Are You Ready For Automation?

Co-authored with Ashlea Faulkner

Automation is the use of technology to perform manual and repetitive tasks. Automation can range from simple tools like mail merges or online forms to more complex systems like robotic process automation (RPA) or artificial intelligence (AI).

Automation can bring many benefits to not-for-profit organisations, such as saving time, reducing errors, improving quality, freeing up staff for more strategic or creative work and achieving financial sustainability. This article will explore what not-for-profit organisations need to consider before adopting automation and how they can foster an innovation mindset to embrace new opportunities and overcome challenges.

Is your organisation ready?

Before embarking on an automation project, several factors need to be considered.

What are you trying to achieve?

Planning is key to a successful project, so document the project’s overall purpose. What are you hoping automation will bring to the organisation? Are you looking to free up time for staff, improve quality or consistency or allow your organisation to scale without increasing headcount?

Change management will play a vital role in any automation project, so communicate your vision to the organisation.

Data

Data is the fuel that powers automation. Without reliable, accurate, and relevant data, automation cannot function effectively or deliver the desired outcomes.

This means that before implementing an automated process, you will need to think about the system or software that you use to collect and maintain your data. Can this database be accessed easily to retrieve data when required? Are all your records up to date, or are you missing data points? Your main database should be a source of truth that can be relied upon by all staff within your organisation. This can only happen when your data is clean and well maintained.

Processes

Automation can help streamline and optimise processes by eliminating manual tasks, reducing errors, increasing speed, and improving consistency. However, it will also require your organisation to review and redesign your processes to ensure that they are suitable and compatible with the automation you want to implement.

Before implementing automation, it is best practice to map and document all your current processes. This includes documenting all the inputs, outputs, activities, roles and dependencies for processes that are used across your organisation. Once complete, you will be able to identify any pain points, bottlenecks or redundancies that could potentially be minimised or eliminated through automation.

Skills

Successfully implementing automation within your organisation will require specialist knowledge and skills. These skills include project management, process mapping, automation design and development and change management. There may be people working in your organisation currently that have some skills that you can leverage, you may need to hire new people with the skills you need or outsource the project to a third party.

You will also need to think about the role team members will play in your organisation after automation has been implemented. You may need to redeploy staff within the organisation or offer training to staff to help them to develop new skills that will be more valuable to your organisation in the future.

Budget

There are many different automation products and some of them are quite easy to access. There are pros and cons associated with the various products out there, so it is important to understand what you are trying to achieve. Software like UiPath, Automation Anywhere or Blue Prism are great for automating legacy systems or software within Citrix environments, but they are also expensive. You will need to be sure you will get a return on your investment.

Microsoft’s products may already be available to you if you have an Office 365 license. Its offering may not interact as readily with legacy systems but if your systems are primarily cloud based then this will be less of an issue. Perhaps there are some off-the-shelf products that you could use in the interim to introduce automation into your organisation. If you are using a cloud-based accounting system, such as Xero, you could introduce a new automated accounts payable and approval process using integrated add-ons.

Although there is an outlay with automation and AI tools, the cost will be offset by the return on investment from using these tools. There will also be a benefit from being able to deploy your staff to work in other areas, that will help you to realise the strategy for your organisation. Investment in automation and AI should be financially sustainable.

Innovation Mindset

An innovation mindset is crucial in achieving financial sustainability; it is an attitude and approach that enables people to embrace and drive change by being open, curious, creative, and adaptable. Fostering a culture of innovation could help your organisation leverage technology to improve its impact and efficiency by enabling it to identify and seize new opportunities, solve problems, and overcome challenges, which will help drive financial sustainability.

This requires organisations to nurture a culture and environment that supports and encourages innovation by fostering collaboration, experimentation, and learning.

Automation is a powerful and transformative technology that can help not-for-profit organisations improve their impact and efficiency by streamlining and optimising their processes. To successfully implement automation, organisations need to consider and prepare for the changes and challenges it will bring and be clear on what they are trying to achieve. Automation will require organisations to foster a culture of innovation and embrace and drive change. By doing so, organisations can leverage automation to create new value and opportunities for themselves and their stakeholders and achieve their mission, their vision and financial sustainability.

This article was first published in the 2024 Better Boards Conference Magazine.

Further Resources

The Board’s Role in Purchasing and Monitoring Business Systems

Scaling Impact Through Cross-Sector Partnerships: A Spotlight on Shared Value

The Board Portal: An essential part of your boardroom?