Businesses often struggle to keep up with the ever-growing number of small yet important tasks that require automation, like file uploads for mass updates, coupon automation for new social media followers, and birthday or anniversary emails. Managing these tasks can be a time-consuming and complex process, as many of them involve disparate systems.
Technology teams must be prepared to deliver on these automations if the full potential of the business objectives is to be achieved. With the growing pressure on IT from SaaS solutions rapidly expanding the enterprise & technical debt, a strategy to manage them effectively and efficiently is that much more critical. The following recommendations highlight the opportunities proven to deliver results:
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Process automation can help businesses streamline mundane, repetitive tasks, freeing up time and resources for more important tasks. Modern low-code and no-code solutions have scaled the enterprise, unlocking rapid prototyping and drastically accelerating production readiness! When applied more broadly, non-technical users can be empowered to deliver value without engaging technology resources.
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Workflow automation can help ensure that tasks are completed in the right order and routed to the right people. As with the previous bullet, automation tools such as Make.com allow for rapid delivery of workflow automation without the need for a heavy BPM tool implementation.
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API integrations can help businesses quickly and easily integrate disparate systems, ensuring that data is accurately communicated between them. There are a multitude of solutions based on the demand– whether that be through an Enterprise Integration Platform such as MuleSoft or Informatica, an ETL such as SSIS or Databricks, or even a cloud solution such as AWS Step Functions or Azure Logic Apps.
Retail must align on these key bullets and standardize a process and tooling for each to ensure delivery, resources, and roles are aligned. A consolidated strategy will ensure that fast-moving, lightweight changes are empowered by no-code or low-code rapid prototyping solutions. Long-term, business-critical data flows would benefit from a consolidated approach via the API strategy.
Once these objectives have been achieved, further opportunities exist to pursue more complex automation, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or AI-driven automation, to further maximize efficiency and empower the business to focus on what is important.
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