Intelligent Automation: Getting it Right

SS&C recently moderated a panel, “Successes in Intelligent Automation,” at the NICSA Strategic Leadership Forum, in which we talked about how technology can be leveraged to gain efficiency within an organization—specifically, intelligent automation, the process of taking on complex activities and uncovering patterns and actionable activities through artificial intelligence like machine learning.

SS&C’s Nicole Greene, Head of Global Investor and Distribution Solutions, US, moderated the panel, which included speakers from BlackRock, Citi and BNY. Nicole and her fellow panelists offered some key points to consider when deploying intelligent automation tools within your organization:

• Intelligent automation can be an elegant solution for manual processes, but it’s important to make sure the process is following the simplest path to the desired end state. Automating a flawed process still leaves you with a flawed process. Similarly, you shouldn’t automate simply for the sake of automating.
• Make sure you are choosing the right processes to make the biggest impact on your organization. Process engineering can help you avoid focusing on the wrong areas as you begin your automation journey, and fine-tune those processes you automate.
• Data quality is essential to effective intelligent automation. To get the data right, you must be diligent, understand your data, assign ownership and set rules to protect the data. Data governance, ownership and stewardship are key to good data quality.
• Automation provides an opportunity to document your processes. Automation takes tasks down to a level that can be monitored and provides knowledge and insight to your organization. It also can be very effective at managing exceptions, scaling otherwise manual processes and removing the risk of human error.
• As you begin automating, remember that it’s okay to start small. Focus on quality and keep things simple.

At SS&C, we believe with responsible use of technology and the right controls in place, intelligent automation presents a huge opportunity to scale and document processes and achieve greater efficiency for an organization. In recent years, we have invested heavily in AI and intelligent operations tools to bolster our core outsourcing and fund services for asset managers. We’re committed to leading the market—and helping clients stay ahead—by continually investing in our people, platforms, products and technologies. To learn more about how intelligent automation can propel you forward, download our "Imagine a More Human World Using Intelligent Automation" eBook.