Is there a difference between automation and digital transformation? Yes, there is, even if they are often used like they are the same thing. In this article we want to focus on these two aspects in order to understand how they can represent a big boost for your company growth. Let’s start with digital transformation, what is it and why is so important?
When we read digital transformation, we immediately think about something that needs to be transformed in digital. Ok, but what? Actually, we refer to the act of digitally transform business processes through the use of new technologies, evolving from analogic to digital. Nowadays, we have at our disposal new technological devices and tools such as smartphones, tablets, virtual reality, or vocal assistants that we can use to relate to others. Companies need to be aware of these devices and use them to respond promptly to the customers’ demands and be competitive in the market.
But is it just this? Is it just making existing processes more efficient? Of course not, but it concerns creating or unlocking new value for customers. A clear example is the Covid-19 pandemic that we have been facing for the last two years: organizations had to find new digital solutions in order to keep meeting the customers’ expectations and, clearly, to not disappear. As World Economic Forum reports “for all the companies that lost out to COVID-19-induced low consumer demand, there were many companies that were able to leverage digitalization and digital transformation to come out on top. A lot of retailers were able to ramp up online presence as demand for e-commerce rose. Gyms were able to launch live fitness classes for their members through their own apps and on social media. Ride sharing and delivery platforms were able to expand services to other sectors and helped them to move online”.
Moreover, digital transformation also includes benefits for the employees by giving them greater job satisfaction since they can concentrate on more interesting projects than repetitive administrative tasks. Therefore, digital transformation does not refer to one single thing, but it involves a combination of projects that can transform the aspect of your enterprise to be digital-first. So digital transformation is about taking advantage of the digital tools at your disposal such as automation and data analytics capabilities to remodel how your business operates and make decisions.
What is Automation?
By saying that automation can be a tool to encourage your business to get digitized, we have already made a difference between automation and digital transformation. In fact, automation concerns applying technologies to make processes run themselves. In this way it is possible to make these processes more efficient, to increase transparency, and to report capabilities. In particular, talking about automation, we refer to intelligent automation which is according to IBM definition “the use of automation technologies – artificial intelligence (AI), business process management (BPM), and robotic process automation (RPA) – to streamline and scale decision-making across organizations. Intelligent automation simplifies processes, frees up resources and improves operational efficiencies, and it has a variety of applications”.
The uses of intelligent automation are limitless, and their solutions can either directly assist people in the performance of non-routine tasks or automate those tasks entirely. It is the case of hyperautomation which, as Gartner defines it, is “the combination of multiple machine learning, packaged software, and automation tools to deliver work”. So, basically, the act of automating everything in a company that can be automated.
Consequently, companies can harness great benefits from automation, but they need to remember, according to Alan Pelx-Sharpe and Dan Lucarini, that:
- The core purpose of automation is to reduce human work activities.
- Automation entails digitizing (encoding) work activities.
- Employees and customers will always be impacted by automation.
Intelligent automation has a big effect on organizations and avoids the risk of stagnation to businesses that could be flourishing. Actually, as Monique Williams (Southern Africa regional sales manager for Hyland Software) says, “according to McKinsey, when done right, it has proven to deliver real benefits, including:
- Distinctive insights: Hundreds of new factors to predict and improve drivers of performance.
- Faster service: Processing time reduced from days to minutes.
- Increased flexibility and scalability: Ability to operate 24/7 and scale up or down with demand.
- Improved quality: From spot-checking to 100% quality control through greater traceability.
- Increased savings and productivity: Labour savings of 20% or more”.
As we understood the difference between automation and digital transformation, let’s focus on how you can get the right automation tools to digitally transform your business and get the best from it.
TDox tools that suit for you
We listed the advantages you can get from automation, but how do you get those tools? Here TDox comes, a multi-experience development platform (MXDP) which offers automation tools to get digitized. In particular, TDox aims to facilitate your workforce activities in order to deliver the best possible product or service. In fact, having well-organized procedures among the different departments of your organization can be the key to achieve that goal, and for this reason TDox harnesses the low code technology to provide to your IT department the possibility to create apps in a simpler and faster manner. As a result of this, you have access to a drag-and-drop tool to make the creation of apps even more immediate.
In addition, you have the agenda which is very helpful to plan your activities and operations. Actually, thanks to automation, the agenda can send you notifications regarding deadlines, urgencies, and schedule changes. In this way you will always be updated on what is going on in your company and so your employees will, since the agenda simplifies the communication, because everyone will receive notifications, avoiding dispersive instant communication tools which can create confusion. One single app to do everything.
Furthermore, TDox offers you dashboards which represent a big support to manage all the activities in your company. As a matter of fact, as soon as your employees collect data or add new information on the system, you are immediately updated and so are your collaborators who have access to TDox. This allows you to intervene timely in order to avoid disruptions which can make you waste more time and money. Additionally, you have to know that TDox is integrated with external data that means that through API it makes possible to write your own custom tables; read and create events; read PDFs; read multimedia files. Different functions to simplify your work and get the transparency you need in your organization.
Eventually, all your documents can be saved on TDox cloud (XP Cloud) which is managed by our team, freeing you up from updates and other problems. Otherwise, you can use your cloud (Private Cloud) to get your own customized version of the software hosted on your cloud. Automation, integration, and cloud capabilities are some of the features that TDox can guarantee you to improve your internal business processes.
Automate your business with TDox
Making clear the difference between automation and digital transformation and how they can be the key to unlock business growth is the first step to improve your company. Then, the second step is to adopt the right tools which means entrusting to the right ally. TDox, as you could see, offers different tools to do that, especially to improve your internal business processes.
Ensuring that your workforce works with ease and allowing your employees to use better their talents consents to create a safe environment in your company where people are appreciated and motivated in improving their work. If you want to have a product or a service that reflects high quality standards, first you need to ensure that your workforce has all the right tools to deliver the best product or service they can. Having happier employees allows to have better results.
Thanks to our peculiar application development, we help you to achieve your rapid development goals. Our technicians are here to support you and lead you to create your own automation process.
Do not hesitate to contact us to know more about TDox and what it can do for you. Furthermore, if you are interested in seeing what TDox looks like in action, request a free demo, and discover a new world of opportunities. We’re low coding your business apps!
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