While companies have always sought to innovate and adopt new technologies to gain a competitive advantage, in recent years the pace of this evolution has accelerated. Examine innovations like 5G mobile networks, driverless cars, and smart homes, all at the forefront of technology and science fiction just a decade ago.
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What is the difference between automation of digital activities and digital transformation?
Digital business automation is a major trend for businesses today. This is different from digital transformation which refers to the implementation of digital processes throughout the company. The digital transformation is more cultural, with a deployment of digital technology, such as the migration of data to the cloud, the adoption of the DevOps approach to the development and use of software. of business analysis tools to spot trends and accelerate competition.
Automation of digital activities is an element of digital transformation. It focuses on integrating the digital domain, especially the data, the software and hardware that manages it, and the infrastructure that supports it, and applying updates to improve the efficiency of traditional business processes. All this so that the company responds better to current market trends and improves the interface with customers, with the ultimate goal of improving revenue. In other words, digital business automation uses digital innovation to take a cumbersome business process and simplify it to gain a competitive advantage.
History of digital business automation.
The origin of digital business automation dates back to IBM in 2005 and its creation of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard. Software provided by IBM to facilitate the creation of flow charts and diagrams for business purposes.
The goal was to graphically describe complex business processes, with standard notation, to make them more understandable within the organization. The software developed by IBM for the automation of digital activities called WPS (Websphere Process Server). The files created come from a new open standard called BPEL (Business Process Execution Language).
WPS has failed to gain popularity and is more focused on SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) than traditional business aspects. This made it more focused on technical aspects, which made application to business processes more difficult. To further focus on these users, IBM launched the IBM WebSphere Business Modeller. However, it was not standalone and migration of the new software to WPS was necessary for execution to take place.
Meanwhile, as WPS struggled to gain ground in this emerging sector, a competitor, Teamworks, is a Lombardi product. IBM's solution to this worthy competition was to acquire the company. In June 2010, they also quickly renamed the Teamworks software to WebSphere Lombardi Edition (WLE).
Having two products for digital business automation, WPS and WLE, under the IBM slogan, is confusing. They then combined the two into one product, IBM Business Process Manager (IBPM), taking advantage of the best of both platforms. The IBPM offered an intuitive way to capture business processes and was accessible to less technical business types to transform the business process into an understandable diagram. In addition, the diagrams can be easily adjusted.
State of digital business automation today
The current IBPM remains focused on improving business processes. Unlike previous versions that focused on technical or business aspects, this version aimed to strike a balance that would "improve collaboration between the business and IT teams." They also include built-in process accelerators. , a self-service portal, and a learning library.
This year, IBM has stepped up its next generation of digital automation and introduced its IBM automation platform, which promises "an integrated five-function automation platform to help business people." quickly carry out all kinds of automation and scale projects. "Its five pillars are:
- Tasks: automation of repetitive human work
- Content: professional data collection and management with connection to digital business applications
- Workflow: the ability to analyze and improve business processes to improve them
- Capture - scan business documents, extract and analyze data while avoiding a manual input process
- Decisions: apply business rules to fuel process changes on the fly, while the process can be audited
With such a robust platform, all types of business work can be automated, including tasks, decisions, and workflows, with the ability to expand and add multiple items to your workflow. according to needs
Other digital business automation implementations.
Another lesser-known company offers a tool to automate the digital enterprise. Much of the automation of digital activities has focused on analyzing and streamlining a process within an organization. As the data is available and is kept within the limits of the organization, the scenario is less difficult. Ultimus wants to tackle a more complex scenario, that of transactions between organizations.
Things are more chaotic here, with significant trust issues between the parties involved in the transaction, including customers, suppliers, and partners. These types of transactions, be it a purchase order, a loan, or an employment contract, are generally time-consuming. Documents must be completed, and are generally on paper, with physical signatures, notaries, and dreaded faxes - a speed at which a nimble business yearns for.
The blockchain works very well as a distributed ledger, most often for cryptocurrency transactions, but it could also apply to these types of business transactions.
To move from theory to practice, Ultimus is moving towards applying blockchain technology to business transactions with its Composite Process Solutions (CPS). Some of the practical challenges their solutions address include time stamping accuracy (within two hours, given today's blockchain technology), scalability, and the affordability of keeping data at an affordable level.
An Ultimus CPS example case is a blockchain-compliant car loan. Here, a digital business automation approach is applied to a simplified user interface. Through a web portal, with data stored on its blockchain, loan documents are tracked for download, verification and review.
Finish the stack of Manila files, as well as waiting for the notary's return (which is invariably at lunch in our experience), because the documents are now "notarized" through a highly secure connection process. Along the way, an audit trail is created and, in another example of an automated business process, automated emails are generated to update the relevant parties in the procedure.