If it can be automated it should be automated, right? Maybe. Maybe not. If a business with limited time, people and resources goes on a blind automation spree that ultimately doesn’t reduce expenditures or make them more profit, what is that good for?

Instead, companies should take the long view and ask what tangible benefit automating a task or process will bear, according to Anthony Abbattista (pictured), principal and advanced analytics enablement leader at Deloitte LLP.

“Just automating things without a business case, without sustainability, without thinking about what’s next — it’s probably a race to the bottom from a results perspective,” Abbattista said.

Abbattista spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the UiPathForward Americas event in Miami Beach, Florida. They discussed how to work smart toward gains through automation. (* Disclosure below.)

POC goes prime time

Just taking human bodies out of the loop doesn’t constitute the kind of results businesses should seek from automation, according to Abbattista. In his work with Deloitte, he has seen automation programs fail because of slipshod, anything-and-everything approach. A better method is to suss out the areas where automation could yield the highest value and go for those right away.

“It’s accelerate the right things. It’s accelerate things that have the highest value,” he said.

Many clients are antsy to put automation into practice, and the technology and know-how has evolved to enable quicker implementation. “Two years ago, we spent a lot of time on looking at technology, doing [proof of concept],” Abbattista said. “I think people are getting beyond that now, and you can quickly say, ‘Alright, if we’re going to do a POC, let’s make it real; let’s not make it a science project, but let’s get a real area where there’s real sponsorship, and let’s go build the first 10 bots.'”

With effective technology in hand, the trick now is to zero in on tasks that save the most time, money, or human resources and then book the benefits. “If you’re going to push the needle, somebody needs to measure it,” Abbattista concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the UiPathForward Americas event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for UiPathForward Americas. Neither UiPath Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE