Blog / Automation

Automation or Not(omation): Digital Transformation that Really Isn’t

From Elon Musk’s assertions that robots might rule the world one day to the daily business efficiencies transforming things like data entry and payment processing, there’s a whole world of digital possibilities and promises competing for our money and attention. Not to mention our sleep.

If you’re like most people over the age of 11, you’ve been awakened at 3 a.m. once or twice with the anxiety-provoking realization that you are wasting too much of your life on ordinary tasks that miracles of digital transformation eliminated long ago.

There’s no reason, apparently, not to be able to talk to your bed, or to have to worry whether you are brushing your hair correctly, or to have the hassle of dragging your luggage through the airport. Because those savvy engineers behind things like Brookstone products and SkyMall impulse purchases have changed the way you should be doing everything.

Clearly, there is a pretty big gap between “things that can be automated” and “digital transformation.” Or even between “things that can be automated” and “things that should be automated.” Thankfully, however, robots still have a way to go before they get to call all the shots.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of actually useful automation, including much that can live up to its billing as “transformational.” As long as you know the difference.

Automation vs. Not-omation

Some businesses are swept into making changes that are disguised as transformative automation – like ERP upgrades, cloud migrations, website updates or other forms of technology enhancement – but they’re not genuine transformation and can waste time and resources you could be using to truly transform your processes. They’re operational, not transformational.

Here are a few tips for recognizing automation that can actually live up to the term:

  • It’s a company-wide implementation that impacts your core business model
  • It puts your customers at the center of the transformation
  • It impacts the entire team.  Not-omation, or “fauxtomation” tends to occur in silos
  • It’s bold and has a profound impact on how your organization functions

Digital Transformation that Lives Up to Its Name

At MetaSource, we can’t tell you how to brush your hair. But we can help you achieve genuine digital transformation with automation that drives innovation, efficiency and a shift of human talent into more important work than things like data entry or paper shuffling. Like growing your business.

Give us a call or click on the link below to learn more about what the right mix of services and technology, including document capture, OCR and document management, workflow automation and robotic process automation, can do for your business.

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