How business automation is regulating verticals across medium and large enterprises

Ever since the pandemic outbreak last year, the process of digital transformation and business automation has expedited across sectors. As a result, adopting the online route and embracing technology is no longer an option but has become the dire need of the hour for businesses across sectors. Specifically for the medium and large enterprises, technological advancements have become critical for critical processes such as finance, procurement, and operations.

Automation upscaling the landscape of medium and large enterprises

Arun Krishnamoorthy, CMO, Techpanion

Amongst the plethora of technologies available, automation is increasingly foraying into businesses across medium and large enterprises. One of the primary uses of business automation is in the finance and procurement process. By doing so, companies can free up their time for important tasks by letting technology handle routine repetitive tasks and gain a strategic advantage by building a robust and active supplier base. For instance, in a decentralized procurement environment, the need to collaborate approvals for processing invoices with business users, project offices, government agencies and suppliers revolves around emails, physical documents and phone calls. In turn, manual activities, process gaps and coordination issues make it inefficient and non-compliant. Hence, it would be appropriate to say that automation reduces the scope of human errors and also saves time and effort. It also ensures smooth operations and efficiency along with capital utilization.

Due to their extensive working and more significant revenue generation, medium and large enterprises have complex and comprehensive operations. Businesses in these segments would, of course, have varied requirements. As and when the complexity of the operations increases, supplier diversity also surges. With this, the bulk of invoices & correspondence also rise exponentially. Managing all of these processes manually would be practically impossible. This is where the relevance of seamlessly connecting with suppliers is mandatory, emphasizing specialized solutions.

Embracing automation: The key to ensuring efficiency and productivity across functions

Consequently, medium and large enterprises increasingly rely on technology to automate their operations. With the right technology providers in place, the entire process goes paperless with automation. They usually automate four essential sources-to-pay functions, including procure-to-pay, supplier portal, contract management, and supply chain financing. The leading automation providers offer many services ranging from contracts management, order management, quality management, invoice processing, supplier portal, supplier onboarding, and supply chain finance.

These enterprises need to ensure that the user interface is high-end so that the customer experiences are seamless. They also have to make sure that the technology incorporated for automation is well-balanced and available at economical pricing. Various tech solution providers offer automation of source-to-pay functions of organizations and ensure that the process becomes quick, seamless, and flexible.

The future roadmap

As per the Markets and Markets report, the global business automation market is expected to grow from $.8 billion in 2020 to $19.6 billion by 2026 and will grow at a CAGR of 12.2%. Factors such as optimized resource utilization coupled with the growing demand for smooth communication across business functions will push the growth of automation across enterprises in the times ahead. The study also points out that businesses are increasingly automating processes across accounting, finance, and supply chain functions. The APAC region is explicitly projected to exhibit the highest growth, with India being one of the leading adopters of automation across functions in the time to come. Adding to it, Gartner, in its recent report, predicts that large enterprises will triple the capacity of their existing RPA portfolios. Thus, it can be rightly said the future of medium and large enterprises is indeed automation!

Summing up!

As technology engulfs business across sectors, the surge in adoption of automation can be attributed to its features of reducing human labour, cost-efficacy, and ensuring efficiency—moreover, the timing of e-invoicing and digital workforce maturing worldwide. The solution providers offer services that simplify and automate complex processes in procurement to improve productivity, ensure compliance and deliver noteworthy outcomes. Automation is emerging to be the dire need of the hour for medium and large enterprises, providing a myriad of benefits. As more and more enterprises are keen on embracing automation, their future seems to be progressive due to the digital revolution!

Author: Arun Krishnamoorthy, CMO, Techpanion