The concept of business process automation has been known for a long time. At its core lies the transfer of relatively simple and repetitive processes to digital tools, algorithms, and robots, which frees employees from routine work and increases the speed and accuracy of its execution. But what is hyper-automation, and what are its differences and advantages for businesses?

Hyperautomation

In essence, hyperautomation represents automation on a grander scale, tackling more intricate tasks and utilizing a wider array of technologies. Coined by Gartner, hyperautomation is a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. This signifies a push for automating all feasible processes within an organization, encompassing complex, ever-evolving, and cognitive tasks that traditional tools cannot handle, necessitating an array of advanced technologies like AI/ML, event-driven software architecture, and more.

Difference Between Hyperautomation and "Regular" Automation

It is crucial to highlight that hyperautomation not only brings about benefits such as time savings, reduced labor costs, and error minimization but also significantly enhances businesses' data utilization capabilities. It not only streamlines daily decision-making processes but also paves the way for automating strategic decisions in the future.

The importance of hyperautomation lies in its ability to meet the incessant need for accelerated growth through business model innovation or disruption, coupled with operational excellence across all processes and functions. Simply put, businesses striving for continuous improvement cannot afford to overlook the power of hyperautomation.

Furthermore, hyperautomation offers a strong competitive edge to businesses by:

• Speed: drastically reducing decision-making time and boosting overall business productivity.
• Accuracy: minimizing errors in data entry and processing.
• Superior customer experience: providing fast and precise service where employees take on more of a communication role.
• Optimization of labor efforts: enabling employees to focus on crucial projects that require a human touch rather than mundane tasks.
• Process improvement: implementing fusion-team-led approaches geared towards achieving outcomes rather than inputs.
• Full realization of data potential: leveraging AI and ML to unlock previously untapped opportunities for data processing and analysis.

These benefits underscore the distinction between hyperautomation and standard automation, emphasizing its importance for modern businesses seeking additional advantages beyond just cost reduction.

Hyperautomation in CPG Retail Execution

Picture a scenario where the sales department is overseen by a Private Large Language Model that consolidates the company's best practices. Operating akin to autopilot, it constantly monitors millions of processes, always making optimal decisions and actions, and continuously learning and evolving. This vision becomes a reality through the hyperautomation of the management cycle, encompassing data collection and analytics, decision-making, implementation, and ongoing evaluation.

By automating the management cycle, the sales team can focus their efforts on their core strengths: engaging in negotiations, nurturing customer relationships, and being on the ground. Think of it as autopilot for CPG sales managers - the Command Center AI by Spring Global.

Here are a few more examples of how hyperautomation can be used in retail execution:

• NPD: Manual launch strategy development is no longer necessary. Selection of sales channels, distribution plans, marketing initiatives, promotional activities, and pricing strategy – this entire process can be fully automated using AI/ML analytics based on historical data and analysis of the current situation.
• Assortment management: The ML engine automatically analyzes the company's assortment KPIs across different channels, store types and classes, finds patterns and generates recommended optimal product lists for each store.
• The ML engine: automatically tracks plan execution, identifies problem areas and their causes, generates recommendations, and offers brand books down to each location, which may include local promo campaigns, improving shelf share, introducing new products, or improving OSA.
• Team training and development: Analyzing the KPIs of team members, benchmarking their performance against store metrics, and providing tailored recommendations for skill development through individualized training and coaching programs.

Automating these tasks is only possible with powerful ML models, which require high-quality and complete data to train, which could be a barrier hindering the hyperautomation process that businesses must address.

The Journey to Hyperautomation 

Embarking on the path to hyperautomation is not without its challenges. Beyond ensuring data quality, companies must navigate through siloed automation approaches, a scarcity of skilled resources, substantial investments in technological upgrades, and the imperative need for a robust security infrastructure.

To overcome these challenges, organizations need to adopt a steadfast long-term strategy, understanding that hyperautomation is a gradual journey that requires years of commitment and a meticulously planned roadmap. By starting with clearly defined objectives and launching a few simultaneous projects, companies can pave the way for ongoing automation of critical processes.

Successful hyperautomation calls for a comprehensive approach that includes strategic planning, technology implementation, and organizational preparedness. Beginning with well-defined goals and progressively expanding automation efforts, businesses can improve operational efficiency and achieve superior business results. Our experience in implementing Command Center AI for clients has shown how this AI-powered management tool transforms sales data into actionable intelligence, revolutionizing sales management through enhanced expertise, in-depth sales process analysis, and proactive operations.

Just like autopilot for CPG sales managers, Command Center AI monitors all processes through 360° dashboards, providing valuable insights, setting targets and forecasts at the store level, crafting tailored strategies for diverse situations, taking necessary actions, and evaluating performance. This automated management cycle elevates the efficiency of the sales team and enhances the quality of retail execution to achieve the highest competitive standards.