Enterprise visibility has become a key imperative to build organizational ability in the digital era. As process automation technologies increasingly evolve into strategic solutions, they have the capability to play a key role in building enterprise visibility. While the focus in the initial years of process automation adoption was primarily on achieving cost reduction, the key objectives for deploying process automation these days are more strategic in nature, like employee productivity, process visibility and subsequent enterprise visibility. To understand perspectives of our community in this critical technology area, SAPinsider has been publishing a process  automation benchmark research report since 2020. Continuing the trend,we are going to publish the process automation benchmark report again this year on April 29th, 2022.

The Enterprise Visibility Requirement

The need to automate processes across functions was highlighted as the top requirement for building process automation capabilities by SAPinsiders. Processes across functions interact with processes and sub processes within other functions in a  modern enterprise. Process automation in silos is always sub optimal and will not address  the key business driver of becoming an agile organization since end-to-end visibility is  critical for that. It is therefore imperative that automation happens across business functions, and there is a flow of information from business processes in one function to  other functions. This creates true enterprise-wide business process visibility.

Expanding portfolio of focus area processes

This requirement to deploy process automation capabilities across functions is evident in the selection of focus area processes by SAPinsiders. With the initial focus on removing manual touch points and eliminating headcount, finance-related processes were the focus of majority of process automation initiatives. This is evident from the automation progress reported by SAPinsiders where finance-related processes dominate in processes that are more than 50% automated in the current state (Figure 1). Figure 1: Top processes that are at least 50% automated in the current state Source: SAPinsider Research April 2022 But when it comes to top focus area business processes for automation in 2022, we see human resources (HR) and supply chain-related processes in addition to finance related processes (see Figure 2). This aligns with the top requirement of building process automation capabilities across functions, which SAPinsiders believe will help attain organizational agility. Figure 2: Top process automation focus areas for 2022 Source: SAPinsider Research April 2022

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

Some key points that SAPinsiders need to be aware of when looking to leverage process automation solutions for enterprise visibility are: Develop a process visibility strategy. Process visibility remains a key aspect of  any process transformation. However, it is important to realistically pre-define  the level of process visibility desired and evaluate the feasibility of attaining that  level of visibility. A prudent way to put a structure around process visibility is to  build process hubs that centralize process visibility and control capabilities. The next step is to then connect these separate hubs to build a centralized process  control tower Build process monitoring and measurement capabilities. Process measurement and  benchmarking are critical not only for measuring the impact of process automation but also  for continuous improvement of processes. Develop a robust set of measures instead of using  what was already being used or is being used by your industry peers. When possible, leverage  more advanced process control methods like multivariate statistical process control (MSPC)  for controlling your processes and ML-based predictive algorithms for predicting anomalies or  failures within your process. All this can only be built if you have seamless access to the data  being generated by your processes. Link process automation capabilities with innovation. Innovation plays a key  role in building products and services that enhance customer experience. And  technology is the enabler that helps generate innovation. As indicated earlier,  process automation tools have evolved into strategic solutions. What this means  is that if leveraged prudently, they can help generate innovation and create  competitive differentiators. The goal should be to leverage technology to erase  your existing constraints and deliver innovative results in areas like: • Enhanced customer or user experience • Improved service or product quality • Accelerated time to market • Flexibility in cost