London, UK – 26th October 2012: Redwood Software, the IT and business process automation specialist, announces independent research[1] revealing that 99% of organisations spend considerable time doing repetitive manual tasks, with almost two-thirds (63%) spending over a quarter of their time doing so.

The Vanson Bourne research found that all organisations claim to automate processes to some degree, but this was largely limited to certain tasks and functions within organisations, such as HR / payroll (23%) and billing (26%).

Respondents on average claimed only 30% of their IT and business processes are automated, despite around half believing many of their processes – IT, business intelligence and reporting – would benefit from greater level of automation.

The research highlights corporate awareness of very clear and measurable benefits of automating processes:

• 83% of enterprises said automation delivered time savings
• 73% cited ‘improved business productivity’ as the key benefit of automation
• 63% said automation regularly provides cost savings

Clearly, many organisations miss automation opportunities in areas such as business intelligence and reporting – functions critical to the bottom line and often these are undertaken manually with heavily dedicated resources.

The main challenges cited for not automating these less commonly automated processes include:

• Not having the right knowledge to do so (49%)
• Managing complex processes (66%)
• Not being able to integrate legacy applications with new applications (67%)

All things that a process automation solution can in fact address

Tijl Vuyk, CEO at Redwood Software comments: “It seems that businesses have just cherry-picked the ‘easy’ automation targets across a range of processes rather than tackling them from A-Z, despite seeing the value in doing so – it’s a contradiction in terms.”

“Whether it’s a lack of education, a lack of willingness, or a lack of confidence in branching out one’s process automation network, enterprises suffer because of the automation silos they have generated.”

“This is a significant opportunity for enterprises to confront the automation contradiction. But the key to grasping this opportunity is knowledge – knowledge of what processes can be automated, and how this can directly impact business goals. Only then will the gap between silos be bridged, and benefits achieved.”