For Hyperautomation Success, Get hyper-focused on Process Knowledge

Are you looking to increase your investments in intelligent automation tools and technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning for understanding content and achieving hyperautomation?  If so, you’re not alone. Hyperautomation was deemed one of the top strategic technology trends for 2020 and quickly enthused organizations to achieve a higher level of automation. It not only refers to the range of machine learning and automation software to deliver work but also all the steps leading to automation, including discover, analyze, design, automate, measure, monitor, reassess.

It is this emphasis on discovering and understanding processes that many organizations overlook when using RPA for ad hoc projects and not taking a comprehensive view of their entire process ecosystem. Additionally, RPA platforms have the easy job of automating routine tasks, but in the age of hyperautomation, customers demand more.

The effects of not taking a process-first approach were revealed in a new State of Process Mining and Robotic Process Automation survey commissioned by ABBYY among global companies about their perceptions about processes and experiences working with process mining and RPA tools.

The biggest takeaway from 400 senior decision-makers in the US, UK, France, and Germany is the majority found process insight essential to RPA success. The efficiency and understanding of business processes became ever more critical as organizations worldwide pivoted to contingency and business continuity plans during the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Their historical understanding of how they believed processes flowed was completely disrupted by remote distributed employees scrambling to do what they could to execute tasks and get work done. It showed business leaders the importance of having effective processes in place and illuminated which processes were not followed as assumed, and which are ripe for automation.

Fortunately, the survey revealed more organizations understand the importance of process mining tools, with many US respondents saying they are in early stages or considering adopting process mining platforms, while 31% are already using these tools.

Furthermore, decision-makers in the US identified key success and failure factors relating to the understanding of processes. The more they understood processes ahead of RPA deployment, the more successful the project.

To read more about companies’ perceptions, usage, and plans for process mining tools and RPA, download the State of Process Mining and Robotic Process Automation 2020 report for average global numbers. You can find US specific numbers at the following press release and UK data here.