One of the Pillars of digital transformation is Process Optimisation. In this period of covid-19, Process optimisation is key, at least for the survival of companies, but even more for a turnaround and a growth mindset later in the post covid period.
Process Optimisation is simple to understand. Any company or government body has a set of tasks and steps defined to achieve something: this is called a process. For example, in a supermarket, a group of people is responsible to fill a number of shelves with a specific product, choose the proper placement, ensure the price is shown and ensure to order the product with their supplier when the level reaches a low threshold. This group of people can do everything manually or use IT and tools to assist them count, order, price, prepare a delivery pack and so on. Now, the more a process is optimised – that is with a portion which is automated – the more efficiency will be seen for this group of people’s work, for the supermarket itself and even for customer satisfaction.
One of the offerings of our members at the Mauritius IT Industry Association (MITIA) is to help public sector bodies and companies of numerous sectors to optimise their processes. This usually starts with a review of the process, enhanced with consulting from industry specialists whenever complexity is high. Then, our proposed solutions consist of the equipment and software required to optimise. In the above “supermarket” example, there could be a software that counts the number of units sold and compares to the units on shelves, the remaining stock and those currently on order towards one or more suppliers. A camera and sensor near the shelves could feed the buyers persona and behaviour into an AI system to determine the price and best time for promotions. Our members also include technical support and training in such offerings. The main objective of process optimisation is to gain time, money, accuracy or human satisfaction or all of those! In the old days of IT, a process optimisation engagement was always delivered as a lengthy, holistic and costly project. Depending on complexity, companies needed to approve fairly high levels of capital expenditure to engage in such projects. Due to magnitude, the risks of project failure were high as well. The agreed term used today for such projects is RPA, or Robotic Process Automation. To a large extent, RPA projects are available at a fraction of what they would have cost in the old days. Part of those solutions are now included in the common collaboration suites for email, documents, spreadsheets and cloud storage most companies use. For example, a simple email sent or received to/from a supplier for an order can be broken down into parts by an RPA system and feed an ordering software. Moreover, the cost of sensors, cameras, scanners, computers and tablets used by the system and team members have decreased to an affordable level. Cloud based RPA solutions allow projects to start quickly, to be flexible and scalable, with low initial CapEx.
Project financing also need to change. Considering equipment value as a guarantee for financing a project no longer stands. There are extremely complex projects being done today where hardware merely represents 25% of the total project value. Finance institutions will also need to change their approach to cloud-based and iterative subscription-based projects.
Our Mauritian companies in most sectors were already facing fierce international competition. This will no-doubt increase within the post Covid era and will touch our main sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, retail, agro-industry and textile. Every rupee, minute or point of human satisfaction (Customer & Employee) reaped out of efficiency is vital in order to stay in the game. An RPA project is one of the ways our MITIA members can help your company to achieve this.
