The opportunity of enterprise automation series: Moving into the fast lane has been saved
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The opportunity of enterprise automation series: Moving into the fast lane
Accelerating enterprise automation and creating scale
Is your organization ready to turn artificial intelligence (AI) or robotic process automation (RPA) into ROI? This series explores how the organizational and operational readiness aspects of an enterprise automation roadmap can drive speed, scale, and success.
About this series: A guide to accelerating automation and creating scale
Are you launching your first two or three automation projects leveraging robotic process automation (RPA) or other intelligent automation technologies? And are you looking forward to realizing the value that can come from a digital workforce? Be prepared. Many executives are finding that if they advance automation initiatives without an enterprise automation roadmap and solid governance structures in place, they’re not able to achieve the benefits they were expecting. In fact, they are seeing longer implementation timelines and higher costs, leading to questions about the value of automation.
That’s because achieving true digital transformation through automation takes
What drives this new, strategic approach? And what’s a key to success? In a word: readiness.
Where’s the return?
Automation technologies have the potential to transform today’s workplace as dramatically as the machines of the Industrial Revolution changed the factory floor.
To capitalize on this potential promise, many organizations are jumping into their automation journey by experimenting with these technologies and advancing individual pilots—without planning for scale or implementing a structure that can enable them to do so. The result? Slow, arduous implementations that don’t yield the expected ROI.
Executives are left questioning if the effort is ultimately worth the return. And organizations may lose confidence in automation technologies entirely—resulting in unrealized efficiencies and missed opportunities to gain the competitive advantage that automation offers.
For many organizations, executing pilots is a logical place to start. It also provides important hands-on experience. But organizations simply can’t allow themselves to stop short of creating structure and preparing for scale if they want to harness the power of automation.
Organizations need to start with their end goal in sight, leveraging those initial pilots as a learning experience and using them to jump-start a program that can rapidly scale automation across the enterprise.
Ready, set, go
Historically, organizations often addressed the structure and governance needed to support scale after technologies had been implemented. But when it comes to automation, these are some of the first factors that should be considered.
By focusing on the organizational, operational, and governance readiness aspects of automation—up front—executives can significantly increase the speed and scale of their automation projects.
Using this approach, your organization can develop enterprise automation strategies and programs that stretch beyond initial deployment to define how automation will grow within your organization. You can rapidly deploy automation technologies with fewer obstacles and greater automation ROI. Ultimately, you should be better positioned to leverage the power of disruption to gain a competitive advantage—possibly even over other organizations that are leveraging the same technologies.
A path to transformation
This series illustrates a path to accelerating automation and creating scale. Based on extensive experience with automation initiatives in a wide range of organizations, Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory has identified several activities that have shown to drive success in enterprise automation programs, including:
Our professionals will share their perspectives on each of these topics, identifying common challenges, offering practical advice, and providing real-world examples.
What’s next—and why now?
As the competitive advantages of automation continue to expand, and the use of automation technologies becomes more common, the need for organizations to accelerate their automation programs and quickly move to scale becomes more urgent. It’s time to move into the fast lane.
Explore the series
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Choosing the right lane forward: Streamlining automation opportunity assessment and prioritization Putting a structured automation assessment and prioritization process in place can enhance the success of your early automation deployments—a critical component to building a strong and successful automation program. |
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At the intersection of control, speed, and agility: How to optimize enterprise automation at scale with a center of excellence The CoE allows for rapid transformation while controlling associated risks, ensuring that you’re managing your automation investments wisely and enabling you to operate and monitor your initiatives efficiently. |
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Building for performance: Leveraging design thinking in automation strategy Design thinking can turbocharge automation value. By applying design thinking techniques across your automation program, you can drive ROI exponentially, not incrementally. |
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Going the distance: Measuring the ROI of automation Taking a strategic, holistic approach to ROI during the planning phases helps to build a more robust business case, demonstrating how automation can drive competitive advantage and how you’ll save money. |
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Leaning into the curves: Automation lessons learned from the driver’s seat Based on our work with hundreds of automation initiatives across a wide range of organizations, we’ve compiled a set of operating instructions that every organization can use to achieve speed, scale, and ROI based on a clear understanding of automation risks and returns. |
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