The increasing use of technology is resulting in higher automation in different processes of the businesses. You can recall some of the examples of the changing trends through your observation. In this article, we are going to present you withC some of the examples of automation that can highlight the trend of using technology in workplace even further. So, that you can get help from these examples in order to generate the automation process for your own business.
You might argue that the automation is generating a few negative impacts on the society but this is a fact that the right use of technology enhances the productivity of the organization too. Some of the downside factors that are often given high weightage when discussing the impact of automation include the higher unemployment level in the country or area, higher mechanization which reduces the chances of customization and the unending impact of these factors on the economy of the country and customer service respectively.
Examples of Automation:
Despite the drawbacks highlighted, you cannot ignore the pace at which technology is becoming, rather it has become, the part of the organizations. So, let us review how the organizations and businesses are getting benefit from it.
Employee Records:
Employees are the most important stakeholders of any organization. They perform the activities for the business to keep it running. This is why analyzing the performance of the employees and keeping the records about their skills, capabilities and outcome up to date is essential for the organization. Maintaining it manually does not provide the same facility as you would see from the automated maintenance of the record. So, this makes automation necessary in managing this function of the organization.
Role of Automation:
In this scenario, the businesses utilize special software that does not only keep the record of the employees but also conducts an appraisal based on the information provided to it. You can even find the employee with the required skill set to perform a particular job. Similarly, identifying the training gaps for each of the employees and fulfilling them periodically gets easier with the use of this technology. Furthermore, such a use of technology in the organizations helps them in keeping a check at the turnover of the employees, their overall productivity and all such factors.
Most of the businesses are already using at least the basic version of this technology where the attendance sheets and records of the employees are kept up to date. In the advanced versions, you can even get the special reports created for the analysis of employee turnover for the entire organization or the progress of an individual employee in the organization.
What’s its usage?
Companies like Johnson & Johnson, Hulu and Roche are already using the sophisticated software applications for this purpose. The exact software might differ in each of these organizations but the ultimate objective is the same.
Customer Support:
You can find another example of automation in the customer support aspect of any business. The automation tools make it easier for the representatives to serve the customers in the most appropriate way. Whether it is the inquiry about the price of a particular item or the complain about an item that you have recently sold, the use of automation techniques in the customer support can actually help you in dealing with all of it.
Role of Automation:
Starting from the utilization of gadgets to the customer management software for guiding the customers about the policy of your company, all of the steps involve automation. Moreover, running a call center, responding to the email queries or replying to the social media feedback, everything involves the use of special applications and pieces of software that are specifically available for this purpose. You can’t miss the chatbots from the discussion of automation of the customer support process. Can you think of some other uses of automation in the field of customer support?
What’s its usage?
If you are looking for a specific company, where you can find the usage of the customer support, then Proctor & Gamble is one of the great examples of automation. The CRM project of the company is known as 1, Consumer Place. In this project, the company aims to manage its 1500 websites with approximately 1 billion visitors. Apart from that the social media pages and their maintenance is another story. So, you can very well understand the impact and usage of workflow automation in managing the customer relationship.
Repair and Maintenance:
It is amongst one of the functions of the organization, which is closely associated with the supervisory role and duties. Moreover, you cannot expect to delay this process if you are really looking to serve your customers in the best possible way.
Role of Automation:
If you are wondering how automation can take place in this dimension of the workplace activities, then you’ll be astonished to know that it already has taken the place and even shown its worth. There is automation software that can guide the management about the need of repair of the equipment and the optimal time for the repair as well. Moreover, it saves the organization from the unnecessary hassle of managing things or finding out a particular equipment that requires maintenance.
What’s its usage?
Bloomin’ Brands is a restaurant chain based in Tampa, which has around 100000 members in the team and 1500 different business locations. With such a wide scope of activities, you definitely can’t maintain the repair and maintenance of the buildings and the equipment being used. Scheduling a maintenance when it is not required won’t be an effective technique. This is why ServiceChannel, an application based on artificial intelligence to find the right time of maintenance is under utilization. The application uses the real time data, so you don’t need to face any sort of difficulty in the management of repair and maintenance operations.
Marketing:
One of the most prominent examples of automation can be observed in the marketing sector. Whether it is for finding the appropriate channel for advertisement or the messages or content that is generating the best result for the campaign, all such factors can be handled automatically. And better results can be achieved because of automation. This category involves both traditional marketing and digital marketing technique (including social media marketing).
Role of Automation:
The special applications and tools available for handling social media specifically can help you in scheduling your posts. So, that means, you don’t have to be online every minute to manage the adequate social media presence. Moreover, the automatic message would be sent to the users who would visit your social media page, thus initiating the conversation and providing you with more opportunities to generate the leads.
Similarly, budget calculation and estimation along with the measurement of KPIs whether it is the traditional marketing or the digital marketing channel, is also possible through the automation of the marketing practices.
What’s its usage?
You can continue the example of Proctor & Gamble or take any other company from any of the sectors; there is a high probability that the social media tools are being used for the maintenance of effective presence. The best par here is that the social media tools can be accessed without paying anything, so you as a business owner can also utilize this tool without any problem. However, if you aim to get the complete marketing package that would handle the traditional marketing and the digital marketing, both, would require extensive investment. You can have a look at some of the tools that can be helpful in maintaining the social media presence by reading this article.
Facility Management:
The workplace automation can most prominently be seen in the facility management. Facility management is actually dealing with the day-to-day operations for the maintenance of effective working in the work place. Similarly, it could be in the form of complex process of designing the layout of the facility or in the simpler form, for maintaining the temperature of the vicinity. In both the cases, automation is being used and has proved its successful role.
Role of Automation:
There are certain applications that can help the businesses design the layout in the best possible manner. You can easily optimize the vicinity for reduction of the time wastage or for making it apt for a particular environment using the applications.
Similarly, the temperature maintenance to optimize the productivity of the works and the indication of the scheduled maintenance are amongst some of the prominent activities that you can consider while discussing the facility management.
What’s its usage?
Autodesk is a Toronto based company that used software like Dialog and Fusion360 to design their headquarters. Apart from dedicating the specific areas for the particular activities, the decoration elements were also maintained through the use of automated software. The results of using AutoDesk were phenomenal with a perfect layout. This layout is facilitating the employees in the best possible manner.
Additionally, Comfy is another tool for facility management that can enhance the productivity of your organization by saving you extra expenses. Apart from these applications, there are a number of other applications and pieces of software to do this job. The large software making companies provide their clients with personalization facilities as well. So, automation is really transforming the facility management dimension of the workplace.
Meetings:
If you need to collaborate with the others or make decisions, then it is not necessary that you must gather in a boardroom in person. This is also because of the workplace automation. The automation tools have become a norm in this sector as well.
Role of Automation:
The automation techniques provide you a facility to get in touch with the different members of the team wherever they are located via internet. These workflow automation tools ensure that you can send files, messages, manage calls and ensure video chats. So, there is no corner of the world where you cannot access your team members. With this automation facility, the prospect of business success is higher and the employees can manage their work hours in a flexible manner. Additionally, they can manage their work from different locations. This is why the concept of work from home is getting higher importance.
You don’t have to worry about the security of your messages, calls, files or videos. Because most of these applications use the end to end encryption method. This means that you can have the complete surety that only a particular individual is going to see the message that you are sending. In other words, third parties won’t attack your information in any way. So, you can have a secure environment where you can share all your work documents with great ease.
What’s its usage?
This automation is actually everywhere. If you know about freelancing, then you can see the practical depiction of the examples of automation there. The freelancers and the clients communicate using a particular application, send files, and arrange meetings. They can even manage payments through online forums. Moreover, the availability of such a technology has increased the scope of the overall opportunities. Today, you won’t have to limit your business or even the employment opportunities to the physical world. The horizon of the virtual world is open for everyone. So, it is better to explore it and build your own name in the world of unending opportunities.
These are some of the examples of automation. However, you can find a lot more examples and dimensions where you can apply technology for automating the processes. With this information at hand, you can have a panaromic overview of these examples and find how can you utilize the automation in your own business. This will help you in becoming one of the examples of automation yourself.
