Enterprise Automation for People, Process, and Technology: The People Part
Enterprise Automation connects people, process, and technology to eliminate manual work and place repetitive tasks into workstreams that manage themselves.
But enterprise automation is about more than connecting people, process, and technology. Enterprise automation is about connecting people, process, and technology at scale.
Over the past five years, companies have made huge strides in automating their systems. Now, it’s time to think about how the individual systems relate to each other globally. We need to centralize our tech stacks but spread out the people who know how to use them. By doing so, we empower the people who are closest to their own pain points, and who have the experience and drive to fix them.
Letting non-IT staff implement enterprise automation
By giving non-technical employees access to low-code solutions, IT teams soften their grip on the technologies they purchase and gain the opportunity to focus on the bigger picture: making sure that technology works for everyone, and that everyone is using the same platforms to streamline their work.
We learned in the last installment in this series that landscape architects have to think about where people want to go before they build pathways. But at a certain point in the history of landscape design, there was a paradigm shift: the architects who paved pathways began to look at pedestrians as landscape architects, too.
Each time someone traveled off the main road, they left an indelible mark behind. It was as if they drew their own blueprint but on the territory, rather than on the map. By understanding pedestrians as stakeholders with vital information regarding where they want their paths to go, architects were able to make better paths.
When IT starts to see their users in the same way that landscape architects began to see pedestrians, they can empower those users to pave their own roads.
When should IT empower others?
How can IT professionals determine when it’s time to empower others, and when they should take control?
Well, it depends. If your implementation requires complex integrations and constant contact with your database, you’re probably looking at an IT integration. But if you have a simple process that you could imagine describing in a flowchart, it may be a good opportunity for your citizen developers.
Delegate to Citizen Developers when:
- You need a process that ensures all of your vendors are compliant with your regulations
- You want to build out e-Signature approval processes, such as Business Travel Request or NDAs
- You are ready to set up an automated chain of events for policy exception requests
- You need to set up an approval process for independent contractor agreements
Bring in IT when:
- You need to implement a vendor management system for your internal team up to date on vendor actions
- You need to consolidate the e-Signature system that your whole company uses
- You’re ready to set up a platform that manages all of your companies policies
- Your organization is ready to upgrade its human resources management system
[bctt tweet=”41% of employees outside of IT – or business technologists – customize or build data or technology solutions” via=”no”]
On average, 41% of employees outside of IT – or business technologists – customize or build data or technology solutions. Gartner predicts that half of all new low-code clients will come from business buyers that are outside the IT organization by year-end 2025.
In order to build a community of citizen developers who are empowered to solve their own pain points, the platform IT purchases must be easy to learn, even for those who don’t have a background in technical skills. Drag-and-drop solutions that allow nontechnical users to place widgets and mock up workflows in real-time are key.
