A third of IT leaders say cost is an automation roadblock

But more than half are keen to pursue it anyway

One of the major barriers both driving and standing in the way of business process automation (BPA) adoption is complexity, but equally important is the financial roadblock: cost. While complexity makes it difficult to use automated systems due to a lack of skills, high costs mean that can be equally hard to get those systems in place.

As many as a third of IT leaders told us that there was simply no budget in their business for automation projects, and 14 per cent said that there was no business case. Without a solid business case, securing managerial buy-in to get budget approved is almost impossible.

"We have many areas that would benefit from automation but with reduced budgets and staff resources it is difficult to conceive, develop and deliver automation," said one survey participant.

It is a shame that budgets and executive buy-in are so difficult to secure, as more than half of IT leaders said that their organisations stand to gain a benefit from automation.

53 per cent of respondents said that they could either see the value of existing automation projects and were keen to pursue more (36 per cent), or that the business case was obvious and clearly laid out (17 per cent). About a third, 32 per cent, were still in the assessment phase of their automation roadmap, and only 16 per cent did not know or did not see any value to be gained from automation.

Automation can lower costs by saving employees time and enabling them to take on higher-value activities. The knock-on effect is more efficient, faster processes, improved data analysis and fewer mistakes. So why do 16 per cent think that costs are a roadblock?

It is possible that these objections mask cultural barriers. Executives may question the need to adopt BPA (taking an ‘If it isn't broken, why fix it?' approach), or raise concerns about the cost of scrapping established legacy tools..

In reality, there are likely to be a variety of factors leading to a lack of budget for BPA projects - but the fact remains that organisations are increasingly trying to find the money for them. To lower their costs, instead of hiring expensive experts themselves, many are turning to service companies that offer on-demand access to the specialised skills needed for managing the complexities that this research - also presented in our white paper on the topic - has highlighted. Cloud technologies are also expanding their market share across multiple aspects of IT infrastructure, not least because of their cost-efficiency and predictable cost structures.

The only constant is change, and whilst in some cases a compelling business case for automation cannot be established today, that is unlikely to remain the case indefinitely.