Welcome back! Ready to play detective? In this second part of our automation series, we'll guide you through the process of sniffing out automation opportunities like a German Shepherd at airport security.
But where to start? It's like trying to find Waldo in a crowd full of Santa's. The trick is to look for tasks that are repeatable, time-consuming, and prone to errors. These are the low hanging fruits ripe for automation. If you find a process that makes you feel like you're stuck Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, it's a good sign that automation could be used to remove the human element from the task.
Conducting a comprehensive analysis of your existing processes can feel like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded. But remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Start with one department or process at a time. Document everything, and we mean everything. From who does what, to how long each task takes, to what outcomes you achieve. By the time you've finished this step you should be able to recite your processes, forwards and backwards!
A good way to start is to take one good or service that your company sells, and map out the entire process, from lead acquisition, to closing the deal, to manufacturing, etc. Odds are, you'll identify an abundance of places where automation can be added to make tasks cheaper, more efficient, and less prone to errors.
Once you've thoroughly mapped out all of your processes, it's time to decide where the best places are to start implementing automation. The best metrics to measure tasks by are as follows: Repeatability, time consumption, and error-proness. If a task scores high on these metrics, you've just found your automation candidate!
Let's take a moment to ponder the 'how' of implementing these automation solutions. You see, not all of us have a tech wizard at our disposal, someone who can wave a magic wand and voila - automated processes everywhere. For some businesses, implementing automation might feel a bit like navigating uncharted water without a compass. It's tricky, time consuming, and can drain your resources faster than a teenager drains your Wi-Fi. So, instead of jumping headfirst into the automation deep end, why not dip your toes in the shallow end first? Start with the simpler tasks. They may not have the razzle-dazzle of the complex ones, but they can be just as beneficial to your organization, for a fraction of the cost.
Join us for the third and final part of our automation series where we'll dive deeper into the exciting world of implementing automation solutions. Because the only thing better than finding hidden treasure is actually getting to use it!
