Become a champion of your industry Services and Competencies for a business in a changing world — Become a champion of your industry
Services and Competencies for a business in a changing world

Automation

The focus of automation of IT and business processes is to shift the daily tasks to a machine, so that the experts have more time for more valuable and challenging topics that will help the company to move forward. At the same time, operating costs are reduced and quality increases significantly due to the reduction of manual work.

Before implementing an appropriate solution, it is important to think carefully about which areas it should automate. For example, if only the operating system has to be managed, the introduction of a script-based solution may be sufficient. However, if the area of application lies in a heterogeneous, individualized system environment, the implementation of a knowledge-based automation method, i.e. Machine Reasoning, may be necessary. In this way, the system operation achieves the necessary independence and flexibility to generate a sustainable economic advantage for the company and actively support the differentiation in the market.

The simultaneous accompaniment of the change process regarding the employees and ensuring their involvement and (further) development is one of the greatest critical success factors.

The HDP has set itself the goal of supporting customers in their development in the field of automation. There is no "patent recipe" for automation, but rather a customer-specific approach. Our long lasting of expertise in advising on process optimization, change and transformation, the introduction of new technologies and innovations, in strategy development and its implementation gives us the necessary basis for being a reliable partner when it comes to the introduction of automation or its development.

What the market offers

From the HDP's perspective, automation is a generic term for various technologies that enable the transfer of human functions to artificial systems. Specifically, this refers to Scripting, RPA, Machine Learning and Machine Reasoning:

Each type of automation has different advantages and disadvantages. Scripting, for example, is inexpensive and allows the automation of simple tasks/(sub)processes but is more time-consuming in terms of maintenance and requires manual interaction. RPA is highly efficient for complex, non-changeable processes/sequences, but reaches its limits for complex processes with multiple interfaces. Machine Learning offers high efficiency/effectiveness, especially for complex processes with several interfaces, but requires extensive training and is only specialized in a selected area. Machine Reasoning provides a remedy here and combines all the types mentioned above with human knowledge but is associated with higher initial expenditures.

The right approach

To implement automation in a company, it is not only necessary to choose the right tool. It is also essential to prepare the company for this task and to create all the necessary conditions. As HDP, we support our customers not only in implementing a technical automation solution, but also in the necessary preparatory work that accompanies this step (see figure).

The HDP recommends a three-phase approach: The first phase includes, besides the evaluation of automation potentials, a discussion of the above-mentioned automation maturity. The second phase involves on the one hand with the technical concepts and the establishment of corresponding systems, and on the other hand the further development of the organization so that the released resources can be assigned to new tasks. The third phase is concerned with improving the solution rate and the possible extension of the solution to other application areas.

With the variety of automation types, it is important to introduce the most suitable variant for the customer's needs. To identify this, we ask the different questions, like:

What exactly should be automated?
Which environment is affected?
Where is knowledge available but cannot be exploited?
Which processes are prone to errors and require constant monitoring?

These and similar questions are worked out together with the customer to design the best possible automationscenario. Based on our experience in other areas such as innovation, transformation and the introduction of new technologies, we can identify the current automationmaturity together with the customer, mirror it against existing best practices and derive appropriate measures to achieve the necessary state.

Prerequisites for the necessary automation maturity include the existence of described or undescribed processes, the process knowledge of the employees, a uniform IT architecture, a qualitatively maintained data inventory (CMDB) as well as correspondingly coordinated tasks and provided roles or affiliations for the respective automation solution.

Finally, together with the customer, we obtain an overview of the topics that will be related to automation in the future to achieve the full potential for our customers.

Once the necessary automation maturity has been achieved together, we support our customers in the introduction/implementation of the selected solution. Due to our long experience in project management and the coordination of software implementations, we also have the appropriate methods and tools availablefor this task.

As HDP, we support our customers platform-/tool-independently. At the same time, we also have competence and experience with one of the most modern Machine Reasoning solutions on the market. More information about HIRO (Link)

Operation of the automation landscape

As the number of application areas and automation activities increases, there is a need to think about their optimal use and operation. It is recommended to use automation platforms instead of many individual and independent solutions. Automation platforms are becoming increasingly delivered as cloud services (SaaS), enabling unified management by the customer or the provider. Process changes are directly related to processes that may already be automated, so they must be analyzed in advance and, if necessary, adapted in order to avoid breaks in ongoing process operation. Change management is of particular importance, enabling smooth workflows in the course of the adaptations.

Development of a Competence Center Automation

Automation solutions are no longer limited to purely technical topics and increasingly, if not entirely, intervene in specialist areas. The establishment of a Competence Center Automation helps to reflect the integrative character of the automation solution across departmental boundaries. There are two aspects that help to ensure a quick start:

Intensive collaboration with the department whose IT affinity is forced by digitization
Low organizational hurdles and a higher flexibility in order to reach the entry into a new technology with many unknowns optimal

The HDP can conceptualize and implement the establishment of such a competence center as an organizational unit or group within existing structures and provide support during the start-up or optimization phase. Technical and operational competences in automation are essential prerequisites for their successful utilization. The pace of technological and innovative development is much faster today than it was a few years ago. A company must follow this development, as already mentioned before. This requires a continuous improvement process.

The HDP can provide you with competent advice on all necessary steps, contribute know-how, support, or work closely together with you in the implementation of the entire automation process. If you want to take the exciting path of digitalization and automation in your company, then get in touch with us

SIMPLY GIVE US A CALL.

+49 (0) 69 / 977 81-0

Provider:	Typo3
Cookiename:	be_, fe_
Runtime:	365

Become a champion of your industry

Services and Competencies for a business in a changing world