Automation vs hyperautomation: Which one is right for your business? – TechRepublic

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Automation and hyperautomation are cut from the same cloth. Each solution gives businesses exactly what they crave: Technology that yields faster and more financially responsible processes that are freer of error.

That said, hyperautomation takes automation one step further. With it comes additional layers of advanced technologies that cultivate end-to-end automation processes, streamlining workflows and enabling teams to remove some tedious day-to-day tasks.

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Still, the debate isnt alwaysabout automation versus hyperautomation. Their unique components allow them to build off one another, and each on its own could be the right call for yourbusiness process optimizationefforts. Its up to you to determine what your organization needs.

At their respective cores, automation and hyperautomation are more advanced offshoots ofrobotic process automation technology. They areequipped with technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, process mining, digital twins andbusiness process management.

Automation is vital for any digital transformation, but companies have long known thatenterprise automation RPA toolshave limitations: Chief among them is the inability toautomate business processesvia unstructured data.

Hyperautomation was developed to solve this problem and aims to tackle the most complicated business processes. By using it, organizations can automate tasks that used to be manual, increasing employee retention and productivity as well as improving the customer experience.

With its advanced technologies, hyperautomation is most effective in the most complex business processes, including those where you might have multiple offices or locations. Some of these include:

Hyperautomation can eliminate risks in areas that would normally depend on manual labor and human knowledge. With its focus on receiving, responding and paying out invoices, accounts payable poses a great risk for inefficiency, errors and out-of-control costs. Order management (i.e., retrieving and extracting customer information) can present some of the same challenges, so both are ripe for hyperautomation.

If you want to know the current state of your organization, youre likely using or thinking of usingprocess miningsoftware to assess it. With hyperautomation, you must have an accurate view of how your processes currently operate. By using process mining, you get a comprehensive view of everything, allowing you to automate to the fullest potential.

You can eliminate the manual work of live agents and introduce bots with hyperautomation. The implementation process discovers your business processes and creates bots to automate them. These bots will then become the first points of communication for some customers, helping users navigate support articles and knowledge bases, order products or services, and manage accounts.

Of course, you might have areas in your organization that fall right on the line between needing automation and hyperautomation, and it can be challenging to figure out which is best. But finding the optimal approach for your business enables you to tailor each to your companys individual automation needs.

These days, some level of automation is key to a successful digital transformation. The biggest risks of a transformation project are being over budget and behind schedule, so your company might choose to consider software that not only visualizes your current to-be states, but also provides modernizedbusiness process automation technologyto mine these processes.

Hyperautomation builds on automation. Although it does not exist independently, it can enhance and expedite your digital transformation by further automating already automated processes and making them less complicated and more efficient.

So, is automation, hyperautomation or both right for you? Heres how to tell:

Hyperautomation improves your business processes by speeding up and bettering your operations. But first, its important to identify automation opportunities in your business that could also benefit from hyperautomation.

Before you implement automation of any kind, you must understand where you need it most and how to get the best out of it. Align preferred outcomes with what either automation or hyperautomation brings to the table, then use those findings to inform your decision. The closer either gets you to your business goals, the better and more impactful the investment will be.

Research the available automation tools that meet your goals. Theres no point in using hyperautomation where it isnt needed or doesnt work for your business, so one of your tasks is to find relevant tools for you and your organization.

Look into low-code development tools. These solutions can help define the hyperautomation and connect to workflows, and then learn how they differ from other more traditional automation approaches.

Once youve researched and selected the best automation platform for you, make sure its scalable. Pick sustainable, future-conscious tools that introduceautomation in digital transformationtoday but can continue to grow with your business tomorrow.

Choosing a tool without the ability to grow as the company does equates to flushing your time and money down the drain. Although a tool might not have all the bells and whistles, you should invest in it if it shows the ability to work for the long haul.

For your business process transformation, youll need to learn the differencebetween automation and hyperautomation,both of which can play critical roles. For the most complex processes, hyperautomation is a must-have because it builds on what automation can already do. To identify which one is right for you, though, youll need to determine which tasks are mission-critical right now for yourbusiness process automationstrategy. Then, choose wisely for a cost-effective, efficient and successful transformation.

Caroline Bromsis the global content marketing manager atMavim. She is responsible for creating and managing the product marketing content initiatives and campaigns specializing in business process management, DTO and technology-driven, cost-driven, compliance-driven transformations. She is based out of Mavims Boston office.

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Automation vs hyperautomation: Which one is right for your business? - TechRepublic