Are you considering automation solutions for your business? There are a growing number of companies that offer automation options, and more customers are taking advantage of them.

It’s easy to see why. Companies realize an excellent return on investment (ROI) from automation, even when they only use it in a few areas. Automation helps businesses spend less time and money on certain tasks. What previously took workers hours to complete can be accomplished by the click of a button through automation.

Tasks like automated indexing are finished without employees spending days on data entry. As a result, employee’s job satisfaction increases, since automating mundane tasks leaves more room for more challenging and creative projects.

Automation also allows companies to spend more time on high-impact projects that better serve their customers and grow revenue. With automation processes in place, a company can advance with product development, marketing, customer support, and other business factors. The right automation software saves money and increases employee productivity. When used effectively, automation means that everyone wins – especially your customers.

Businesses, however, need to be sure they have the right solutions. Automation solutions are not all the same. While the right ones increase productivity and revenue growth, the wrong ones can cause frustration. It’s important to do your research when you start considering automation solutions. You can begin by asking yourself some important questions.

What Falls Under the Scope of Automation?

First, make sure that your automation solutions fall under the scope of your goals. Clarity is critical as you get started with automation. Often, when companies start out, they have a hard time understanding how automation will help them. They may have a trial and error approach to doing things that aren’t working and realize greater efficiency is achievable another way.

Engaging with a software consultant might be the first time they’ve had someone taking a look at their operations. Companies should ask software providers about the software’s capabilities. Additionally, the software provider should break down what they see as key benefits for your company.

Have a discussion with your provider about their software’s capabilities. Different software solutions take on varying automation tasks. You want to be sure that your automation solutions meet your business’s needs. In addition, you should check to see whether you have any automation blind spots. Are there additional solutions that you might be missing out on? Your conversation with the software company representative can reveal those opportunities. Implementing additional automation options isn’t an obligation, but at the very least it’s helpful to know what’s available.

How Long Is The Implementation Process?

After you cover some specific goals and options, ask how long the implementation process takes. Timelines in business are critical. When you make an investment in software, it’s frustrating if the implementation takes longer than expected. When a firm understands your timeline needs, you can develop strategies to work around them without sacrificing efficiency or productivity in the process.

Software should work on your schedule to get the automation software running quickly. When your company spends a lot of money on software, you should expect proper support during implementation. When looking for automated indexing, the providers should be able to set a timeline that meets your needs.

Ask About Available Features

Next, make sure that you understand the features available to you before you move forward with new software.

Software providers often sell based on a targeted company’s needs. For example, if a company obviously needs help with automated indexing, that will be the salesperson’s focus. Then, if a company needs another kind of specific automation support, then the software provider shifts focus to whatever it is the client needs.

However, software often includes many features that benefit business operations. When you thoroughly understand the software’s capabilities, you may discover features you weren’t aware of that can help your business.

Be sure to talk to your provider about all the available features of any software you’ve purchased. There could be other ways it can be used to help grow your business. Even if you don’t start using all of these features immediately, they’re good to have for the future.

The Right Automation Solution

Finding the best fit for automation solutions can be daunting, especially if you’ve never worked with automated software solutions before now. You need an excellent product, a cost-effective solution, and a support team that walks you through your options and makes sure your business has what it needs for automation.

When you’re selecting a leading provider of automated indexing and other business software solutions, consider software that helps you automate your most mundane tasks so that you can shift focus to revenue growth and other more productive endeavors. Also, consider asking the software provider for a demo.

When it comes to getting ahead and staying ahead, automation software may be the difference that gives you the edge, and the right provider can help make that happen.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 3 Questions To Ask Your Software Provider About Automation appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Up to 30% of jobs (10.5 million) in the UK are considered ‘highly automatable’ and therefore at risk to change, with professionals not possessing the skills to accommodate the AI revolution.

By 2020, approximately 75 million jobs would have been displaced across the globe as a result of the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Mid-skill workers are most at risk, with data illustrating that employment growth has been greatest at the extreme ends of the spectrum (top and bottom 20%) whilst in-between there has been a decline, resulting in a hallowing out of jobs for the middle-tier workforce.

Within the industry this displacement of mid-skill workers has become known as the ‘automation paradox.’

The findings come from a report published this month from global recruiter Robert Walters and market intelligence firm Vacancy Soft – Harnessing the Power of AI: The Demand for Future Skills.

Growth in Data Roles

However, it is not all bad news when we consider the impact of AI on the job market.

Ollie Sexton, Principal at Robert Walters comments:“As businesses become ever more reliant on AI, there is an increasing amount of pressure on the processes of data capture and integration. As a result, we have seen an unprecedented number of ‘next generation’ roles being created with data skill-set at their core. In fact, data-related roles across the board have increased by 80% since 2015.

“What has been the most interesting to see is the emergence of data scientist as a mainstream profession – with job vacancies increasing by a staggering 110% year-on-year. The same trend can be seen with data engineers, averaging 86% year-on-year job growth.”

Industries that are being most disrupted by AI are:

• Retail: whilst driving the e-commerce powerhouse, AI is being utilised to drive consumers back to the ‘bricks and mortar 2.0.’ From self-checkout, and monitoring customer patterns and preferences, to using data to enhance the customer journey and in-store experience, and seamlessly linking online and offline channels.
• Business Support: the application of AI within the professional services field is extraordinary, but when considering just the business support aspect alone AI has been implemented at every level – from spam filters and smart emails, to smart personal assistants (Siri, Cortana, Google Now), automated customer support, and sales and business forecasting.
• Healthcare: experimental AI is making huge breakthroughs in the healthcare industry from Google’s DeepMind being taught to read retinal scans, healthcare apps saving hours of GP time, to patient safety, training and education, as well as drastic improvements in bias, inequality and unfairness within the profession.

UK Skills Shortage

Tom Chambers, Manager – Advanced Analytics and Engineering at Robert Walters comments:“The concern should not be about jobs being displaced, but whether our workforce is ready and prepared to accommodate a job boom within data and digitalisation.

“According to hiring managers within the tech field, 56% of professionals lack sufficient experience for the role, whilst a further 51% also lack the right technical skills.”

Another recent Robert Walters survey of tech professionals found that just 10% of cyber security professionals, 31% of data management professionals, and 27% of software developers rated their skills as ‘advanced.’

Worryingly 40% of UK professionals employed within the AI-sphere stated that their job-specific skills were only at the ‘beginner’ level.

Tom Chambers adds: “Historically the UK has been able to attract skilled IT and data professionals from across the EU – a quarter of tech professionals in the UK are from overseas – yet with the current political climate this may prove to become more of a challenge.

The UK – in particular London – has an opportunity to be at the centre of the tech & AI revolution but growth and demand can only be met with the upskilling or retraining of mid-tier talent so that they don’t become redundant.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 10.5 Million Middle-Tier Workers At Risk As Automation Takes Over In UK appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The speed of evolution within artificial intelligence and automation is exciting, yet for companies seeking rapid improvements in productivity, the ROI model is just not adding up. From the time and cost associated with automation to the constraints of very simplistic areas of application, full automation is not always an option.

Look closely at any warehouse environment, however, and there are very significant opportunities to augment the performance of the existing human workforce. While processes have been optimised in recent years there are still many aspects of worker activity that are less than optimal. From the physical challenges associated with juggling scanning devices while lifting items, especially at height, to the time wasted walking back to static work stations to input information and receive the next task, there are very significant opportunities to enhance the worker experience, and hence performance.

“The latest generation of ergonomically designed wearables, such as gloves with detachable barcode scanners, can be rapidly introduced to augment day to day worker experience and transform productivity,” explains Andreas Koenig, CEO, ProGlove.

Understanding Automation Reality

Warehouse efficiency has never been more important; yet with the continued labour shortages, it has never been more challenging. With the need to improve both productivity and accuracy businesses are understandably intrigued by the promise of automation. However, while the concept of lights out operations that can run 24/7, 365 days a year is compelling, the reality is somewhat different.

Full automation is not achievable today for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is incredibly complex. There is no simple switch for an efficient, completely automated environment. It takes time and money to train machines to perform required tasks – and few organisations have the skills to create the deep learning structure required. Given the speed of innovation within many product cycles, time becomes a factor. If an item is only in production for a few weeks, even one season, there is not enough time to either train the technology to automate the process or, critically, achieve a return on investment.

It is also important to recognise that while progress within this field is impressive, automation technology can today only manage relatively simple processes. As even the technology vendors will confirm, robots cannot handle processes with multiple intricate steps and machines cannot comprehend events that occur outside their sphere of reference.

Value Natural Intelligence

Robots continuing to perform their simple, preprogrammed processes while the warehouse burned down around them may be an extreme, recent example but there are many events where a human’s natural intelligence is still essential to ensure problems are immediately resolved.  Drop an item and a human will pick it up, check for damage and move on. Unless it has been trained to undertake every one of those steps, a robot will be stymied.

Of course, automation has an important role to play, especially in handling simple, repeatable processes; but it is no panacea. To meet the challenges of transforming productivity, the existing workforce remains essential. With the added pressure of recruitment and retention facing the industry, organisations must therefore look at opportunities to augment and enhance the worker experience to improve efficiency, safety and morale.

Human Centric Design

One of the biggest challenges for improving productivity is that humans get tired. From stamina to muscle power, errors typically increase as workers run out of steam. For this reason, the science of ergonomic design has become ever more important to maximise both performance and worker comfort.

One key opportunity is to minimise extraneous movement and ensure the majority of physical movement is directly linked to productive activity. For example, replacing the traditional point and shoot barcode scanner with a glove with in-built scan functionality offers a number of benefits. Obviously, the worker has both hands free at all times to pick up items and safely negotiate warehouse locations, often at height. The wearable devices are always to hand; the worker simply presses a button in the glove to scan an item, making the entire process much easier. Furthermore, there is no need to put down and pick up the device; while scanners are relatively lightweight, even removing this level of additional weight from a worker can have a tangible impact on fatigue.

The hands-free nature of wearable devices can also improve worker safety – a key issue since the majority of health and safety incidents reported in the UK in 2017/18 within the transportation and storage industry related to musculoskeletal disorders. In addition to avoiding one handed pick up of items, a wearable scanner eradicates the risk of scanners being dropped on other workers. In addition, wearables can include sensors and emit a signal to alert other workers to an individual’s presence, addressing the risks created by forklifts and other moving infrastructure.

Knowledge Driven Performance

In addition, such wearable devices improve picking accuracy by using adjustable feedback options, such as acoustic signals, vibration and LEDs on the back of the hand to provide immediate confirmation of correct product selection. By helping the worker to rapidly distinguish between ostensibly identical products, for example, helps to minimise both delays and errors.  This not only drives up productivity but also avoids worker frustration.

These wearables can also be connected to other devices such as tablets, smartwatches or wearable terminals to provide individuals with additional information. Rather than time consuming – and tiring – treks back to a static information display, workers can immediately be provided with the next pick location, for example. Essentially, wearable devices enable individuals to avoid extraneous, tiring activity: every step, every arm movement is directly related to undertaking the task at hand.

Of course this efficient, augmented workforce will increasingly work with machines. Automation technology and artificial intelligence will continue to evolve, releasing human workers from the tedium of many simple processes. The provision of real-time information via wearables will be an essential component of this intelligent, augmented human workforce, supporting a team of informed individuals taking on increasingly complex, changing and time-sensitive tasks in tandem with automation.

Wearables Ecosystem

The implication for businesses of this augmented human workforce is significant. Scanning time reduced by up to  four seconds per scan. Minimising unnecessary and tiring repetitive actions and improving accuracy significantly increases the volume of work undertaken by each worker. Augmenting the workforce will rapidly transform productivity and efficiency.

This is just the start. As the evolution of wearable devices continues, workers will increasingly be able to leverage an ecosystem of wearables that will enhance not only human collaboration but also human to machine interaction. From gloves to glasses and cameras, the augmented human workforce will be not only more productivity but safer and, hopefully, happier.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post The Future Of Work: Augmentation Vs Full Automation appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

A revolutionary fullstack solution that enables non-technical business users to automate end-to-end business processes quickly, easily and in a scalable manner has been revealed. The solution, called ANTstein SQUARE, will become the industry’s first integrated automation platform (IAP) of its kind. This multitenancy tool allows for maximum bot utilisation, understands all types of data, and provides customers with a one-stop solution for data curation and building, deploying and managing an AI-enabled smart digital workforce.

The company behind such advanced technology is AntWorks, a provider of artificial intelligence and intelligent automation solutions powered by fractal science. “ANTstein SQUARE automates the entire business process – not just discrete tasks. The focus at AntWorks has always been to deliver straight-through processing for clients, which then can deliver real and accountable business cases. That’s unlike what Gen 1 RPA promised,” said Asheesh Mehra, AntWorks Group CEO and co-founder.

“The AntWorks ANTstein SQUARE platform curates, transports and uses machine learning simultaneously to give enterprises the seamless automation journey they are looking for,” added Mehra. “The platform addresses every data type, so businesses don’t miss out on the value of various forms of unstructured data, which account for 80% of enterprise data. The world has always measured human productivity and not measured bot productivity. ANTstein SQUARE measures how productive the bot is, and it brings in a unique cognitive responsiveness framework, multitenancy for collaborative working, failover recovery, and many more features, which will let organisations realise the true power of a seamless automation journey.”

This AntWorks solution addresses a wide variety of business verticals and horizontal applications. That includes banking, healthcare and life sciences, insurance, media and entertainment, mortgage processing, technology, telecommunications, and transportation and logistics businesses. When combined with deep domain, the fullstack allows for deep automation and process-focused industry solutions like tax accounting, title search and trade finance.

Rick Koo, digital works leader at Mercer, said, “AntWorks’ fullstack integrated automation platform is a compelling technology solution. While evaluating vendors for our digital transformation project, we were impressed with AntWorks’ capability and vision. They are great partners and are willing to go beyond in terms of commitment and effort and display total collaboration and transparency. We appreciate their strength and focus in using a business-led approach, instead of a technology-led approach, to problem solving.”

The process-focused background of AntWorks’ founders gives them a unique vantage point on automation. That is reflected in the product strategy – the product is not “a ready-made suit.”

“We understand the business process,” said Mehra. “We have created a technology stack with a process journey in mind. We focus on ease of use so our customers can consume complex technology without difficulty. And we’ve tailored the AntWorks solution for their needs across industries and processes.”

AntWorks’ early focus on data first as a strategy is playing out well in a market pivoting away from RPA and taking a holistic view of automation. “We have been focused on addressing the data challenge, as that is the fountainhead for all downstream automation in an enterprise, be it robotics or machine learning. Transforming your data into information that processes can consume lies at the heart of automation success. With ANTstein SQUARE, we have shifted the paradigm from digitisation to automated data curation,” said AntWorks COO and co-founder Govind Sandhu.

“Companies have seen the light of automation,” said Sarah Burnett, executive vice president and distinguished analyst at Everest Group. “They are automating more and more parts of their processes. These require different kinds of technologies, and AntWorks’ ANTstein brings key advanced and intelligent technologies together in one platform.”

Cognitive Machine Reading and fractal technology, a deterministic science used by respected entities such as NASA and Rolls-Royce, are central to AntWorks’ unique value proposition.

ANTstein SQUARE’s use of fractal technology allows it to rely on relatively small data sets to train the engine. Businesses benefit because smaller data sets mean higher accuracy, less infrastructure and quicker training time. First-generation neural technology-based RPA solutions require much bigger data sets. “Fractal just seems more fit for what we are trying to do,” said Mehra.

Advanced technology helps power ANTstein SQUARE, but people don’t need developer skillsets to use this solution. Anybody can create bots via a drag-and-drop process using ANTstein SQUARE’s library of 106 key pre-coded components and 257 subcomponents.

Once created, ANTstein SQUARE bots are extremely efficient. One bot can serve multiple roles. AntWorks’ multitenancy feature allows multiple bots to work simultaneously, and with humans, on a single desktop. That reduces the hardware, power and real estate resources businesses need to support their automation efforts. This model is much less resource-intensive than the first-generation RPA approach, which required one desktop for every bot.

AntWorks is pushing the industry to look beyond desktop bot-based task automation. It is bringing operations management principles like workforce management, bot productivity and business process continuity into its platform. The company’s unique architecture employs a Queen bot to analyse the bot colony. If a bot fails or is not keeping up, the queen can see that and reallocate work in real time for optimal results.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post AI Based Company AntWorks Unveils Industry’s First Fullstack Integrated Automation Platform appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.