ServiceNow Study shows that 2018 is the Year of Automation for Routine Enterprise Work

ServiceNow Study shows that 2018 is the Year of Automation for
Routine Enterprise Work

Singapore
companies believe that highly automated companies are 6 times more likely to
experience revenue growth of more than 15%

SINGAPORE – May 12, 2017 – ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) today released the results of a new report, “Today’s
State of Work: At the Breaking Point,” revealing that a majority of
organizations have introduced advanced automation in their workplace, and
nearly half of executives surveyed say that they’ll require it more broadly by
2018 to cope with rising work volumes.  The survey indicated that adding
machines to everyday work drives
revenue growth, creates new job opportunities and connects employees back to
the work they want to do.

The company surveyed more than 1,850 corporate
leaders – C-level, VPs, directors and managers – in seven countries to evaluate
the workload of organizational leaders, the impact and use of automation in
common business services and executives’ opinions on the future of work. 
The survey also evaluated the relationship between organizational automation
levels and financial performance.

The findings include:

Companies are approaching a breaking point and
urgently need intelligent automation

·         By 2018,
nearly half (48%) of companies say they will need greater automation
to handle the volume of tasks being generated.  By 2020, nearly 9 out of
10 companies (90%) will hit that breaking point.

·         More
than three-quarters 89% say data from mobile devices and the Internet of Things
contribute to the overload.

·         97%
agree that intelligent automation could increase productivity. This includes
artificial intelligence or machine learning to streamline decision making to
improve the speed and accuracy of business processes.

·         Over
half of those surveyed 54% have started using intelligent automation in
one or more business processes. 90% plan to investigate or use intelligent
automation moving forward.

“There is no doubt that we are entering into a
new era of automation. In a world of smarter homes, cars and commerce, the
workplace is set to experience the shift to greater automation. The future of
intelligent automation is an opportunity to free employees from mundane and
repetitive activities – allowing employees to unleash their creativity, letting
them build stronger and more productive working relationships”, said Jimmy
Fitzgerald, Vice President and General Manager, Asia-Pacific and Japan.

More automation delivers financial growth and
promises greater productivity

·         Highly
automated companies are 6x more likely to experience revenue growth of more
than 15% versus companies with low automation.

·         For
example, those companies with more than 20% revenue growth are 61% automated on
average, whereas those with flat or negative growth are only 35% automated.

“There are economic benefits when companies
embrace automation and this is something they can’t ignore,” said Fitzgerald.

Fewer than half of business processes are
automated; HR and Customer Service are the worst.

·         Overall
only 39% of business processes are automated, and business leaders suffer, spending
two full days or 16 hours a week on manual administrative tasks.

·         IT
support is the best Purchase order requisitions is the best (51%) at business
process efficiency, while Human Resources (HR) Requesting contract review and
approval from legal is the worst (15%) is the worst. IT was named the
department “most in need of a reboot.”

·         Specifically,
only (38%) of HR delivery of employee services are automated and (28%) of
resolving customer issues are, compared to IT services at (46%) automated,
leaving room for improvement across the board.

Executives believe automation can create jobs
despite employees’ fears of job losses

·         A
strong majority (84%) of execs believe automation could lead to job
creation.

·         With
a similar majority (86%) of execs saying that employees are worried that
automation will eliminate jobs.

·         The
top three obstacles to automation adoption include: Committing the resources
(budget and personnel) required, employees’ resistance to change and concerns
about eliminating jobs. Committing the resources (budget and personnel)
required, too much time required to implement automation, concerns about
eliminating jobs.

“Contrary to popular belief, automation will
create more meaning jobs and a large majority of Singapore executives
understand this.  Companies will then need to develop and evolve their
teams’ skills to help them thrive in an automated world”, said Fitzgerald.

Adding
machines frees up employees to do the work
they want to do — spurring creativity

·         Nearly
half (46%) say that work levels have increased by 20% or more in the last year

·         90%
of executives say their skilled employees spend too much time on admin tasks.

·         95%
believe that reducing mundane tasks unleashes employee creativity.

·         86% find
it difficult to hire people with skills needed to grow their business.

·         95% say automation
will increase demand for soft skills such as collaboration, creative
problem solving and communication. 

“Employees we have surveyed feel like they are
working an extra day a week,” said Fitzgerald. “By introducing intelligent
automation into the workplace, employees will be freed up to focus on their
passions and deliver creative and innovative work.”

Recommendations:

To avoid hitting the breaking point,
ServiceNow has recommendations for executives. Start here:

1.       Identify
business processes that need improving in HR, customer service, IT or other
departments

2.       Map
out the critical business services and automate the workloads with intelligent
automation

3.       Work
with teams to address concerns and provide reassurance for your roadmap 

4.       Employ
best practices around change management

5.       Develop
and evolve the team’s skills to help them thrive in an automated world

Additional
Resources

·         Here is an
infographic on this survey data.

·         See
the prior surveys for additional insight to these themes:  from 2016,“Today’s State of Work: The Service Experience Gap”
and from 2015, “Today’s State of Work: The Productivity Drain.”

Survey
Methodology

ServiceNow
commissioned Lawless Research to design and conduct a study about the state of
work in companies with 500 or more employees. The 10-minute online survey was
fielded between March 20 and April 7, 2017, in Australia, France, Germany,
Mexico, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.  A total of 1,874 executives (who
are responsible for managing all or part of the company) completed the survey.
Survey Sampling International provided respondents from their B2B panel. Tests
of significance were conducted at the .01 level (99% probability that the
difference is real, not by chance).