How enterprises are optimizing business processes and value chains for driving hyperautomation

Hyperautomation has become a critical strategy for enterprises looking to improve their efficiency and competitiveness.??

?In October 2019, Gartner named hyperautomation a leading trend that will create waves in 2020 and beyond. In the last three-and-a-half years, enterprises have leveraged Business Process Management (BPM), and Value Chain Mapping (VCM) approaches to identify their most critical business processes and operational decisions for hyperautomation. Moreover, they have been looking to optimize the value chain, ensuring that operations are aligned with their overall business goals.?

BPM and VCM have similar focus areas, such as process improvement and optimization, but their scope and approach differ. For example, BPM is a tactical tool that systematically optimizes an enterprise's internal processes. It involves mapping out the processes, identifying inefficiencies, and implementing changes to improve efficiency, quality, and productivity. In addition, BPM is often used to streamline internal processes and automate processes using technology.?

In contrast, VCM is a strategic tool focusing on understanding the bigger picture, building relationships with suppliers and customers, and optimizing the supply chain. In addition, VCM is a more holistic approach that considers the entire value chain. As a result, it identifies value-added activities and bottlenecks to optimize the flow of products and services through the whole supply chain to improve customer satisfaction and profitability.?

?VCM: Transforming an enterprise's business strategy?

VCM can help enterprises strategically find the processes and decisions that matter most. It does so in one of the following ways:?

• Identifying the most critical components of the value chain: VCM helps enterprises identify their value chain's key elements and how they relate. This information can help enterprises prioritize the most critical components of their value chain and focus their efforts on improving them.?
• Analyzing the cost and value of each component: VCM helps enterprises analyze each component's cost and value-creation in their value chain. Insights like this can help enterprises strategically decide where to invest resources and how to reduce costs.?
• Understanding customer needs: VCM helps enterprises understand their needs and how different value chain components can meet them. As a result, it can help enterprises make business-critical decisions about product development, marketing, and customer service.?
• Enhancing collaboration: VCM helps enterprises and improves cooperation between departments and functions. By understanding how various value chain components work together, enterprises can identify opportunities for cooperation and coordination to improve their overall performance.?
• Zero in on automation opportunities: VCM can help identify critical operational decisions that can be automated by analyzing the various steps in the value chain and identifying the areas where (decision) automation can be most effective. VCM can also help enterprises determine the most cost-effective and efficient way to automate these decisions.?

?BPM: A comprehensive analysis of an enterprise's operations??

BPM can enable enterprises to identify the operational decisions that could best be automated in the quest for hyperautomation. Here is how:?

• Process mapping: BPM helps enterprises map out their processes and identify the operational decisions that are a part of those processes. This mapping exercise helps enterprises identify the specific steps for applying hyperautomation.?
• Process analysis: BPM involves analyzing the performance of existing processes to zero in on inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas that could benefit from decision automation. During this analysis, enterprises can identify which manual operational decisions are slowing down their processes and may be automated to speed up the process.?
• Process automation: BPM provides a framework for automating business processes and implementing the necessary hyperautomation solutions.?
• Decision modeling: Enables enterprises to model and simulate their operational decisions and identify the best-suited decisions for a quick-win hyperautomation.?
• Continuous improvement: BPM's continuous improvement process enables enterprises to continuously monitor and improve their business processes. Enterprises often realize they are taking operational decisions in steps that could be combined well with hyperautomation.?

BPM and VCM - A potent mix?

As one of the six key ingredients of hyperautomation, BPM helps enterprises identify the operational decisions that could best be fully automated by providing a framework for process mapping, analysis, automation, decision modeling, and continuous improvement.?

Both BPM and VCM are applicable methodologies for improving business performance, but they have different focus areas and require different skill sets to implement hyperautomation effectively. As illustrated above, although both BPM and VCM aim to optimize business processes and identify bottlenecks, VCM takes a more holistic approach to analyzing the entire supply chain. On the other hand, BPM focuses on internal processes within an enterprise that can benefit from hyperautomation.?

Rather than a specific technological solution, Camunda CEO Jakob Freund and Gartner Research Director Saikat Ray point out that it is essential to understand hyperautomation as a holistic concept. Enterprises and their chain partners can achieve even greater hyperautomation success by optimizing their processes and value chain using both BPM and VCM concepts to drive their hyperautomation initiatives.

More articles published in the hyperautomation series

• Enterprise motivation to pursue hyperautomation
• Core technologies for driving hyperautomation
• How enterprises are optimizing business processes and value chains for driving hyperautomation
• Mining business processes preparing for hyperautomation, and discovering decision points
• Robotic Process Automation, a step towards?Hyperautomation
• Digital Decisioning at the heart of hyperautomation, creating business value
• How applying Artificial Intelligence helps hyperautomation
• Six preparation steps to leverage Machine Learning for hyperautomation
• 8 technologies around the core in the epicenter of Hyperautomation