It’s amazing to see the rate at which intelligent automation is continuing to grow and evolve. The organisations that were considered technology leaders when they implemented intelligent automation tools a couple of years ago, will now be falling behind with today’s advancements. When it comes to intelligent automation, there’s no room to remain stagnant, especially considering the opportunities created with low-code technologies, new data streams, and openings for providing the best-in-class customer engagement. Companies need to make sure that they don’t take their eye off the ball, especially as the trend that makes you a leader today could leave you in the dust of your competitors tomorrow.
But how can organisations have a successful intelligent automation deployment that crushes complexity? Even though every implementation has its challenges, stakeholder engagement can play a significant role in helping businesses to achieve success.
Get your executives on board
While it’s well known that projects have a better chance of success if they have executive sponsorship, what is less known is that a project is more likely to succeed if it has the support of the entire C-suite, instead of support from just one member of the executive team. A recent study from Pega found that a majority (81%) of intelligent automation deployments today are being led by only one person at a C-suite level with the outcome being that such projects are not reaching their full potential. In addition, 18% of respondents said that full C-suite buy-in of intelligent automation projects resulted in stronger governance, greater cross-department strategies, more platforms to create new applications, and greater collaboration between the company and the technical sectors of the business.
The same study also found that organisations whose IT projects have the full support of the C-suite look at low-code and intelligent automation as a stepping-stone towards digital transformation, and that 72% of these businesses already implementing low-code projects consider their projects to be ‘mature’ or ‘intelligent. This differs from the 51% of companies whose projects only show involvement from the CTO, and 48% of companies that have projects with involvement only from the CEO whose projects are classified as ‘integrated’ at the bare minimum.
Empower the champions in your business
However, it is not enough to just secure backing from the top of the organisation for your intelligent automation roll-out. The purpose of any intelligent automation initiative is for the technology to work outside of siloes. If only a small section of the company, for example, can use an application that has been created using low-code technology, then that same group of people alone will benefit from it. To avoid this, organisations must make sure that there is a level of democracy when using these tools, and they should be utilised by all departments. Our research showed that for a true transformation to take place, businesses must empower champions in both IT and multidisciplinary business units. Their importance should not be undermined, as these stakeholders will determine whether your projects will be a success or a failure.
53% of respondents to the survey who had effective participation from every decision-maker in IT and business operations, as well as the backing of the entire executive suite, for their intelligent automation projects, saw full collaboration in application creation in every business function, which ultimately resulted in applications that work with for everyone, and not one siloed department. This differs from the 25% of respondents that reported the same level of business-wide collaboration in the development of low-code applications when they only had a single C-suite intelligent automation champion.
Applying a strong governance framework works
When it comes to implementing a project, having a governance framework in place can make the difference between success or failure. Only 30% of respondents to our study said that they work with stakeholders to develop a formal governance structure for their intelligent automation projects to help reduce the risk of inconsistencies and increase business outcomes. This indicates that 70% of businesses run intelligent automation projects with no formal governance in place, which is an alarming statistic.
What this shows is that companies are not setting up projects to give them the best chance of a positive outcome, and they are not treated equally. If some projects do not have formal governance structures in place, that means that some areas of the business are prioritised, while others fall by the wayside. This means that the entire organisation might not be benefitting from these tools with departments working uncontrolled, which could ultimately lead to shadow-IT.
This also highlights the importance of having executive buy-in from the whole leadership team; nearly half (49%) of projects that are driven by the entire C-suite are more likely to have formal governance structures in place to ensure that the project is successful, which differs to the 26% with CEO-driven projects, and 24% with CTO-led projects.
When it comes to technology deployments, simplicity is the most important aspect to have when implementing intelligent automation projects. While the project and the operational workings are crucial, businesses should never underestimate the vital role that stakeholders have in helping to achieve business objectives. Consider these stakeholders in the same way that you would the stabilisers on a bike. The more confident you get with cycling, you can eventually ride a bike without them.
