Automation for the Future 

Benefits are already being reported, 28% of CIOs are seeing cost efficiencies and productivity improvements (27%) and interestingly 19% state that employee retention has improved and the agility of the organization has improved for 20%. Nino Messaoud, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for the Barry Wehmiller Engineering Company agrees with the IDC findings. “We used our customers to talk about business problems,” he says of how digital transformation and the automation opportunities is changing the mindset of global business.

Speaking at the same CIO network forum as Messaoud, Miguel Teixeira, Head of Information Systems & Technologies & Digital Manufacturing at Renault adds: “We can use digital to cut costs and improve business processes. Digital is a pillar for business outcomes.” Across the CXO world automation is widely seen how organizations can digitally transform their organizations.

“The shift to digital is a shift to an outcomes focus,” said Gunther Ghijsels, CDO and CIO for recruitment firm Randstad in Belgium. IDC agrees with Ghijsels: “Only by automating operations can you really build platforms that bring agility at the pace of digital demands. Taking a structured approach that deploys cloud and automation to develop your digital transformation platform should help you establish a rock solid digital foundation.” 

Explaining Impact

Automation technologies, especially robotic process automation (RPA) have caused major concern amongst society, with fear of mass unemployment as robots take over our jobs. That fear will be stalking the corridors of every CXOs organization and poses the risk that the most talented members of the team will become demotivated, less productive and possibly leave the business. Therefore it is vital that CXOs explain that automation is beneficial and will improve the careers and work life balance of team members – not hinder it. 

“The important thing is how you break it down to the levels of the business that you are working with because what drives the CEO is not the same as a warehouse operative for example,” said Silva of Maersk. He said it is vital to create strategies that get people involved.

“It makes no sense that you develop a strategy that doesn’t consider the people that have to live with that strategy,” said Messaoud. “The personal benefit for them is that you are making their lives easier, offering new skills and giving them a horizon and you then have to align that with the executive’s needs.

“Start with the daily pain points, it’s really important not to forget the people that have to work with these ideas,” the engineering business technology leader said. 

“If the board is aware of how you are handling the strategy and its communications then you will have the connection to make people aware of the goal of the transformation and the company,” said Ghijsels of Randstad. 

Automation will continue to reshape organizations and therefore the livelihoods of workers. The much vaunted ledger technology Blockchain is arguably an automation platform whose transparency will remove a number of manual processes from the organization. For those sectors where there will always be significant levels of business process, Blockchain holds much promise. 

“Blockchain will be a huge opportunity for the supply chain,” said Silva at Maersk. “When you think about all the nodes and suppliers in the supply chain, then the trust is so important. In these days where we want things faster, the supply chain sector needs to rely on better ways, it may be that Blockchain is the tool.”