*ding*
“Your Etsy package is on its way!”
Of all the emails we receive every day, isn’t this one the best? There’s no shame in admitting that most of us, throughout 2020, have re-channeled all the time and money we would’ve spent on eating out and going places into Etsy and online shopping. From sending personalized gifts to our loved ones in lieu of coveted hugs, to monogramming every DIY home project, we love the convenience, trust and ease of Etsy.
And after reading Hyland’s recent blog “If digital transformation is a journey, what’s the destination (and are we there yet)?”, it’s easy to see why: Etsy was, as Glenn Gibson refers to the concept, “born digital.” As are many businesses today, being “born digital” means an organization was built using the latest technologies available and, therefore, is innately competitive with legacy business models. Etsy didn’t need to build a website – it is a website (and an app!). Its customers never struggle with customer service because the entire concept is customer-centric – easy to use, instant communication with vendors, trusted payment options, etc.
Creating Crisis-Resistant, Remote Work Cultures
It’s difficult to believe it’s been an entire year since the Coronavirus pandemic forced many organizations into remote business models. Maybe during a video call or a virtual “happy hour,” you and/or some of your colleagues have expressed missing the social interaction at the office and, in general, not being as motivated.
Probably the biggest threat to sustaining organizations in today’s remote work culture is unmotivated staff. They no longer have that in-person bonding space that the office provided, and siloed positions can seriously isolate staff who don’t have many meetings or collaborative projects that actively pull them in as part of your team.
Demotivated and keying away at monotonous work, your staff could very well be eyeing more interactive and engaging opportunities for income. After all, it’s still remote friendly and has proven resistant to many extreme conditions: pandemics, weather, civil unrests, etc.
And as much as you love to hate them for it, Etsy innately solves for this heightened business challenge – largely the reason it not only succeeded, but thrived, throughout 2020.
So how do you keep staff engaged as active participants in your mission, especially now that they work remotely?
Make the Mundane Moot
If you’re not a religious techie, you may have heard the acronym “IA” (intelligent automation) thrown around on occasion and just tuned it out, assuming we’re planning for robots to overtake mankind.
Honest mistake – that’s AI.
We’re kidding about the robots overtaking mankind, of course, but the mistake between IA and AI is a common one that we need to clear up if we’re going to leverage one (or both) to our competitive benefit.
IA, intelligent automation, is what we want to focus on today, which simply umbrellas the programs we use to mimic and automate knowledge workers. This includes RPA, or robotic process automation. In a nutshell, RPA equips you with a software robot that follows the rules and a repeatable sequence of actions you tell it to adhere to. Interacting with the computer the same way you do, RPA takes care of the grunt work in any number of applications. In doing so, your staff’s workload is better balanced and the employees, now free from repetitive data entry or back-office work, are engaged in higher-level initiatives.
If you were looking over RPA’s resume, it would look something like this:
- Mimics keystrokes and mouse clicks
- Mastermind of transactional, repetitive or rules-based actions
- Rule follower
- Brings the whole team together – bridging RPA with other automation tools for optimized business processing.
Its only downfall, which could arguably be another perk, is not being human – it cannot see, think or understand and, therefore, cannot accept a paycheck. Darn!
Is Your Business a Prime Candidate for RPA?
Most are.
Ideally, if you have a healthy number of back-office operational staff and a web of processes, RPA is for you. Like all good businesses, your circumstance, existing operations and long-term goals are unique. Take a deeper dive into RPA by tuning in for an insightful chatwith Paperless Podcast conversationalist Tim Tallaksen, Director of Hyland’s Intelligent Process Automation Sales.
And to learn more about how our RPA solution can help your operations, head over here – as always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions. Whether you use the gray chat box to your right (manned by real people, not robots) or our eForm, we’ll be happy to hear from you!
In the meantime, step away from the online orders (unless it’s for a robotic process automation bot, of course).