Blog / The Value of Task Automation
Using task automation correctly can save time and money.
Automating routine tasks is one of the most valuable ways organizations of all kinds can leverage technology to streamline their workflows. However, it’s a surprisingly big topic and easy to get lost in the weeds. There’s plenty of different ways you can accomplish it, and how much value you earn will depend on how well it’s implemented and supported.
What is task automation?
Historically, task automation can technically be tracked back as far as ancient civilizations; using water clocks to automate timekeeping back in Egypt, or building windmills to grind grain in Greece. In fact, you can trace automation’s history all the way through the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, World War 2, right up today’s more technologically-oriented definition. And it’s already everywhere. If you’ve ever gotten an email reminder or pop-up notification, you’ve experienced at least a minor form of task automation.
In the context of information technology, things are a little bit different in how tasks are automated, but conceptually it’s virtually identical. It’s about using both software and hardware to reduce the amount of input required from valuable, salaried personnel to accomplish low-value, mundane, or repetitive tasks.
The value of task automation
While task automation has been invaluable to our society as a whole, we’re not going to be going over the seismic potential of huge shifts in industries. We’re going to keep the scope small, because even on the scale of SMBs, health clinics, and municipalities, the payoff can be plentiful.
The primary value of task automation to these organizations is reducing the amount of time personnel are spending on administrative duties. Staff and personnel spend an enormous amount of time (up to 69 days a year!) dealing with repetitive, redundant, low-skill and time-consuming tasks. Indeed, despite the fact we said we’d keep it small, it’s hard not to point out that some estimates put the cost of lost productivity as high as $1 trillion USD globally per year.
The truly unfortunate part of it is that most of this lost productivity is unnecessary because of the breadth of tasks that can be automated. Computerized automation has proven valuable in finance and accounting, invoice tracking, payroll, human resources, email, analytics, research, marketing, and managing sales pipelines (among plenty of others). In fact, it’s more than likely that digital automation can help improve virtually every aspect of your organization. The problem is not knowing the extent of what you can automate (you’d be surprised), or having the technical knowledge to complete the project, which of course is where we come in. If you’d like professional advice or help setting up task automation for your business or organization, contact TRINUS and we’d be happy to help out.
