Benefits of Automation and Integration

Automation is defined as making equipment, processes or systems operate automatically with minimal human input. It can take simple tasks and automate them, using tools to streamline and speed up the process.

Everyday examples of automation solutions:
Phone apps enable users to streamline many processes such as shopping lists, online shopping, banking, ordering food, and paying in-store. These applications are often shared with another user.

Voice/virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Siri. These devices enable users to speak directly to their devices. They can add items to their shopping list, ask a question, and play music all synced to the user’s phone. 

Other examples in your home include your washing machine, dishwasher and fridge.

Gartner defines business process automation (BPA) as the automation of complex business processes and functions beyond conventional data manipulation and record-keeping activities, usually through the use of advanced technologies.

BPA’s can provide an organisation with clear visibility of all its processes and operations.

Examples of BPAs include:
Email marketing automation is common practice among businesses. They use software which can tailor their email parameters to the companies liking and then set it to run automatically. For example, an email is sent out when a new contact has been added or signed up to receive correspondence. 

Social media management is another example widely used. For instance, software such as ContentCal allows you to schedule posts ahead of time and provides reports and analysis about your posts. 

Customer support uses AI chatbots, which can automate typical customer interactions. They answer queries and when they are unable to handle the customer needs they are transferred to a company representative.

Integrated automation can be defined as software workflows that operate independently and constantly with minimal human input after parameters have been set.

An integrated automation Platform or an IAP is a technology infrastructure that enables systems to integrate with one another. Software or machines copy human tasks and repeat these actions. Integrated Automation Platforms will provide API orchestration tools allowing different parts of the infrastructure to coordinate the distribution and processing of data. For example, Cyclr is an embedded integration platform with a library of API connectors that can be used to create integrated automation. 

An example would be using Pipedrive, your customer relationship management API to extract your customers. The Eventbrite API retrieves the attendees for an event you are hosting. Followed by the action of true or false. This then prompts Mailchimp to either add the contact to the attendee list or the non-attendee list. Thus allowing data to be shared and coordinated between the APIs. Rather than manually extracting the data from Pipedrive and entering the data into Eventbrite and MailChimp.

The introduction of integration and automation means resources can be diverted elsewhere, enhance workflows and improve accuracy and consistency in operations. Adopting a low code integration platform can help these processes and significantly transform your business. Streamlined operations can result in increased reliability, optimised performance and reduced employee turnover.

Automating and integrating are important for service providers as they can give the company a competitive edge. It improves the user experience for customers and has long-term benefits of increased value and brand loyalty. These solutions are not only important for service providers but also for your customers. They provide better consistency in your service, faster response times and potentially a cost decrease.

Integrated automation solutions allow people to do more with a lot less.