With Business Process Automation using low-code, no-code technologies emerging as a key opportunity in the market and a significant division within Lancom Technology, the managed services provider has appointed Bryony Chan to lead the solution team. Having joined Lancom as a graduate, this represents the culmination of Chan’s 17-year career with the company. She sees considerable potential for BPA, with a point of departure that any organisation, large or small, can benefit from technologies and approaches accelerating and improving the way work gets done.  

“From the very start when I was a junior developer, I realised business processes are at the centre of everything and are often the cause of a lot of headaches. Regardless of industry, sector or activity, all organisations have processes, and there is always room for improvement,” says Chan. 

Her focus and that of the team she now leads, is on automation, acceleration, and refinement. “Whether paper-based or web based, we help eliminate human error. Whether building solutions from scratch with our bespoke software development capability or using existing applications and infrastructure within the Microsoft and other vendor stacks, the results of targeted BPA are often quite pronounced. Even relatively small interventions can deliver substantial value,” Chan states. 

Demand from clients is varied, she continues. “It starts with helping on small day to day manual tasks for the individual, where we’ve seen a lot of value using ‘low-code, no-code’ tools like Power Automate. The major advantage with these tools is that once demonstrated, many clients can take automation on board as a skill and continue making improvements on their own.” 

‘Low-code-no code’ tools, as implied, are easy to use by ‘normal’ people rather than programmers or developers. Chan says information workers beset with paper forms or Excel spreadsheets can often identify opportunities for process improvement once up-to-speed on low-code-no-code tools, improving their daily work by removing dull or repetitive tasks. 

“Of course, there are far more sophisticated opportunities for process automation in enterprise software deployments, too. As legacy systems reach end of life and as organisations roll out new systems including Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, there are multiple scenarios where BPA improves the flow of work, again driving out manual and repetitive tasks.” 

One example of a simple intervention which delivered lasting value and a major time saving was for a financial services provider. Running a shared mailbox where client loan applications arrived, Lancom automated the process of correctly allocating emails to the right people within the company. While delivering the process automation took less than a week, it has delivered lasting value, substantially reducing time taken for mail sorting and distribution while contributing to an improved customer experience. “Outlook rules can’t handle this level of sophistication; we used Azure Logic and SharePoint, with multiple application and email targets for the information received in the mailbox,” Chan notes. 

Reporting into Lancom Technology CTO Phill Claxton, Chan’s promotion is effective immediately. “Over the years, Bryony has been instrumental in delivering countless Lancom projects, so I'm delighted to see her leading this division of the business,” he says.  

Claxton notes that low-code-no code is a rapidly growing software trend in which Lancom has taken an enduring interest. “With Bryony's guidance and direction, we look forward to bringing the benefits of powerful and time-saving automation to more customers in the near future.” 

Lancom CEO Waruna Kirimetiyawa says that as the company grows, it continues specialising through targeted divisions like the one Chan now heads. “Lancom has been on a growth spurt for some years now, expanding our reach both organically and through multiple acquisitions. It’s not only our reach, but also our capabilities which have grown; through specialisation, we’re able to meet the requirements of a more diverse customer base,” he notes. 

At the same time, adds Kirimetiyawa, Lancom prides itself on being a great place to work. “Seeing Bryony’s nearly two decades with us being recognised by a promotion to lead a key division is therefore rewarding from multiple perspectives: she’s earned it, and our customers will benefit from her knowledge and leadership of this key division.”