Are you a Dinosaur?

"Dinosaurs had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction." - Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park. 1993

When you think of that question you will either have a picture in your head of the large, toothy reptile species long extinct or something that is outdated or obsolete due to failure to adapt to changing circumstance. Maybe you don’t see yourself falling into either description but you should ask what are you doing to survive the technical evolution?


Back in their era, dinosaurs existed for upwards of 165 years. Things were simple and evolution was slow. In today’s tech savvy world evolution can pass you by in as little as a year and the reason is because businesses want to be ahead of evolution. The term dinosaur relates more to business practice now than it does to our lost lizard inhabitants.


Lost Time

One of the most common practices associated with the ‘dinosaur’ tag is mass paperwork and spreadsheet use in the workplace. “We have always done it this way” is the battle cry of the dying breed which may as well be spelling out “We are losing time and money due to our antiquated systems and methods.”


The more forward-thinking directors among us are looking at what their employees should be doing and could be doing if they were not constantly correcting figures on an excel spreadsheet.


With more and more companies moving into the realm of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) which can handle a business’s mundane and repetitive tasks, statistics show that these companies are making more money and have increased productivity, without adding to the staff headcount.


Moving Ahead in the World

So why are dinosaurs afraid of evolving like others? Its fair to assume that most directors start up their businesses because they feel they were ahead of the herd or had something unique to offer over the businesses of the time, so why do they now assume the ideology of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” Why is the fear of change stronger than the fear of becoming obsolete and going under like a T-Rex in a tar pit?


Is it an overall fear of the unknown? Is it down to misconceptions, confusion or the thought of spending money on something you have trouble understanding? Below we have answered some of the most common concerns of business owners when confronted with the possibility of automating their processes.


We’ve had the same staff and don’t want to lose them!

Automation technology is not a system for terminating the human element. In fact, it is designed to strengthen the human element by making it more productive and eliminating the dreaded human errors which leave a client dissatisfied with the company. Employees don’t have 101 jobs hanging over their head as in most cases the jobs are done within seconds. Pretty much any staff member would be relieved to have that kind of system in place, and ask yourself: Why would you have an employee on the books just simply to handle those jobs that can take all day instead of a system that has it done in seconds?


We don’t have the money to implement such a system!

You also don’t have the money you would be generating from having automation in place. Warren Buffet once stated “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” Such a system works 24/7 365 days a year with no days off and no holidays. By now you should have a figure in your head of what that saves. Once you get your head around the fact that this is an investment, not an expense, you start to see the real benefit of what can be achieved.


We are not very technical and wouldn’t know where to start.

Any automation company worth their salt designs your system with you and your employees in mind when it comes to use. If it comes with an instruction manual then its too complicated. The point of such a system is something that you can rely on and stop constantly checking to see if something is done properly and focus on avenues for your business you have not been previously able to direct towards.


So why not?

Of course here we are using comparisons to a species that ran out of time, but companies suffer from not utilising the time they can have to focus on their evolution. 


Automation is found as a logical step to achieve maximum operating capacity and eliminate repetitive patterns in your daily process.


What can you do next?

The first step for any business should be to look into their weekly routines and consider or ask the question of what could be automated to push them ahead productively. 


Data processing, invoicing, email responses and updating records use up a considerable amount of time and are prime areas for automating. These alone can allow your business to grow by an order of magnitude without hiring any extra people.