates that. Suddenly, that individual has three ‘extra’ hours a day to fulfil strategic functions and be more productive.

Invariably, hyperautomation saves resources – both human and financial.

Hyperautomation success is down to support

A vital element to ensure the success of any hyperautomation initiative is the IT support services behind it. Employee down time has been a constant thorn in the side of any business. This can be overcome with automation as a key ingredient.

Automated support can proactively monitor IT infrastructure and flag any potential issues before they escalate out of control. The cost-savings associated with this can be significant.

For ‘normal’ employees, automation means gaining the ability to self-service queries. People are tired of the traditional way of submitting tickets to IT and waiting for them to get resolved. Self-service flips this on its head and empowers people to take charge of their own troubleshooting. Obviously, the more significant issues will still be the domain of the IT team. But the additional capacity they have means more attention can be paid to the complex problems.

Conceptual Realization

Ultimately, the nuts and bolts of the hyper-automated business environment encompass three elements – automated IT support services; troubleshooting; and proactive monitoring.

These components bring with it;

• improved response times,
• automated fault detection,
• email triggers that notify key personnel,
• and opportunities to access dedicated support channels.

Automation also means being able to tap into pre-defined resolutions to common faults.

With work not likely to return to how it was done pre-2020, companies are now in the fortunate position of fully implementing hyperautomation to unlock business value in ways they could not foresee before. There must however, still be an organisational will to do so, for it to be successful.