How old is your organization? A decade? Multiple decades? Perhaps over one hundred years old? And how old are its practices and processes? Or asked another way, how successfully has it employed technology in improving its business operations and outcomes? And not just its customer-touching business operations but also the operations within its many back-office business functions, such as human resources (HR), facilities, procurement, finance, etc.

I think most people would respond with “Oh, we have so much technology these days” because every business function has its own systems and tools. HR has its HR management system (HRMS) or HR information system (HRIS). Finance has its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or accounting system(s). And that ERP system might also be shared with HR, procurement, business operations, or other business functions.

But what about technology-enablement in the form of digital workflows? Please keep reading to find out more, including why your organization needs them now more than ever.

The evolution of enterprise service management – let’s not overlook the need for technology

While enterprise service management is described as the use of IT service management (ITSM) capabilities by other business functions to improve their operations and outcomes, there’s often a reluctance to recognize the importance of technology in doing this.

Yes, a service-focused mindset is needed. And yes, ITSM best practices can be “adopted and adapted” by other business functions. But many of the benefits of enterprise service management (as well as of ITSM) are limited without the use of a fit-for-purpose ITSM tool – with this providing digital capabilities that include workflow automation and orchestration, self-service and self-help, and technology-enabled knowledge management.

Plus, the data that fuels the reporting and analytics capabilities that allow performance measurement and the opportunities for improvement across operations, outcomes, and service experience.

The same is true for digital transformation. We’re often quick to call out that digital transformation isn’t about technology. That it’s about better business, with the need for people-change a key element.

Again, these are all true points. But digital transformation wouldn’t be possible without the enabling technology and data. Whether it’s employed in new products and services, improved customer engagement mechanisms, or optimized back-office operations. With the latter particularly pertinent now that the people employed in back-office operations are likely doing so either remotely or in a socially distanced manner for the foreseeable future.

The catalyst for digital transformation

While the global pandemic of 2020 has sadly caused both social and business suffering, it has also been the catalyst for much-needed digital transformation within many organizations. Where the move to remote working, in particular, has highlighted the many flaws of traditional back-office operations that rely on a mixture of manual activities, spreadsheets, email exchanges, and people being able to interact in a face-to-face manner. Sound familiar?

If you think that your organization doesn’t need digital workflows, then perhaps think again.

Have your employees struggled to work with the legacy processes and limited technology enablement? For example, has collaboration and cooperation been difficult with employees working remotely? And has it been difficult to gain insight into various work success factors, such as: individual and team performance and productivity, work delays and backlogs, the quality of services and support, or whether the required business outcomes are being delivered as needed?

For many businesses, there’s no doubt that the traditional, manually-reliant processes have been insufficient to meet the needs of a dispersed organization and the higher expectations of both customers and employees.

What your organization needs to do

Of course, there’s a need for the “wake up and smell the coffee” moment – with the realization that the age-old reliance on manually intensive processes, spreadsheets, and email exchanges is no longer the best way to run corporate back-office operations (if it ever was in the last decade).

Many organizations were already onboard with this pre-pandemic, whether they viewed it as the execution of enterprise service management or back-office digital transformation strategies. Then, as I mentioned above, the radical changes to ways of working made it a business-imperative for many others that were struggling to function adequately, in a world of distributed working, with their process status quo.

Thankfully, the solution to this need is already here – with modern ITSM tools offering the ability to quickly build and deploy the digital workflows that your organization needs. Not just in IT but across all of its business functions.

For example, the SysAid Workflow Designer allows you to create the digital workflows that each of your organization’s business functions needs. Importantly, you don’t need coding or technical skills. You don’t even need to work in IT – with Workflow Designer making it easy for anyone to create, share, and optimize digital processes and workflows. For example, the drag-and-drop UI simplifies workflow creation and the speedy implementation of the new or changed process.

Plus, you can leverage automation and service orchestration capabilities to minimize the reliance on manual effort even further – to speed up the flow of work and to improve the employee experience for both the process users and the people they serve.

Reaping the benefits of digital workflows

On the one hand, it’s easy to point to parts of your organization that are currently struggling to operate with their traditional, manually intensive processes. However, on the other, it’s also important to call out the benefits of introducing digital workflows to different business functions and their personnel.

These benefits include:

• The removal of the operational barriers caused by distance and the non-availability of certain personnel – with work quickly redirected to available alternative personnel when needed.
• Faster process execution and outcome delivery, especially when automation and service orchestration are employed.
• Better experiences for the customers and employees that benefit from the faster and higher quality process outcomes.
• Cost savings and efficiencies – brought about by the more efficient use of people, alongside automation, within process operation.
• More motivated and productive business function employees – thanks to the digital workflows facilitating their work. It also helps new staff to be effective more quickly.
• Better intra and inter-departmental collaboration.
• Greater insight into business function operations – from demand, through operational performance, to the identification of improvement opportunities. Plus, increased governance.
• The ability to quickly change processes to reflect both internal and external factors. For example, organizational restructuring or new legislation, respectively.

In demonstrating the above, Orlando Vasquez, Director of Application Support at Locke Supply Co., an employee-owned distributor of plumbing, electrical, and HVAC goods found that:

…Workflow Designer has turned a six-hour job into a one-hour job.

Importantly, the power of digital workflows isn’t limited to individual business functions. They can be used across business functions too. For example, employee onboarding and offboarding can leverage digital workflows, and automation and service orchestration, to get various business functions – including human resources (HR), facilities, IT, and security – working together efficiently to ensure that new starters, say, have everything they need to be productive and motivated employees from day one.

If you want to find out more about what your organization can achieve with digital workflows, then we’re here to help. Please reach out for a quick demo of the ease of digital workflow creation and more information on how other organizations are now using them to improve both their operations and outcomes.