Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Process & Automation podcast with the automation guys. Um, we have been asked by several customers,  What kind of skills are really needed these days when, um, when building a team for automation and, um, when, when it comes to hiring automation experts, maybe for long-term or short-term projects.

So we thought it would be nice to, to, to do one episode on this one, too, to share with you what we think is really key. Um, um, obviously. The world is changing completely from manual to digital and from digital to automated. Um, and uh, every business we believe needs to be ready for that shift. Um, many, many businesses have started already last year, um, or a couple of years ago.

Um, Most have to catch up and look into the market and into sort of the supplier market to find the right partner. Um, and or maybe to build your own internal team. Um, uh, yeah, so it’s, uh, it’s very important to you to find the right skills and talent in the market. So yeah, we thought we will go through this one.

Um, And, um, go through the different skills which are needed to, to help you to be successful with automation. And, uh, yeah, we have six skills. Um, uh, we, we believe are important. Um, Arno, which one do you think is sort of skill number one or one skill of the six? Well, of course artificial intelligence and machine learning is a very hot topic.

And of course, you know, it’s an essential component of automation. Uh, you know, in particular robotic process automation where we use robotic software agents that automatically handle, you know, many of these low level business processes and RPA robot, uh, mimics the actions of the human employee. And, um, and it can accomplish that sort of action within a much shorter timeframe compared to a human.

And also it removes. The chance of human error. Um, and for us, what we see is for, for RPA agents or RPA robots to truly succeed, um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not enough for them to, to, to follow just a simple set of predefined business rules. You know, they also need to be reactive and intelligence and capable of responding to new and unforeseen situations.

So, this is where AI and machine learning comes into play. And this helps RPA robots to learn from experience and apply knowledge they gain. So we think AI probably mates, number one in our list. Yeah, I agree. So the next one is all about low code development. So, um, nowadays low-code and no-code, um, software platforms and development platforms are on the rise.

Um, and, um, probably every, every business going forward we’ll build business applications. Was that, so, so your local applications, um, uh, half enabled. Sort of what, what it research and advisory firm, Gardner and others are calling sort of the citizen developer. So basically it was low code non-technical employees can build, um, build business applications and filling, filling that gap.

And, uh, in, in, in it really isn’t it. So the, the low code platforms bring software development to everyone, um, through sort of features. Yeah, you can, you can build, um, uh, easy features. You can build apps with drag and drop functionality, uh, easily on the, on the user interface. Uh, lots of pre-built components and, um, yeah, it was, was with so many digital transformation initiatives.

We, we, we see all around us, um, uh, Yeah. So lots of those transformation initiatives have used local, um, um, application development for, for really a huge success. And, um, it doesn’t require, uh, those, those applications do not require you to have a specific programming language. You can build your applications faster.

Um, uh, And in particular automation, developers can use these low-code application. And, uh, in order to, to automate those of all business processes end to end. Low code doesn’t stop stress was business process, um, user interface development. So nowadays you have low code, um, uh, AI, low code, um, chat bot technology, all sorts of stuff.

Nowadays, when it comes to developing solutions, um, it is available as a low code and also as a no code, um, uh, platform. So, yeah, look out for those two. Get your idea into, um, into like a proper solution, um, out there. And in a matter of days, weeks, instead of months and years, Yes. And of course the third skill set to look out for when you hire automation expert is somebody that’s got experience using process mining.

Now of course, process mining is, um, the sort of a discipline where you use it. Data like event logs and databases and audit trails. To analyze and optimize your business processes. So you could point a process mining tool at your ERP system, and it will tell you a lot about how performance your processes are, um, and where to bottle bottlenecks are.

Um, you know, some of the larger enterprises out there might have processes that generate, you know, gigabytes and terabytes of data every day. So, so it’s, it’s really impossible to, to analyze those processes and the sort of apps, the inefficiencies that those processes. Um, it’s impossible to kind of analyze that with a human isle or traditional business analyst.

So, you know, skilled automation developers can use process mining to, to really gain more insights into, into these processes by using that data and identify which parts of those processes can perhaps be improved. Um, so, and you know, the improvements might range from, uh, fixing errors or deleting unnecessary.

In your process, um, you know, with, with the view to, to increase, um, the, the, the efficiencies of your process and, and the underlying, uh, automation. Alright. Alright good. So we, we mentioned, um, uh, AI, uh, process mining and low code applications, but effectively, um, nowadays it’s very important. Oh, nowadays, it’s very important as a developer.

Um, even as they’re sort of not a high, high code developer, um, to understand, um, um, sort of full stack automation and, um, what that means, um, is the use of. Of the several, um, automation technologies in maybe one platform, uh, or you can look at it as a, sort of a full stack, even if it’s spread out, uh, over different platforms.

But it basically means that you look at all the different automation technologies like RPA, um, artificial intelligence, um, and, uh, process mining, all combined in sort of one, one workflow. So if you have that understanding what, what combining these technologies together with people can bring to a business, um, then, uh, Yeah, you can really have, have a huge impact in your organization.

Um, and, um, yeah, so I think that’s, that’s really important as part of the full stack, uh, automation. And this is what we see currently in the market as well. Um, Lots of vendors are adding additional technologies like RPA, AI process mining, uh, onto the, um, onto the same platform. So it can make that a full stack automation, um, um, implementation, easier for organizations.

And, uh, yeah, I think the combination of full stack automation. And when you understand that, right. Um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll help you to put improve productivity and efficiency, like, uh, like it was not seen before in, in the organization. Um, yeah, if you, if you really get it perfect. Um, uh, it’s fantastic. Um, but you need to understand, uh, how all these technologies work with each other, uh, the best.

Yeah, sure. And of course, the first one to look out for and skill you’ve mentioned bot. Um, and you know, chatbots is really a special case, um, of, of using AI machine learning and RPA for, for your digital transformation program. It’s, it’s a software agent that can communicate with humans via a simulated text conversation.

And of course, you know, one of the, uh, the, the popular use cases is often to provide assistance or customer service to your end customer. Um, you know, your use of chatbots with inside your organization can, can automate and streamline many activities that would, you know, uh, uh, formally require interacting with a human agent.

So for example, um, processing a return or finding the correct resource on a website. It’s this game. One of those, the skills to look out for in a, um, automation, uh, expert, uh, the understanding of chatbots, the ability to create these chatbots. And, you know, if you look at the chatbot market alone, it’s massive.

And, um, you know, IBM looked at it and, you know, there was a study they’ve done and around 80% of routine questions can be fully automated by chatbot. And, you know, if, even if you just look at the chatbot market in back in 2019, it was worth roundabout, you know, $2.2 billion, and it’s estimated to be worth roughly about sort of seven and a half billion dollars by 2024. It’s a massive area of automation that’s that continues to grow. And it’s certainly a skill set that you want to look out for when you hire a professional that will do automations and specifically automations that, you know, involve kind of customer interactions. So that that’s definitely one to look out.

Fantastic. Yeah. And of course, um, uh, all these tech skills are very important, but, um, uh, you know, um, there, there are other skills needed, um, to be a really good, automation developer or be a member for automation team, will be really good to have as well by business analyst skills and be able to sort of sit down with the business departments and to understand how processes are currently running, what goals they have in terms of, um, uh, process and outcomes.

Um, so obviously these, these sort of core business analysis skills and communication skills are really needed. Um, um, obviously everything what you do you should do with passion. Um, and if you have a passion for solving complex business problems with technology, then those kinds of, uh, um, things are, uh, really, um, Yeah.

So it was really your thing. Uh, and uh, every, everyone looking for a developer should look out for that passion, that spark, uh, in the, in their eyes. When you, when you talk about RPA and process mining, and agile project management, agile methodologies. Nowadays that’s, that’s the standard, um, going through a process, project development and software development.

So, yeah, so that’s a, that’s a good sum summary of, of the skills we believe are important. If you’re looking out for supplier or for new team member or for several team members, uh, this is what they should bring to the table. Um, uh, lots of, lots of that. And, um, Uh, yeah. If you, if you’d like to sort of get, get, uh, get an opinion maybe on, uh, on how to build automation teams or like help, um, was building your internal automation teams or needs of temporary, um, support, um, for, for growing the automation teams faster, um, you know, reach out to myself or Arno, on our social channels and on our website, theautomationguys.net, and we will be very happy to help you to.

build your automation team, right? So you are ready, for, for what’s, what’s coming up there in the future, it will be, it will be fast. It will be a big change for most businesses. With an automation developer, um, and a team of automation, developers. Um, I guess it’s easy to. That’s right. And I think also with the advent of all of the low-code platforms out there, uh, it is fairly easy to upskill people.

It’s fairly easy to introduce this technology start small with low-code. Of course, it’s, it’s, it’s quite easy to reuse a lot of components that comes out of the box. So, you know, with, with, onto these, with these skillsets, um, you know, automation professional can really get started. And, and stopped automating those manual processes and, you know, bring about the change that automation brings with inside your business.

Yeah. Thank you very much for listening again today and, we wish you all the best in your automation journey and reach out to us, tune in next time and until then let’s automate it.

Unfortunately, that’s it again with this episode of The Process and Automation podcast. If you liked this episode, please give us a five-star rating and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss any upcoming episode. We hope you will tune in next time and until then let’s automate it.