Automation Islands: About Bridges and Footbridges

What good is the best automation if it sits on a lonely island in the middle of your company? Why it's much better for you and your company to build bridges and footbridges between your automation islands is what we'll show you in this article.

In many companies, these islands exist and many employees are used to getting wet feet on their journeys between islands. Now we know from physics class that resistance in water is much higher than in air. And that's exactly why it's worth building a footbridge over the water: less resistance = faster and easier!

In fact, the current state of automation in many companies is characterized by many small and larger islands. Some employees live on Island A, a few more on Island B, and so on. Occasionally someone ventures from Island A to Island B. And often enough, an adventurous journey with an uncertain outcome still begins today.

Automating IT processes is an important step for any company that wants to improve its efficiency and productivity. However, a common challenge is silo thinking. Silo thinking describes the tendency of departments to keep processes and information to themselves and not share them with other departments. This can lead to automation projects not achieving the desired success.

Here are 5 recommendations for successfully overcoming silo automation:

1 - Build Bridges

It's important to overcome silo thinking by fostering a company-wide culture of collaboration and integration. Introducing an end-to-end automation strategy can help departments share their processes and work together to achieve a common goal.

2 - Establish a Bridge Network

Don't just start automating individual silos, but look at the entire business process and automate it from start to finish. This ensures that the process is continuous and has no gaps.

3 - Bamboo Instead of Iron Bridges

Start with a simple process that doesn't span too many silos and can be automated quickly. This ensures that the automation project delivers results quickly and motivates participants to automate more processes.

4 - Ask the Inhabitants of Your Islands About Their Needs

Evaluate the process from the stakeholders' perspective, especially from the end users' point of view. This helps identify possible problems and improvement opportunities.

5 - Draw a Plan of Your Bridge Before Starting Construction

Create a digital representation of the process by digitizing the workflow and eliminating media breaks. This ensures that the process is fully automated.

Conclusion

Automated islands remain islands and don't exploit the full potential of automation. Holistic orchestration – so to speak, the city map of your holistically connected islands or IT processes – makes sense to optimally use the benefits of your bridge network. Just think of Venice.

To master the challenges, companies should work closely with experienced bridge-building experts who help with planning and implementation. With FLOWSTER as an experienced architect, you get everything from a single source – from conception to execution to maintenance and operation.