Everyday MBA: Digital Process Automation Tactics and Success

Kevin Craine's Everyday MBA Featuring Paul Stone

Paul Stone, FlowForma's Solution Architect, was a special guest on Everyday MBA, to discuss digital process automation with host, Kevin Craine. They explore the digital techniques that give process owners and front-line workers the ability to automate and improve processes without the need for IT support or custom programming. 

FlowForma's approach to no code automation is driving the next generation of process improvement for organizations in all industries. Listen for examples, insights, and three action items you can use today.

In this podcast, you will learn about topics such as: 

• What digital process automation is and how it works 
• How organizations are currently using digital process automation and the impacts to organizational performance
• What “no-code” app development is and how it’s different from “low-code” 
• How Paul sees applications being designed and deployed in the future 
• An example of an industry which has been particularly successful with digital process automation

Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
this episode of Everyday MBA is sponsored by Flo Forma. Award winning products for digital process automation. Find out more at flow forma dot com Hello, everyone and welcome to every day MBA interviews with best selling authors, innovative thought leaders and top shelf executives, all sharing their best techniques and tips that you don't learn in business. I'm your host, Kevin Crane, and I'm so pleased that you're listening and so pleased to welcome Paul Stone to the show. There is a lot of excitement about digital process automation these days, and for good reason. Business process Automation brings the promise of relieving the burden of paper in everyday workflow and freeing people up from having to perform repetitive and mundane and manual tasks that slow the pace of business. But before you tune out, figuring this is all about I T or technology, a new approach to process automation is emerging. That puts users and frontline workers and and process owners in control, giving the folks that are most familiar with the process the ability to automate and improve processes without much or even any specialized coating or I t support. So how do you do it? Well That's what we'll be discussing today with Paul Stone. Paul is a solution architect with Flo Forma and an expert in digital process automation. Paul. Welcome to every day MBA and I want to explore about how we do all of this. But first, can you give us some perspective and grounding? As I mentioned in the information technology sector, business process automation is getting a lot of attention. But line of business people and business owners, folks that are not necessarily steeped in technology may not be familiar with the term and the ideas. Can you briefly describe what digital process automation is and how it works?

spk_1:   1:57
Digital process, automation. So where in the past like you, he'd think of business? Process Management systems, which were built by I T solution provider, is providing task management on critical processes. Think of digital process automation as managing not just half, but data and documents to and configured by business process owners themselves. So it allows you to digitize on a large scale without running into, you know, the problems off the high cost of I T providers and the delays that can occurred during that process.

spk_0:   2:30
That's the key point isn't it that this is something that enables process owners Tiu are enabled to do without necessarily large team of I T folks or custom coding involved? That's really the secret part of it or the innovative part of the approach.

spk_1:   2:49
Absolutely. And really, the whole idea is to imperatives business process or the guys who actually know and you know what the business really needs. And you have a responsibility to manage those processes in the business. Those are the guys who really care, if you like. And then it's to get those guys in paradigm to actually do the digitization themselves so that they can them drive and efficiencies absolutely. At the end of the day on what would happen to go through that third party. Because whenever you're going through 1/3 party, there's always going to be misunderstandings and delays and so on, and the final result may not be quite as good as he wanted to be. So take control, digitize yourselves and get the results that you wouldn't

spk_0:   3:30
in. Your priority may not be someone else's priority,

spk_1:   3:33
absolutely, and just to stay as well. When you want to change things, you'd be dependent on the third party as well to kind of chance things for you. And, yeah, you've grown into a lot of difficulty then.

spk_0:   3:44
So in what ways are organizations currently doing this? And what are the impacts to their performance?

spk_1:   3:51
Well, the largest needed we see is that they need to remove paper based process is there are so many paper based bosses around or process that are buried in email chains and spreadsheets, that people just create on the fly and to manage them and so on. And so does love scope, for for digitizing those processes and doing them in a controlled, repeatable way, and also by implementing assistant, where you can measure the efficiency of the process. Because if you got the process on paper and email and someone, there's no way to actually measure its performance. So there's a novel or process. Even where people have a traditional BPM systems in place, there's still plenty of processes that they've not gonna run to, and there's lots of school proficiency, their opportunity for office efficiency that they're actually missing that on. So that's the biggest need. B. C B C. Coming from a customer disaster as the looking to remove those old, inefficient, paper based process that we can gain control over them on improve them and drive efficiency in that way. And yeah, in terms of the impacts and what we've known it is that people who are on D. P A. Programs they're looking at efficiencies gained of about typically over 50% on only paper based process that they automate. So you know DP. A platform allows you to automate the process very quickly, and and you can see benefits coming back very quickly on dhe, even if the process is not a major one in your organization. If you're saving more than 50% and time's efficiency, you're gaining or not, and if you do, 10 of them are 100 of them. That really adds up to a lot of saving. At the end of the day,

spk_0:   5:35
you're saying a couple things to me that the improvement percentage, at 50% or so, is compelling in itself, and then the process is then measurable, which is another key, tentative process. Continuous process improvement. If I can't measure it, I can't manage it. So tell me how all of this works, though, because if I'm a business person. I'm saying Okay, this sounds great. But what does it really mean to me? In my organization? I've heard of low code development where you you're able to develop an application or workflow with rather low amounts of coding and support. But what is no code app? Development?

spk_1:   6:13
Yeah, Low code is, um is common in the marketplace of the moment. But with Low coach are still dependent on that I t resource to help you out. As no code basically means that you don't need to understand coding. You don't need to be an I t developer or you don't need to have to call the 90 developer to build out a solution so literally you just don't understand the process that you're trying to work on on be able to understand it in a very logical way, and then you can actually go in and configure a solution rather than actually coding a solution on basically what that's all to do with this ramp up time. So you're never love skills that you need. I t schools unusual, quieter actually implement a solution very low, and you certainly don't need thio. Learn any coding language which can take months, So it's a much faster way to getting your results on. You don't have to come any kind of I t professional to wear to actually deliver those whistles.

spk_0:   7:09
So, Paul, tell me then, in what way? Specifically, have you seen organizations use this and what kinds of applications and where do we find the most opportunity for improvement using this approach?

spk_1:   7:22
Well, the biggest M successes that we've seen our, um, mainly in organizations that used a lot of paper. So, for example, ah, classic example is a construction industry. The construction industry is quite far behind in terms of digital transformation. So you look at the various industries like finance being very forward, thinking, if you like, construction isn't it is lagging behind. And if you go into any construction project, you typically see lots of pieces of paper flying around in office or around a construction site. And this is the one industry where we've seen a lot of benefit from the deep a platform, and the reason is that you can take all those pieces of paper standardized forms and you can actually make them into electronic forms. Elektronik forms that are actually accessible on mobile devices, so you can actually work on a construction side, fill in the form of a construction site a mobile device on then submitted into hedge take you automatically and which saves immediately saved in the north by the time they're This is typical paper processes. So and the thing about it is as well is that there are typically a very large number of different types of forms on digitizing one on its own. Yeah, sure, you make a saving, but you're a real saving is to be able to digitize a lot of those people piece of paper, and so do it at scale on this is where DP a platforms really come into play because you can actually and like within the space off, like a couple of days, you conjugate ties, a piece of paper and a process surrounding that. And you can also introduce automation into that so you can automatically e mail people, for example, even automatically create interim documents during the process. And I just really adds up to a lot of savings at the end of the day. So in environments where there are lots of paper based buses is, you can really gain a lot of benefit from a DP a puff on dhe. The other thing is that many of those environments which are still paper based in this era of digital transformation many of those environments don't have a lot of I T resources, so there is no option. If you like to digitize that paper and using traditional methods, let's say eso introducing a DP a platform that could do it very quickly using business resources and really helps and make a lot of saving in an environment which otherwise that wouldn't would be no opportunity.

spk_0:   9:48
That's a great example. And in an environment where time is absolutely money and mistakes are our money as well?

spk_1:   9:55
Yeah, absolutely. And where people are living in peace, the paper incorrectly or allegedly and you know that actually results in project delays, which results in the delivery of the building, which can cost of lasting many money so ultimately your mitigating risks as well. So you're not just improving performance between mitigating project rest, which is very significant in sand extraction environment.

spk_0:   10:19
It is now the time in history where we can do these kinds of things that we may have been dreaming about for a while. Do you feel that that this is a fundamental shift in the way that that we will be doing business, how applications will be designed and deployed now and in the future?

spk_1:   10:34
Yeah, absolutely. And because they're just not enough, I t. People around 90 resources around to actually ah, digitize process and automate in the way that businesses need to do. And as more and more businesses to additional transformation ever become a fully digital organization papers so realization. And, you know, that's just increasing their competitiveness. So it kind of snowballed started rolling where the earlier doctors of this kind of technology are going to push ahead of their competitors. So it's going to push the whole many industry sectors forward and using this new technology and to actually become truly digital paperless organizations. So it's a method of achieving that where, you know, if you were dependent on the T department to do that for you, you'd be waiting a long time, So Ah, yeah, absolutely. It is kind of accelerating. We see this accelerating in the marketplace, and more and more companies and more, more industries are adopting this kind of DP approaching do it yourself approach to, ah, to the right East Illusions absolute.

spk_0:   11:41
You're listening to every day. M. B A. Our guest today is Paul Stone. He is a solution architect with Flo Forma. Low forma is revolutionizing the way that we approach digital process on a mission and workflow. Their products are trusted by i t. But give the power to business experts linking workflow and decision making with process improvement in a way that really makes a difference in organizational performance. Find out more at flow forma dot com That's flow. Former dot com I want to shift gears and talk about enterprise organizations. Many enterprise organizations have multiple information, repositories and systems, both formal and informal, and that can make it a challenge to bring all those pieces together effectively. What are some ways that you've seen organizations be successful in overcoming that challenge?

spk_1:   12:36
We're with low former. When we originally designed a product, we actually linked data and documents and workflow all together in one single user interface, and so that as you move through a workflow, you saw data related to task and documents related to task and so on, all in one interface. But what it allows you to do is actually link multiple systems together and threw a chain of actions. So if you imagine there are several people involved in the business process and as each person works on their piece of the process, you pull them, push data in and out of your back end systems that you end up with a an order trail almost off the actions that were taken to complete your business process and achieve your business goal. And so, for former kind of access and orchestration there, Africa, if it could be so, where 40 and aunts and basically access a layer on top of your systems that it shows the human activity that links transactions transaction together. And so, basically, you're still gonna have your back insistent. There your s a P or your piece system, for example. It's still gonna be there, but you have this kind of layer on top of that governs the human interaction with that those systems in the back end's thio to achieve those business girls.

spk_0:   13:55
So is that the unification we always hoped for? One repositories of all the information in the organization when one source of truth, if you will. So are we able to achieve that

spk_1:   14:08
now? Yeah, absolutely. You certainly can. And you have basically that the various that. I think the challenge for businesses is that the source of truth is different for different types of information. So you have maybe your ear piece system for sorry, a client details. And you have, um, different different system to store product details and someone on basically having one assistant actually talks to each one of those. And so it always references the correct system for your master data that allows you to link human activity to the actual the data stores that store that master information.

spk_0:   14:48
And again, to me, that sounds like some secret sauce in there because our objective is to use information in ways that advanced the performance of the organization, not just to save more and more of it. And so without that unification and that ability to get to all of it and understand all of it a holistic level, a strategic level, we're never quite there yet.

spk_1:   15:12
Yeah, absolutely. You need you need Ah, assistant. That records that human activity the human interaction with the data and so you can capture and how that data changes over time and so on. On. This is the missing link, if you like, because that the data stores that have the moment they're showing the data at one point in time. A static data store if you like and for former, actually stores all the activity around on managers. Lot of activity controls activity as well.

spk_0:   15:40
All right again. How do I do it? Can you give us an example of an organization or a type of organization or process that you have seen that's been particularly successful with this approach?

spk_1:   15:51
Yeah, very common use case for our product is toe handle on boarding. So where you have client or supplier on boarding, and usually that's a multistage process and requires data to be captured accurately by different people and to achieve the goal of a boarding that's a supplier. And also you have to have the ability to externalize a process and have that client or supplier actually enter the data themselves on their death top in their organization. And then that data is captured accurately and passed then into your organization to be processed, usually by several different people before it hits your back end. So the whole idea of Clinton supplier and boarding very come in this case on requires interaction with multiple people, people aside your organization and also referencing data stores inside your company to ensure their l The information is comfortable, actually, and correctly on down the line. This is so significant because that supplier data that details are the supplier, the details of that client, they will be used for reporting. And so many other processes are dependent on that information being correct and accurate that this is an area that a lot of clients of ours are interested in have implemented on dhe Gae In's real benefits me too quickly.

spk_0:   17:17
You're listening to every day M b A. I'm speaking with Paul Stone solution architect with Flo Forma. Now, Paul, we have reached the action item round of show. I'm wondering if you could please provide us with three quick action items that our listeners conducive to begin to take advantage of your ideas and

spk_1:   17:36
advice. Yeah, I think the first thing you need to do is look at the process that you could automate so take a good look at those them paper based buses. See where there are pain points in your organization on dhe and pick some candidates where you could try her g p a and that thing's murder. The second point is pride of yourself. At the end of the day, you know, I can say whatever I like about you know, this. These systems are designed for business people. But, hey, it's very easy to actually take a trial and actually try it out yourself on Build out a process and I hear a full former. We're very happy to help you do that, and then the last way is measured the results so willful. Former Like we said right back at the start. You have this ability to measure those digitize processes so you can, after you gauge how quickly and how much you engaged, how much benefit that a digitized pass is actually bringing you? So that's the last point, Really touching measured the the results stature you're gaining through that that digital process that you've put together yourself.

spk_0:   18:43
Paul, it's been great speaking with you today. We're almost out of time. But before I let you go one last question. What should C I ose be thinking about and strategizing for in order to be prepared for the world in 10 years time?

spk_1:   18:57
Well, it's really the democratization of I t. So CEOs typically, um, you know, I'm managing I t departments that delivery into the business. Well, they've got to be thinking off the business, doing it themselves on letting him control out to the business. So providing infrastructure to allow those business people to digitize the process, processes and solutions themselves and then provide the guard rails for that and also the happened advice that those business people are going to need come forward. So it's really putting themselves in a different position where they actually realizing that they cannot deliver all the IittIe knees that the business has. But hey, supporter business and doing it themselves.

spk_0:   19:41
That's Paul Stone with Flo Forma Paul. Thanks a lot for being our guest today on everyday MBA.

spk_1:   19:46
That's great. Thanks so much for the opportunity to heaven

spk_0:   19:50
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