How to Prepare for a Recession with Smart Automation

Businesses of all sizes are preparing for a Depression. However, while it may sound counterintuitive, this is actually the right time to accelerate digital transformation.

Historically, a economic depression is a boon to innovation. Based on Morgan StanleyAbout half of Fortune 500 companies were founded during a recession or economic crisis.

Investing in digital transformation will help businesses weather the downturn and address talent shortages. Organizations can also stay ahead of their competitors as they cut back and slow down their digital transformation plans. ONE Harvard Business Magazine Analysis of results across three recessions shows that the recessions most likely to develop after a recession are successful performance improvements and investments for the future.

Short-sighted savings will cost you in the long run

Businesses are dealing with an economic downturn, a tight labor market, and ongoing supply chain disruptions. It may be counterintuitive, but cost-cutting measures in the face of such headwinds are not the answer.

The pandemic has inadvertently shown us unprecedented innovation born of necessity and spurred adoption. digital technology to meet consumer needs. This innovation also allows R&D timelines to jump ahead of vaccine development in less than a year — a process that typically takes about 10 years From idea to approval.

The looming recession and growing skills gap are another opportunity to spur innovation. Accelerating digital transformation will help businesses overcome recessions and address talent shortages.

Businesses are expected to invest a total of 3.4 trillion USD to fund their digital transformation strategies by 2026. And, the companies best positioned to respond to rapidly changing consumer needs and embrace innovation are capitalizing. Smart automation.

All in automation

Digital conversion enables businesses to reduce fallout and promote agility and resilience, making future volatility easier. The benefits of driving digital transformation are manifold — from increased productivity and efficiency to better supply chain management, customer experience, and resource visibility.

Code-free automation platforms reduce the burden of re-skilling employees to use advanced automation technologies. Robotic process automation (RPA) can then be used to automate time-consuming, repetitive, labor-intensive and often error-prone tasks. Pairing this cutting-edge technology with artificial intelligence (AI) enables scalability and decision-making in business process automation. By automating these processes, employees have more time and access to invaluable insights into their creative efforts to enhance the customer experience and drive growth and revenue. .

Even implementing an automation solution as simple as smart document processing is a powerful step towards digitization. It has the potential to save tens of thousands of hours, including time spent redoing mistakes and creating tremendous value.

American companies spend amazingly 5.3 billion dollars annually on wages for manual document processing. By automating processes, resources can be redirected to improve other important business goals, such as customer and employee experience.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Digital transformation is great and fun, but only when done right. Businesses believe in all the wonders of digitization and start implementing solutions. This is an easily avoidable obstacle.

Businesses need to be carefully considered digital transformation plan. This is most often achieved with the right digital transformation partner who can help them harness processes to automate, choose the right solution, integrate automation into the infrastructure. existing workers and train/upgrade existing workers — or, if desired, maintain their new digital infrastructure on their behalf.

Subject expertise is another key differentiator because a vendor that provides in-depth knowledge of specific areas understands the tough spots where automation will add the most value. . For example, let’s say a hedge fund is looking to invest in more digitalisation. In that case, they’ll want to partner with a supplier that understands the processing in their field and can perform tasks like calculating net worth.

Stakeholder support is key

Another common trap businesses fall into is not investing in the cultural transformation needed to successfully execute any digital transformation plan. To get the most out of business process automation in a time of global talent shortage, you need to upskill workers who stick with such training.

It helps if you also educate all employees about the purpose of the digitization plan. Why should they care? How will they benefit? These are the main questions; If your employees don’t know the answer, you’re positioned for your plan to fail. Workers play an important role in overseeing the implementation of digitization; if they feel objectionable about it, their chances of success are reduced.

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

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

Colin Redbond is the global SVP of product and strategy at SS & C Green Prism