Digital transformation and operational efficiency are on the minds of every organization these days, and the COVID19 pandemic has only accelerated this preoccupation. According to a survey by Baker McKenzie, 74% of senior leaders at 500 global organizations said that a top benefit of digital transformation is improved efficiencies and reduced costs. In addition, respondents identified cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) as having a significant impact on operational efficiency.

Roadblocks to Operational Efficiency

Organizations need to overcome several roadblocks on the digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency. These include inefficient legacy ERP infrastructure, manual and siloed workflows, and poorly designed workarounds, such as batch updates and solutions cobbled together using existing technologies. Many companies rely on inefficient legacy ERP infrastructure, resulting in disjointed processes and siloed solutions. To make matters worse, organizations often store data in multiple siloed systems that do not share information easily. In this scenario, users must log on to different systems to complete a single task. In addition, department-level digital workflow applications create more silos and further complexity. Poorly designed workflows can lead to user frustration. In response, employees may create workarounds. These workarounds often mean using point solutions that may reduce friction in the short term but introduce technical debt that can add cost and lead to security and governance risks.

Actions to Address Obstacles

What actions can organizations take to address these obstacles and boost operational efficiency? Connect siloed data and infrastructure across SAP and non-SAP systems and infrastructure and build new workflows. Connected workflows meet workers where they are with the correct information and automated actions, so they don’t have to system hop to find the right outcome. Adopt a low-code app development strategy. Low-code app development empowers line-of-business (LOB) stakeholders who understand business processes the best to participate in building the apps that optimize those processes. The result is a groundswell of innovation that accelerates work and paves the way for continuous digital transformation. Use automation and AI to deliver intelligent ERP workflows. Most SAPinsider members (87%) surveyed for SAPinsider’s Process Automation and SAP S/4HANA benchmark report said they used robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), or prescriptive AI for SAP-based processes within their organization in 2021, a significant increase from 65% in 2020. Respondents said they are using these solutions to enable employees to focus on higher-value activities and to take advantage of opportunities to optimize and streamline processes. Empower citizen developers. These employees have a creative vision for how to optimize ERP-related work processes but often don’t have the traditional skills and experience as developers to respond with a solution. Citizen developers should be encouraged to transform low-hanging fruit, like process-heavy reports and ad hoc workarounds into simple end-to-end digital workflows for greater efficiency and reduced risk. Their unique practitioner vantage point allows them to see first-hand what unique challenges various types of ERP users face. Low-code tooling then allows them to build innovative solutions in immediate response to those challenges. According to the SAPinsider benchmark report cited previously, 76% of respondents said that “having a pool of talent that has a deep understanding of current processes is a must-have requirement to support successful process automation initiatives.”

Operational Efficiency for Faster Digital Transformation

What is required to take these actions? Consider the following:

• Deliver innovation to the business faster and respond quickly to changing market drivers. Successfully exploiting innovations is crucial to a business that wants to improve its processes, deliver better products and services to market, and increase efficiency and profitability.
• Create common and productive experiences across services and channels. Customers and employees want common experiences across devices, services, and platforms. A user-friendly format can act as a familiar front end for users to meet those needs.
• Achieve frictionless flow with effortless integration. Adopt a low-code platform where you can build and connect end-to-end workflows across the business. With a low-code visual flow designer, in-platform integration, and automation, organizations can integrate department silos to accelerate work by turning their business processes into friction-free digital workflows within a shared system of action.
• Operate with visibility and insight into ERP performance and risk. Organizations can turn their ERP processes into powerful digital workflows that connect systems, apps, and data while providing visibility into end-to-end processes.

ServiceNow’s Creator Workflows offers these capabilities, such as simplified processes that leverage built-in automation, integration, analytics, and AI in a seamless experience, the company says. Creator Workflows includes low-code development tools to empower citizen developers to assemble integrations in order to move projects faster in a shared environment. The tools enable LOB professionals to build apps while safeguarding app quality with automated testing and delegated development access, ServiceNow explains. When professional application developers can create the more complex application elements and make them available to low-code users, there is no need to sacrifice time or quality. The business and development teams can work to their strengths to re-engineer their processes, it relates. With Creator Workflows, users can power their productivity within a single full context view of analytics and AI-assisted recommendations to resolve issues, ServiceNow concludes. What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

1. Build an ERP workflow automation strategy to improve operational efficiency and support business objectives. The strategy should begin by mapping your current workforce automation environment and then identify areas where automation can be applied. Automation saves business leaders and employees hours of manual work, which increases productivity and efficiency.
2. Connect siloed workflows and data across systems. Connecting silos accelerates work, improves productivity, and boosts efficiency. Digital workflow applications help meet these requirements if planned and executed within a reliable framework. By connecting workflows and data across SAP and non-SAP systems, organizational and functional silos can be broken down and bridges formed between disjointed teams and processes, ultimately enhancing collaboration and improving efficiency across work environments.
3. Empower LOB employees to solve process inefficiencies. LOB professionals can become a new resource using low-code development and a unified digital workflow platform to deliver speed and scale to process automation and optimization efforts. LOB staff who understand business problems can optimize process improvements while employing low-code concepts and practices to tackle a wide range of programming chores, freeing professional developers to focus on larger and more complex projects.