The Issue of Automation in Business Practices - Research Paper Example

2.0 Literature Review This literature review looks at some significant issues surrounding the issue of automation in business practices. This matter is considered from different perspectives: from the organizational to the governmental level. Automating business processes have been discovered to bring some benefits to the organizations or governmental agencies implementing it. Some of the advantages of Process Automation include but are restricted to cost-efficiency, value-added functionality, prospect for business operations expansion, transferable techniques and the possibility of quality assurance. These important points are elaborately discussed in the literature with a viewing to highlight the current and future discussions in the business and governmental avenues about the usefulness of process automation. 2.1 Cost Efficiency: Allen (2001) looks critically at the disadvantages of manual processes. The main demerit of undertaking business operations manually is that it is time-consuming and wastes organizational resources. Take for instance; a highly automated factory can achieve a higher amount of production within a set timeframe compared with when the processes are undertaken manually. Process automation also encourages organizations to reduce the number of workers and subsequently cut the cost of operation. The undeniable fact is that any organization that carries out most of its operations manually can hardly attain the state 2 of cost-efficiency (Allen, 2001). This is because the organization’s limited resources would be squandered on paying wages and maintaining the large number of employees hired to do the long manual processes. The good news is that every step in a business operation can be automated with the use of applicable technology and software for better efficiency. In a big corporation or networked organization, it is helpful to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as a system of coordinating all the sections of operations within an organization through the use of software that necessitate swift communication and higher performance among these sections in real-time (Allen, 2001). Automating with ERP helps organization to cut down the number of human personnel required for a job and eliminate cumbersomeness that often affects human activities within an organization. Most proponents of ERP believe that the system provide a unique opportunity for employees of an organization to harness their potentials in a speedy manner while attending to the goals of their organization. And automation is the backbone on which ERP depends on for successful implementation. 2.2 Value-Added Functionality Automating a process or a set of processes undoubtedly increases the value of the output of such processes. Corcoran et al. (2010) believe that automation affords organizations the benefits of fastness, sustainability and quantifiable outcomes. In other words, when an operation is automated, it increases the added value to the output in a way of quick delivery and better presentation in environmentally friendly nature that would lead 3 to the output being well accepted by consumers. For example, consumers are likely going to show more interest in organizations that offer quick services and products. Though, how much value automation adds to the quality of a service or product is still an ongoing debate. Bannerman (2008) opines that even though an organization enjoys process improvement, this does not necessarily mean that it will lead to business improvement for the organization. However, Allen (2001) states that improved business operations are likely going to add to the value of the goods and services offered by the concerned organization. This is a positive development that could energize the human elements of an organization to change their working style in order to increase customers’ satisfaction with the organization’s services. Automation helps a company to achieve its optimum performance as well as increasing its level of profitability (Allen, 2001). This benefit may be seen as a two-way strategy that many firms aspire to achieve as they are confronted with the increasing cost of production in the face of dwindling customers’ base and loyalty. 2.3 Prospect for Business Operations Expansion The logic is that if an organization can successfully automate its business operations through the application of Information Technology (IT), it is possible for such an organization to achieve optimum performance within a short span of operation; and hence, there could be opportunities for business expansion. Corcoran et al. (2010) provides an interesting Case Study of how automation has improved the processes at the Afghan 4 Import/Export Licensing Project (AIELP) through the utilization of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). This entails customizing the operations at AIELP in a way that personnel on the project would be able to act speedily while processing the Import/Export licenses—this activity has often been time-consuming and sometimes problematic before Afghanistan Government tried automation (Concoran et al., 2010). It is possible that the idea of creating a framework for automation of Web service contract establishment and specification to facilitate the AIELP operations may have been applied (Comuzzi and Pernici, 2009). This approach suggests that a simple model of this framework must include service level agreements (SLA) that contain penalties for missed deadlines. This kind of strategy aims at maintaining timeliness while improving the quality of licensing for import and export purposes in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, these contracts are much more complex in the real world but the framework allows for that level of automation. Once mastered, the personnel in change of giving import/export licenses can carry out their duties with near precision, and as fast as possible. Interestingly, this framework could be expanded to process automation as a part of the process development, and which can be periodically improved to guarantee continuous success on the part of AIELP. Invariably, the personnel at Afghan import/export licensing office could use the leftover time to carry out other operations that may be instrumental in transforming Afghanistan as a country. This is how the implementation of automation can help a country expand its operations. 5 2.4 Transferable Techniques Automation has the capacity of ensuring that technical knowledge is transferred from one department of an organization to another in a speedy manner. Atkins (2011) reckons that the fragmented processes that many operators use in the cellular networking realm could be rectified by automation in combining all the processes together in a more functional manner. Not only, Atkins (2011) believes that automation would help many organizations to cut costs by minimizing manual processes. And it is believed that when appropriate knowledge and skills are transferred from one section of an organization to the other, this will also enhance swift completion of activities and eventually lead to better performance. While the approach seems to concentrate more on the optimization of the operations at an organization, the automation of some of the processes within the organization has been recognized as the key to success. Incidentally, the ultimate goal for integration the internet and Web services in an organization is to achieve more automation in the area of business processes undertaken by such an organization. A typical example about how this integration works is by looking at a Multi-Agent system framework called Collaborative Agreement for Automatic Trading (CAAT). This framework enables automated negotiation in trading-based Web services and guarantees optimum coordination (Ncho and Aimeur, 2009). Without the appropriate automation, the processes in a particular organization will be loosely connected and lack the necessary collaboration. 6 2.5 Quality Assurance Automation can also necessitate quality assurance in an organization. Domingue and Pedrinaci (2009) present a framework for Business Process Analysis (BPA) specific to automation of computing metrics. This is an attempt to explain that automation can also be instrumental in BPA, which is needed for identifying the areas of strength or weakness in the activities of an organization. In other words, once the processes in an organization have been analyzed, it is possible to proffer helpful solutions to strengthen the areas of weakness. The focus of the Domingue and Pedrinaci’s work is mainly to develop and define a domain-independent Metrics Ontology and business queries that would used in the analysis. The BPA in this scope is extended to the degree of automating the computation of these metrics with the hope of arriving at a conclusion on how effective the processes have been. Further expansion of this type of automation will include knowledge-based techniques that could be shared among the departments making up an organization. In conclusion, this literature review has been able to cover the important aspects of this research: it is interesting to identify how the research questions are answered methodically. Automation in business or governmental processes is not a new topic, but it is a dynamic one that requires continuous study to unearth the best 7 approach at understanding it. As highlighted in this literature review, the major concern for businesses and governmental organizations nowadays is how to reduce the cost of operations. And this aim can be achieved through the implementation of automating system that will not only improve the quality of service and products a company makes but also speed up the rate at which they are manufactured. Cost-efficiency is one of the major advantages of automation that businesses and governmental agencies have always supported. More so, an organization can add to the value of its services by engaging in automation—this technique is still under constant scrutiny of how exactly the quality of an organization’s services could be improved through its automation. But it is clear from all indications that if an organization can get its product or services to its customers on time, which automation guarantees, it can win the loyalty of such customers. There is no doubt that automation can lead a company to an unprecedented expansion in business activities. This is because time-saving occurs when a company’s operations are automated; hence the saved time can be utilized to do extra activities at the company, which could lead to improved and expanded line of operations. For instance, when the Afghan Import/Export Licensing Project took off, it would not have been efficiency undertaken if not that the entire project has been automated and all the procedures for licensing are quickly carried out. Therefore, this provides the opportunity for the Afghan Government to diversify its operation owing to cost-efficiency and optimum performance. 8 To achieve uniform efficiency, it is imperative that departments within an organization should be able to share vital knowledge and information as quickly as possible. One of the ways to do this is to automate the entire network of operations so that the passage of information from one section to another is unhindered and fast. The area that is very interesting to organizations and their managers is the usefulness of automated system in establishing quality assurance procedures within an organization. It is possible to detect the functionality of a business system through the analysis of the entire business approach. Automation makes it possible to identify how effective the sections in an organization is doing, and which form of weakness they are experiencing so as to find the lasting solution to the problems. Without automation, it may difficult for any organization to meet the target of optimum performance, cost-efficiency, transfer of applicable knowledge to different departments within an organization and creating a quality assurance procedure. From the foregoing, it is important to state that information technology research is an interesting field of study that will help organizations to re-engineer themselves for future performance. References Allen, T. (2011). Improve Your Business Processes for ERP Efficiency. Strategic Finance, 92(11), 54-59. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Atkins, J. (2011). Networks turn to self-help [PDF]. Retrieved from doi: 10.1049/et.2011.0107 Bannerman, P. L. (2008). Capturing business benefits from process improvement: four fallacies and what to do about them [PDF]. Retrieved from doi: 10.1145/1370837.1370839 Corcoran, K., Vogtman, M., & Nash, N. (Deloitte Consulting, Technology, Strategy and Architecture). (2010). Improving Services and Transparency in EmergingGovernments through Business Process Automation [PDF]. Retrieved from http://doi.acm.org.dml.regis.edu/10.1145/1930321.1930399j Comuzzi, M., and Pernici, B. (2009). A Framework for QoS-Based Web Service Contracting [PDF]. Retrieved from doi: 10.1145/1541822.1541825 Domingue, J., and Pedrinaci, C. (2009). Ontology-based metrics computation for business process analysis [PDF]. Retrieved from doi: 10.1145/1944968.1944976 Ncho, A., and Aimeur, E. (2009). Building a Multi-Agent System for Automatic Negotiation in Web Service Applications [PDF]. Retrieved from doi: 10.1109/AAMAS.2004.79. Read More