As more companies strive to improve operations and enhance the customer experience, CIOs lead the charge to implement automation initiatives that work now, and strategies to ensure future success. Establishing the business case, however, is the first step. By virtue of their position between IT and effecting business strategy, CIOs can identify what processes their organizations need to modernize and automate. When it comes to updating core systems to drive operational efficiencies, they also have to ensure that a sound business case exists to automate them, says Laurie Shotton, VP and analyst at Gartner. Thatâs not surprising since CIOs typically own IT automation, as well as help drive business automation. But itâs not always a given the two arenât working at cross purposes.
âFor the last 15 to 20 years, organizations have been trying to modernize core systems in order to drive operational efficiencies,â he says. âAnd quite often, the business case for replacing them doesnât stack up.â Automation, the business, and the CIO
Since automation can help improve KPIs and create new channels to help improve end-user experience, itâs one of the primary tools in a CIOâs toolkit to drive the business forward, says Brian Woodring, CIO at Rocket Mortgage.
âThe biggest challenge is making sure that by automating the business, youâre not just taking a legacy, highly bureaucratic manual process and putting RPA in front of it,â he says. âYou may get some short-term wins, but youâre unlikely to deliver durable value. One of the biggest things Iâve learned is you canât do automation to the business; you have to do it with the business.â
As an example, the technology organization of the pharmaceutical segment at Cardinal Health collaborates closely with business leaders so they can identify current pain points and determine the right processes to automate, focusing on how these tools will improve the customer or employee experiences, says CIO Greg Boggs.
âOur technology organization collaborates closely with business leaders so we can identify current pain points and determine the right processes to automate, focusing on how these tools will improve our customer or employee experiences,â he says. âIn general, itâs been straight forward to quantify the business impact of automation initiatives, given they typically have clear before and after business metrics. Weâve matured our practice around automation and built architecture thatâs enabled us to be nimble, innovative, and able to pivot quickly in a dynamic, global healthcare environment.â
The challenge of the CIOâs job at a financial institution, however, is to eliminate waste by redefining the entire business process while delighting the client and simultaneously maintaining compliance, says Woodring.
Additionally, businesses that combine automation with AI will be able to make faster decisions, optimize business processes, and drive higher rates of efficiencies, says Subramani Elumalai, VP of application management services delivery at Capgemini.
Other CIOs concur that the business is the central consideration for automation efforts.
At Northwestern Mutual, for instance, the companyâs mission â to free Americans from financial anxiety â drives everything it does to inform its business priorities, says Jeff Sippel, CIO and EVP.
From a practical level, the organization is consistently looking to apply automation solutions where they can have meaningful impact. The company measures the success of these efforts by business outcomes, not the success of the automation itself, he adds.
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