Actualizing Business Resilience: 5 Digital Transformation Trends that will Define 2021
A look at what the year ahead has in store for process automation leaders
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2020 was a whirlwind of a year. From the cataclysmic coronavirus pandemic to a new civil rights movement, we’re living in a very different world that we were just one year ago.
This disruption extends into the workplace as well. Study after study has confirmed that, in just a matter of months, the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated digital transformation efforts by an average of 3-7 years.
If 2020 was a year defined by global turmoil and disruptive change, 2021 needs to be a year of rapid innovation and business resilience. For years organizations have been planning their digital transformations but, for many companies, 2021 is the year it will actually happen.
2021 will be a year like no other when it comes to digital innovation, with record-busting investments in digital technology and next-generation operating models. In fact, according to Gartner, worldwide RPA software revenue is expected to reach $1.88 billion in 2021, a 19.5% increase from 2020, despite the fact that these solutions are going down in price.
And that’s not all. Based on our research, these 5 trends will dominate the 2021 landscape.
Scalable RPA & IA
For a few years now, organizations have been successfully deploying robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent automation (IA) to automate and optimize routine business processes mostly in IT, Finance and cyber security. Though some of these deployments have been more successful than others, as of 2020, about half of all RPA projects failed and for IA, that number is even higher. In addition, 60% organizations who adopted RPA will face challenges to scale the solution by 2022 and it will restrict their ROI and market dominance, according to Gartner.
However, in 2021, RPA and IA will start to go mainstream. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2024, roughly half of all new RPA clients will come from business buyers, not directly from the IT organization
Why? Because when limited to a single function, these technologies can only achieve so much. Scaling these into new functions such as HR, supply chain and customer service, is the first step in automating complex, cross-functional end-to-end business processes and achieving hyperautomation.
Want to learn more about scalable IA & RPA?
The key for global corporate enterprise is to benefit from the collective intelligence presented by RPA and cognitive technologies along with human workers. Only by having technology combine with human talent can global corporate enterprise achieve scalable intelligent automation. And only with scalable intelligent automation enterprise resiliency be realized. Join that community for lessons learned at SRIA Live.Scalable RPA & Intelligent Automation Live
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is the combination of next generation technologies such as RPA, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and Intelligent Document Processing, etc., into one, unified intelligent system. While adopting one or more of these technologies can certainly deliver value, it isn’t until all of the technologies are combined and working in unison that truly transformational results can be realized.
Representing the next step of digital maturity beyond scalable RPA & IA, achieving hyperautomation involves developing an enterprise-wide vision for digital transformation and capitalizing on the inherent synergies between varying digital technologies. In other words, deploying multiple, complementary technologies at once to automate complex end-to-end processes. For example, usings workflow automation tools to link together and orchestrate all of the various tasks that make up the full P2P cycle.
Watch this: Shifting to a Hyperautomation Mindset
Building a Future-Proof Team
Along with a fresh approach to digital technology adoption comes the realization that upskilling one’s talent is just as critical to enabling business resilience and agility as sound IT investments.
According to recent Capgemini study, companies are finally putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to equipping workers with the technical skills needed to thrive in the digital age. In fact, in 2020, 60% of organizations said they have the digital capabilities and 62% said they have the leadership capabilities required for digital transformation. This is a significant increase from 2018 where only 24% of executives had the digital capabilities required for digital transformation and only 26% had the necessary leadership capabilities required.
And this trend is expected to extend into 2021 and beyond. For example,
- Verizon announced the launch of its $44 million upskilling program in November 2020
- As part of its $700 million 2025 employee retraining initiative, Amazon recently announced the incorporation of a Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship (MRA) Program
- In June, Bank of America announced a $1 billion, 4-year upskilling program aimed at training the next generation of works and, by doing so, combat racial injustice
- And this is just the tip of the iceberg
As Gianni Giacomelli, chief innovation officer at business transformation firm Genpact, and head of innovation design at MIT’s Collective Intelligence Design Lab commented in a recent Reuters article, “Since the pandemic started, companies are fast-tracking their embrace of digital technologies.They are enabling people to learn wherever they are, whenever they want, on any device.”
Low-Code Automation
Low-code RPA, AI and IA tools are redefining how and innovation takes place. By eliminating (or at least significantly reducing) the need for manual coding, low-code tools are not only reducing the burden on over-stretched developers, they’re ushering in a new cohort of citizen developers.
Companies of all sizes and types are embracing low-code tools to not only automate processes as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, but to enable the democratization of such tools. The hope is that by inviting non-technical workers to participate in the automation process, it will lead to the development of better, more effective applications that deliver tangible business value.
In fact, according to recent reports, the global low-code development platform market alone is predicted to generate a revenue of $187.0 billion by 2030, representing a 31% increase from $10.3 billion in 2019. Furthermore, a different survey by Tonkean found that 33% of 500 business and IT leaders surveys have already invested in no-code/low-code tools, and 45% are actively seeking no-code/low-code tools. Another 16% say they expect to seek these tools within the next 12 months.
LEARN FROM THE BEST: Register now for our virtual Low Code Automation event
We at IAN have experienced this increased interest in low-code automation tools firsthand. In just the past few months we’ve hosted a number of low-code focused webinars including:
- Harnessing the Power of Crowdsourcing to Maximize Business Resilience and Drive Digital Transformation
- Accelerating Digital Innovation and Resilience during the New Normal and Beyond
As low-code tools are relatively new, especially when it comes to RPA and AI applications, CIO and business leaders alike are still determining when to use these tools and how they can be leveraged to strengthen business/IT alignment. Which brings us to our #5 top trend……
RPA & IA Governance
In between high profile cybersecurity incidents such as the SolarWinds hack and the millions of dollars companies lose every year on failed IT projects, the need for increased governance for cognitive technology implementations is crystal clear.
By establishing guidelines around AI/RPA processes and implementations, governance makes these tools easier to scale, minimizes the likelihood of redundant applications and helps protect company assets from bad actors. In addition, AI applications that pose more of a liability risk- such as those involving facial recognition or HIPAA protected data - establishing governance structures is especially important now as it won’t be long before governments impose more regulatory oversight over these areas.