I had so many great conversations around hyperautomation at the European Power Platform Conference (EPPC), but too much of the chat centred around out of date scepticism and false assumptions: Automation is slow to bring value and we’ve had our fingers burned before; you couldn’t automate what we do; Microsoft Power Platform is only for small, simple personal productivity processes, not complex enterprise workflows.

I was surprised that very few people knew how hyperautomation can reimagine complex processes end-to-end and create a compelling value multiplier - for people and the bottom line. What’s possible today against even a year ago is incredible. So, I thought it was time to bust some myths!

Myth 1: Hyperautomation is a fancy name for RPA
There are so many definitions of hyperautomation, and its cousin intelligent automation, but for Avanade it’s far from just RPA. It’s the application of automation technologies across end-to-end value chains. It’s not a specific technology, platform, or a one-off project. Hyperautomation is a business problem led approach. It reimagines, changes and standardises processes, optimises, streamlines and automates them to deliver value. It does this by viewing processes in context of the business, asking what steps came before and come after, and systematically applying the right technologies to streamline and automate as many processes as possible across the entire organisation.

Using an integrated suite of tools and data sources, it blends advanced analytics, process mining, chatbots, IoT, cognitive AI, machine learning, intelligent OCR, RPA, application development, and other solutions to extend automation across the value chain, more easily and at lower cost.

Myth 2: Automation doesn’t deliver value
Early automation has a negative reputation; lots of money spent, difficult projects; minimal benefit. In contrast, the strategic ambition of hyperautomation - to reimagine business processes and embed automation everywhere - bakes in a massive multiplier effect for business value. You can realise cost and time savings in a very meaningful way.

Life moves fast, organisations grow and evolve at pace. To make automation investment worthwhile the business case should deliver ROI within 12 - 18 months. Microsoft Power Automate’s lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and strong ROI (Forrester Total Economic Impact of Power Automate) enables far more processes to fall within the ROI payback window. Avanade’s accelerators and use of pre-built connectors means development can be done better and faster - further amplifying the sum and speed of return.

Doing more with less is the other big win. Hyperautomation is about freeing your people from repetitive work and helping them focus on more complex responsibilities. In a time when hiring and retaining talent is tough it can differentiate both the customer and employee experience. You just need to make sure you have a benefit realisation plan in place, a strategy to harvest the created free time!

Myth 3: You can’t use Power Platform for complex enterprise processes
This is a big misconception. Some of your most complex, unique processes turn out to be the best candidates for hyperautomation. The full Power Platform suite presents a familiar user interface with pick and mix functionality for pro-dev and citizen low-code users, helping to foster collaboration, sharing, and repurposing all with the right governance in place. A perfect foundation for hyperautomation creativity within any enterprise.

AI has a big role to play within hyper automation, but turning AI opportunity into a credible business case can be a challenge. Our approach provides a practical way to use AI responsibly in processes that deliver business value. Grounded in diverse, secure and trusted data - your AI assistant or chat bot will be looking to the right sources of information to provide legitimate answers.

The Avanade unified control room for Power Platform enables central visibility, management and scheduling. All together, Power Automate and Generative AI can handle complex logic to make the right decisions in some of your most complex processes.

Myth 4: Hyperautomation is a job taker
Hyperautomation is about freeing up capacity within your organisation. I’ve seen lots of value add, I’ve seen people’s jobs become more interesting, I’ve seen teams create the bandwidth to deliver new services. Weaving automation, AI and human decision making together so that each adds the most value means your teams can make better decisions faster, it means your people will be addressing those tricky edge cases rather than the day-to-day, it means they can focus on innovation and drive growth long-term. Hyperautomation helps your humans, its purpose is not to get rid of them.

Myth 5: It’s hard to get started
No, it’s very easy to start but it can be hard to find the processes that will deliver most benefit. Opportunity identification is key for us - through a top-down bottom-up approach we find the pain and potential for gain. We look for buy-in from the C-suite, so the business is engaged. We use proven tools, to systematically look at processes and findwhere the best business cases lay. People on the ground know how their time is spent, so we use ideation portals and related apps to gather feedback, watch trends and identify candidate processes for automation.

I’m hoping to ‘myth bust’ all year until the next EPPC when I hope the conversation will have moved on. Armed with the right platform and partner, with planning and diligent execution, hyperautomation transforms processes and people. I often start by asking clients, ‘If you had a magic bullet that meant you could do anything what would you change?’ Hyperautomation makes those dreamlike ambitions possible.

If you’d like to start that conversation and explore the art of the possible, contact us to see how we can help.