Emerging trends in business transformation and operational excellence in 2022

Change is the new normal in the global economy. Approaching change proactively and in a structured way, continuously questioning and adapting their business model and processes means the difference between economic success and decline for many companies. The year 2022 will mark a massive diffusion of important technologies toward operational excellence.

We have all heard the phrase “change is the new normal” very often in the last two years. The disruptive changes in the global economy are obvious and include:

• Every day the rules of the game change fundamentally in many industries, for example e-commerce continuing to dominate stationary trade even further. Mobility concepts are in upheaval with car manufacturers in the process of reinventing their core products. Technology-driven start-ups are threatening and replacing classic business models and customer relationships in banking, financial services and insurance. Climate change requires a massive technology shift in energy generation and distribution.
• Supply and distribution networks that have been established over many years are no longer reliable. Global supply chains at risk threaten corporate success and companies are working out alternatives and ‘plan B’ scenarios.
• Regulatory requirements are growing massively, especially in the direction of environmental protection and social governance.
• Under the headings of 'new working' and 'hybrid working', new forms of work are finding their way into companies, triggered by the Covid-19 circumstances.
• The digitization and automation of processes and the use of AI technologies have reached a tipping point that sets successful companies apart from their competitors.

To meet these changes and implement them in operational practice, the topic of business transformation and operational excellence (BTOE) is of pivotal importance. Successful companies establish a close connection between strategic decisions, efficient business processes and automation through the appropriate IT infrastructure.

The most important trends in 2022

Changing workplace requirements

Hybrid working and the rapidly changing requirements in the workplace put new demands on communication and the exchange of information between companies and employees. This reinforces the usage of digital handbooks to manage the role-specific rollout of process knowledge, work instructions and policies.

The digitization of process knowledge allows for a quick update of information and a two-way exchange, which enables active participation of employees through feedback and collaboration.

Ensuring regulatory compliance

Regulatory requirements are constantly multiplying. Well-known aspects such as quality and data security are supplemented by many new requirements regarding environmental protection, sustainability and social governance and present companies with the challenge of establishing an efficient analysis and reporting system for these aspects.

Instead of many dedicated systems, the solution lies in an integrated platform for regulatory compliance, as many of these compliance requirements relate to the same corporate assets, such as processes, responsibilities, data and IT systems , which are documented in a central repository.

Building resilience

Unforeseen events like cyber-attacks, natural disasters or critical infrastructure failures pose a massive threat to a company's success. Business resilience and business continuity become of paramount importance for most industries. Solutions are becoming an indispensable part of an integrated compliance system and are decisive for the ability to react and act in crisis situations.

Leveraging process and task mining to identify process weak points

For all optimization issues, it is essential to identify the weak points along the core processes. Process and task mining capabilities are essential to understand what is happening in your business. In 2022, there will be increased automation of these analyses, meaning that process and task mining systems will track down the most important problems without much human intervention.

Root cause mining and machine learning algorithms are the core technological components of this automated analysis. A major use case is also the detection of compliance issues, such as deviations from the specified ‘to-be’ processes.

Putting customer satisfaction at the center of process optimization

In 2022, we will see a significant expansion of the analysis spectrum of these monitoring and mining technologies and the focus on processes and tasks will be supplemented by the customer's view. This means customer journeys will be analyzed similarly to internal processes and successful companies will combine this internal and external view to put customer satisfaction at the center of their optimization efforts.

Leveraging process mining for supply chain resilience

In terms of supply chain resilience, process mining will be extended to the entire supply and distribution chains. We will also see significantly more scenarios combining the analysis of production processes and machine data with the core processes, such as contact-to-order, order-to-cash and procurement-to-pay.

The convergence of automation technologies

In recent years, several technologies for automating processes and tasks have become established, including digital process automation, robotic process automation, low-code and no-code platforms and intelligent document processing.

In 2022, these different technologies will continue to converge and integrated platforms will emerge with headlines like ‘hyperautomation’ or ‘automation fabric’. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms will become essential components of automation. Companies will increasingly establish automation centers of excellence to bundle expertise and prevent islands of automation.

Where do all these trends and initiatives come together? Enterprise management systems (EMS),  sometimes called a 'digital twin of an organization', play a central role as the control tower for strategic transformations, business model innovation and operational optimization.

An EMS becomes the central command center for companies that connect the process layer to the strategic business model and leverage automation technologies to differentiate themselves from the competition.

For more information on OPEX trends and a reality check on the key ones take a look at this webinar: Must-Know Trends for Operational Excellence in 2022