How Digital Transformation Travels Beyond Process Automation
With recent exponential advancements in digital technology, data-driven businesses are now prioritizing digital transformation more than ever before. Effective digital transformation initiatives can help businesses obtain valuable data-based insights, facilitate more informed decision-making processes, improve customer experiences and increase the agility of overall operations. However, it can be extremely difficult to determine how digital transformation initiatives should be executed to ensure the highest probability of success.
Business process automation can be an extremely valuable tool for driving long-term digital transformation, as it involves the use of technology and digital tools to automate various time-consuming business processes such as employee onboarding, customer services, regulatory compliance processes, performance management and much more. Studies have shown that companies with digital-first strategies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals as compared to competitors without them.
Therefore, as businesses continue to shift toward digital transformation, it is crucial to understand the role that business process automation can play in the success of any digital transformation initiative.
Well-defined business processes are vital for the success of any modern business. Comprehensive and holistic business processes can help ensure effective cross-departmental collaboration and communication, standardized operational procedures and transparency. However, as processes continue to become more and more complex, it can be extremely difficult for companies to manage them using traditional methods.
Business process automation is defined as the use of technology to undergo certain recurring or repetitive organizational tasks and processes that would have otherwise required manual effort. Process automation can have numerous benefits for modern businesses such as reduced costs, increased efficiency and productivity, better utilization of organizational resources and streamlined organizational workflows.
Process automation can often empower companies to introduce various innovative digital transformation initiatives. Businesses aiming to modernize repetitive, time-consuming business processes can leverage the power of process automation to not only achieve long-term organizational goals much faster than ever before but also gain a significant competitive advantage. Recent studies have shown that approximately 89% of all companies have already adopted a digital-first business strategy or are planning to do so; partly due to automation.
A digital-first business strategy can help your business design more effective business processes as well as significantly improve customer experiences. Business process automation can also help improve stakeholder communication, increase employee productivity, reduce the potential risk of error and much more.
The relationship between process automation and digital transformation
Research indicates that 83% of IT decision-makers believe that workflow automation is essential for organizational digital transformation. As digital technology continues to evolve at an exponential rate, modern businesses must understand that business process automation and digital transformation are directly proportional. While individual digital transformation initiatives are extremely important for the success of any data-driven organization, process automation is a crucial determining factor for the long-term scalability and overall growth of any modern business.
With rapidly evolving market trends and customer expectations, digital transformation is now a priority for every organization. One of the primary goals of any digital transformation initiative is to establish streamlined and optimized business processes, create more engaging customer experiences and improve overall operations. However, this can be extremely difficult for organizations with limited financial and human resources.
However, business process automation can help digitize and automate business processes, workflows and processes. Process automation can also help integrate various data sources, optimize how data is shared throughout your organization, improve access to valuable data insights and much more. Therefore, automating various business processes that would have otherwise had to have been performed manually by an employee can not only help eliminate the wastage of scarce organizational resources but can also improve the probability of success of any digital transformation initiative.
Data-driven businesses must understand the relationship between process automation and digital transformation. Leveraging the power of process automation can play a key role in helping to increase efficiency, improve customer experiences, reduce operational costs and much more.
Is process automation enough to achieve digital transformation?
A recent study conducted by McKinsey concluded that approximately 66% of businesses have piloted the use of automation of business processes in one or more business functions. While business process automation is an extremely important determining factor for the success of any digital transformation initiative, there are several other crucial factors that your business must consider.
Many other factors may also potentially impact the success of a digital transformation initiative. These include factors such as existing digital infrastructure, the extent to which employees can adapt to and accept technological advancements, the short-term and long-term objectives of the initiative and overall workplace culture.
Therefore, while digital transformation is dependent on a wide variety of different factors, prioritizing business process automation is the key to ensuring the success of any digital transformation initiative.
Process automation — drive successful digital transformation
Many modern businesses have now begun to prioritize digital transformation to achieve short-term and long-term organizational goals and objectives more efficiently and effectively. However, it can be extremely difficult to ensure the success of a digital transformation initiative, especially for businesses with complex business processes and legacy systems.
Therefore, prioritizing business process automation is an extremely important aspect of ensuring that digital transformation initiatives are successful over time. While process automation may not be enough to ensure the overall success of a digital transformation initiative, it is one of the key factors for establishing a foundation that can ultimately drive and support a successful digital transformation. For example, process automation can help support a wide variety of business functions such as customer service, human resource management, data analytics and much more.
Therefore, data-driven businesses must be aware of how they can leverage the power of business process automation strategies and tools to drive and empower long-term digital transformation.
Chintan Jain is the Associate Director of Product Marketing at Kissflow, a unified platform that enables organizations to manage all types of work in one place. Chintan is a skilled marketing practitioner who writes extensively on topics like workplace technologies, work management, and digital workplace. He also actively contributes to various business and technology platforms.
