Category Archives: Automation

Documents are the lifeblood of legal practice, and one of the biggest areas where lawyers stand to benefit from todays latest technological advances. Preparing documents has long been a tedious, time-consuming task involving manual processes that resulted in human error and repetitive work. Thats where document automation comes in. But, until now, document assembly tools have required an IT team or developer to set up.

The folks at Documate are changing all that. Originally looking for a way to automate critical forms and workflows for domestic violence survivors and other pro bono clients, Documates founders, a team of lawyers and software developers, quickly realized that the existing document automation tools on the market were either too complicated to use, didnt offer enough functionality, or both. They invested their time and impressive engineering resources to build their own solution, and the result was a sophisticated document automation platform that is changing the way that lawyers across all practices are looking at documents.

Documate offers unrivaled ease of use no coding, ever while also allowing lawyers to build the complex forms and documents they need to successfully streamline their workflows, all backed by the security of isolated AWS databases to protect the highest level of security for your sensitive client information. Simply put, Documate succeeds where other document automation tools have failed, empowering you to automate your expertise and build complex workflows that will cut your document preparation time by 90%.

And as a bonus, their workflows are shareable, allowing you to gather data as a virtual intake process or even whitelabel your workflows to sell automated forms to the public online. If youve ever wanted to create a TurboTax for law, this is your chance to build it all without hiring a developer.

When it comes to legal technology, simpler is better, and Documate delivers. They dont expect busy lawyers to learn to code or master any complicated processes like you might find with other document automation software. Documate is simple to use and quick to master. With clear instructions and a few clicks, youll be on your way to automating even your most complex forms and workflows.

Your Documate experience takes place in the user-friendly Workflow Builder screen, a simple dashboard with two tabs, one for creating your interview questionnaire to gather the necessary data and information from your clients, and another for setting up the documents youll eventually generate.

Image 1: Documates Workflow Builder Makes It Easy to Build Document Assembly Apps

On the interview tab, you add the questions your clients need to answer in order to fill out their forms basic identifying information, the underlying facts relevant to the issue at hand, and much more. The process is similar to programs like SurveyMonkey or Typeform, where you can build out questions of various types, including text, yes/no, multiple choice, or file upload answer questions, among others. For each question, you assign a variable name to the answer for example, client name and build out a workflow to take in all the information you need to complete your form.

Image 2: Documate Makes it Easy to Set Up Conditional Logic Without Any Code

Documate makes the document automation process even easier by incorporating question logic and page logic, which connect your questions to each other and save you from having to do extra work. For example, if your first question is about marital status and your next question asks you to identify your spouses name, that second question will only appear if the answer to the first question is married. The same sort of internal logic applies to groups of questions for example, the client will only get a whole series of questions about children in an estate planning matter if theyve indicated that they actually have children. It even allows for looping repeating questions to keep adding children until all necessary information has been provided, without having to set up the question more than once. The best part from the lawyers perspective, though, is that you dont even have to understand what question logic or page logic means. Documate does all the heavy lifting for you.

The second step is to load your templates (as many as you want Documate to generate from your the data it gathers through the interview questions) into the output documents tab to complete the process.

Image 3: Upload Your Templates and Forms and Set Logic to Which Ones Are Generated

Documate allows you to automate both PDF and Word templates (or anything that can be turned into a .docx). While the process for the two is a little different, Documate always walks you through it to make sure your document is set up correctly. The platform allows you to link your template to the variable names you set up in your interview and creates all the workflows you need based on logic thats already built into the system. It even allows you to incorporate complex items like conditional phrases or paragraphs, boolean logic, complex calculations, automatic date calculations, or lists and tables with the same ease as the most straightforward questions.

Image 4: The Word Add-In Helps Set Up Conditions, Calculations, Loops, and Calculate Dates

You can always preview your questions and answers and review your documents before you generate the final versions. When youre satisfied, completing the job simply requires you to hit Save and Run. Then, youre all done. You have a web-based form that you can use yourself, or share with colleagues and clients to generate documents:

Image 5: Run Your Workflow as an Online Questionnaire that Generates Documents

Complex Boolean Logic? Calculations? Special Formatting? It can handle it all.

Documate is a gamechanger for lawyers, particularly those in practice areas that rely heavily on templates and forms. Theres really no limit to what can be automated, as long as its template-based or process-oriented. Whether youre working with simple intake to gather data being pushed into other documents, or complex estate planning documents that require intricate complications, Documate can handle it.

Better yet, the system is incredibly powerful and can be used to build expert systems in even the most complex areas of law. It takes just a few minutes to set up basic forms, and only as long as it takes to take whats in your head and put it onto the screen for more complex templates. You can add complex boolean logic to dictate what phrases or clauses are generated. Set up looping questions or add calculations (e.g., add up income or expenses or calculate against dates for statutes of limitation). You can always change it if you want to add new elements or the law changes, but the intensive manual work never has to be done again. Multiply that exercise across the number of forms you deal with every day and the number of clients you assist in a year, and the time savings quickly add up.

Documate has a number of practical uses that cover nearly all aspects of law. Some lawyers use it completely internally to essentially assist with case management. Others use it as a client intake or data gathering exercise to obtain critical client information to store in their dashboard. For those who want to sell their forms online, Documate even allows you to put a paywall behind your documents and prompt clients for payment information after theyve answered all the questions but before they can access their final documents, allowing you to compete with companies like LegalZoom.

Regardless of how you use it, Documate gives you the ability to see all your generated documents in your dashboard, along with information on whos started and finished your workflows, when they took and completed them, and what documents were created. Data can be reused from one workflow to another, so if your client comes back next month for a new document, you dont have to retype all that information again. Their newest feature allows you to conduct a multi-user workflow, where your client can enter some of their case data, and you can take over from your dashboard and finalize the documents.

Image 6: Take Your Intake Data and Push it Into Other Workflows

You can give different users access to different workflows, and you can even whitelabel the forms or add your own logo if you prefer not to have the Documate name visible.

To top it all off, Documate keeps your data secure every client gets their own dedicated instance and database, wth their own subdomain and AWS server, meaning that Documate is more secure than most tools and software youll find in the market in any area.

Going forward, Documate will be offering additional data capabilities, including running analytics on data to really understand your clients better. Through it all, theres excellent 24-hour customer support available, even though the platform is so easy to use that you probably wont need it.

When it comes to document automation, no one does it better than Documate. You get ease of use, power, and security, all combined in one package that you wont find anywhere else. Give Documate a try and it will change the way you think about document automation.

For a free trial of Documates document automation software, sign up on Documate here or email hello@documate.org to schedule a live demo. Dont have time to automate your forms yourself? Documates team of document automation specialists can help with that, too.

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Legal Document Automation Software That Saves Time And Helps You Build No-Code Apps - Above the Law

British Airways parent company, IAG is implementing some cutting edge automation solutions in response to the rapid pan-industry digitalisation of the air freight sector. Announced on Thursday, IAG Cargo will start using autonomous drones in a move towards full automation of inventory counts in its air cargo facilities, following a successful trial.

With a vision to fully automate inventory counts at its air cargo facilities, IAG Cargo has been working closely with FlytBase on aerial inventory scans at its Madrid facility.

Inventory counting, while critical to freight and logistics operations, is a massive train on man hours, consuming thousands of hours each year across IAG Cargos hubs in the UK, Spain, and Ireland. On top of this, rapid global growth in ecommerce and increasing customer expectations of immediacy when it comes to delivery mean that air freight operators are having to increase the frequency of counts.

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Drones, according to IAG, can support this increase in inspection frequency. Flytbase reportedly is providing IAG Cargo with cost-effective hardware, intelligent automation software, and continuing advances in indoor autonomous navigation using machine vision and AI/ML techniques as part of its FlytWare solution, which provides autonomous aerial inventory scanning.

Nitin Gupta, CEO, FlytBase, explained: Flytwares trials at IAG Cargo have been successful in uncovering the significant opportunities and key challenges of deploying fully autonomous drones for inventory counts in warehouse rack storage. Not only can aerial inventory scans provide cost-effective and high frequency cycle counts, but they can also measurably impact productivity and support regulatory audits. The availability of live video feeds and location-wise image data, coupled with capabilities such as precision landing and WMS integration make FlytWare a highly compelling alternative to not only manual counts, but also RFID, AGVs and other methods that remain expensive and difficult to scale. Needless to say, we look forward to deploying FlytWare across IAG Cargo, a leading advocate for aerial inventory counts.

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British Airways using drones to automate inventory counts - Gigabit Magazine - Technology News, Magazine and Website

According to CE Pros sister publication Security Sales & Integration and its recent collaborative survey with Parks Associates, about half of nearly 200 surveyed residential security dealer respondents anticipate revenue growth of at least 10% in 2019 as compared to the prior year.

The latest study offers evidence of a continuing strong market, but also ongoing industry challenges. Given margin of error, the expectations noted above parallel the revenue growth percentage dealers reported for 2018 over 2017.

While percentages of security dealers expecting growth are lower in both years than the larger percentages seen in 2013-2016, 50% still indicates a continued strong marketplace. Those earlier high growth percentages occurred as the United States emerged from the Great Recession. As important, a scant 5% report lower revenues expected in 2019.

This market stability continues even while new starts and home resales have been quite flat in the past two years.

In 2019, sales of DIY systems decreased from 2018 (Figure 1). While some of that decline may result from margin of error given sample sizes, it may also foreshadow that DIY offerings have lost some of their appeal. Only 24% of responding dealers report selling DIY systems, which is flat from 2018.

The percentage of dealers sellingDIYsystems without professional monitoring dropped more than 50% between 2018 and 2019 (Figure 2). Nonetheless, there remains solid interest in adopting and offering DIY systems among dealers not doing so now. Among the 75% of security dealers that do not offer DIY systems, 27% (about 20% of all dealers) report a high intention to add them in the next year.

The main reason, offered by half of these dealers, is that their customers are asking about DIY devices. If a dealer has little or no enthusiasm for the products, it will not highlight their benefits any more than necessary to prospects.

This points to the power of consumer demand. After running these numbers through forecasting methodology, Parks Associates forecasts that 5%-7% of dealers will adopt DIY systems in the next year. Another question remains: how many dealers currently selling DIY systems will abandon those efforts?

The sales split for the 25% of security dealers currently selling DIY systems as well as professionally installed systems is the same in 2019 as it was in 2018 (Figure 3).

An increasing percentage of dealers sell security systems that include smart home products (Figure 4). In the 2018 dealer survey, 30% reported selling systems with smart home devices while 35% sold basic interactive systems. This year shows a nearly 50% increase in system sales with smart home devices.

As anticipated, dealers are migrating to include moresmart homeand networked video devices as they become comfortable with product features and reliability. Their customers are also more familiar with these devices than in the past, making it easier for dealers to explain benefits. Smart home devices often provide more stickiness for their dealers; they also provide more revenue.

Virtually all of the responding dealers offer smart home devices, but most of their system sales only include one or two devices, if any at all. Sales of smart home devices are up year over year or have close to parity with 2018 except networked security cameras (Figure 5).

The percentage of systems sold with cameras dropped in 2019 from 2018. Parks Associates andSSIwill watch this closely to determine if this is an anomaly or if concerns over privacy and security dampen these sales. Even with that drop, network security cameras are the top selling smart home product with video doorbells and smart smoke detectors earning a close second and third place.

Parks Associates quarterly 10K consumer surveys show households value video cameras as a source of security, but do indeed have some concern for privacy. Retail is also the leading channel for smart home devices and may be cutting into the dealer channel. Dealers must face consumer concerns upfront, reassuring them as possible that their smart home devices are secure.

Accompanying the increase in smart home device sales is an increase in customer support needs. Householders acquiring these devices are not techies and challenges in usage or reliability frustrate them greatly.

Security dealers recognize this, with the highest percentage of dealers citing ease of consumer use as a No. 1 or 2 priority factor when they determine which brands and product types to adopt and offer their customers.

When consumer ease of use has the second highest percentage of dealers ranking it as a top priority, the first is ease of installation for the dealer. Those two factors go back and forth as the most important from a list of 14 choices. Notably, price falls below ease of use and install in ranking.

More than four in 10 respondents (42%) find that supporting smart home devices is very impactful to their businesses; support is costly for dealers (Figure 6). More than 60% report that the impact is high or very high. All but value security system dealers are migrating to smart home device selling.

Manufacturers with the most reliable and easy-to-use devices deserve whatever wins they earn. A little more than two in 10 security dealers (22%) report that a truck roll is the most often used solution to resolve a customers smart home issue, while 40% report that they most often resolve issues via a phone call. Truck rolls are expensive; it only takes a few to wipe out potential profit from a customer for the year.

Average end-user prices for security systems with smart home devices declined nearly 20% in 2019 over 2018 (Figure 7). Several reasons can cause this. First, there may be fewer smart home devices selling per system even as more security system sales include at least one smart home device. In addition, the price of devices has declined and there are more brand options.

For example, Honeywells (Resideo) smart thermostat costs significantly less than a Nest smart thermostat. Also, installation of smart home devices may be easier than in the past or it may simply be that the learning curve has helped dealers become more efficient in installation.

Finally, Parks Associates interviews with security dealers indicate they value the added stickiness that selling smart home devices provides to their professional monitoring service. Some dealers may discount initial prices to obtain that stickiness as well as to earn higher monitoring fees.

RESULTS:Click here for the full results of the survey

Average aggregated professional monitoring fees across all customers for all types of monitoring are $44 for 2019, up from $42 in 2018. There are different monthly fee rates for various types of professional monitoring. Basic monitoring is at a low $39 dollars per month but that represents a year-over-year increase of nearly 20%.

All other monthly rates are quite flat with the exception of professionalmonitoringwith basic interactive and smart home device services. That rate has a decline of 10% year over year. Parks Associates has predicted and predicts competitive pressure on monitoring fees; that is happening now. Still, fees are higher by 15%-20% for dealers selling smart home devices with their core security systems; that increase, added to increased stickiness, appeals to most dealers (Figure 8).

Moreover, and unsurprisingly, dealers report higher monthly fees for new customers than on average. Professional monitoring-only fees for customers signing up in 2019 are reported as $53 per month on average, while fees for professional monitoring with interactivity and video storage are $69 on average in 2019. All but value security dealers want these added dollars.

While the residential security marketplace is stable today, there remain challenges and consolidation activity (Figure 9). And, of course, change. Interlogix, for example,just announced it is winding downits security control panel business in order to focus on other more lucrative areas.

Dealers report a whopping 25% (mean) attrition rate; that is so high that Parks Associates questions whether some dealers define attrition differently than the overall industry. Regardless, attrition eats into progress whether it is 14% or 20%. Labor markets are tight all over the nation; this may be particularly difficult for security companies that need installers who also understand networking technology.

Somewhat surprisingly, false alarms rank as the No. 2 challenge still. Activations of self-installed DIY and self-monitored devices and systems may be causing increased concerns there; that remains to shake out.

Parks Associates forecasts a flat to slow growth market for the near future (Figure 10). The percentages are for all households with a functioning security system. Rates of adoption for 2019 over 2018 do not register a full 1%.

While growth is slow, householders who acquired their security system in 2019 have higher rates of adoption for smart home devices. For example, overall 11% of security households have a smart thermostat, but 19% of customers who acquired a security system in 2019 acquired a smart thermostat at the same time.

Tricia Parks is CEO and Dina Abdelrazik Senior Analyst for Parks Associates.

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Massive Home Automation Survey Reveals Anticipated Growth of 10% in 2019 - CEPRO - CEPro

Automation Anywhere a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), announced the companys CEO and co-founder,Mihir Shukla, has been named one of the top 50 Best CEOs for large companies from Comparably.

The winners of Comparablys Best CEOs Awards received the highest ratings by employees who provided anonymous feedback about their chief executive officers on theComparablysite within the past year.

Mihirs incredible vision and strong leadership since the companys inception has enabled our talented team members from around the world to unify their strengths to innovate faster, and catapult the adoption of RPA and AI technologies, where bots and humans collaborate to automate end-to-end business processes, saidNancy Hauge, Chief Human Resource Officer at Automation Anywhere. We are honored to be recognized by Comparably, as this is a true testament to Mihir and the companys unwavering commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where employees can do their best work.

Read More: AiThority Interview with Adi Kuruganti, GM, Community Cloud and SVP, Products B2B Commerce at Salesforce

This honor follows an exciting year at Automation Anywhere which included some of the following 2019 highlights:

Read More: AI-based Recruitment Platform Startup Jobiak Unveils Predictive Technology To Enhance Job Post Optimization

Employers who create workplaces that inspire, encourage, and support all voices and contributions are critical to business growth, creativity, and innovation,said Comparably CEOJason Nazar. Visionary, innovative, and transparent are three words employees consistently use aboutMihir Shukla and his executive team at Automation Anywhere, earning the organization its place among the exceptional leaders on our BestCEOs list.

Read More: National Football League and Amazon Web Services Team Up to Transform Player Health and Safety Using Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence

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Mihir Shukla of Automation Anywhere Awarded as a 'Best CEO' from Comparably - AiThority

Definition of automation

Automation refers to the process of automatically producing goods through the use of robots, control systems and other appliances with a minimal direct human operation.

Within manufacturing industries, automation has led to increased labour productivity as fewer workers are needed to produce the same number of manufactured goods.

A perceived downside of automation is that it leads to jobs being displaced in traditional areas of work in particular, blue-collar manufacturing jobs. Less visible is how the process of automation leads to the creation of new jobs in areas such as robot manufacture, research, marketing and software development.

However, there are still concerns about the social and economic impact of the rapid job displacement associated with automation and globalisation. In fact, there is enduring concern automation is costing jobs an idea some economists argue is just an enduring faith in the Luddite fallacy.

Automation is a major influence on the economy and will continue to be over the next decade. In theory, automation can lead to significant benefits for the whole economy. Greater GDP, higher productivity and increased customisation of the consumer experience. However, there are legitimate concerns about how these gains will be distributed. It is tempting to dismiss all concerns of new technology as the old Luddite fallacy. But, there is no guarantee that displaced workers will be seamlessly integrated into a very different labour market.

But, on the other hand, it would be a mistake to be too pessimistic. Past trends in automation have served the economy well. Who would go back to a time of 1 million people working as a coal miner or 90% of the population growing their own food? Automation will lead to new opportunities, and with increased technology, we could see the potential for a revitalisation of cottage industries with self-employed workers having the ability to use their creativity to join a fast-changing economy.

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Automation benefits and costs - Economics Help

Its no secret that automation and technology can help a business. But if you havent considered exactly how it can help you just know that it can you might be reluctant to make an investment and opt to do things old-school.

Thats understandable. Automation and technology can be overwhelming, especially if youre somebody who barely understands your smartphone or DVR. But, as the CEO of a national property management company that harnesses the power of the cloud and a lot of you can really do that? type of tech, I can hopefully make a decent argument that your real estate company should be using automation and technology.

Youll be a far more efficient marketer.

Whether you own an established property management company or youre just starting out in the real estate space, youre going to need to market your business. I learned that automating your marketing workflow, which you can do with apps and software programs, can work wonders when it comes to finding clients and customers. In the old days, you marketed to potential customers by putting out expensive ads on TV, radio or in the newspaper and you hoped people would hear, see or read your message and come to your place of business.

Thats still done, and theres nothing wrong with that approach. But with loyalty cards, apps that give people discounts, email lists and so on, each time a consumer engages with your company, it gives you a way to track that customer and measure how often theyre frequenting your business.

You probably, if you dont already, should also investigate using marketing automation software. Your clients live on the internet; you pretty much need to be there all the time as well. But you have a life, and you cant work 24/7. However, marketing automation software does operate around the clock.

There are many options out there, and they can help real estate professionals land leads by tailoring customer messages with a series of automated emails based on potential customers interests. You can also get your name out there by scheduling posts on social media channels, so youre often chiming in on social media, even when youre out showing a house to a client or picking up your kids from school.

In any case, when you automate your marketing and loyal customers do emerge, you can offer targeted discounts to try and entice them to come in even more often. Well, I could go on about this all day, but my point is that when it comes to marketing, automation can be a helpful option.

Youll have far more efficient employees.

Automation can also help your employees become more efficient, which should only help the relationship between you and your staff. Automation allows your employees to be faster with their duties and spend more time on interesting work, rather than material that can be done by a machine.

Every business, for instance, deals with numbers. In many of the franchises I work with, just one of the many things theyre keeping track of is reconciling rent payments and expenses. Theyre also monitoring dates since tenants are moving in and out.

The easier you make it for your employees to do their jobs, the better theyre going to do them. For instance, some property management software monitors resident parking permits and can log deliveries to your properties. If your employees are tracking this information themselves, then theyre going to have less time to show properties to prospective tenants and take care of current clients.

With the right automation software, you can also track the performance of your employees, such as how many apartments or condos they show. If they know youre monitoring these numbers, theyll likely do a better job.

Whatever the business, you probably have a lot of numbers to keep track of. If you have software that makes accounting and daily business operations easier, where people arent buried in paperwork and spending hours filling out forms, youre giving your employees the tools to be more efficient and productive. Youre also going to have happier employees.

And the fact is, your staff cant track everything that software can. And you shouldnt want them to, because theyll never have time to interact with tenants.

Youll be a more eco-friendly startup.

In the long run, if youre using less paper, thats a good thing for the environment. Being automated also means less time driving around the city. For instance, think of how GPS has revolutionized the delivery service industry and helped make getting lost almost a thing of the past. Knowing the quickest route will save your company on gas, and that, too, makes your company greener than it might otherwise be.

You might also have fewer employees due to streamlining your operations, which means paying less for resources and, in general, thatll help your bottom line.

Youll run your business more efficiently as well.

Along with helping things like your accounting, marketing and making life easier for your employees, youre simply going to find that automating your business makes you a better owner. If you have a financial dashboard, for instance, that you can use to monitor your numbers in real time, youre always going to know and understand your business far more than if you need to gather everything, piecemeal.

Again, I know this can be overwhelming. While some people really take to technology, others, not so much. But if you get the tools you need to make your business more digital, and your business spends more time in the cloud, youll be on top of your business and discover so much more about your company than you would otherwise. It isnt that you cant eschew technology and not learn a lot about your business. You can and will just not as fast as your competitors. When you go old-school, you tend to learn things the hard way.

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How Automation And Technology Can Benefit Your Real Estate Business - Forbes

The robotics and automation industry keeps growing each year. Many of us can be thankful for that as automation can remove the tedious work we sometimes have to do as workers.

UiPath, the fastest growing and leading provider of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) software worldwide, is one of the many companies working in the robotics and automation world.

Daniel Dines, UiPath's CEO and co-founder spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Berlin on Thursday to explain how the average person can access the benefits of automation.

RELATED: 7 OF THE BEST ROBOTICS EVENTS COMING UP IN 2020

For Dines, us humans created automation processes, he said that we put the systems in place that means we use interfaces at work.

At UiPath their interface replicates the human steps and processes human readable interfaces into technology.

The biggest challenge is that we are used to these work processes, so it is tricky to push people to start new ways of operating. The way UiPath began instilling this in their own company was by using this technology, proving it's possible to embrace new processes.

This may be a smoother process with a small company, however, Dines pointed out that this is possible with bigger companies too.

For instance, just 18 months of UiPath employed more than2,000 employees. This is incredibly fast scaling, meaning processes need to be added quickly, and managing an entire organization has to be a smooth process.

Streamlining processes and getting rid of bureaucracy by introducing automation were high priorities for Dines and his company.

Automation was not created to replace jobs, according to Dines. People rarely do simple tasks in their work, their jobs usually consist of a series of activities, which robots can't do. Only 5% of jobs can be fully automated, even with state of the art technology.

That said, tech can change jobs for the better. Just take the farming industry and how quickly it's improved in the past century. From manual and very hard labor too much of the work being automated nowadays.

Dines wants to "take the robot out of the human", to make jobs more interesting for humans in the end, as the simpler tasks that are sometimes hard can be taken over by automation.

Dines predicted that in two years the top ten companies in the world will seriously adopt automation into their processes.

People will understand that robots are their friends. At the moment it's still focused on the 'Terminator' stance, but that will change soon and quickly.

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How to Access the Benefits of Automation as an Average Person - Interesting Engineering

Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 2018. (NYSE Photo)

The doomsday headlines about automation and job displacement continue to pile up. Nearly half of all jobs are at risk, one report said. Another found that white-collar jobs once thought safe are in the crosshairs.

Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader doesnt buy it.

I fundamentally dont believe that, Mader said of automation displacing huge swaths of workers during a recent speech at Seattle Universitys Albers School of Business and Economics. There is so much unstructured work for which you cant actually program the robot to do that work.

To be sure, Smartsheet relies on automation plenty. The public collaboration work management companys software includes the ability to automate repetitive, manual tasks such as approvals, status updates, and reminders.

This automation, Mader says, is not about replacing jobs, but freeing up people to think critically about the business and how they can best serve customers. Mader sees the future of work remaining very human.

These types of arguments tend to ignore the idea that even if automation isnt directly eliminating jobs, it is meant to increase the number of things someone can do in an hour or day. That means, in theory, a company would need less people.

Thats another argument Mader doesnt buy into. In his mind, efficiency doesnt mean cramming in a whole bunch of extra tasks.

With that time, that surplus, I want you to figure out how you can actually make the thing better.

Here are a few other key themes from Maders talk, which was part of the Albers Executive Speaker Series:

Smartsheet now has more than 1,500 people spread across offices in the Seattle area, Boston, London, Edinburgh and Sydney. The company wants to keep a few core values intact across the offices caring about the customer and caring about the team. But, Mader said, the vibe is different in every office, and thats a good thing.

The term culture fit is a popular one these days, ideally meaning that people share the same sense of belief in the mission. But it can be misused to screen out people who are different in any way. Mader says Smartsheet tries to think about maintaining culture in the face of global growth a little differently.

Rather than focusing on making sure the next person fits into what you have, the company looks at what a person can add to the culture. He noted that growth has to come with change, giving up control and trusting others more.

I often remind people when they ask about the good old days at Smartsheet: You mean the good old days when we didnt have capital, had like four customers and your wife was asking you why it took so long, those good old days? Okay, good. Were on the same page.'

Microsoft got global attention for experimenting with a four-day work week in its Japan office. The tech giant shut down offices every Friday in August to give employees an extra day off each week as part of the Work Life Choice Challenge.

As time at work was cut, Microsoft saw productivity measured by sales per employee jump by 40 percent compared to the same period from the year before. Employees were not only encouraged to take an extra day off, they were told to keep meetings shorter (no longer than 30 minutes) and spend less time responding to email, communicating via a Microsoft messaging app instead.

Mader said some support functions could benefit from longer days offset by more days off. But dont expect to see Smartsheet jump on board the four-day work week train any time soon.

Were like a utility for 83,000 businesses around the globe, he said. If the power goes out, theres an issue. So we dont have the option to do that.

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Despite automation threat, Smartsheet CEO sees the future of work remaining very human - GeekWire

Intema Solutions Inc., makers of eFlyerMaker.com, an email platform with extensive compliance and content creation suites, is pleased to announce the launch of a new advanced automation feature for its eFlyerMaker email marketing platform.

This new automation feature was created with the goal of offering a best-in-class, flexible product tailored to our customers needs and should open up many new sales opportunities in the enterprise segment, said Daniel Drouet, Vice President, Products, at Intema. Combined with eFlyerMakers easy to use content creation and compliance tools, it provides our customers with an advanced email marketing platform at a price point that makes sense for them.

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Our customers will be thrilled with this new feature, which makes creating complex automations incredibly easy, added Sbastien Plourde, Intemas Chief Technology Officer. For example, marketers will now be able to save time and increase their ROI by automating the creation audience segments of welcome emails, drip marketing campaigns and much more.

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eFlyerMaker.com has a number of clear advantages when it comes to building email marketing campaigns, making Intema an obvious choice for companies needing:

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Intema Adds New Advanced Automation Feature to its eFlyerMaker Email Marketing Platform - MarTech Series

The world of IT is changing and altering the face of the workforce.

New technologies, like AI, cloud and IoT, have morphed IT infrastructure into an extremely complex beast and, in doing so, have impacted the work of those who manage it.

The European Commission estimates there will be a shortage of 756,000 skilled IT workers by next year.

This broadening digital skills gap and talent shortage, along with budget cuts, has resulted in understaffed IT departments juggling increased demand with limited resources. In fact, most CIOs find themselves allocating around 56% of their budget and staff to simply keeping the lights on. This mounting pressure on businesses, and the fear of not having adequate talent to keep up with the demands of digital transformation, is causing many to rethink their strategies to drive more efficient and smarter ways of working. One such solution is automation.

Automation allows companies to do more with less a necessity in todays business climate and offers a strategic advantage by enabling IT to focus on driving innovation. Thanks to automation, IT teams no longer need to contend with enormous volumes of time-consuming, mundane tasks, such as data entry, audit documentation, and password resets. These tedious tasks can negatively impact morale and job satisfaction, often causing staff to seek greener pastures. In todays market, this is particularly prevalent when it comes to millennials, who are not willing to entertain these inefficiencies. Automation overcomes this liability by freeing-up workers to focus on more rewarding tasks that demand creative thinking.

Naturally, the word automation may strike a nerve with employees fearing that they will be made redundant. This couldnt be further from the truth. In reality, automation opens the door to new and exciting opportunities in IT, as well as roles that require strategic planning and innovative problem solving. In fact, with machines automating repetitive processes, human expertise is at a premium to oversee the technology, apply it in new ways and optimise procedures in more meaningful ways.

For example, in the financial services space, companies can implement a handful of initial automations to prove the value of the technology to the C-suite and to comfortably introduce this new concept to their employees. As the teams appreciate the transformational benefits of automation and experience how it could improve their daily work lives, companies can empower more regional offices and departments to build their own automations based on the foundation theyve established. Employees are encouraged, through incentivised programs, to submit ideas of what tasks can be improved, resulting in hundreds of processes being automated upon their suggestion.

The introduction of new job roles created through automation offers IT staff the opportunity to learn new skills, as well as continuing to drive business efficiency. IT professionals who can amalgamate their deep business knowledge and innovative thinking will become invaluable team members. This can motivate and inspire enhanced performance and empower IT professionals to be agents of change. In fact, research by Microsoft indicates that businesses already on the AI journey are outperforming other organisations on factors like productivity, performance, and business outcomes.

By merging human knowledge with automation, companies can unlock unprecedented innovation. Successful businesses are eager to identify solutions that allow them to adapt to the evolving IT landscape and future-proof their business. In the short-term, automation enables companies to bridge the gap of labour shortage and sharpen their competitive edge. In the long-term, it allows them to enhance overall business efficiency, expand profit margins, and gain a competitive edge. For the IT workforce, automation can revolutionise how workloads are tackled, changing the very nature of technical roles.

Matt Walker, VP EMEA Sales & GM at Resolve. Leadership champion, with objective based approach to sales and strong belief in team building, executed for both start ups and large organisations.

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How automation is driving the IT workforce of the future - TechNative