IT Process Automation Blog

How Tomorrow’s IT Leaders will Use AI to Solve Problems

June 19, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning /by Gabby Nizri

When the IT professionals of today went to school, they most likely studied things like programming. Students attending today’s technical colleges and universities, however, are focusing on things like machine learning and artificial intelligence. As a result, tomorrow’s workforce will have been taught an entirely new way of approaching IT problems, including cybersecurity. And since the problems and attacks IT teams will face are also evolving, this change couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

Let’s take a closer look at a few ways the IT leaders of the future will leverage AI technology to transform their organizations.

Simplify Work

Enterprise-level IT teams deal with complex processes and workflows on a daily basis. This is nothing new. How they manage these things, however, is changing for the better. AI is already capable of automating even the most complex business processes while also identifying trends to create greater business value and provide forward-thinking intelligence. As a result, human IT workers will have less busywork and will be far more capable of strategic, data-driven decision-making.

Answer Data Questions

There’s been no shortage of investment into areas such as data integration, yet in most cases, one big question remains: where’s the return? AI technology has the potential to deliver business cases for affordable data initiatives. For instance, tomorrow’s IT professionals will no longer have to waste countless hours classifying and indexing data manually. Artificial intelligence can handle it for them, thanks to natural language processing capability.

Stronger Cyber-Defense

Hackers are becoming savvier by the minute and their attacks are becoming more persistent and insidious. They are already leveraging machine learning and AI technology to achieve their nefarious objectives, which is forcing the hand of security professionals. Businesses being targeted can’t expect to defend themselves without better or at least equivalent ammunition. In other words, they’ll need to fight fire with fire, and that means adoption of AI for stronger cybersecurity postures.

Gain Competitive Advantage

In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, obtaining a position of power is no easy feat. This will only continue to get increasingly challenging for future IT leaders. With other countries, China in particular, already investing heavily in AI technology to preserve their economic future, opportunities to compete on a global landscape will exist, but only for organizations that also make AI a top business priority.

What’s the next step?

AI isn’t something that’s in the far-off, distant future. It’s already here and will only continue to grow and expand tomorrow. The best way for businesses to prepare is to start having the conversation now. Whether it’s centered around data initiatives, cybersecurity, upskilling your workforce or something else, AI must be a focal point today if you are to remain steadfast and successful tomorrow.

It’s time to start discussing, learning, testing and incorporating AI across your organization. To see AI in action and begin positioning your company and IT leaders for the future, schedule a free, interactive product demo.

How to Maximize ITSM Efficiency Through Intelligent Self-Service

Managing the lifecycle of IT services is a complex and challenging undertaking. Further complicating matters are the many different facets of IT service management (ITSM), of which even one minor failure can disrupt the entire operation.

Meanwhile, IT service desk teams are being asked to do more than ever before, even while operating with limited staff and managing ever-increasing workloads. This, coupled with bottlenecks, delays, and time-consuming manual processes, leaves IT teams feeling frustrated and on the brink of burnout.

There’s got to be a better way. Thankfully, there is.

Inefficiency Impedes Progress

In an ITSM benchmark study by AXELOS, when asked to prioritize their most pressing challenges, ITSM professionals listed inefficiency as their biggest problem to overcome.

Without question, IT operations and development teams across the globe want to improve the way they perform their jobs, and eliminating inefficient practices is the number one concern. In fact, the benchmark study found that 55 percent of ITSM professionals are interested in identifying and eliminating wasteful work.

But how?

Sure, there are plenty of tools and platforms available that can be used to streamline IT operations. While considering the fact that siloed working also made the list of biggest headaches for ITSM professionals, is it really wise to bring on yet another tool for an already overwhelmed IT team to manage? Won’t that just contribute to an already significant problem and make matters worse?

Not necessarily. The key? Integration.

Improved ITSM Efficiency Without Increased Complexity

For a machine to work efficiently, all of the cogs within must be fully functioning. More importantly, they must fit and work seamlessly together as they were intended to. The same concept can be applied to ITSM efficiency. Utilizing codeless service desk management software, such as Cherwell, can help streamline ITSM by automating service delivery.

Integrating Ayehu with Cherwell can lead to even more powerful efficiency for service desks.

Creating an Intelligent Self-Service Help Desk

The integration of Ayehu’s intelligent automation and orchestration platform with Cherwell extends the ITSM solution capabilities and provides significant IT process gains and efficiencies. The integration enables the automation of current manual processes, to reduce time to resolution and allow the service desk to ignore the noise and focus on more critical and complex issues.

Ayehu’s integration with Cherwell allows IT departments to:

Automatically open, update, close tickets, and query tables in Cherwell
Leverage two-way SMS and email for event notifications and escalations
Accelerate the reporting, escalation, and resolution of incidents
Eliminate manual work and human errors
Ensure fully documented end-to-end processes
Reduce the amount of “noise” at the service desk
Enforce change management procedures such as ticket status changes

Two-way communication ensures that Cherwell platform is constantly kept updated on the status of tickets, from initiation to resolution. The two systems are always in sync, providing accurate status snapshots regardless of which platform is being viewed. A live dashboard displays all issues handled by the system, along with their time to resolution, providing an overview of what Ayehu is handling.

Most importantly, with this integration, the IT service desk can fully automate and mimic the response of experienced operators and analysts, including complex tasks across multiple, disparate systems, executing thousands of well-defined instructions without any programming required and helping to resolve virtually any alert, incident, or crisis.

In other words, combining Ayehu with Cherwell enables busy or short-staffed ITSM teams to create intelligent self-service desks with fewer (or no) agents, finally making it possible to solve the “do more with less” conundrum.

Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Complexity

Integrated with Cherwell, Ayehu acts as a force multiplier, driving efficiency through a simple and powerful IT automation and orchestration platform powered by AI. The agentless platform is SaaS-ready for hybrid deployments and is powered by machine learning driven decision support, for fully enhanced and optimized automated workflows. It can also be installed on-premise connecting seamlessly with the Cherwell platform.

Managing IT services will never be simple, but with the right tools and technologies at your disposal, you can make it far less difficult than it has to be.

Should you hire a Chief Automation Officer?

June 14, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, IT Process Automation /by Gabby Nizri

If you were to ask any high-level executive about IT, you would almost always receive an answer that centers around the need for innovation. But while most in leadership roles openly profess the importance of innovating, getting them to actually free up the resources and make the necessary investments is much more challenging. This is where automation comes into play, and the aptly named Chief Automation Officer is leading this charge.

Business Benefits of CAO

A surprising number of enterprises are now recognizing the many benefits employing automation can afford, and not just in terms of IT. Nowadays, companies of every size, structure and industry are leveraging automation technology to streamline everything from routine tasks to complex workflows, cyber-security incident response and even self-service support. For those forward-thinking organizations desiring to harness the power of intelligent automation as an overarching business objective, having a central point of contact to organize, oversee and optimize the entire process is strongly recommended.

Challenges and Barriers

For most companies, implementation of automation typically occurs at the department level – at least in the beginning. Because IT is naturally open to and comfortable with such technological advances and innovative concepts, this is the area where most organizations choose to introduce automation. One of the downsides to this is that without the right leadership involvement, IT tends to “own” the process, which can lead to isolation and silos, or as Gartner deems them, “islands of automation.” These “islands” are counterproductive and costly, actually hindering efficiency.

Recent studies have revealed that this lack of a holistic viewpoint has become one of the biggest obstacles of a successful automation strategy. Simply put, ad-hoc automation leads to fragmented operations. This reality has paved the way for the rise of the Chief Automation Officer (CAO) whose goal is to identify the many islands of automation that exist across the organization and effectively connect them. This role is designed to act as a liaison between IT and other key business strategies to develop, implement and manage a more cohesive, efficient enterprise environment.

An Innovative Approach

For obvious reasons, the Chief Automation Officer does not manually work toward these goals, but rather proactively identifies, assesses and leverages the latest in intelligent automation technology, powered by AI and machine learning. The appropriate tools will be implemented to streamline not only IT operations, but as many other offices, departments and teams across the entire organization as possible. Instead of siloed automation, the CAO works toward the overarching goal of achieving unity and cohesion.

Beyond the technology piece of the puzzle, the Chief Automation Officer is also typically tasked with helping to achieve greater human resource allocation. By assessing the company’s needs as a whole instead of just interdepartmentally, the CAO can determine how best to utilize manpower, strategically and systematically implementing automation across the entire enterprise to eliminate costly bottlenecks and dramatically improve workforce productivity.

The Ideal Balance

It should be noted that the CAO’s purpose is not to replace workers with robots, but rather supply the available tools to make the jobs of humans easier and more efficient. As a result, human-centric automation facilitates a significant shift of manual, repetitive tasks and workflows from human to machine, freeing up knowledge workers to focus their valuable skills on more business-critical tasks and projects, hence achieving greater innovation.

In reality, at least for the time being, not every organization will require a designated Chief Automation Officer. However, as we continue to drive forward, embracing and employing the many advances that technology has in store, this need will continue to grow.

Could your company benefit from a CAO? Perhaps the best place to begin is with the right tool. Get started with a free product demo of Ayehu and see for yourself how automation can bring your business to the next level.

Could These 3 Workflow Problems Be Crippling Your Company’s Performance Management?

June 13, 2018/0 Comments/in IT Process Automation /by Gabby Nizri

Effective performance management is high on the list of objectives for business leaders, regardless of department or industry. The primary purpose is to create and maintain an internal work environment where employees can perform at their very best. This requires supplying employees with everything they need to do their jobs effectively, creating a positive corporate culture and limiting hindrances to productivity as much as possible.

Unfortunately, many organizations struggle in this area due in large part to the presence of certain barriers to success. Let’s take a closer look at three such barriers that might just be hindering your own performance management process and how workflow automation can help turn things around.

Time-Consuming Paper-Based Processes

Problem: It’s time to review your employees’ annual performance, but there’s a lot more involved than simply sitting down and having a conversation. There are often several different contributing parties to consider. Not only is handling this on paper tedious and time-consuming, but having to pass physical documents from person to person and wait for their input is cumbersome and can cause frustrating delays.

Solution: Shift to a paperless process where online documents are accessed, shared and completed electronically. Add workflow automation into the mix to complete repetitive, pre-programmable sections of required forms and documentation and leverage technology to ensure that the process flows smoothly. The appropriate parties can be notified when it’s their turn to add to the review or sign off on the document. This saves time and creates a more efficient process for everyone.

Poor Communication

Problem: The purpose of ongoing performance management is to provide the appropriate feedback and guidance to enable employees to address and improve their professional performance in a timely, effective manner. This is why reviews are done at least annually, but sometimes more frequently. The problem that often arises, however, is in notification of review status. When management isn’t adequately informed that it’s time, reviews can be delayed and bottlenecks can occur. Likewise, poor communication can lead to last-minute, ill-prepared reviews that are of little use to the employee.

Solution: Workflow automation can be used to automatically schedule performance reviews, set and issue reminders when input or documents are due and follow-up accordingly. The review can even be automatically added to the manager’s calendar as well as the employee’s and any other relevant party. This will keep everyone in the loop and on schedule for a timely and more effective review process.

Lack of Visibility Due to Silos

Problem: The performance management process involves more than just letting an employee know how he or she is doing. It interfaces with multiple departments, including payroll. What happens when a review results in a pay increase, but come payday, the raise still hasn’t been implemented? There needs to be a seamless flow of information amongst related departments to ensure that everything moves along the pipeline quickly and efficiently. Otherwise, the result is frustration across the board.

Solution: Workflow automation can link disparate systems and create a centralized place where relevant data can be viewed as needed. Any information that needs to be transferred can all be accessed and verified without having to log into multiple systems and communicate between departments. This ensures that nobody misses out on their hard-earned rewards.

These are just a few of the many ways workflow automation can improve and enhance the performance management process. Beyond streamlining the review process, workflow automation can help you automate a broad spectrum of other HR-related functions, including employee onboarding. With a platform like Ayehu, you can automate, orchestrate and optimize all of your business processes to drive better outcomes and greater success.

Leveraging Intelligent Automation to Ignite Growth

June 12, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning /by Gabby Nizri

Today’s executives face the ever-increasing challenge of meeting the demands and expectations of both internal and external customers while simultaneously lowering operational costs as much as possible. Meanwhile, growth is almost always on the horizon. To address these challenges, more and more executives are turning to intelligent automation to augment human capability, enhancing the customer experience, achieving higher quality outputs and increasing the capacity to handle higher volume.

Let’s explore how this disruptive, transformative technology is driving tremendous change in the global business realm.

What is intelligent automation?

Before we can delve into the many benefits of intelligent automation and how it can spearhead growth, we must first define what the technology is and how it works. Gartner defines intelligent automation as “the umbrella term for a variety of strategies, skills, tools and techniques that service providers are using to remove the need for labor, and increase the predictability and reliability of services while reducing the cost of delivery.”

In simplest terms, intelligent automation is a software that mimics the behavior of a human worker by locating, finding, analyzing, transforming and entering data into existing enterprise applications. It is particularly useful for labor-intensive tasks and workflows. Intelligent automation delivers a competitive advantage by delivering low-cost scalability and enabling skilled personnel to shift their focus on higher-value work.

Will intelligent automation replace the need for humans?

The growth we are referring to in this article does not involve the elimination of human workers. To the contrary, while some rote jobs and duties will naturally be replaced by automation, new roles and opportunities will simultaneously develop. The goal is to achieve the ideal balance between robotic efficiency and human judgment.

In this regard, the automated platform identifies process exceptions that require complex decision making, bringing in expert employees. This new process orchestrates both human judgment and intelligent automation to apply the benefits of each to maximize responsiveness, efficiency and quality of work.

Three Key Ways Intelligent Automation Can Propagate Growth

Now that you’ve got a better idea of what intelligent automation is and how this technology can fit in with your business processes, it’s time to get down to the meat and potatoes. Here are three specific ways you can leverage automation to facilitate rapid, sustainable growth in your organization.

Boost Productivity

It’s only logical to assume that the more output your business can produce, the more work you can take on. Intelligent automation is capable of performing tasks and complex workflows exponentially faster than humans. Not only does this speed up and increase the volume of work that can be performed, but it will also enable your human staff to focus their efforts on more critical business growth initiatives.

And with the potential to increase productivity by 40% or more, automation powered by artificial intelligence can literally transform your company’s performance.

Reduce Errors

Even the most skilled human has the potential to make a mistake from time to time. Apply this to high-volume, repetitive tasks and the risk increases tenfold. Sadly, even a seemingly minute error can have tremendous implications on your company’s reputation, which can dramatically hinder growth. The fact is, software robots are capable of learning much more efficiently than people.

For instance, intelligent chatbots can be “trained” to perform support while continuously gathering new information and expanding their own internal knowledge bases. All of this without the risk of error makes it easier to scale and expand operations.

Improve ROI

When you can leverage software robots to perform a vast number of tasks and activities that once required human employees, the potential for increased ROI also dramatically improves. In other words, you’ll need to hire and staff fewer employees, which means lower expenditure in terms of salary, training and benefits.

With improved productivity and a reduction in errors, the average cost for the work performed decreases, which boosts your return. Higher ROI means more capital to spend on expansion and growth initiatives.

With all of this opportunity on the table, the question then shifts from should you adopt intelligent automation to why haven’t you done so yet? Get started today and begin your journey to digital transformation that will enable you to achieve your growth goals and crush the competition.

5 Things that Can Hinder Digital Transformation

June 8, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning /by Gabby Nizri

Digital transportation is no longer just an option. In order to remain relevant and competitive, it’s an absolute necessity. In fact, 87 percent of companies believe that digital transformation will give them a leg up on the competition. A further 27 percent consider it a matter of survival.

But while many business leaders recognize its importance, achieving enterprise-wide buy-in remains challenging. And let’s face it, any change of this magnitude has the potential to go south. That being said, let’s take a look at five red flags that, if not addressed, will almost certainly derail your progress.

Not Defining Objectives

You can’t embark on a digital transformation initiative just for the sake of doing so. Company executives must have a clear vision of not only why they’re doing this, but also what they specifically wish to achieve as a result. Without this vision, the entire project will be doomed right from the get-go. To begin, take a look at what your competitors are up to and then figure out how you can improve to make a real impact on your market.

Failure to Communicate

It’s human nature to fear change and, in response, resist it. Knowing your front line employees will likely push back at the thought of rolling out tools like intelligent automation can make it tempting to avoid those difficult conversations. But in order for digital transformation to truly occur, everyone across the board must buy into the vision and have a clear understanding of why it’s necessary. Be open and transparent with your employees and tackle fear head-on. That’s the only way to overcome it.

Lack of Guidance

You may have the utmost faith in your staff, but are they truly up to the monumental challenge that comes with achieving digital transformation? Chances are you’ve already got the foundation, but you can’t simply assume that your employees will automatically adjust and adapt without adequate assistance. A skills assessment is crucial to identifying knowledge gaps so they can be addressed accordingly, prior to moving forward with your project.

Not Recognizing Champions

As you move forward with your skills assessments, you will likely identify certain key players who are stand-out experts. These individuals can become an invaluable asset to the project at hand and the organization as a whole, but only if you consciously tap into them as a resource. These champions of change should be encouraged and empowered to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with others. This can do wonders for gaining buy-in, particularly with those who are still somewhat resistant.

Caving to Challenges

Digital transformation is a long journey and one that is wrought with many challenges along the way. If business leaders do not work to create and nurture a culture within the organization that embraces change with unwavering optimism, when things get rocky, morale can seriously take a hit. Those spearheading the change must do their best to maintain a high degree of energy and not let challenges and struggles bring down the team.

What’s the first step? Adopting the right technology. According to Accenture, 92 percent of business leaders say that intelligent automation will be put to wider use within their company during the next 12 months. Will you be one of them? Get started on the path to true digital transformation today with a private demo.

Summer’s here. Take a vacation. Automation’s got your back.

June 7, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning /by Gabby Nizri

With summer upon us once again, chances are you’re hoping to take some time off in the coming months. For those in IT, this is often easier said than done. In fact, 55% of Americans finish each year with unused vacation time for a total of 658 million unused vacation days. Given the nature of our industry, we’re willing to bet that a good portion of those were IT professionals. But as we all know, time off is important to our health and wellbeing. So, what’s the solution? It may be easier than you think…

For CTOs, CSOs and CISOs, the risk of burnout is extremely high, but it doesn’t stop there. The majority of IT departments across the world struggle with an increasing workload and a growing staff shortage, which leads to teams being overworked and underappreciated. As a result, turnover is higher, which further exacerbates the problem. Staff numbers go down but the workload doesn’t, which means remaining IT technicians have to pick up the slack. It’s hard to squeeze in a lunch break, let alone a week off.

Hiring more people isn’t usually an option, partly due to budgetary restraints, but also because the industry itself has been virtually tapped out. This is especially the case for those in the IT security realm, where advanced persistent threats (APTs) are making it next to impossible to keep up and the number of skilled candidates entering the workforce is no match for the volume and complexity of attacks. How can IT possibly step away from the helm when the organization is at such great risk?

The answer is simple: intelligent automation. Rather than being in the position to constantly fight fires, technology can handle the heavy lifting – particularly when it comes to cyber security incident response. With the right automated tool, threats can be managed electronically, dramatically reducing the amount of risk to the company and subsequently alleviating much of the pressure from the IT department. Not only will this make it possible for team members to take much-needed breaks, but the organization will remain safer at the same time.

Beyond the security aspect, intelligent automation can be used to shift almost all routine tasks and workflows that are bogging IT down on a daily basis from human to machine. Those talented individuals can then focus their skills and abilities on more important business matters. As an organization, this better allocation of resources can result in greater innovation, enhanced efficiency and productivity, improved service levels and cost savings. Furthermore, self-service automation can transfer ownership of a great number of IT issues back to the end user, empowering them while also alleviating the IT team.

For those currently slaving away in the IT department, putting out fires and chasing their tails, day after day, automation can be the light at the end of the tunnel. Even top management can feel comfortable stepping away and enjoying time off without having to worry about how the workload is being managed. Additionally, today’s technology enables remote communications and control via SMS, email, IM or telephone, so even those situations that require escalation or leadership approval can be handled from anywhere. In other words, IT decision makers are no longer chained to their desks.

Are you desperate for a vacation but feel like your IT workload or security risk levels won’t allow it? The right tool can make everyone’s life easier, facilitate much-needed time off to avoid burnout and also improve overall safety and operations at the same time. What are you waiting for? Start automating today!

Legacy Systems Slowing You Down? How Intelligent Automation Can Help

June 5, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, IT Process Automation /by Gabby Nizri

There are few things an IT executive dreads more than having to replace an outdated legacy system. You know…those ancient programs that hold some of (if not all of) the organization’s critical, “can’t survive without” data. The reality for many companies is that these legacy systems remain the foundation from which all business processes function. Unfortunately, as these systems become increasingly challenging to manage and are no longer capable of meeting the changing demands of customers, they become a much bigger concern. Thankfully, with intelligent automation, replacing them entirely is no longer the only option.

Depending on the overall scale of an organization’s legacy systems, replacing outdated technology with newer, better systems can take months or sometimes even years. Add to this the increasing pressure to ensure a seamless and error-free data migration. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, customers and employees alike must be able to access the systems they need just as they normally would even while the replacement is occurring. One IT executive in the banking industry likened the replacement of legacy systems to “changing the engine on a Boeing 747 while still in flight.” In other words, it’s incredibly difficult and a monumental task to say the least.

In the past, replacing entire legacy systems could be avoided (along with the astronomical costs associated with such a feat) by offshoring or outsourcing. Unfortunately, this is not always feasible, especially for companies that have a significant number of users. Intelligent automation provides the ideal solution to legacy problems, regardless of business size or industry. Here’s why.

It’s fast.

Let’s say a competitor of yours has come out with a new and improved feature to serve customers that your legacy systems unfortunately do not have the capacity to support. Rather than scramble to find a solution and waste valuable time in the interim, intelligent automation can help bridge the gap, either temporarily or as a long-term solution. Considering the fact that the legacy replacement process typically takes years to complete, automation powered by AI provides a much faster solution, allowing your company to remain competitive at all times.

It’s more secure.

One of the biggest downsides to outsourcing is the loss of control and subsequent increased data security risk associated with giving up that control. Because intelligent automation is an in-house solution, all of your sensitive data remains in the full possession of your IT department. This makes it an inherently more secure option. Additionally, unlike offshoring, with intelligent automation you can easily scale up or down at a moment’s notice based on need.

It’s affordable.

The reality is, many organizations have been built upon old systems that date back to the 70s and 80s. For many, these ancient relics are simply too expensive to replace. Intelligent automation provides an affordable alternative, allowing businesses with any budget to break the chains that once bound them to their outdated systems. This opens up the doors to virtually limitless possibilities.

Obviously there are certain limits to how much intelligent automation can revitalize legacy systems. For instance, this type of technology cannot actually alter outdated systems. It can, however, serve as an interim solution unless and until a full replacement becomes necessary. For many organizations – particularly those that do not have the means or resources to completely dismantle and replace their existing infrastructure, intelligent automation is well worth considering.

Experience it for yourself with a live product demo.

Streamlining HR with Intelligent Automation

June 4, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning /by Gabby Nizri

Human Resources is a critical function of any organization, particularly those at the enterprise level. Because HR is connected with every other department, when HR processes are running smoothly, the entire business benefits. Conversely, when those processes break down, the whole company can be impacted. Due to the broad reach and extensive list of responsibilities, enhancing HR processes through intelligent automation can dramatically improve productivity and efficiency across the organization.

A glaring need for intelligent automation

According to ServiceNow’s report, Today’s State of Work: At the Breaking Point, Human Resources was listed as the least efficient department. In fact, the study revealed that those in HR are wasting two full days, or 16 hours per week performing manual administrative tasks.

For instance, activities like overseeing employee relocations, managing leaves of absence and onboarding new employees are all among the most inefficient processes of HR.

Without question, HR teams want to deliver exceptional service, but find themselves far too often burdened with repetitive tasks and workflows. Unstructured work processes and HR functions that are heavily manual lead to unnecessary complexity and a steady drain on productivity.

Intelligent automation presents a golden opportunity

A recent survey by Career Builder revealed that 72 percent of employers expect some roles within HR will become completely automated over the next 10 years. Yet, according to the ServiceNow report, automation is only being leveraged in 37 percent of HR services.

Using intelligent automation to reduce complexity enables HR professionals to focus less of their time, energy and expertise on manual recruitment activities and more on innovating and improving business practices.

Introducing intelligent automation in 5 easy steps…

Step 1: Identify processes and workflows that should be automated.

We’ve already mentioned that HR is a department ripe with opportunity to automate, particularly given its many manual, repetitive and transactional processes. The first step in getting started is to identify these tasks and list them out in order of priority. For best results, look for “quick wins” – that is, the processes and workflows that, when automated, will produce the fastest and most measurable return on investment.

Step 2: Create a blueprint.

The next step should involve mapping out these critical business functions from start to desired end-state, including a combination of both artificial intelligence and human skills. Investigate further whether the existing processes you have in place could be augmented by intelligent automation to deliver the desired result. During this process, you may discover that it’s easier to redesign some workflows from scratch rather than to modify them.

Step 3: Get executive buy-in.

Organizational change, such as what’s involved with deployment of intelligent automation in HR, requires more than just simply executing a series of implementation activities. To truly gain traction and roll out successfully, adoption must start at the top and trickle its way down. As such, those in senior leadership must be visible, both in their support and their participation. This will empower employees and encourage them to suggest how intelligent automation can further benefit the business.

Step 4: Communicate openly and regularly.

Remember that through automation, you’ll inevitably be impacting the day-to-day work of your employees. To prevent resistance and overcome fear, be proactive about communicating with the HR department. Address their concerns, answer their questions and provide them with reassurance that the changes being introduced will ultimately benefit them. Not only will they save time, but they will also be freed up to focus on more creative, strategic and fulfilling projects.

Step 5: Retrain and reskill.

As intelligent automation is introduced, the role and day-to-day functions of human employees will inevitably evolve. Don’t just expect your employees to possess the innate skillsets needed for leveraging automated tools. For instance, your HR team may have the soft skills needed to be successful, but they may still need help understanding how to interact with automation technology. Invest in retraining and reskilling them accordingly so they are armed with the info they need to evolve alongside the changing technology.

Highly automated companies are six times more likely to experience revenue growth of more than 15% versus companies with low automation. Human Resources is an excellent place to start. Want to experience intelligent automation for yourself? The wait is over. Take Ayehu for a test drive today!

The Role of Workflow Automation in Digital Transformation

May 31, 2018/0 Comments/in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, IT Process Automation /by Gabby Nizri

The digital era has opened many doors to businesses in terms of technology. These days, new tech is not only widely available, but it’s also far more affordable than it was even just a decade ago. With this increased access, many organizations have set forth on the path to digital transformation with technology as their primary focus. In reality, however, it’s people and the processes they are empowered with that will lead to true transformation. And it’s intelligent workflow automation that will unlock the power of your employees. Here’s how.

Overcoming Barriers to Digital Transformation

Forward-thinking business leaders recognize that in order to remain competitive, they must continuously evolve their culture, processes, procedures and technology. Accomplishing this successfully is no easy feat. And despite the fact that 83% of IT decision makers say workflow automation is “essential” to digital transformation, a surprising number of manual processes still remain.

The truth is, even the most dedicated IT teams cannot possibly manage to optimize the thousands upon thousands of processes that are occurring across the business. As a result, only certain processes get prioritized for automation, which means only select users experience the benefits. This is particularly true at the enterprise level.

For instance, the workflows most critical to keeping the C-Suite operating efficiently may be automated while line of business workers in other departments, such as human resources, marketing and finance are left in the dark. This results in a remarkable number of inefficiencies across the organization.

Providing these LOB workers with access to an intelligent automation platform eliminates these inefficiencies. Users can automation and orchestrate processes that are most relevant to them, eliminating manual processes and thereby optimizing their workflows.

Deploying Workflow Automation Across the Enterprise

The key to enterprise-wide adoption of workflow automation is that it must be trusted by your IT team and accessible enough to be used across the entire line of business. If IT has to waste hours of their busy day writing code, the automation project will just become another point of contention. This, coupled with the need for LOB accessibility, makes no-code solutions the best choice.

With an intelligent workflow automation and orchestration platform like Ayehu provide this enhanced accessibility. And since the technology requires no coding and features a drag-and-drop design, workflows can be built and deployed in minutes, making life easier for the IT department and improving the experience for LOB users.

No-Code Intelligent Solutions for Workflow Automation

At Ayehu, we believe that every business user should be able to benefit from workflow automation. By leveraging a solution like ours, enterprises can unlock the power of their workforce, empowering users to optimize and innovate. Workflow automation, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, can become the catalyst for change and the next step in the journey that leads your organization to true digital transformation.