Hyperautomation, AI & machine learning: a strategy for digital transformation success

Editor's Notes

• #2: Alternative Headlines: - Alternative Sub-Headlines: Hyperautomation for your digital transformation dreams Driving digital transformation success
• #3: What are we going to talk about today…
• #4: Why is automation such a hot topic in the IT world these days? The pandemic showed many of the shortcomings of our decades of digital transformation efforts. We have spent years and countless dollars digitizing our data and processes, but when the pandemic hot, many of us were caught flatfooted by it’s limitations. As a result, we are now seeing that for many of us, the next step on our digital transformation journey is automating our critical business processes. Many of these are centered on SAP ERP systems and involve creating and managing master data. Now, let’s look at the needs and wants that companies have coming out of the pandemic and how they can be addressed through automation.
• #5: Talk track: Coming out of the pandemic, many of the critical needs our companies have are the same as they were before the pandemic, but now there is a more urgent need to address them before we are faced with another sudden, existential disruption. Talking with our customers we believe the three core needs that companies have, which can be addressed by automation are: 1.) The need to be more agile, with the ability to pivot and adapt when our businesses or markets are disrupted. 2.) We continue to need to go faster to meet competitive threats and keep up with the ever-accelerating changes we see in the marketplace 3.) We need to do these first two while improving the quality and integrity of our most important data – our master data. Since data has become the fuel we use to make critical business decisions, we need to make sure that it is of the highest quality and that we can rely on it.
• #6: This quote does a great job of summing up the importance of data in executing digital transformation. It sets up our discussion for the interdependence of process and data and sets Precisely apart from many of the other process automation providers.
• #8: Why is automation such a hot topic in the IT world these days? The pandemic showed many of the shortcomings of our decades of digital transformation efforts. We have spent years and countless dollars digitizing our data and processes, but when the pandemic hot, many of us were caught flatfooted by it’s limitations. As a result, we are now seeing that for many of us, the next step on our digital transformation journey is automating our critical business processes. Many of these are centered on SAP ERP systems and involve creating and managing master data. Now, let’s look at the needs and wants that companies have coming out of the pandemic and how they can be addressed through automation.
• #9: Gartner coined this term to represent a broader set of technologies, solutions and capabilities that were increasingly converging into a newer market than what used to be called the business process automation market.  Hyperautomation is a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.   Note there is no single process automation technology that provides every capability required to deliver hyperautomation across an organization.  For instance process mining isn't the same as process automation yet both are a part of the hyper automation market. In many cases, selecting technologies is not about simply comparing one tool to another tool. Rather, customers are increasingly focused on determining the best combination of complementary technologies. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated usage of multiple technologies.  This means customers have a toolbox for automation and we need to fight for the right to be not just one of the tools in their automation toolbox but the selected tool for a given business problem.
• #10: Remember what Gartner said about Hyperautomation: It involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms This is one of our customers that are currently using Precisely Automate as well as a generic RPA solution. In this case, it’s Blue Prism but there are other examples where customers have chosen at least 2 automation tools— Precisely Automate for SAP processes and an RPA bot provider for non-SAP processes. This was quoted during an RPA Automation Breakfast Hosted by PwC
• #12: Our Automate platform delivers a complete set of automation capabilities from data automation to complex process automation. Data automation enables you to automate mass data creation and management activities such as pricing or materials changes using Excel. On the process automation side Excel workflow enables you to manage the data automation files through a complex workflow. A prime example of Excel workflow is for journal entries in finance. There is a good chance that you are already managing your journal entries in Excel. Excel workflow allows you to manage these Excel files through a contingent review and approval process that uses your business rules to determine the routing and approval process. And once the final approval is received, the data is automatically posted to SAP. No manual data entry at the end of the process.
• #13: For example, if you are creating a new G/L account, the person who initiates the process enters basic account information in the form. Based on this information, and rules, that are defined and setup by the customer, the Precisely Automate solution determines who the appropriate contributors are, who needs to approve the final form and then can auto-post the approved data to SAP, thus creating the new account. No more manual routing processed, error-prone data entry or ungoverned files being shared via email.
• #14: One of the core, defining characteristics of Hyperautomation is the broad set of capabilities to look for when adopting a hyperautomation strategy. Let’s look at some of the featured capabilities that the Precisely Automate platform has which help it form the center of yout Hyperautomate strategy: - Workflow is how we achieve flexible process automation and the workflow engine in the Precisely Automate platform has been specifically developed for complex, data-intensive SAP-centric processes Connectivity through APIs enables you to automate complex processes where your SAP ERP system is the heart of a process that includes coordinating data across multiple systems of record, or where the data needs further enhancing from third-party sources Self-Service capabilities help further enhance automated processes by allowing outside parties to contribute to the process. A great example of this are portals that allow constituents, such as vendors, to access, enhance or modify their SAP data through a secure web page. This can kick off a workflow to review and approve the data, or directly post data to your system. Data Management automate and streamlines mass-data processes Cloud Deployment to support your company’s move to the cloud activities and better connect to multiple SaaS platforms that are engaged in SAP-centric processes. Governance often presents one of the greatest challenges to manual data management processes and to automated processes that rely on multiple technologies to automate a single process. By adopting a centralized approach to automation, you can achieve end-to-end governance for improved visibility and auditability of complex, data-intensive processes Low-code development which is often referred to as “citizen development” enables business teams to develop and deploy automation solutions, relieving much of the burden from our often overworked IT teams. And, by moving the automation development process closer to the people who own the processes and data, it can significantly lower the time it takes to deploy automation across your business. Attended & unattended automation recognizes that while there are processes we can automate that do not require human intervention (unattended), many of the complex processes that are core to the success of our business are “human in the loop” meaning that people are required to input, review or modify data. Having the flexibility to develop solutions for both attended and unattended scenarios can give more flexibility than solutions centered on unattended processes. Forms are perfect for complex processes that require input from multiple parties across your organization. For example, creating a new vendor in your SAP system, often requires data or review from people in multiple departments either in parallel or sequentially. By deploying role-based forms, you are just requesting or displaying the information that an individual needs to see at a [particular stage of the process. The ability to quickly develop and deploy forms in an automated process can improves efficiency in multiple ways. Data Quality - Finally we get to improved data quality. We talked earlier about the interdependence of process and data in achieving automation success. With data stewardship integrated throughout a complex automated process, the Precisely Automate platform offers a more comprehensive set of data quality tools than automation tools that are only focused on process automation. As a complete set of capabilities, the Precisely Automate platform is the right combination of capabilities on which to center your Hyperautomation strategy and build for success.
• #15: Mention citizen development and our history of enabling business teams to develop and deploy automation
• #16: 9 months to realize full return on investment in Studio from improved accounting efficiency (Global logistics company) 1.4 million pricing-change records processed – no additional headcount needed (Home Meridian) (Note: Cannot use Home Meridian name in marketing or promotional materials) Replaced paper forms with online forms for processing customer refunds (RSA Insurance) (Note: Cannot use RSA name in marketing or promotional materials) 300 Journal entries per hour using Excel Workflow (McKesson) (Note: Cannot use McKesson name in marketing or promotional materials)
• #18: Why is automation such a hot topic in the IT world these days? The pandemic showed many of the shortcomings of our decades of digital transformation efforts. We have spent years and countless dollars digitizing our data and processes, but when the pandemic hot, many of us were caught flatfooted by it’s limitations. As a result, we are now seeing that for many of us, the next step on our digital transformation journey is automating our critical business processes. Many of these are centered on SAP ERP systems and involve creating and managing master data. Now, let’s look at the needs and wants that companies have coming out of the pandemic and how they can be addressed through automation.
• #21: And the example we want to show you today is the creation of Material Master data in SAP. For Organizations typically in the manufacturing industries that have a high amount of new product introductions and changes in any given year, that means a high volume of new material requests and changes to existing material master data in SAP. Now these processes are highly manual and complex processes with lots of data entry error points. We see here an example webform to create new finished goods. It is not uncommon for organizations to have 2-3 hundred fields or more on such a material request form. This data typically has to be collected and entered by different teams and can come from various sources. It therefore usually requires multiple collection steps, validation steps, review and approval steps in the process.
• #22: Because of the volume and complexity of data, companies typically set out to define 100s if not 1000s of data validation rules that they implement. And that works great and our solution provides the flexibility to support any amount and any complexity of rules with ease. However, the process to define and agree on business rules in the first place is often a lengthy and cumbersome process.
• #27: Agility to quickly adapt to changes in your business environment through flexible workflow automation Also – Low code/no code environment enables faster solution development through citizen development Speed for faster, more efficient processes Improved initial data quality through elimination of manual data entry and integrated data stewardship capabilities Visibility throughout a complex process for: Reporting Process Intelligence Process linking - real-time process tracking (Does this get called out separately?) Audit support Historical comparison/analysis Business team focus – Low code/no code environment enables business teams and those closest to a process to develop automation solutions Automation flexibility - to determine best automation route (attended vs unattended, form or Excel interface, connection to other systems of record through APIs for end-to-end process automation) Scalability to process almost any amount of SAP data as needed by a process step Proven track record – Nearly twenty years of SAP ERP process automation success has demonstrated why Evolve is the leading process automation platform/solution for thousands of customers world-wide.
• #30: Questions? Can you also do Vendor and Customer masters too? I’m on S4 Hana will this work with my system? I have custom fields in my material master, does this work for those? We often have fields that the business is missing can you make them require even if SAP doesn’t require them? We would love to speak to you in more detail about your product data processes and how we can help you make an impact to your business , so please feel free to reach out to us.
• #33: Alternative Headlines: - Alternative Sub-Headlines: Hyperautomation for your digital transformation dreams Driving digital transformation success
• #34: Alternative Headlines: - Alternative Sub-Headlines: Hyperautomation for your digital transformation dreams Driving digital transformation success
• #35: Gartner – And growing at 12% CAGR KPMG KPMG ASUG Gartner
• #36: Talk track In addition to the critical needs our businesses have, we also want to achieve a number of objectives that will help us remain competitive, these include: 1.) The desire to optimize our staffs – We have spent the better part of the past two decades right sizing, down sizing, and scaling our organizations to be as efficient as possible for today’s business conditions. The problem is that the market keeps evolving, and we gather more business-critical data every day. We want to find ways to help make the staff we have today more efficient and effective. 2.) We want to reach ROI faster. One of the early struggles with automation has been that it can be difficult to measure, or has a return on investment horizon that is too long to justify the up-front cost.
• #37: Levels of automation maturity Given that our research also showed that only 5% of companies have achieved a “very high” or “high” level of automation maturity, it is increasingly important to understand how companies are approaching automation and ownership of its adoption. Let’s start by looking at the numbers on automation maturity. Almost half of respondents (47%) reported a “medium” level of automation maturity, meaning they currently have a mix of automated and manual SAP processes. This aligns with Precisely’s experience delivering SAP automation solutions for over 20 years. Certain processes easily lend themselves to automation, such as mass data management processes like moving, updating, and manipulating SAP master data. Complex, data-intensive business processes involving multiple constituents across an organization are less likely to be automated due to process optimization and reengineering challenges.
• #38: [For Senior-level accounting and finance audiences. Also automation teams with data quality initiatives] Since the General Ledger is often considered the single source of truth for SAP Financial operations, it’s imperative that the data be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, the reality is that general ledger data often includes numerous errors that make accurate reporting and forecasting a challenge. According to a recent KPMG study of senior finance executives, fewer than 22% of them are entirely confident in the accuracy of the data they use for reporting, forecasting and analysis. Audience: BDM, SAP Analyst, Data Steward
• #40: Why is automation such a hot topic in the IT world these days? The pandemic showed many of the shortcomings of our decades of digital transformation efforts. We have spent years and countless dollars digitizing our data and processes, but when the pandemic hot, many of us were caught flatfooted by it’s limitations. As a result, we are now seeing that for many of us, the next step on our digital transformation journey is automating our critical business processes. Many of these are centered on SAP ERP systems and involve creating and managing master data. Now, let’s look at the needs and wants that companies have coming out of the pandemic and how they can be addressed through automation.
• #41: Complexity is at the core of SAP automation challenges The core challenges to automating SAP processes essentially boil down to complexity. The business processes themselves are complex, as are the data objects associated with each SAP record. Both present significant difficulties to those attempting to analyze and reengineer a specific process or activity. We have understood this for years, but the survey results quantify this tribal knowledge. Let’s start with the complexity of the business processes. Respondents who reported using automation at levels of “medium” through “very high” were asked to identify all applicable challenges to process automation. “Complexity of business processes” was cited by 50% of the respondents, ranking it as the top challenge to automating SAP processes. Interestingly, 64% of companies where enterprise architecture teams are leading automation efforts cited process complexity as a challenge, versus only 29% of respondents where automation efforts are led by dedicated digital transformation or center of excellence teams. This may indicate that implementing process automation is better led by teams closer to SAP ERP and the business processes themselves rather than by teams focused on the underlying infrastructure and the chosen automation technology. A close second in our survey was the challenge of understanding and defining the requirements for automating a specific process, which was cited by 47% of respondents. Complex, data-intensive SAP processes that involve constituents across an organization are often difficult to analyze fully since they frequently have multiple contingencies depending on specific parameters. Replicating the business rules necessary to guide and orchestrate the automation of these processes can be a daunting, time-consuming exercise. Addressing poor data quality Following the top two are challenges associated with identifying and maintaining automation tools and solutions, difficulties with resources and personnel, and issues concerning integrating other systems into SAP processes. Poor data quality is also called out as a specific challenge. Through our work with customers, we usually see data quality challenges associated with automation fall into two categories: • Reengineering the processes that are generating bad data to make them more efficient and eliminate data quality issues • Analyzing processes for automation based on poor-quality data The former can often be addressed through improved process governance stemming from a well-designed and implemented automation solution. The latter can be addressed by implementing a longer-term, real-time process analysis that does not rely on historical data. This approach can identify inconsistencies and problems as they happen, discarding those incidents from the analysis. This “clean” analysis can then be used to reengineer the process for automation.
• #42: Complexity is a multi-dimensional barrier to automation and optimization Complexity is a recurring theme throughout this survey. Organizations running SAP ERP systems make it clear in their responses that complexity is a significant pain point across multiple dimensions. It presents challenges to implementing automation and is a barrier to process optimization. At the same time, SAP users are looking to automation as a way to overcome the complexities presented by SAP itself. For this to happen, we need to understand the multiple dimensions of complexity at play in the SAP environment and how they intersect with automation and optimization. Data complexity The complexity associated with SAP data creation and maintenance. SAP master data records are complex, data-intensive, and, when managed manually, prone to error. Frequently, SAP records have complex data structures with dozens of objects and fields, all of which must be correct to support the business effectively. As the pace of data growth accelerates, data complexity becomes an even greater challenge for organizations. Process complexity The complexity associated with the business processes needed to create and manage SAP data. Many of the most critical SAP processes require the participation of constituents across an organization. Processes such as account creation, materials management, and the updating or extension of records must be governed and tracked to remain compliant. Due to their complexity, these human-in-the-loop processes are often some of the last to be automated, yet they can deliver some of the highest ROI when automated properly. Organizational complexity The complexity associated with business organizations and priorities. The organizational interdependencies associated with processes that cross multiple departments inside large organizations are not always well understood. Moreover, business priorities of individual departments are often in conflict. Getting everyone on the same page and agreeing to a set of priorities is challenging. If developing an automation solution takes too long, it can be de-prioritized in favor of a different program that delivers short-term gains.