Technology Record - Issue 22: Autumn 2021

“The best tools are designed to extract every bit of business value from your transformation efforts” O rganisations are reimagining every facet of their operations to become customer-centric digital enterprises. And process governance – the methods, tools, guide- lines and rules employed by an organisation to document, manage and improve processes across the business – is becoming the strategic ‘mission control’ that enables those businesses to harness the full potential of their transformations. By carefully mapping and coordinating the moving parts in your organisation – including the elements that do not exist yet because they are the intended outputs of the ongoing transformation – you can reduce risks dramatically; build new visibility and insights across the organisation and into the future; accelerate operations; devote more time and energy to customers and growth oppor- tunities; and increase the chances that your digital transformation will drive business outcomes. Business leaders today can find numerous process automation vendors with tools geared toward automating antiquated or simply ineffi- cient operations. But what happens when your business needs to orchestrate and harmonise all those newly automated operations and processes so that they work together elegantly, productively and profitably? If process governance isn’t fused into your transformation project to ensure those outcomes are delivered, you’ll have created islands of auto- mation that don’t connect with and enhance each other, thereby limiting the business value you can generate from them. As you attempt to harvest one of the biggest benefits of digital transformation – the ability to refine and optimise your processes at the speed of your customers – you’ll have to dig into and overhaul every single one of those automations one by one, because they were all created in isolation. Modern visual process management tools can incorporate organisational methods, guidelines and rules of process governance to ensure up-to- date and improved business processes. The best tools are designed to help you avoid that type of process-isolation disaster and instead extract every bit of business value from your transfor- mation efforts. A modern process governance approach allows you to create a well-organised and easy way to manage a ‘process portfolio’ that lets you view how your processes are performing, where the interconnections are and where potential risks could arise. As a result, your company will have a much greater chance of reaching that state to which every business aspires in today’s disruptive times: where continuous improvement and innovation is part of your DNA. Eric Johnson is the CEO of Nintex Process governance in digital transformation To ensure automation success, businesses must orchestrate their newly automated processes to work together productively and profitably E R I C J OHNSON : N I NT E X V I EWPO I NT 87