Often organizations think of process automation as simply automating internal tasks, rather than accelerating growth. In reality, processes are the algorithms that drive modern society. Orchestrating these processes appropriately has the power to fundamentally transform how a company does business – which can improve the customer experience and drive revenue in the process.
Consider a company like Amazon. Processes are core to everything they do. From the moment an order is placed, to the moment it arrives at your door, there are dozens (potentially hundreds) of processes being orchestrated from end to end. Even customer support is highly automated and incorporates humans seamlessly into digital workflows. That’s not the case for every organization.
Many customers are frustrated by broken or ineffective processes. Some organizations digitize parts of their business, but don’t fully connect them with legacy systems that drive core business processes. If you’ve ever ordered something online to pick up in store only to have that item not be ready on time (or not in stock in the first place), you were probably a victim of a broken process. How can organizations worry about metrics like increasing average order value or customer lifetime value if they don’t have the customer experience basics down?
Broken or inefficient processes are not just a retail problem. These issues stretch across every industry. In a challenging economy, organizations can’t afford for process automation to go wrong. Here’s how to optimize your automation investments to truly improve the bottom line.
1. Don’t just automate processes; orchestrate them
Every process is made up of tasks. To execute a process, you need to coordinate the execution of its tasks. Process endpoints are the people, systems, and devices that actually do the execution. Often companies are contending with a lot of endpoint diversity in their processes, but are not coordinating, or orchestrating, these various moving parts.
Coordinating tasks within a process is based on a certain logic, which in the real world is rarely just a straightforward sequence of steps. Processes can be complex and require advanced workflow patterns. Most of these patterns involve reacting to events or handling complex business process logic across many different endpoints. Standards for process modeling, such as BPMN, were created to design and execute these advanced workflows. Orchestrating these workflows can ensure that multiple moving parts are working well together.
For example, if a customer calls into your contact center after trying to troubleshoot the issue themselves online, a well-orchestrated process would correlate the data the customer already entered with a unique customer identifier used when they’re calling. That avoids the customer having to repeat information they’ve provided previously, reducing customer frustration and decreasing likelihood of churn.
2. Get your stakeholders on the same page
Speaking of modeling processes, BPMN makes it simple for both technical and non-technical stakeholders to visualize how an automated process flows in the real world. However, a common problem is that IT and business stakeholders don’t align on these details in advance, which leads to frustration down the road.
Depending on your organization’s culture, it might make sense to implement a process automation Center of Excellence (CoE) to achieve that alignment. Often, an executive will sponsor a CoE and gain buy-in for process automation and orchestration initiatives. Many teams have multiple stakeholders take part in a pilot or lighthouse automation project to ensure that the organization’s people, systems, and devices are working in concert with one another to achieve success. Gaining this type of buy-in is invaluable. A CoE can also set measurement benchmarks for automated processes, so that stakeholders can understand exactly how a process is tying into higher-order business goals.
3. Measure your processes and continuously improve them
Like lean manufacturing and agile development principles that came before it, process automation must also be thought of as a lifecycle. However, many companies don’t measure KPIs around their actively running automated processes, making it difficult to know exactly how and when to improve.
Stakeholder alignment plays an important role in defining KPIs. Teams can set benchmarks on how the CoE or process itself has achieved business value for the organization. Are the projects happening on time and on budget? Are they achieving ROI in terms of revenue or customer experience KPIs (e.g., CSAT, customer effort scores, etc.)
When it comes to process performance, many teams look at metrics around lifecycle duration, number of processes per month, and more. Another area to measure is centered around enablement. How many components of a process can you reuse across other parts of the organization? Can you create a community that shares best practices around process automation and orchestration success, enabling even more teams to achieve their business goals?
To sum it all up, when it comes to process automation and orchestration, it’s important to think strategically, beyond how automation saves you time alone. How can it be worked into customer-facing, revenue-driving initiatives and measurable business goals? While many teams dream of reaching Amazon’s level of automation success, mapping even just a few of your business process initiatives to key business goals might be the best way to get started. How can the process algorithm help drive your bottom line in 2023?