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How to harness the disruption of hyperautomation
Hyperautomation technologies will disrupt business and IT operations, but smart organizations can use them as fuel for successful transformation.
A certain amount of disruption is normal in life. We don't think much about it; we just adjust as needed. Today, however, the advent of hyperautomation-based technology presents businesses with disruption that is both invasive and pervasive. These technologies -- including robotic process automation, intelligent business process management, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and natural language processing -- have the potential to change how every part of a business works.
Adopting hyperautomation will require both technology investment and the creation of new business operating concepts and strategies. It will also require new ways to minimize the potential disruption that massive change brings.
To be clear, as impressive as hyperautomation technologies are, they only provide capabilities. How businesses implement those capabilities will differentiate them. The strategies listed below will help them focus on long-term success and turn disruption into transformation.
Make the most of hyperautomation tools
We believe that all companies will soon use hyperautomation tools. Many will use these tools to generate applications, which can be beneficial but fails to strive for the true potential they could provide. Businesses that understand the opportunity of deploying hyperautomation tools to evolve and gain market share can use them to create new hypertransformation business models. These models offer a structure for continuous transformation in a controlled, cost-effective manner that allows a company to evolve and function optimally in the future marketplace.
How businesses can achieve this is the focus of our book, Business and Digital Transformation in the Age of Hyperautomation, downloadable from the link below.
Business and Digital Transformation in the Face of Hyperautomation
This free ebook explores the evolution of digital transformation and the skills and tools business and IT leaders must foster to remain successful in today's fast-moving technology landscape.
Download NowConcentrate on long-term goals
Many businesses understand the need for transformation to ensure their long-term success. However, business and digital transformation initiatives to date have a high failure rate. Often transformation projects stand alone as isolated efforts, without being tied to an overarching business strategy. This greatly limits their potential. It also weakens the company and its ability to respond to disruption or opportunity.
Instead, a big-picture business strategy should determine the future capabilities the company needs and how it should transform to achieve those capabilities. This alignment allows management to predict disruption and focus on mitigating it with the appropriate processes, technologies and tools. Businesses leaders should ask:
- Why are we interested in business and digital transformation?
- What do we hope to gain?
- Who is behind this change?
- Are we getting ready to be competitive in the future?
- Have our business and digital transformation projects failed to deliver on expectations in the past? Why?
- Are we ready for a technology-centric future business?
- Where will internal disruption likely occur if we proceed?
Asking these questions will introduce interrelated business and technology goals that together define how the future vision of the company will be achieved. It also identifies where operational disruption will likely occur and lets management plan to mitigate it.
Connect interrelated goals
The goals the business defines should form a type of web where each goal builds upon and depends on the others. Business operations, competitive market and digital goals will interweave in this web and provide a framework to guide the different business and technical groups in the company. Expectations should be based on each business area delivering its requirements and associated capabilities, all of which are interrelated and aligned, from the business strategy down to operations.
The overall business strategy and the capabilities needed to succeed in the future direct the digital transformation roadmap, defining what the digital transformation needs to deliver and why. It also specifies the capabilities that must be available through automation infrastructure and applications.
Aligning the digital transformation plan with the business transformation allows business and IT managers to create a plan that can tie business and digital support together, outlining the need for any acquisitions, infrastructure development or additional investment. The plan can also accommodate ongoing operational modifications and changes in direction to keep the company focused on the desired future business model. Using this approach, disruption can be planned for and controlled.
About the authors
Dan Morris, CBPL, CBPP, CBA, ABPMP fellow, has more than 30 years of experience in business and IT operation transformation and management. He is the author of five books on business transformation and more than 70 papers and articles.
Keith Leust, MBA, CBA, Six Sigma Black Belt, is a results-driven business leader with more than 30 years of hands-on experience. He co-authored the first business architecture certification exam for the Business Architects Association and helped launch the business architecture practice for Oracle.
