This article was originally published in The Telegraph.

If organisations are to be future-ready, data and intelligence must permeate their core. Digital transformation is no longer a competitive advantage but a necessity: According to a recent survey by Avanade, supported by research from MIT, nearly all IT decision-makers (96pc) say they have a transformation strategy.

Transforming your organisation means moving away from embedded legacy technology to modern systems to help you be ready for the future. That can be scary.

Intelligent automation (IA) and robotic process automation (RPA) can help you get there faster and more efficiently. Think of them as part of a new workforce, freeing your biggest asset – your people – from inefficient, boring tasks so they can focus on higher-value, more impactful activities.

These technologies have a lot of definitions. For Avanade, IA combines machine learning, cognitive services, virtual agents, and workflow automation, for example.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) enablers, intelligent automation can drive an intelligent, future-ready business. With humans and IA technology correctly aligned, organisations are accelerating transformation, maximising business process productivity and achieving competitive differentiation. While digital transformation is a clear priority, there is no single path to success because companies are not starting from the same point.

Researchers at the MIT Centre for Information Systems Research (CISR) identify two crucial features of business transformations using digital capabilities: operational efficiency and customer experiences. Every organisation will have a starting point for their journey based on building scale and efficiencies, and customer and employee experiences, via a route of innovation. But regardless of the path, three common elements cannot be ignored: strategy, change and culture. These serve as the checks and balances to an embedded and empowered future-ready business.

In the CISR research, future-ready enterprises are driving success across both efficiencies and experiences. However, Avanade believes organisations that deeply infuse intelligence and automation to drive efficiencies and experiences are only part of the way to being future-ready.

To succeed in generating new revenue streams and expanding their market positions, organisations need to optimise their operations, and infuse intelligence into their processes. This will not be successful without the support of an innovation-at-will culture, and an empowered employee workforce.

The upside of becoming future ready is also significant. Similar to Avanade’s findings, the CISR finds that companies that substantially complete their transformations have margins 16 percentage points above their industry’s average.

Leveraging more than 4,200 business excellence and intelligent automation experts, Avanade is ready to help you transform.

We provide clients with access to intelligent automation capabilities at scale and can help you get started with a strategic advisory workshop to meet you where you are, and discover your path for successful transformation to a future-ready business.

Learn more about adopting intelligent automation technology for your organization.