Business automation has become a staple in the modern workplace. While many companies prioritize automation on the customer or client-facing side of their business, what goes on behind the scenes is equally as important. Automation through facilities and logistics tools, such as our software Intra, provides cost savings, labor reduction, and more at a scale often not recognized before implementation. For leaders and directors, the choice of overhauling or implementing a new system can feel overwhelming and costly, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Today, our team of enterprise logistics software specialists at SCLogic discusses five key benefits of business automation. We share how our software stands apart from the rest to assist your team with well-deserved growth opportunities. 

One: Significantly Improved Efficiency Across Departments

Efficiency is a significant pain point for many managers and directors. So often, a lack of technology leaves you scrambling to ensure that your facility is adequately staffed and tasks are completed as quickly as possible. With outdated or no technology within your facility, your employees are likely spending massive amounts of time completing manual processes that could be solved with automation. Consider this, you are a facilities or operations director for an enterprise corporation, and your team has used Excel to manually keep track of assets within your facility. You have little insight into asset health or lifecycle status, and maintenance needs are done reactively. Furthermore, human error in reporting has caused expensive assets to be lost or misplaced, leading to additional costs for asset replacement.

Did you know that running an asset to the point of failure can cost up to 10 times as much as a regular maintenance program? Additionally, companies can lose up to 20-30% of their potential revenue due to poor business process automation. We know these statistics are staggering, which is why we want you to understand how to solve these problems. When you implement business automation for departments such as mailroom management, asset management, and workplace management, the efficiency of task completion will be remarkable. Previously manual processes will be completed in the blink of an eye, all while improving security standards and reducing the potential for human error.

Two: Cost Reduction & Increased Profits

With increased efficiency for your business comes cost reduction. Your next question is likely how much your business is actually saving with automation; according to a recent Salesforce study, almost 60% of IT and engineering leaders say that process automation has cut costs for their teams by up to 30%. Often, enterprises fall into the pattern of using multiple point solutions for facilities needs. This means that you are likely paying for each solution separately, unable to integrate, and therefore spending additional costs to complete tasks and renew your subscriptions or licenses with these point solution companies. With Intra, you can consolidate all your facilities’ needs into one comprehensive platform with extensive integration abilities. Additionally, hosting and maintenance costs will be reduced by working with a single company and technical services team.

Three: Ensure Compliance & Security Standards Are Met

Compliance and security are two of the most often overlooked benefits of automation. According to Forbes, cybercrime cost U.S. businesses more than $6.9 billion in 2021, and less than half of companies feel financially prepared to face a cyber-attack this year. Cybercrimes are not just one-off events that make for a frustrating few weeks for business; they can completely obliterate your ability to recover financially. For security standards, there are multiple ways in which automation has expanded, including the following:

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – uses a set of keyboard commands to automate operations on a computer system, such as scanning for vulnerabilities and running monitoring tools.
• Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) – provide digital input through machine learning to help organizations identify and handle incident response through a mix of human interaction and technology.
• Extended Detection and Response (XDR) – automatically correlates data across multiple security layers for faster detection of threats and improved response times.

When it comes to compliance, automation also plays a significant role. In tandem with security, automation reduces the chances for your team to be labeled as non-compliant after a security breach. Each industry has unique compliance standards, and without automation, your team may not even have the bandwidth to ensure compliance is maintained. Working reactively and without automation, you find yourself in a difficult position as you scramble post-breach to save your business financially and legally. With automation software like Intra, data and reporting are at the forefront of our business, ensuring you have all information stored securely and your potential for cyber threats minimized.

Four: Work Toward ESG & Sustainability Goals

One of our favorite benefits, and a critical one for the next generation of the workforce, is automation’s impact on ESG and sustainability goals. According to Gartner, social responsibility and ESG has become the second-largest contributor to CEO focus on corporate issues, increasing 50% year over year. Automation helps optimize your workplace, reducing energy usage and giving businesses relevant data to improve their sustainability strategy. Without automation, companies spend up to 40 hours per week or more on maintenance, resulting in significant resource usage and energy costs.

Mailrooms are using additional space and energy to hold packages without a system in place, and inefficient delivery routes result in larger carbon output across your facilities. The use of automation tools does not just help you reduce your carbon footprint but speed up your ESG goals. With the SEC announcing new disclosure requirements and Europe requiring standardized ESG reporting from 2023 onward, there is no time to wait. The data provided by tools such as Intra allow you to identify gaps in your ESG strategy, monitoring changes monthly, quarterly, annually, and more for sustainable growth.

Five: Data & Analytics Usage for Scalability

Last and certainly not least, automation provides individualized data and analytics metrics for scalability. Data automation offers significant financial and productivity gain, as you can monitor your operations in real time rather than working reactively to establish a pattern of success or failure. Data automation provides unique feedback for your team within each facilities sector. With one comprehensive platform through Intra, your analysts can view information on departments, integrations, employee productivity, and more. We understand that each business is unique, which is why we created a configurable Analytics Dashboard for your business needs. For example, identifying relevant metrics for those using our Workplace Services Workgroup resulted in a 72% decrease in turnaround time for task completion. Our Asset Logistics Workgroup also allowed customers to identify surplus, leading to $7.75 million of surplus revenue. Data is the wave of the future, and it’s our job to ensure that you are prepared.

Begin Your Business Automation Process with SCLogic

If you are considering starting or amid your digital transformation process, no department should be overlooked. Your facilities’ needs are the backbone of running an efficient enterprise, and you deserve to have industry-specialized automation tools at your fingertips. At SCLogic, we continuously improve our software, diligently listening to the trends, changes, and requirements of each industry we serve. Whether you are a healthcare facility or a Fortune 100 enterprise, we are here to help you. The time for automation is now, and we are ready to set your business up for success. To learn more about our enterprise logistics workgroups, email [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.