Actionable Insights—When and Where You Need Them

We all know the value of information, but how many times have we said to ourselves, “If only I would have known that sooner.” Too many times to count, right? Hindsight is always 20/20, so we do our best to make the best decisions we can with the information we have at that moment.

Take, for example, the GameStop stock fiasco ($GME) fiasco. One user on Reddit came across some information that allowed him to anticipate an upward spike in the stock, resulting in him making millions. And that’s what makes information so critical. Not only is it the quality of the information but how and when we get the information that makes the difference. And the same goes for the data we get from our Robotic Process Automation software. What makes it useful is how we receive the data and when we are able to consume it.

Timing is key

When operating an intelligent automation platform, it’s guaranteed you will receive a large amount of data. But what happens if that data is consumed weeks or even months later? Unfortunately, it becomes irrelevant. The shelf life for some data can be short—that is if you are looking to take action on that data. Imagine being able to see a spike in your sales for a specific product line and then adjusting your forecast and projections in real time to accommodate. Or imagine identifying a growing backlog of specific manufacturing parts before any of your competitors. It is critical to understand if your automation platform is running smoothly. These types of real-time insights in an RPA program can help optimize your organization’s return on investment (ROI) and allow you to stay competitive.

Data format matters

The timing of data can impact your business, but what’s just as important is how data is consumed. If we can get data in real time, that’s great. But what if that data is in the form of a spreadsheet made up of lines and lines of numbers? When operating your intelligent automation program, it is critical that you are able to consume the data in a simple fashion, for instance, an easy-to-read dashboard that will help you turn your data into actionable insights to optimize your business. With research showing that high-quality infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than plain text, it is understandable that most people, when given the option to sift through lines of data or analyze a dashboard with charts, will prefer to go with a dashboard.

Third-party analytic tools

The way we consume our RPA insights not only varies by the format of the data given to us but also the delivery vehicle. Some RPA vendors allow you to get your operational and business insights natively in their platform. And with all of the different third-party analytics tools out there, you may prefer to use other applications such as Microsoft Power BI or Tableau. And this could be because an application may integrate better with your other tools or simply because you want to see RPA insights in the context of other enterprise data on the same dashboard. Try asking your CEO to look at another dashboard to get RPA insights. Executive management has limited time at hand as it is, so it is crucial to provide all insights in one seamless experience.

The Automation Anywhere Bot Insight acts as an embedded analytics and data visualization engine. It offers real-time data from your intelligent automation program in a format that is easy to read and that can also be integrated with other third-party analytic tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Tableau. In addition to getting data through third-party analytical tools, you can also utilize the Automation Anywhere mobile application so that you can consume your data on the go. With the information you get from Bot Insight, you can turn business and operational data into actionable insights that will allow you to optimize your ROI.