Summary:
Hyperautomation industrialises end-to-end process automation by orchestrating multiple technologies (RPA, AI, OCR and NLP...). It accelerates execution, secures operations and sustainably reduces costs. This provides procurement and supply chain with a powerful performance lever, from the supplier cycle to logistics tracking.
Contents:
- What is hyperautomation?
- What are the key technologies of hyperautomation?
- How does hyperautomation work?
- What are the use cases for hyperautomation?
In business, automation has become essential to improve efficiency, productivity and accuracy. Today, this dynamic is moving to the next level with hyperautomation. This strategic digital transformation aims to increase automation by combining multiple technologies (RPA, AI, OCR, NLP, etc.). The idea is to automate everything that can be automated within your organisation. Applied to procurement, hyperautomation opens the way to autonomous e-procurement, capable of automatically triggering orders, analysing supplier data and orchestrating the entire procure-to-pay process without human intervention.
What is hyperautomation?
The term and notion of hyperautomation were coined by Gartner. The consultancy defines it as "a business-driven, structured approach that enables organisations to rapidly identify, evaluate and automate as many processes as possible, whether operational or IT-related. It relies on the coordinated orchestration of several technologies, tools and platforms, including: artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, event-driven software architectures, robotic process automation (RPA), business process management (BPM) and intelligent process management suites (iBPMS), integration platform as a service (iPaaS), low-code/no-code tools, packaged business software, and various other tools for automating decisions, processes and tasks."
Whilst automation operates on a small scale, on specific processes, hyperautomation thus relies on multiple tools and technologies to automate complex end-to-end processes. The objective: to create a large-scale automation mechanism within the company.
The benefits of hyperautomation are major for businesses. Business processes are streamlined, manual and repetitive tasks are executed faster, more efficiently, and with fewer errors. This enables both productivity gains, cost reductions and improved employee experience.
This approach is key in procurement and supply chain roles with high automation potential. Quentin Burès, Customer Data Manager at Manutan Group, reminds us: "It should be noted that buyers still spend nearly three quarters of their time on purely transactional or operational activities. They therefore need to initiate rationalisation and automation strategies in order to gain efficiency and, ultimately, be able to focus on more strategic tasks."
What are the key technologies of hyperautomation?
Hyperautomation relies on a whole range of versatile technologies: process mining, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, optical character recognition and natural language processing.
Process Mining
Process mining visualises and analyses processes in a company, based on factual data. This technology highlights inefficiencies and potential optimisations, enabling hyperautomation projects to be prioritised.
Robotic process automation
Robotic process automation (RPA) relies on software robots that execute standardised processes by following simple rules. It is often the first building block of hyperautomation projects.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) enable systems to learn from data, predict outcomes and make autonomous decisions. They enhance RPA to handle complex and unstructured processes.
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition (OCR) transforms scanned documents into textual data. This tool prepares non-digital flows for hyperautomation by extracting the necessary data.
Natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) enables machines to understand, analyse and generate human language. This extends hyperautomation to unstructured content such as emails or reports.
How does hyperautomation work?
To implement hyperautomation, the company must follow a rigorous approach. This is based on three main stages: process analysis, solution deployment and continuous monitoring.
Step 1: Process analysis
The first step consists of identifying and prioritising the processes that need to be automated within the company using process mining. Time-consuming, repetitive tasks based on clear rules are the best candidates.
E-procurement with Manutan
In procurement, the Procure-to-Pay process has tremendous automation potential, ranging from 77% to 93% depending on the various tasks. To initiate a hyperautomation approach, e-procurement solutions are therefore an ideal playground. At Manutan, we are able to connect to virtually all marketplaces, in record time (service available in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Portugal, at date of content publication).
Step 2: Solution deployment
Next, it is a matter of selecting the right technological solution(s). In some cases, it will be necessary to combine several. RPA for manual tasks, AI to improve decision-making, etc.
Step 3: Continuous monitoring
Lastly, it is essential to monitor the automation implemented. Business process management solutions, through continuous monitoring of associated indicators, ensure proper process execution. This enables rapid identification of any potential bottlenecks.
What are the use cases for hyperautomation?
Within the supply chain and procurement, the capabilities of hyperautomation are particularly interesting. From supplier life cycle management to delivery tracking, there are many use cases.
Supplier management
The supplier life cycle can be considerably automated. By relying on key performance and compliance indicators, advanced solutions can continuously assess suppliers and trigger appropriate corrective actions.
Expenditure optimisation
Hyperautomation can also optimise expenditure analysis. From in-depth market analysis, intelligent tools can recommend procurement strategies that go beyond simple cost savings to focus on value creation.
Demand forecasting
By collecting and analysing data, a robot can predict demand. Inventory is updated and adjusted to actual needs, thanks to efficient, predictive and real-time monitoring. This facilitates planning and anticipates stockouts.
Tracking and delivery
Hyperautomation can indicate the precise delivery time of an order, and even warn a customer in case of delay. It is also possible to optimise fleet management based on traffic information, analysed in real time.
Hyperautomation enables companies to gain efficiency, agility and quality in their operations. Especially as this dynamic is developing at the same pace as technological solutions are evolving. For organisations, it is the beginning of a new era in order to maintain their competitive advantage.
