More digital doesn’t mean less human – the changes in operations management

Customer digital expectations are rising in every industry both in terms of products and services but also indirectly with regards to the speed, accuracy, productivity and convenience that going digital makes possible.

The majority of organisations are now balancing the investment in traditional operations with the larger investment in digital operations. This means an even greater need for the operation management with responsiveness and transparency that digital demands.

To fully exploit the advantages of a digital operation, organisations will continue to depend on people as the more mundane tasks are automated. Early data suggest that human skills are actually becoming more critical in the digital word. One of the reasons for this demand is the human capacity of providing thoughtful advice.

As tasks are being automated for example, in the insurance sector where claim submission over a smartphone is now a norm, or in the finance sector, where investor savings are fully automated and regulated by software.

This is where a human touch becomes a competitive advantage and calm guidance for the customer perhaps after an accident or professional financial advice is seen as an added bonus.

This also leads to restructured operations management towards more digital operations. Once limited to repetitive tasks, automation (thanks to AI and robotics) is capable of processing increasingly more complex tasks. For example, OPX supports the end-to-end processes from the digital capture of incoming work, back office workforce optimisation, smart work allocation, robotic process automation (RPA) to the automated output of digital customer communications. This means the role of the human in the back office is changing freeing agents to undertake more complex and arguably higher value tasks.

In the insurance industry this could mean that for example, a claim adjuster might use their judgement on the amount of compensation once a robot has checked that the claim has been completed correctly. Once that process is established, the insurer may want to refine the process by adding some new tasks to be undertaken automatically.

There is no question that digital innovations are transforming the management of operations, making it more effective. As per OPX example, thanks to the continually updated dashboards, managers can adjust both agents and robot’s workload instantly dependent on availability and skills based on real-time data analysis that provides them with a better insight to make adjustments.

Transforming operations management for a digital world report points out that the biggest breakthrough come from the biggest commitment: to embrace digital innovation and operations-management discipline at the same time.

Acquiring new talent and matching the right skills is hard enough at the individual level and requires lots of testing and learning. OPX reduces customer complaints and delivers real change in workforce management, ensuring automated tasks and individual skills are best utilised to improve the customer experience. The integrated Management Information and Quality Assurance modules track what your people are achieving in real-time, and highlights skills and training opportunities.

Find out how OPX can integrate with your existing system, automate processes and streamline your back-office operations to support your operations management. Get in touch today.