Droning on about control

Drones, Hoverboards, Segways - These are the icons of the new world - I love them all - and new toys like them are appearing all the time, enabling us to fly and travel in ways we have never been able to before. They are truly exciting.

The revolution behind these capabilities is, however, an old and important concept: Control. The technology to provide automatic stabilization, to control balance is key to making these new forms of travel possible. In addition, the ability to automatically navigate obstacles on route to a destination is automated control of reacting to the immediate environment.

When these new gadgets and compare them to their ancestors it is easy to see the value of adding control to a system or solution. The skateboard, while it did help you go fast, was often the breaker of limbs. The glider, whilst magical, was limited in its applications.

A lot of businesses are turning to simple capture technologies and cloud apps that "just do it for you" to speed up and improve business processes. These "skateboard" apps can speed things up for sure, but if you are not in control, you may end up simply getting hurt quicker. In business, "getting hurt" through lack of control can mean fraud, late payment penalties, fines or even prosecution.

Like the drone, A business process system having good controls is about the person and the machine working together. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will help streamline and focus control within the process but people still get to make decisions and affect outcomes.

As you look at how you are going to automate your business processes, remember that control is what allows you to take advantage of the speed on offer.