Change management strategies for automation
Successfully introducing automation to an organization requires buy-in from all stakeholders, including senior management
An automation-friendly company culture should be considered essential when introducing transformative technologies. These were the views of Arpita Saha, head of business process automation at MaxLife Insurance, and Dr Anand Kulkarni, director of operations process automation at Elsevier, who shared their strategies at PEX Live: Digital Process Automation 2022.
Saha outlined the major considerations for a change management and customer-focused introduction of automation within the context of an insurance company, which started with preparing the organization for change by “explaining the value of automation”. This included how it would generate business, what benefits it would bring to customers and how to ensure the impact on employees was considered.
Kulkarni said that setting expectations for introducing automation started with senior management before “building partnerships” across departments such as technology, finance, operations and procurement. He added that balancing short-term expectations – including the finance department’s need for a return on investment – with long-term expectations – including the technology department’s drive for building permanent solutions – was important to organization-wide acceptance of change.
