Automation.
8.01.23
The modern workplace is rapidly changing, and it’s bringing a shiny new addition to the C-suite. The Chief Automation Officer (CAO) sits alongside the CEO, COO, and CFO (among a few others), and deals directly with automation technologies like robotic process automation (RPA). These are the digital advancements that are transforming businesses by removing the burden of manual processes like invoicing, data entry, and inventory management, letting employees focus their time on higher-value tasks.
A CAO can lead this transformation. If your business is just starting out with this technology, it is essential to have a senior business leader with the experience and knowledge to set the path. They can also educate your workforce on the realities of automation, particularly that it does not replace human jobs, but rather complements and enhances them.
If you’re pushing ahead with RPA tech in your business (and it really is the smart move), you might consider bringing in some help.
So, what is a CAO? And do you really need one, or are you better off exploring other options? Read on to find out.
The purpose of automation is to make doing business easier. By removing repetitive tasks, lowering error rates, and creating a role that works 24/7, businesses can see a huge spectrum of benefits. Just like a major financial decision or a new operational strategy, the move to automation benefits from experience and guidance. This is the role of the Chief Automation Officer.
Like their C-suite counterparts, the CAO drives business-wide strategy, provides management of internal teams, and ensures that their focus area lines up with the business’s other goals. For instance, a CAO might recommend certain tech providers or technologies, help create new teams and assign roles, manage the transition (including hiring and reassigning tasks), and work to achieve certain growth goals. Of course, these responsibilities could be fulfilled using another type of investment… but we’ll get to that in a moment.
The role of CAO is new but in-demand. For businesses that are serious about making true organisational change, having the experience and leadership of a CAO can be invaluable.
There’s a lot of work involved in any C-suite role, and the CAO is no different. The tasks of the CAO can include (but are not limited to):
The emergence of the CAO role in large organisations is evidence of the impact of automation on progressive businesses and their investment in this area. Consider a few of the major benefits:
Manual processes are often tedious, time-consuming, and require a large output of effort for a small reward. For rule-based tasks, automation can achieve the same outcomes as human workers in less time, letting employees focus on more challenging tasks.
Humans make mistakes, and that’s okay. The problem is when humans complete rote tasks like invoicing or inventory reporting, even small errors can make large issues. Automation means accuracy, and that’s great for business.
When automated technology completes a job, it keeps track of itself. What this means is, if something goes wrong or some element of a task needs double-checking, it’s easy to look at the program’s audit trail and find what you need.
When human-performed tasks grow, we have to hire or upskill other humans to do them. While this can be clunky for a rapidly-growing business, automated technology has the stretch to scale up at will.
It’s fair to say that automation doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with C-suite-level executives. Not every business that’s looking to improve its manual processes or save time on routine tasks will have the capacity for a CAO.
Particularly for smaller businesses, what you’re really looking for in a CAO-style role is someone to manage the transition, make sure you’re on the right track, provide education, and steer the technology. These are tasks that can certainly be performed by a business leader, but you’re also looking at a full-time employee who commands a big salary (in many cases) and will have some quite particular ideas about how your business should operate. There is, however, another option:
You know about RPA, but how about RPAaaS? That’s robotic process automation as a service, and it means letting external experts like The Missing Link do much of the heavy lifting for you.
With RPAaaS, automation pros manage the technology, how it’s implemented, and the level of service without your business having to hire for a new role. There’s no commitment to new hardware (RPA operates from the cloud), no change in management structure and, most of all, the reliability of a well-respected external contractor.
Beyond these benefits, a managed service provider (MSP) can also:
We believe our results speak volumes about the benefits of RPAaaS. If you’re on the fence about how to achieve your automation goals, consider some of The Missing Link’s successes:
So do you need a CAO? There are plenty of reasons they can be helpful: experience, expertise, top-down management skills, in-house leadership. But, not every business that can benefit from automation necessarily needs or wants to add an extra layer to its leadership.
Instead, we find that RPAaaS provides the same experience and specific knowledge without the hassle of hiring and the potential conflict that a new leader can provide. You get resilient, cloud-based automation delivered by a team with a proven track record, the capacity to grow and, best of all, all of the benefits of automation. And we think that’s something that every business can benefit from.
Keen to learn more about RPA? Get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you.
Author
Matt Dunn
Head of Automation
