In this episode of the Process and Automation Podcast, hosts Sascha and Arno discuss the major forces that are accelerating the adoption and evolution of process optimization. They identify four primary drivers: (1) Democratized development, where low‑code platforms and the rise of citizen process experts empower business users to build automation solutions, requiring clear automation strategy, governance, and skill‑development programs; (2) The growth of digital nomads and the gig economy, which provides flexible, expert‑level talent worldwide, enabling faster project delivery and more adaptable staffing models; (3) The emergence of an automation fabric or factory, a cohesive layer that weaves together RPA, low‑code, AI, chatbots, and other technologies into the application stack, fostering an automation‑first culture; and (4) The maturation and wider accessibility of process mining and discovery tools, which deliver objective, automated insights that serve as the foundation for continuous improvement. Throughout the conversation, the hosts stress the importance of governance, training, and an overarching automation strategy to harness these trends effectively. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to rate, subscribe, and stay tuned for future discussions.
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Welcome to another episode of the Process and Automation Podcast. And yeah, all our listeners out there know we are extremely passionate about all things process and automation. So hence, yeah, we can't stop recording new episodes, as it seems. So today we will be talking about the the key drivers that are influencing the future of process optimization. And yeah, as we all know, the field of process optimization is constantly evolving. So what's driving these changes? Yeah, we have identified a couple of the key drivers that are shaping the future of this particular field. On top of that, we are also taking a look at the emerging trends that are making process optimization more accessible to a wider range of people. And yeah, we think this is kind of a big deal and we are excited to share our thoughts on this. So let's get started. Yeah, as you know, process automation, process optimization is not exactly new out there. So we have business process management as a topic for decades now. Arno and myself, we are in that field as well, pretty much as long as this term business process management exists. And yeah, and we know it builds on other software automation approaches from, from before. That. But there are a couple of new factors that are kicking process automation adoption into pretty much the high gear and make it more widely used. So we are talking democratized development, the rise of digital nomads, automation fabric, really cool term. So we talk about that in a little bit, and a bunch of new improved optimization automation tools out there. So These factors are really changing the future of process automation. That's, that's for sure. So Arno, let's jump into the first driver we identified.
Thanks, Sascha. Yeah, great intro. And the first one we want to touch on is really looking at this, this notion of a democratised development. And, you know, this can be done through low-code tools. So these are traditional sort of drag-and-drop workflow you know, human-to-human type tools, case management. Then of course, the digital process automation that is actually the process automation on the backend that actually drive the outcomes of these processes. And then also robotic process automation or RPA for our listeners that hasn't heard that before. So again, the democratization of development is really accelerating out there. And, you know, a lot of companies out there are, you know, actively going out and giving business people the tools to develop applications themselves as part of this new business developer strategy. There's a recent survey I looked out on the internet and it showed that 29%, so almost 30% of senior developers that they surveyed, and said that their firm directly encourages and supports these non-traditional developers to create software with inside the business. And that's of course using this low-code developer strategy, and it's also used to recruit new talent. So it's not just reserved for the techies. It's also, you know, reaching out to these business developer community or future business developer community out there. And again, you know, most recently we've seen the emergence of what's now called the Citizen Process Expert or CPE. I think there's a lot of terminology being thrown out there. We've heard the term citizen developer before. So as things evolve and the trends evolve, you know, we're getting new labels for these things. But it's essentially, you know, these business-focused optimization experts that can potentially drive real value, but they also raise new questions, you know, especially around governance and training and so on and so forth. So again, if we look at what the strategy is for this approach to work, We, you know, the first point is we need an automation strategy. We've talked a lot about this on the podcast as well. Strategize, kind of get your strategy in place, get your goals in place. The second thing is automation governance. You know, we don't want proliferation of these single silo automation initiatives. We want to have a kind of firm governance around especially IT governance, security governance, change management. So it's really kind of looking at that piece, creating some really good frameworks and so on and so forth. The next one is really kind of skills models and training and, you know, tuition programs within the business. So, you know, this approach really demands almost that as a kind of cornerstone as well. And so, you know, and this needs to be very rewarding programs. So there needs to be some reimbursement programs. And then really the fourth point is the convergence of all these tools and the ability for the business developers to use them first. So, you know, you need to have that kind of enablement. All of that coming together will really then, you know, in terms of, you know, you talked about the factors that will define the future of process automation. And of course, you know, I've just talked about democratized development. This all kind of nicely brings that together for you.
Yeah, and one of the other points I just mentioned earlier, so we have the rise of digital nomads out there. Yeah, so, and so yeah, one of the factors is digital nomads, more empowered employees, and of course the gig economy. So this trend is happening around us, of course. So more and more people will be out there as a digital nomad. So if you don't know what the digital nomad is, so these are usually freelancers in the field, experts in the field, and they are sort of independent to a certain location. So they just basically join a project maybe from New York and doing something there for a couple of months, and then maybe they're working in Portugal for another 2 months and working on a project there. So, um, so these independent and remotely working digital nomads available around the world allows to be very flexible as a, as a company, or when you, when you have projects going on. So they are paid pretty much for, for that one project and assignment. Um, so yeah, you will keep very, very flexible with that, and Yeah, and gives, gives you the opportunity to bring in more staff when needed because suddenly people are around the world available for you, and that will ensure that things are running more smoothly. So you don't have this pain sometimes to just recruiting in the local market. So, but those kind of people are usually experts in the field. They are the the process experts, you can just get into your project. Yeah, it will definitely help you to get your projects done more effectively, faster. So generally, this new type of working and the, the changed requirements when it comes to project work, especially in that expert field, if you bring both worlds together, it is pretty much a win-win situation for, for everyone. So that's, that's what we're seeing as a key factor, and it will most certainly grow going forward.
Yeah, the next one in these, these factors that would shape the future of process automation is this emergence of the so-called automation factory or fabric, rather. So again, the, you know, if we look at digital transformation, it's sort of entered a new phase in which automation becomes a critical competency out there and a very, very competitive and compelling differentiator between different organizations. And, you know, as, as companies out there go beyond just automating kind of point task solutions or processes towards the goal of, I guess, a fully automated autonomous enterprise, they will need to evolve into what's called a digital fabric that really weaves together their workforce, their processes, technology, and then really promoting an automation-first culture. So digital fabric is really a kind of a collection of diverse but sort of co-evolving automation technologies as robotic process automation, low-code tools, process intelligence. You know, we've got chatbots out there, machine learning, and all of that is really kind of woven into our sort of traditional application layer. So if we look at an application and we sort of build it with components, you know, all of these emerging technologies are being kind of made available and woven into that. So, and again, this sort of abstract features and functionality of the underlying applications to make them more accessible for, I guess, a broad spectrum of users and these business developers. So, you know, again, it's this kind of availability and this enablement of these underlying, I guess, strands of the automation fabric that is made available. And that's kind of like a key driver for, you know, like I said, promoting this automation-first culture.
Interesting. Yeah, the next key driver out there is the emergence of process mining and process discovery tools. There are a couple of vendors, or lots of vendors out there now focusing on making these tools easier to use and more accessible for business users. We talk about process mining and process discovery here a lot as well, because it's sort of the starting point for process optimization initiatives. And in addition, these mining tools have really matured over the years, and process and task mining provide objective and automated insights into what's going on at the business, how processes are really running, and process modeling and documentation tools, yeah, will help teams to collaborate better. Yeah, those kind of tools will really become a huge part of continuous process improvement in in companies. Yeah, definitely something to get started with if you haven't done so.
So I guess in summary, sort of the kind of trends we've just touched on is, like you opened with this podcast earlier, and the first one I mentioned is democratized development. So again, that's these business developers that we talked about, the digital nomads, the gig economy, kind of people having access, readily access to low-code tools to build things. Every day there seems to be 10 more products on the market that you can build very, very interesting and compelling applications. Automation Fabric's really just the sort of the collective progressive technologies that's woven into our application layer that enables us to really take advantage and make these technologies mainstream and make us think about using these technologies when we adopt automation-first culture. And then you just touched on, you know, again, the proliferation really of process mining tools and process discovery tools. This is a very, very big trend that's becoming a lot more mainstream now. We see a lot of people are effectively moving towards sort of digital discovery rather than doing manual discovery. There is still a space for manual discovery, but of course, you know, as automation trends evolve and the need for quick identification of potential automation candidates, of course, process mining is a sort of a go-to methodology for that.
We will have another episode coming up very, very soon. And until then, let's automate it. Unfortunately, that's it again. With this episode of the Process and Automation Podcast. If you like this episode, please give us a 5-star rating and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any upcoming episode. We hope you will tune in next time, and until then, let's automate it!
