Hyperautomation: A New Digital Transformation Approach

Introduction

The term “Hyperautomation” has gained significant recognition in the corporate world ever since Gartner mentioned it as one of the top strategic technology trends for 2021. It is the idea of automating tasks, processes, functions, and services of the IT landscape using advanced technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and many more. It is the foundation of IT Operations (ITOps) so that an organization can regain control by reducing manual and repeated tasks while boosting productivity across all areas and saving costs. The pandemic also played a dynamic role in influencing the market to accept and accelerate it. With the ever-growing rise in remote working culture and data volumes, automating processes with scale, speed and intelligence is becoming table stakes. This, in turn, pushed all organizations’ adoption of digital transformation and automation activities over the previous year.

Gartner expects that by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyper-automation technologies with redesigned operational processes.

Hyperautomation is transforming IT Operations

IT processes such as asset discovery, dependency mapping, patch management, updates, user provisioning, incident management, generating alerts, issue management, and change management can be detected and resolved faster with hyperautomation practices. It reduces operational costs drastically and lets you discover where it is feasible to redesign and improve other IT operational processes. It is the next wave from AI for IT operations (AIOps), empowering the concept of a digital model of IT physical assets and business processes. It offers real-time intelligence to know how different IT processes and functions interact and provides actionable insights into IT systems’ health and performance.

How Does Hyperautomation Work? 

Hyperautomation comprises three significant components:

• Automation
• Orchestration
• Optimization

Let us have a brief understanding of these components below:

• Automation:  It is often made up of smaller automation programs and tools that help perform certain activities.
• Orchestration: Orchestration is the process of putting together all the technologies in a broader framework so that all tasks are integrated and coordinated and work in perfect harmony and sync.
• Optimization: Optimization is an additional layer of intelligence that enables better integration of automation and orchestration processes through validations and constant learning.

A typical hyperautomation platform will comprise the following steps:

• Connecting processes, workflows, and environments and providing a common platform for end-to-end automation activities.
• Identifying structured and unstructured data and other inputs from multiple sources and storing them in a steady database for functioning by various automation procedures.
• Predicting outcomes such as efficacy and return on investment (ROI) using collected data and continuous learning while in operation.

For what is Hyperautomation used? 

It can be applied across industrial sectors, including:

1. Banking and Financial Sector

Banks, financial institutions, and the insurance sector must deal with the massive amount of data and procedures to manage, which in turn consumes many resources and time. Besides its core activities, this sector also manages regulatory compliances, back-office operations, sales and marketing operations, enterprise support, and fraud detection. These functions, including 24/7 customer assistance, must always be operational and accessible. It restructures and streamlines these processes, making them quicker, smarter, and less prone to errors. Moreover, AI and RPA technology help prevent fraudulent activities through constant surveillance.

2. Healthcare Sector

Healthcare businesses face various obstacles, from patient care to staff scheduling and consultations to invoicing and settlements. Healthcare institutions also gather sensitive patient data, which, when correctly compiled, may be extremely useful in offering patients the best treatment options. Hyperautomation may help the healthcare business by intelligently automating all these procedures, increasing productivity, lowering costs, and freeing healthcare providers to offer better treatment to the patients. Moreover, hyperautomation also helps in inventory management, medicine procurement, and resource management. It also helps to abide by the laws, ensuring that all the legal regulations are followed in the healthcare business, as it is one of the most regulated industries.

3. Construction Industry

Hundreds of people operate in dangerous situations on construction sites, and their safety primarily depends on their compliance with safety laws and inspections. Faulty machinery can endanger workers’ safety and financially impact enterprises. Construction companies may alter how they operate using innovative hyperautomation technology, assuring worker safety while increasing productivity and reducing mistakes.

4. Retail and E-Commerce Sector

Hyperautomation projects can help tackle front-end and back-end difficulties in the retail and e-commerce industries. Back-end procedures like billing, inventory management, procurement, and shipping may be automated using techniques like RPA. At the same time, AI components, on the other hand, can produce accurate marketing campaigns for front-end operations, such as targeted emails, social media advertisements, and loyalty programs. AI can also assist in analyzing client data, customer feedback, and competitive pricing to boost the organization’s sales and profitability.

Benefits of Hyperautomation

Mentioned herewith are some of the benefits of Hyperautomation:

• Operational coherence – While many businesses now use automation to carry out certain activities and processes, they are primarily uncoordinated. A hyperautomation platform may integrate these diverse automation solutions into a single platform, bringing data and task coherence.
• Time savings and shorter processing times – Automating activities can make organizational activities faster, saving time. It helps attain seamless links between multiple automated jobs, which helps in minimizing delays and bottlenecks in the company’s regular operations.
• Reduction of Errors – Hyperautomation helps in reducing the chances of errors. It provides a consistent platform utilized by all the automation tools of the company, ensuring coherence and eliminating frequent mistakes in different tasks.
• Application of digital doppelganger – Hyperautomation technology creates a digital twin that helps reveal previously unseen interconnections between functions, processes, and performance indicators.
• Transparency – It helps in consolidating operations and getting transparency in the organization. It also establishes security measures and information traceability, ensuring greater adherence to the rules and regulations.

Difference between Automation and Hyperautomation

Automation focuses on using programs to perform repetitive tasks/processes in siloes. Workload automation, for example, uses scripts to automate highly repetitive tasks. Tasks can be automated using BPM tools, when part of a workflow.

Hyperautomation, on the other hand, makes it simpler to incorporate AI and machine learning capabilities into automation through pre-built modules distributed via an app store or enterprise repository. It focuses on automating as many processes as possible.

Mentioned herewith are some of the critical distinctions between Hyperautomation and Automation:

Conclusion

Hyperautomation is a comprehensive approach to future corporate management that integrates and augments many technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and process mining. Moreover, it may exclude manual recurring procedures and optimize a company’s operations with efficient workflows, allowing it to produce better products and services and boost profit margins. In an increasingly digital environment, it is a crucial way to stay competitive, and embracing it will put you on the road to future competence.