Overview of Business Operations Part 3: The Opportunity for Automation in BizOps

As product companies increasingly become service companies, business operations, the set of people, assets, technology, and processes that create and capture value, is coming to the forefront of strategic differentiation for modern companies. In this 3-part blog series, we explore business operations in detail by understanding why it’s gaining in prominence, the components that make up business operations, and the role technology plays in creating strategic differentiation.

Let’s go back in time and see the business world as it existed in the 18th century. What do you see?

A cashier at the bank counting currency notes one-by-one.

A salesman maintaining the directory of his customers in his notepad.

An employee marking his attendance on the register.

That’s how the world looked before technology paved its way for business operations and transformed everything.

There are now specific business applications to support every function in organizations including sales, marketing, customer success, finance, legal, HR, IT and more. Business applications, provided in a Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, model have made technology accessible to even the most “old school” industries.

The Impact of SaaS

According to EY research, out of 103 US companies that have achieved unicorn status, 60% operate primarily on a SaaS model. These SaaS companies, most of which did not exist 10 years ago, have achieved a total value of US$263 billion.

This number alone tells us how prevalent the adoption of SaaS has been in businesses. Companies have implemented software to achieve flexibility, lower cost, and self-sufficiency in using technology to support their business operations.

For example, tracking sales opportunities, managing customer accounts, configuring quotes and many other previously cumbersome tasks are now being handled with CRM systems like Salesforce.

Software like Namely and Sapling are freeing HR teams from administrative tasks and allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives like improving culture and employee satisfaction.

However, in the bigger picture…

…things are not as rosy as it seems. For all the value that business applications provide, the prevalence of SaaS has also raised the level of complexity within organizations. According to research, organizations with over 250 employees use over 100 SaaS apps on average, whereas small firms of up to 50 employees use between 25–50 SaaS solutions. Ten years ago, there were 500 marketing software products designed for marketers. Today, there over 8,500.

This rise in SaaS ‘sprawl’ has also had a lasting impact on people and businesses that actually runs counter to the same problems SaaS was meant to solve.

Let’s have a look at some more stats…

A study by Unit 4 revealed that globally, office workers spend 69 days a year on administrative tasks, costing companies $5 trillion a year.

Market research firm IDC says that organizations lose 20 to 30% of revenue every year due to inefficient processes.

Professionals take 18 minutes on average to locate a document manually and spend 30% of their time just searching for information.

So, what’s the main issue causing inefficiencies at our workplaces even after all this modern technology?

The general availability of these business systems has led business and operational leaders to believe that every problem can just be resolved by adopting a new tool. The problem is that all these systems do not easily talk to each other, which results in siloed operations using separate systems and disconnected business processes. Also, people need to be constantly trained as well for every new system, interface, and process that’s introduced. People also need to constantly switch between systems depending on the specific task they are doing.

Although SaaS has enabled us to come this far, it has also led to additional overhead on people and processes that negatively impact business performance, customer satisfaction, and employee happiness.

Connecting the dots

The complexity of ‘managing’ all these systems leads to a growing need to connect the systems, people, and processes across business operations. One way to break silos is by creating cross-functional teams that align on day-to-day responsibilities and reduce administrative tasks.

But, as you scale, the number of processes and systems to manage exponentially increases. This creates a need to automate workflows.

However, automating end-to-end business workflows isn’t so simple. While many specific tasks can be automated, most workflows still require people to provide input and take action. Even if organizations have automated system tasks, without keeping humans-in-the-loop, the bottleneck ends up just shifting to people.

People-first automation

Without a doubt, automation can make our workflows and business processes more efficient by eliminating repetitive tasks. However, to truly make your people and business more effective, you need to think about automation as people-first.

How? By using a concept called robotic automation.

Robotic automation leverages technology in the form of software robots, or bots, to perform actions that people would otherwise need to do, such as routing items or coordinating people. When applied with a human-first mindset, bots can help bridge the gap between systems, humans, and processes. Business operations teams can train bots to execute any end-to-end business workflow and decide which elements to be done by a machine and which ones are best handled by people.

Why is that? Because the true value of automation, and technology in general, is in enabling people to focus on what they are best at. Rather than spending time on administrative or coordination tasks, people can spend time on work that highlights their unique qualities like creativity, empathy, and strategy. This, in turn, allows people to find more meaning in work and ultimately deliver the highest business impact. Robotic automation enables that people-first mindset.

As we say in the world of automation, it’s a step ahead.

Tonkean is a people-first robotic automation platform for operations teams to integrate systems, coordinate people, and automate work intelligently without any scripting or code.