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The disruption of automation
T
he next two years will see organisation
and infrastructure impacted by large-
scale automation. Artificial intelligence
(AI) and robotics alongside exponential
change in the business landscape and
emergent technology will shake foundations
and shift perceptions.
Automation, by its very nature, is disruptive
and this will be felt across individual,
organisation and industry, bringing with it
change, fresh perspectives, evolving business
models and new use cases.
“Organisations have to look within at
everything from how their processes work
to the kinds of skills they require to the
technology infrastructure choices they make
to make the most from automation and
their investment into it,” said Kieran Frost,
Research Manager for Software focused on
sub-Saharan Africa for IDC.
“Automation also allows for the organisation
to look without, using its potential to become
highly disruptive in established industries.”
Already organisations are showcasing how
the use of automation can change industry
and perception. Tyme Bank brings South
Africans a fresh take on how a financial
institution can scale. It has 125 permanent
employees and 80,000 customers and
doesn’t think it will need many more
people to achieve the goal of two million
customers by 2020. The company has used
the disruptive capabilities of automation
to maintain a low-cost base that then
benefits both bottom line and consumer.
The QuadPara Association in the Western
Cape has implemented home automation
solutions with voice activated digital
assistance to help disabled people perform
simple daily tasks – intelligent and scalable
solutions that would once have been either
impossible or prohibitive are now possible.
“From the factory floor where robotics can
replace factory workers to the development
of self-healing and self-optimising
databases, to the automated call centre – all
areas of business are ripe for disruption if not
already in the process of being disrupted.”
That said, not all things should be
automated. Disruption for the sake of
automation is not always the right move,
particularly in industries that have stringent
requirements and regulations, such as
healthcare. There remains a need to have
humans’ complete vital tasks and bring to
roles and business the creative, problem-
solving skills that automation lacks.
“Most projections have found that wide-
scale automation will create more jobs
than it will eliminate – but the new jobs
require different skills to those that are
lost,” said Frost.
be disrupting roles and businesses, but it is
one of the rare disruptors that can become
an incidental force for good.
“Forward-thinking organisations would
do well to recognise that developing the
broader talent pool for these scarce skills will
benefit them in the long term,” explained
Frost. “Some of the other immediate
benefits that companies can realise through
automation include the ability to produce
repeatable and predictable outcomes,
regardless of the time of day, and improving
customer experiences.”
Automation improves turnaround times
as it is never tired and never stops, and
this repeatability can also improve the
employee experience. There is less variance
in the outcomes that they expect, and this
improves productivity.
“This is both a challenge and an
opportunity. Organisations will need to
reskill and upskill their employees. This will
not only ensure that the talent is retained
but will put the organisation on a far
stronger footing in its evolution towards
becoming the digital enterprise.” “We believe that 2019 will see digital
assistant usage improve knowledge
worker productivity fourfold because this
automation process will see them spending
less time searching for information and more
time acting on it, which is why it will be a
key discussion area at our upcoming South
Africa CIO Summit in April,” said Frost.
Some companies have already started to
invest in educational institutions that will
help them to develop the skills they will
require from school leavers and students.
Helping to construct the skillsets today that
will be needed tomorrow. Automation may “Automation also can potentially reduce
costs as the cost-to-serve ratio is merely
the development cost. Overall, while the
technology may be disruptive, it has the
potential to be enormously beneficial to
both business and individual.” n
“Automation is not one of the trends that
only affects certain types of industries, it
can happen throughout the value chain,”
added Frost.
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