Utilizing Automation to Improve Your Business Efficiency By Cioreviewindia

Utilizing Automation to Improve Your Business Efficiency

Cioreviewindia | Monday, 12 November 2018, 04:59 IST

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Utilizing Automation to Improve Your Business Efficiency

Automation through the use of mechanical and digital systems has allowed for some of the biggest businesses in the world. In fact, Amazon, which currently stands as the number 2 biggest retailer in the US, is a heavy utilizer of both of these systems. Increasingly popular and necessary not just for the largest industries, but of businesses and organizations of all sizes, automation is a process which can offer significant benefits almost everywhere.

So, is it right for you?

Before making a judgment on automation, is important to understand just how far these technologies have come, and what they can offer. In the earlier days, limitations of the requisite attached computer systems put a serious damper on the possibilities here, but as we now live in an age where powerful computing is both vast and cheap, these limitations have largely fallen by the wayside.

"Old style automation" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Canadian Light Source synchrotron

It should be noted that, while smaller businesses can often operate well without or with little automation technologies, intransigence or stubbornness is not an attribute which often does well in a competitive market. Taking the first steps to evolution may not be easy, but the end pay-offs are undeniably effective.

A strong example of the opportunities afforded from modern utilized factors of automation can be seen in the marketing and sales industry. While, traditionally, these industries require considerable investment from research departments or entire other companies, modern developments have made such necessities simpler than ever.

Automated systems today can scan the many available online databases for which products are performing the best in the open market, and can even determine in which areas these products are selling best. From here, this data can then be cross-referenced with existing customer profiles and purchase history, and recommend targetted goods in the next mailer. Pushing even further, these can even take into account the date of last purchase, thus offering a replacement when a previous purchase approaches obsolescence.

One of the most profoundly growing markets in modern digital improvements comes from what is known as robotic process automation. Systems which include these tools can not only help increase the efficiency of systems already in place, but they can use advanced artificial intelligence programming to help establish links between different pieces of information. This then allows these systems to themselves create additional systems to reduce overhead, help overall efficiency, and improve business effectiveness in the process.

"The life of an expert... Pt 1: darkness" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by wbaiv

Utilizing Automation to Improve Your Business Efficiency

One of the more common examples of this automation, especially in the age of increasingly internet focussed businesses, is the manner in which we can handle invoices. While online payment systems like PayPal are often fantastically useful, they also require another level of understanding and transference in order to combine these accounts with traditional systems. With automation, though, data from PayPal purchases can be easily sorted and handed over to a system like QuickBooks, making these accounts as easy or even easier to handle than those concerning traditional purchases.

Whatever the size or your business or organization, don’t be one to let the advantages of these modern systems pass you by. There will be an initial setup cost learning time, that is true, but as a long-term investment, these systems can help on a level which is far too profound to be ignored.

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