Sofigate is the United VARs Implementation member for Finland, a leader of IT Management in the Nordics and a pioneer of Business Technology management in Northern Europe. Jani Rahja, Business Executive, Business Automation at Sofigate Finland tells us why he thinks it's smart to focus on process automation whilst you're modernizing your ERP….
Based on an original blog by Sofigate, the United VARs Implementation Member for Finland.
I have extensive experience in automation and ERP projects, and I know that ERP projects often take precedence over every other project in the organization. It's an unfortunate but familiar pattern. While competitors race past you on the digital transformation highway, waiting many months (and sometimes even years) for one system to be completed is a very long time.
But I can assure you that you don't have to wait years before you see the benefits of digital transformation. You can make significant improvements in your customer and employee experience in months, or even weeks, by using intelligent automation.
Whilst transforming your ERP, you can breathe new life into legacy systems by automating some daily processes quickly and efficiently, without having to invest in expensive bespoke solutions.
Faster, Cheaper Digital Transformation
Automation can improve employee and customer experiences very quickly. Automating processes which affect users' daily lives is a great way to reduce their workloads and deliver a fast time-to-value. For example, RPA (robotics process automation) typically takes around a month to implement, so payback is fast.
If you automate while waiting for your ERP modernization to be completed, you won't have to abandon these faster changes once you have your shiny, new ERP in place. You can incorporate automated processes within your future ERP, at least in part.
With intelligent automation, you can even realize wishes that were too expensive to include in the ERP project. Company-specific peculiarities may require you to customize the ERP system. Therefore, it's worth considering whether it's wise to interfere with an ERP system that's built according to best practices, or if it would be better to handle any deviations in processes with RPA instead.
Transform Step-by-Step with Intelligent Automation
Alongside your larger transformation ERP project, you can start digitalizing processes step-by-step, rather than waiting for your ERP to do everything. You can easily handover process-specific automation solutions to business users, and leave it to them to fine-tune the final automations. This allows process owners to automate the tasks that affect their daily lives and improve the overall level of automation.
Automation is evolving in the same way that data reporting has been evolving over the last few years. First reports were manually compiled and sent, then we got BI tools and shared viewing of reports, and now many people can generate the reports they need themselves.
In the same way, automation tools are now well within your reach. Intelligent ERP systems, such as SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business ByDesign , automate the bigger things but you can make your life easier right now with widely available automation functions. For example, you can use the Planner tool in Microsoft Teams which automates your to-do lists.
So, I urge you to reap the benefits of digital transformation now and start improving your employees' wellbeing, customer experience and productivity. Intelligent automation will help you do this step-by-step, alongside your larger ERP modernization project.
Discover another step-by-step approach to digital transformation in our recent blog, Packaging up ERP for SMEs
Find out more about RPA from United VARs Solution member, apsolut Group, in this blog on The Rise of Intelligent Bots in Procurement
About United VARs
United VARs is a global alliance of SAP solution providers for the midmarket. With over 70 members in 100 countries, the alliance serves all types of SAP rollouts and integrations across the world.
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