Automation can be the key differentiator for medium-sized businesses looking to scale, especially in industries suffering skill shortages, says Traverse Automation CEO John O’Neill.
He highlights that having an automated team that works 24/7 and never makes mistakes enables existing staff to pick up tasks that matter and look after customers. “This saving in operational cost and this boost in efficiency allows the business to grow.”
Automation can reduce administrative workload across finance and reporting, which are typically very labour-intensive.
Traverse believes that investment in automation has been historically neglected due to the traditional growth reaction. O’Neill added: “Sales grow, and companies hire more administrative staff. They grow even more and invest in more sales individuals until the business gets to a certain size and then they invest in COO/CFOs to come in to try to improve the business by implementing new systems and cleaning data.
“If companies implement automation early, it puts them in a scalable position from the start. When you don’t invest in automation, you’re not investing in your future business.”
AI will also bring more opportunities in this realm, according to Traverse. “It is being used in a lot of technology out there already but what people don't always realise is just how quickly AI has accelerated over the last six months, said O’Neill.
“It is now possible to automate low-volume complex tasks as well as simple bulk tasks and this is a complete game changer in terms of the amount of tasks that can now be automated.”
