Enterprise Automation vs Hyper-Automation: Which is Better?

Automation is the backbone of digital transformation for any enterprise that wants to drive efficiency, lower costs, and yield impactful outcomes across the board. But as more businesses innovate and mature in their automation journey, the focus has shifted beyond traditional automation. Enter hyper-automation, the next wave of automation technology.

But what is the difference between enterprise automation solutions and hyper-automation platforms? And how do you know which solution is right for you? Keep reading as we dive deeper into these two automation technologies, what they mean for your business, and how you can future-proof your automation initiatives with Hexaware’s integrated automation solutions.

Enterprise Automation vs Hyper-Automation: Breaking down the jargon

Automation is the ability to execute repetitive tasks without manual intervention using tools or technology. This can apply to manual processes across back-office, business, and IT functions so long as the work follows a rule-set and can be completed faster and more accurately without the need for human intervention. Examples of automation that you may have heard of include IT automation, business process automation (BPA), or robotic process automation (RPA).

Automation has been leveraged by enterprises around the world to:

• Increase speed
• Reduce human errors and process inefficiencies that drive up operating costs
• Automate high-volume, repetitive tasks to free up resources for higher-value work

Though traditional automation continues to be a foundational capability for digital businesses, this form of technology usually gets deployed at the task or micro-workflow level.

Hyper-automation, on the other hand, seeks to automate end-to-end business processes that are complex and cross-functional. Think of hyper-automation as taking multiple technologies—some you might already be using—and bringing them together in a unified platform to automate as much of the work as possible with minimal to no human intervention.

Where traditional automation solutions focus on individual tasks, hyper-automation platforms seek to accomplish the following:

• Drive comprehensive automation across the enterprise
• Automate everything that is possible
• Facilitate autonomous process execution

What Is Enterprise Automation?

Enterprise automation refers to the technologies and practices associated with automating business and IT processes across the enterprise. Hexaware defines enterprise automation as the act of automating processes, streamlining workflows, improving efficiency, and redefining experiences across a variety of complex, highly integrated business functions. Examples of our enterprise automation offerings include Automation-as-a-Service and IT Ops Automation built on our technology stack of best-of-breed tools and platforms, including Hexaware’s own proprietary hyper-automation platform, Tensai®.

What Does Enterprise Automation Comprise?

When we refer to automation within the enterprise context, Hexaware focuses on:

• Automation-as-a-Service (AaaS): Automating incidents before they happen and restoring incidents faster using autonomous AI/ML and natural language processing (NLP) engines.
• IT Ops Automation: Automating day-to-day IT operations as well as application build and release lifecycles through a single pane of glass for unified orchestration and continuous optimization.

Our enterprise automation solutions allow customers to rapidly scale agility, efficiency, and experiences by building security and continuous compliance into every solution from the very start.

Benefits of Enterprise Automation Solutions

Enterprise automation platforms are helpful for businesses that want to:

• Operationalize automation at scale
• Drive greater efficiency in day-to-day operations
• Standardize and streamline IT operations
• Serve customers and employees better

What Is Hyper-Automation?

Hyper-automation combines multiple technologies to facilitate the automation of end-to-end, cross-functional business processes. While automation can apply to individual micro-tasks, hyper-automation focuses on applying technologies like RPA, artificial intelligence, machine learning, process mining, and workflow orchestration across complex and sometimes dynamic business processes.

Hyper-automation aims to simplify every process that can be automated. While traditional automation focuses on automating manual tasks, hyper-automation aims to create workflows that are executed autonomously with minimal to no human intervention.

Hyper-Automation Technologies

A hyper-automation platform often includes:

• RPA
• AI and ML models
• Process discovery and mining tools
• Workflow orchestration systems
• Integration platforms for cross-system automation

This blend enables enterprises to automate not only simple processes but also advanced, data-driven workflows.

Benefits of Hyper-Automation

Here are some of the unique benefits of hyper-automation:

• It scales enterprise-wide
• It can improve agility and business resilience
• Hyper-intelligent automation allows for faster, better decision-making
• Hyper-automation is adaptive; it can learn to handle exceptions

Automation vs Hyper-Automation

Now that we have defined both enterprise automation and hyper-automation, let’s review them side-by-side:

Bridging the Gap Between Automation and Hyper-Automation

Hyper-automation doesn’t mean throwing out your current enterprise automation strategy. Rather, it’s important to think of enterprise automation as the first step in your hyper-automation journey. Here’s why.

Enterprise Automation First, Then Hyper

Enterprise automation solutions focus on getting your current operational workflows automated so that your day-to-day operations run smoothly. Automation platforms serve as a great starting point for your automation initiatives.

Then Leverage Hyper-Automation Technology

With your foundation set, you can start thinking about how you can leverage:

• Analytics and intelligent process automation/orchestration
• Automation that can adapt as your business evolves and changes
• A single view of automation to manage complex workflows

Hyper-automation helps you think about automation at an enterprise level rather than a tool-based level.

Real-World Use Cases of Hyper-Automation and Enterprise Automation

IT Operations Automation

If you’ve selected Tensai® as your hyper-automation platform of choice, you can also use our hyper-automation technologies to automate your IT operations, continuous application delivery, and even automate your incident response so you can identify and resolve IT issues faster and drive higher resilience.

Intelligent Business Process Automation

Pairing AI technology with RPA allows you to automate complex business processes such as invoice processing, contract lifecycle management (CLM), and customer onboarding.

End-to-End Process Transformation

Take things a step further by using hyper-automation technologies to transform entire business processes from start to finish. Some examples include customer engagement workflows, supply chain management, employee onboarding, and more.

Enterprise Automation & Hyper-Automation with Hexaware

Enterprise automation solutions from Hexaware leverage our technology stack filled with AI, ML, NLP, automation orchestrators, and our hyper-automation platform, Tensai®, to provide businesses with:

• Seamless integration with your existing technology landscape – we are tool agnostic
• Shift-left security and compliance built into every solution we provide
• Shared savings model that ensures your investments are tied to real business outcomes

You can start small with traditional automation use cases or select Tensai® for hyper-automation and future-proof your automation strategy.

Conclusion

Enterprise automation and hyper-automation are not the same thing. While automation seeks to simplify processes and improve efficiency with limited-to-no human intervention, hyper-automation leverages technologies such as RPA, AI, ML, and more to streamline complex cross-functional business processes.

Each plays an important role in your overall digital transformation strategy. Want to learn more about how you can use hyper-automation to future-proof your automation strategy? Connect with us today to schedule a consultation.