Digital transformation in business involves integrating digital technologies into all aspects of an organization. This process fundamentally changes how businesses operate and deliver value to customers. Unlike in the world of math, where 1+1+1 = 3, digital transformation initiatives aim for 1+1+1 = 4 or even more.
Automation lays the foundation to initiate the digital transformation journey. Then again, like foundations, not all transformation projects are the same. They need to be leveled up like pillars that bound them to the floor and ceiling. Imagine floors and ceilings to be the business process orchestrations, where the floor is the operational day-to-day, and the ceiling is the management of strategic oversight and control.
Let us take a closer look at four of the pillars and their relationship with business process orchestration on the digital journey.
Pillar One: Exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Cases
AI is set to play a critical role in financial services, focusing on regulatory compliance, resiliency, and efficiency. The democratization of AI via large language models such as ChatGPT has brought the perfect storm to push the post-pandemic digital transformation to new realms by unlocking novel potential use cases. However, legacy systems are not going away; AI would not move the needle by more than 10%. Moreover, the adoption of AI by legacy platforms will make them stronger. Look, even Microsoft Excel has AI functions built within.
A business process orchestration layer combines legacy and AI initiatives and provides a view of new controls that need to be implemented. Without the business orchestration layer, it would be challenging to know the impact of AI on digital transformation.
“Every firm is looking to leverage emerging AI technologies to stay ahead of competitors. Yet, many fail to deploy fast enough,” said Sathya Sethuraman, Field CTO at Camunda. “An astounding 62% of machine learning/AI models sit on the data science teams’ shelf and never deployed. Process transparency is what enables embedding AI into processes. With process orchestration, you can have a compounding effect on the benefits you realize and multiply transformation value.”
Pillar Two: Regulatory, Resiliency, and Efficiency
Compliance with regulatory requirements is more challenging than ever and touches every function in the business. Compliance is not limited to external regulatory requirements; it now includes risk management and internal controls.
Resiliency is vital as firms are exposed to interconnected technologies. A single change, if not implemented, has the potential to disrupt the entire world, such as the recent CrowdStrike incident. On average, a single data element is replicated more than seven to eight times in a financial firm, which multiplies the potential impact. Automation can come in various forms, e.g., fast execution engines, efficient queuing/messaging, in-memory capabilities, high-performance connectivity to databases, APIs, message queues.
“One customer who operates an EU-based depository recently deployed a decentralized depository and ledger for securities trading,” said Sethuraman. “The demands of the process required low latency, high throughput, and, of course, the highest levels of security and transparency to settle trades in real time.”
A business process orchestration layer chains regulatory, resiliency, and efficiency together. The orchestration layer ensures that all business processes adhere to relevant laws and regulations. It automates compliance checks and reporting, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that the organization meets its legal obligations.
From a compliance perspective, after a cyberattack, the key concern is to ensure that all business processes are working. By coordinating different processes, the orchestration layer enhances the organization’s visibility over the end-to-end process and ability to respond quickly to disruptions. It ensures that critical functions can continue operating even in the face of unexpected events, such as system failures or cyberattacks. Built-in resiliency and recovery capabilities, such as automatic data replication across multiple regions, ensure that data is never lost.
The orchestration layer streamlines workflows by automating repetitive tasks and optimizing resource allocation—reducing operational costs and improving productivity.
Pillar Three: Visualizing Transparency
Visualizing transparency involves using visual tools and techniques to make data and processes more understandable and accessible. Digitalization projects rarely succeed without emphasizing visual transparency. Data visualization provides the tool to measure; if it can be measured, then it can be controlled.
However, not all visualizations offer the same level of value, as they only function as documentation and do not reflect the current state of a process. Using an open standard such as Business Process Model Notation or Decision Model Notation provides additional value as the diagram is executable. What a team designs visually is what runs in production, eliminating miscommunication and speeding up development cycles.
The journey of a data element through the applications needs traceability to keep the metadata attributes intact and provide lineage back to its origin. A business process orchestration layer could clearly define the transformation logic and provide a view into the process; sometimes, users just need a clearer definition of inclusion and exclusion criteria on the business process orchestration layer.
Conclusion
Digital transformation is a multifaceted journey that requires a solid foundation and well-defined boundaries to be successful. Automation serves as the bedrock, initiating the transformation, while business process orchestration acts as the floor and ceiling, ensuring that all elements are aligned and functioning cohesively.
The orchestration layer is crucial in integrating AI use cases, regulatory compliance, resiliency, and efficiency, providing a comprehensive view and control over the transformation process. Visualization of transparency further enhances this journey by making data and processes more accessible and understandable, ensuring that every step is measurable and controllable.
By binding these pillars together with a robust orchestration layer, businesses can navigate the complexities of digital transformation, achieving greater efficiency, compliance, and innovation. This comprehensive approach not only drives operational excellence but also positions organizations for sustainable growth in an increasingly digital world.
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