According to a recent study by Salesforce and Vanson Bourne, demand for automation has exploded across industries, but legacy architectures are slowing progress and 80% of businesses are concerned about supporting automation programs.
To understand how IT addresses these automation demands and challenges, Salesforce commissioned a global survey of 600 CIOs and IT decision makers.
Findings of the investigation
Here are some of the key findings from Salesforce’s automation survey of 600 CIOs and IT managers:
- 91% of companies say demand for automation from sales teams has increased over the past two years.
- The highest demand for automation comes from research and development (39%), administration and operations (38%), customer service (33%) and marketing (26%).
- Almost all (96%) of respondents said that changing and rebuilding automation is a challenge as systems and business requirements evolve.
- 80% of organizations believe they are likely to accumulate technical debt when re-engineering applications and data landscapes to support automation.
- Only 44% of organizations are fully utilizing API integration and management capabilities to help automate business processes.
- Hyperautomation is a top priority for CIOs. The survey reveals that 80% of companies will put hyperautomation on their technology roadmap in the next 24 months.
What is hyperautomation? It’s a disciplined, business-driven approach companies use to quickly identify, control, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools, or platforms.
Find value
Automation is at the heart of digital transformation. Businesses today are burdened with silos, multiple process automation tools, and disconnected systems.
The survey shows that employee satisfaction increases thanks to automation in their workplace. But also that hyperautomation unlocks digital value and productivity, and that it accelerates time to market and transforms employee and customer experiences.
Research has also identified the importance of composable architectures. As the pressure to innovate faster continues to increase, organizations will seek even greater agility, leading to an increased push for composable and event-driven architectures.
Empower employees to better serve customers and partners
Companies that are able to leverage low-code or no-code technologies for workflow automation are able to recognize the power of digital transformation as a catalyst for greater efficiency, faster value, reducing development costs and increasing organizational performance.
The driver for greater automation in businesses is based on the need to empower employees to better serve customers and partners: this is achieved by automating simple, repetitive tasks – and, in doing so, fostering successful experiences, both virtual and in-person, across ever-growing touchpoints.
The companies that will succeed and win in a digital economy are those that are fully committed to advancing their automation capabilities across all industries.
Source: ZDNet.com