5 Steps to Decide What You Need to Digitally Automate
Helm Experience & Design
Paper can be quite a cumbersome piece of inventory. It’s heavy, takes up space, and causes those devastating finger cuts. However, a sea of paper in your office may indicate issues that go beyond its physically conspicuous annoyance.
The “why” you have paper is what is critical. I want you to question the information you have shackled to those manilla folders and what you would do if it was unleashed (in the best way possible).
What I will be talking about in this post is digitally automating workflows and processes. Less about storage, more about using technology to make your business more efficient and your services more effective. And if this helps you save some paper and trees along the way, that will be my little satisfaction :)
Let first take a look a five step process that will help you identify which business activities are ripe for digital automation.
1. Identify the Task Frequency
Why would you spend the time and money to digitally automate a task only done sparingly? You wouldn’t… A good way to get a feel for the tasks you are consistently completing is to keep a daily task journal for one week.
This record will be used to catalog everything you do during the day. After just one week of doing this you will gain a general understanding of your productivity patterns. If you are detailed in your entries, this recording will help you definitively determine how much time you are spending on each task. From that you’ll get a clear picture of what you are doing and the value you are gaining from the time you are spending.
2. Pick out the Time-Suckers
While reflecting on your task catalogue from the past week you should note the tasks that are of high value and low value.
As you’re going through the low value tasks analyze the amount of time you spent on them. The low value tasks that are taking up a large portion of your time are time-suckers. Leeching at your daily productivity and costing your company thousands. Time-suckers need to be either outsourced, digitally automated, or delegated away from highly skilled employees.
Congratulations! After sorting through your tasks for the week and deciding which fit the the above criteria you should have a understanding of where your inefficiencies lie. To siphon down what can be digitally automated most effectively and with the highest ROI you should be be able to answer “yes” to the three questions below…
3. Is the Task Repeatable?
How you decide between whether to outsource or digitally automate a task depends on a variety of factors, but a key tell is repeatability.
This is different than frequency in that tasks that you do all the time could be highly variable, like writing blog content or team meetings. You may be writing a blog post every day, but the topics and structure change. Written information needs to be presented in unique ways in order to be communicated effectively (and to avoid plagiarism).
The type of repeatable tasks you want be looking to digitally automate should surround predictable inputs that form a consistent output. Digital automation hits it’s sweet spot with jobs like data entry, scheduling, and basic accounting tasks.
4. Is the Task Causing a lot of Errors?
Mistakes equal do overs, which means more time spent on a project, which means lower margins. Humans are great at making errors while doing repeatable time-sucker tasks, not to mention most don’t particularly enjoy doing them.
Keeping your employees aways from these types of tasks through a digitally automated solution is a surefire way to improve efficiency, accuracy, and company morale.
Look at the tasks you and your employees are doing that hit the above criteria and involve a relatively high error rate. Can this task accuracy be improved with an automated solution?
5. Could Results of the Task be better Organized?
The first computers were originally built to do one thing, and that was to process data. To organize, manipulate, and make it useful. What data is being collected manually in your organization and is just sitting there?
As you go through your final check of decisions on what to digitally automate, keep in mind the long term value of organized and accessible data. A data collection process founded in digital automation will allow you access the data inputs across its lifespan. Over time and after continuous collection, you will be able to aggregate your data (that is low value on its own) and make it high value as a group. Additionally, quality historical data is critical in justifying change, measuring progress, and forecasting.
After completing this exercise you should have a clear picture of what manual tasks your company should digitally automate and what you have to gain from it. In the next post, I will discuss digital automation options and specific situations where they are appropriate.
Helm Experience & Design is a digital product and UX focused studio proudly located in Buffalo, NY.
You can check out our work here and if you’d like to talk more about design, technology, or business just send us an email at team@helmux.com.
