PEX REPORT 2022

PEXREPORT 2022Capitalizing on change and innovation in an altered business environment

BROUGHT TO YOU BY LEAD SPONSOR

Inside

Twitter’s use of AI to improve user experience

How Spotify implemented 120 bots in less than 18 months

How Siemens Gamesa encourages a culture of change following a merger

Nike on using advanced analytics to ensure quality across its supply chain

https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com

https://www.mavim.com/

https://www.creatio.com/

https://www.signavio.com/

https://www.nintex.com/

2 The PEX Report 2022

Note from the editor

Hello, and a warm welcome to PEX Network’s annual

state-of-the industry report. It has been incredibly

interesting to talk to our professional community over

the past year and learn how operational excellence

professionals have played a vital role in helping their

organizations survive during the pandemic.

Now that we are veering toward permanent hybrid

work models, businesses require a complete shift in

focus in the way they work and create engagement

from employees. To ensure it is business-as-usual for

organizations, they need visibility more than ever before

on internal processes to improve operational efficiency

and guarantee customer delivery in this new context.

PEX Report 2022 features the exclusive results of our

annual global state-of-the-industry survey which informs

us on the impact of the pandemic and process priorities,

investments and challenges over the coming year.

It also features success stories and insights from

renowned organizations such as Twitter, Spotify, Nike

and Siemens Gamesa, along with advice from leading

experts to ensure the success of your OPEX and business

transformation programs. Take your pick between

themes such as continuous improvement, intelligent

automation and low-code.

The PEX Network team hopes this report will help you

navigate your current challenges and build a strong base

for business resilience and growth in the next 12 months.

We are always keen to hear your feedback on the

content and events we produce, so feel free to get in

touch with me to share your thoughts on this report.

Alice ClochetEditor, PEX Network

[email protected]

State-of-the-industry survey analysis

Page 5 – OPEX proving vital to enabling new working

methods during the pandemic

Page 7 – OPEX programs have become an integral part of

an organization’s strategy

Page 13 – OPEX and business transformation budgets are

on the rise

Page 14 – The data analytics revolution will continue over

the coming year

Spotlight on process excellence experts

1 – Welcome to OPEX Week 2022

Page 22 – Shell Chemicals Europe’s journey to continuous

improvement success

Page 24 – How Twitter deploys AI to improve user

experience

Process excellence success stories

Page 27 – How Spotify implemented 120 bots in less than

18 months

Page 29 – Encouraging a culture of change following a

major merger

Page 31 – How Nike is ensuring quality across its

supply chain

Page 32 – How Deutsche Telekom is optimizing P2P with

AI and machine learning

Page 34 – How Front Signs drove success when on the

brink of collapse

Expertise from our industry partners

Page 36 – Why relying on a single process automation

platform leads to failure

Page 37 – Five critical steps for your process automation

success

Page 38 – Low-code/no-code: The future of enterprise

software

Page 40 – How Veritas’s process management initiative

enabled its digital transformation

Page 42 – Powering digital transformation with BPM,

low-code and no-code

Page 44 – PEX Network’s editorial calendar

Contents:

Industry trendsSuccess storiesSurvey analysis Expert insights Industry trends

35

26

20

4


https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-clochet/?originalSubdomain=uk


Lead sponsor - Nintex Nintex is the global standard for process management

and automation. Today more than 10,000 public and

private sector organizations across 90 countries turn to

the Nintex Platform to accelerate progress on their digital

transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing,

automating and optimizing business processes.

Learn more at www.nintex.com and experience how

Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the

future of intelligent process automation (IPA).

CreatioCreatio is a global software company that provides a

leading low-code platform for process management and

CRM. It has been highly recognized as a market leader by

key industry analysts. Its intelligent products accelerate

sales, marketing, service and operations for mid-size and

large enterprises. Together with hundreds of partners

Creatio operates in 110 countries worldwide.

Learn more at www.creatio.com

SignavioThe acquisition of Signavio by SAP combined SAP’s

Business Process Intelligence unit with Signavio’s Business

Transformation Suite, with the aim to strengthen SAP’s

capacity to help organizations manage their processes.

This approach includes analysis, redesigning, testing and

optimizing new processes to serve customer excellence,

accelerate digital transformation and foster collaborative

process optimization.

Learn more at www.signavio.com

MavimFor complex global organizations that are changing or

reinventing their operating models to respond quickly in

a rapidly shifting environment, Mavim provides software

that enables digital transformation. With our product,

we create context and visibility for companies who face

the challenges associated with changes in technology,

competition and consumer behavior.

Learn more at www.mavim.com

PEX Report 2022 sponsors:

PEX Report 2022 contributors

Cathy GuEvent director, OPEX Week:

Business Transformation World Summit

Peter EvansDirector of service and performance

management for shared services at LEGO Group

Maneesh SubherwalExecutive director of business transformation,

commercial bank at JP Morgan Chase & Co.

José Manuel Escobar Continuous improvement manager at DHL

Gerard PoolmanCI Master in Shell Projects and Technology at

Shell’s Integrated Gas Division

Andrae KirklandSenior program manager at Twitter

Sidney Madison PrescottGlobal intelligent automation lead at Spotify

Mark GhibrilGlobal vice-president – head of regional

CIOs and user engagement experience center

at Siemens Gamesa

Peter TasevSVP procure-to-pay at Deutsche Telekom



https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathygu/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/p2155evans/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/subherwal/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josemanuel-escobar/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-poolman-9026084/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrae-kirkland/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidneymadisonprescott/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markghibril/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tasev-a86b15109/

https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/TqL7Cn5V2GfmVV4QfJEB4q?domain=c212.net

https://www.mavim.com

https://www.creatio.com

https://www.signavio.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxZKCmaT88gIVEZftCh3T6AcIEAAYASAAEgIVUfD_BwE

OPEX proving vital to enabling new working methods during the pandemic

OPEX programs have become an integral part of an organization’s strategy

OPEX and business transformation budgets are on the rise

The data analytics revolution will continue over the coming year


State-of-the-industry survey analysis

Success storiesSurvey analysis Expert insights Industry trends



OPEX proving vital to enabling new working methods during the pandemic

It could be argued that, despite its grueling effect

on healthcare systems and the global economy, the

Covid-19 pandemic has played a role in showcasing the

importance of process excellence (PEX) practitioners

and operational excellence (OPEX) programs within

organizations to drive them forward.

Peter Evans, director of service and performance

management for shared services at the LEGO Group,

says: “Companies have had to reflect on their efficiencies,

digital capabilities and communications, and because

of that, there is an understanding of the power of what

OPEX is, and the role it can play when they are forced to

operate and think differently.”

The last edition of this report, PEX Report 2021, found

that the majority of respondents saw the pandemic

as having changed the way companies viewed their

OPEX programs (73 per cent). The survey performed for

this latest edition, PEX Report 2022, found that overall,

its disruption on OPEX initiatives is deemed as hugely

disruptive for only 27 per cent of respondents, while 68 per

cent see it as either fairly or not very disruptive.

Evans mentioned in PEX Report 2021 that the pandemic

was perhaps not very disruptive for organizations having

OPEX programs in place already. For this edition of the

report, however, he suspects that businesses are now

becoming increasingly focused on driving change in the

current context and are, therefore, more engaged in their

OPEX initiatives. He adds: “This engagement can be an

indication that people in the field can flex their muscles

more than before.”

FIGURE 1

Q: How disruptive has the Covid-19 pandemic been on your OPEX initiative?

Hugely disruptive

27%

Fairly disruptive

40%

Not very disruptive Not disruptive at all

5%28%

“Strategic agility and momentum are key indicators to organizational success and longevity. You have to be nimble to withstand seismic events, and to be able to adapt quickly and continuously.“

Maneesh SubherwalExecutive director of business transformation, commercial bank at

JP Morgan Chase & Co.



https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/business-transformation/reports/the-pex-report-2021-global-state-of-process-excellence


The focus for process improvement as a direct result of

the pandemic remains consistent between the surveys

performed for PEX Report 2021 and PEX Report 2022, with

customer service and call centers remaining at the top

(35 per cent) followed by supply chain (27 per cent). This,

according to Cathy Gu, event director of OPEX Week:

Business Transformation World Summit, clearly shows

a continuous push for customer service and customer

experience transformation.

The role of finance has increased in importance for

organizations, placed third by survey respondents with 26

per cent, moving up from fifth in the 2021 survey. Maneesh

Subherwal, executive director of business transformation,

commercial bank at JP Morgan Chase & Co., explains

that it is being driven by a need for companies to be

financially resilient in order to enable innovation.

Subherwal says: “Financial stability is an enabler

of strategic agility. To increase stability, you may

need to consider expanding reserves, automating

financial operations and improving transactional

processes to drive traction and momentum on your

organizational initiatives.”

OPEX proving vital to enabling new working methodsduring the pandemic

Top three areas in PEX Report 2021

1 2 3

FIGURE 2

Q: Which areas have you seen more demand/requests on process improvement since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic?*

Customer services

and call centersSupply chain Marketing and sales

Customer service and call centers

Supply chain

Finance

Marketing and sales

Shared services

Distribution of goods/services

Human resources

Procurement

R&D

Other

35%

27%

26%

22%

21%

20%

20%

15%

11%

8%

*Survey respondents could select more than one option





Compared to results of the survey featured in PEX Report

2021, more companies are now deploying OPEX programs

as part of an enterprise-wide transformation, with 44 per

cent of responses saying they are doing so, compared

to 35 per cent last year. OPEX Week’s Gu notes: “It is an

encouraging trend, it shows transformation programs are

dropping from the C-suite and one of the key success

factors for enterprise-level transformation is to have

direct support from CEOs.”

This is confirmed by Figure 5, which reveals the leading

sponsor of OPEX and transformation programs is the

CEO (29 per cent) at the organizations represented in our

survey, followed by the board of directors (23 per cent),

the chief operating officer and department heads (both

at 10 per cent).

Transformation is now being recognized as an integral part

of an organization’s strategy as opposed to solely being

driven by PEX practitioners. LEGO Group’s Evans says:

“Businesses are starting to be led by people who have

seen successful PEX programs or been involved in enough

to realize their benefits – we are passing the period of

people needing to be convinced now, CEOs are more

educated and attuned to what good OPEX can bring.”

José Manuel Escobar, continuous improvement manager

at DHL, notes that because the Covid-19 context has

enabled PEX practitioners to bring adaptability and

emergency cutting costs that ensured survival for many

companies, it might have had a positive impact on why

high management supports and sponsors projects.

According to Escobar, what really matters is how

OPEX practitioners can transform their role to be the

“sustainable guardians” of organizations and “upgrade

that perception of short-term deliveries and migrate to

serve as a compass for businesses”.

Escobar explains: “CEOs and boards of directors

acknowledge that the world changes mercilessly fast and

OPEX practitioners’ roles need to guarantee success in

that new scenario year after year by helping to respond

accordingly and even reshape the company’s strategy –

continuous improvement becomes more important than

ever before.”

FIGURE 3

Q: Which of the following best describes the current scope (2021 onward) of the PEX/OPEX deployment at your company?

Enterprise-wide transformation

Deployment at one or more

business units

Have trained process

improvement resources but no

formal PEX/OPEX program

Small-scale pilot

No process PEX/OPEX program

Disclaimer: the 2021 results are from PEX Report 2021

45%

0%

Resp

ond

ents

(%)

2021 2022

35% 44%

2021 2022

32% 17%

2021 2022

14% 18%

2021 2022

14% 9%

2021 2022

5% 12%







FIGURE 4

Q: How is your transformation structured?

Enterprise-wide transformation office

Top-down transformation

Transformation takes place at business unit/department level

Bottom-up grassroots continuous improvement

PMO office

FIGURE 5

Q: Who is the main sponsor of your business transformation program?

Top five survey answers:

29%

CEO

23%

Board of directors/

Chairperson

10%

Department head COO

6%

CFO

26%

18%35%

16%

5%

10%

“We have a great opportunity to take OPEX to a new level and be aligned to strategy by sharing what the focus should be on the process level, while management set their plans on technology, investments, projects and workforce”.

José Manuel EscobarContinuous improvement manager at DHL





Top three views of OPEX and business transformation in PEX Report 2021

1 2 3A way to improve productivity

and efficiency -

63%

A mission-critical strategy

to help the organization

to drive growth, manage

turnaround and deliver

strategic objectives -

56%

A way to improve

customer satisfaction

through better quality

and efficiency -

53%

The view in which companies view OPEX and business

transformation has not changed since PEX Report 2021,

with the same three remaining at the top: a way to improve

productivity and efficiency (59 per cent), a mission-critical

strategy to help the organization to drive growth, manage

turnaround and deliver strategic objectives (58 per cent),

and improve customer satisfaction through better quality

and efficiency (56 per cent).

Growth is a key focus for organizations this year, as

predicted in PEX Network’s Trends Report 2021, and it

is no surprise OPEX programs can enable that. Escobar

notes that “we have a great opportunity to take OPEX

to a new level and be aligned to strategy by sharing

what the focus should be on the process level, while

management set their plans on technology, investments,

projects and workforce”.

FIGURE 6

Q: Which of the following best describes how your company views OPEX and business transformation?*

60%

0%

Resp

ond

ents

(%)

59% 58% 56% 50% 45% 42% 36% 27% 24% 3%A way to improve productivity and efficiency

A mission-critical strategy to help the

organization to drive growth, manage

turnaround and deliver strategic objectives

A way to improve customer satisfaction

through better quality and efficiency

A way to automate processes

A way to reduce operational cost or

reducing headcount

A way to manage business risks and ensure

business continuity

A way to deliver culture and leadership

change across an organization

A way to adapt to remote working/hybrid

work models

A way to ensure compliance with

regulatory regimes

Other




https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/organizational-change/reports/pex-network-trends-in-process-excellence-2021


Operations is the top department responsible for driving

OPEX and transformation programs (61 per cent), which

could be explained by the need for organizations to

operate business-as-usual, ensuring continuity as remote

work and hybrid work models become a permanent

feature. Gu says the fact that the center of excellence

is second (39 per cent) means that these programs are

more expertise-driven.

JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s Subherwal is surprised that IT

and human resources (HR) are not higher on the list.

“Given where we are with Covid-19 case trends and

vaccination campaigns, I would expect a deeper focus

around future of work programs such as remote or hybrid

working models, which would increase IT and HR spend,”

Subherwal notes.

He suggests that continued focus on IT would push

organizations to remain future-focused. This includes

driving or re-igniting strategic initiatives such as legacy IT

modernization, cloud migration or product development

programs, and running experiments with customers. He

adds that focusing on HR policies could help companies

attract and retain talent in the hybrid and remote work

context, while ensuring companies have the tools to be

productive in this next normal.


FIGURE 7

Q: What top three departments at your organization are responsible for driving your OPEX and transformation program?*

Operations

Center of excellence

OPEX and transformation

IT

Finance

Human resources

Quality

Marketing and sales

Customer service and call centers

R&D

Shared services

Distribution of goods/services

Supply chain

Procurement

Other

61%

39%

29%

27%

26%

17%

16%

15%

14%

13%

11%

10%

9%

9%

3%






FIGURE 8

Q: What is your primary measure of success for your OPEX and business transformation?

Top three measures of success in PEX Report 2021

1 2 3Cost saving -

25%Business top-line growth -

24%Increased throughput/

efficiency - 23%

Out of all the methodologies and solutions currently

used to support respondents’ OPEX projects, change

management is first (45 per cent), closely followed

by Agile (44 per cent), which shows that agility and

adaptability are key to today’s transformation projects.

Subherwal sees change management as critical in

hybrid work models since the internal rollout model of

new products, campaigns and strategies that used to be

conducted in town halls and large big bang rollouts has

“turned on its head”.

“You have gone from a very functional, sequential model

to a fragmented one – this is a key area where change

management is needed,” Subherwal remarks.

He adds that Agile is also essential, noting:

“Strategic agility and momentum are key indicators to

organizational success and longevity. You have to be

nimble to withstand seismic events, and to be able to

adapt quickly and continuously.”

Subherwal says both methodologies, Agile and

change management, go hand in hand because “even

the change management exercises and experiments

need to be very agile in terms of processes and tools that

are implemented”.

LEGO Group’s Evans notes that Agile being second on

the list is not surprising since it was born out of Lean and

explains the enthusiasm around it by the need to drive

speed within organizations.

Evans states: “Agile resonates with people involved with

change because they can enable it quicker or take

bigger risks than perhaps traditional methodologies

25%

20%

18%

14%

6%

6%

5%4%

2%

Cost savings

Increased throughput/efficiency

Business top-line growth

Improved customer satisfaction

Employee engagement/retention

Customer retention

Number of projects completed

Reduced operational risk

Other




encourage and C-suite management get a degree of

comfort that things are moving fast.”

Lean Six Sigma is fourth on the list (35 per cent) and

one might question its relevance in today’s digital world

compared to newer methodologies such as Agile.

Subherwal explains that some organizations that have

been doing Lean Six Sigma for the past 20 years might

want to double down on that investment instead of

walking away from it. For companies not having conducted

OPEX initiatives before, then Agile is the way to go.

“Lean Six Sigma is primarily focused on process improvement,

whereas Agile methodologies expand that toward

product development and deployment. For organizations,

this will depend on how people think about change. Also,

Agile is often used as an umbrella term to reference many

other methodologies listed,” Subherwal remarks.


FIGURE 9

Q: Which methodologies and solutions are you currently using to support your operational excellence projects?*

Top three methodologies and solutions in PEX Report 2021

1 2 3Change management -

56%Business process reengineering -

54%Agile -

39%

Change management45%

Agile44%

Data analytics/business intelligence

41%

Lean Six Sigma35%

Business process reengineering34%

Workflow automation33%

Digital transformation31%

Behavioral/employee engagement

30%

Lean30%

RPA30%

Consultancy29%

Process modelling/mapping tools29%

AI28%

Digital process automation27%

Design thinking25%

Cultural transformation21%

ISO21%

BPM methodology20%

Total quality management/total productivity management

18%

Kanban16%

Gemba Kaizen15%

Business architecture14%

BPM solutions14%

Automated process discovery13%

Intelligent automation11%

PFMEA10%

Process mining10%

Enterprise architecture9%

Process simulation9%

DFSS8%

Hoshin planning8%

Dynamic case management4%

Hyperautomation2%





OPEX and business transformation budgets are on the rise

More respondents than in the previous year are seeing

their budget for OPEX increase, rising from 18 per cent in

PEX Report 2021 to 24 per cent in PEX Report 2022, which

OPEX week’s Gu declares is “great news”.

Gu explains: “One worry from the hardcore OPEX people

is that OPEX programs typically take place when

everybody is on site and now that everyone is working

remotely, the enthusiasm from organizations will drop a

little, but these results show the opposite.”

Compared to the last edition of this report, companies

are in a better place to look at recovery and “can almost

see the light at the end of the tunnel”, which she explains

might be a reason budget is increasing. Gu adds that

OPEX programs are a process, with the requirement of

OPEX teams being to evaluate the situation, train people

and implement automation programs.

“Even if you have not got the money now, you may

need to get it in the next 12 months,” Gu notes. “More

than anything, OPEX teams need to be seen as making

improvements and if you do nothing while other people

are doing something, you will be left behind.”

FIGURE 11

Q: Which statement best describes the effect the economy is having on your operational excellence program budget?

Our budget is expected to increase over

the next 12 months

Our budget is expected to remain flat over

the next 12 months

Our budget is expected to decline over

the next 12 months

Don’t know

Disclaimer: the 2021 results are from PEX Report 2021

40%

0%

Resp

ond

ents

(%)

2021 2022

18% 24%

2021 2022

35% 36%

2021 2022

30% 19%

2021 2022

17% 21%

FIGURE 10

Q: What is your organization’s annual budget for investment in OPEX and transformation next year (US$)?

34%

$0

– $100,000 17%

$100,000

– $500,000

8%

$1m – $5m

4%

More than $10m

11%

$500,000 – $1m

22%

Don’t know

4%

$5m – $10m





Below, we reveal a handful of responses we received on reasons data is so important in OPEX and transformation initiatives.

“The increased focus on straight-through processing

and broad digital transformation increases reliance

on both data availability and meaningful insights

derived from data analytics.”

“Decisions need to be backed

up with the right information

and impacts of deployments

need to be monitored”

“Data analytics

determine the end state

of a process and how it

needs to be made more

efficient to get there.”

“Data analytics is critical because we want

to move from postmortem to predictive

analysis that will result in early warning on

potential problems.”


When it comes to solutions that survey respondents are

looking to invest in over the next 12 months, data analytics

and business intelligence has made it to the top, at 43

per cent, followed by workflow automation (34 per cent)

and digital transformation (31 per cent). In PEX Report

2021, digital transformation was first, followed by data

analytics and business intelligence second and cultural

transformation third.

OPEX Week’s Gu notes that key investment shifting

toward analytics with workflow automation being second

shows that automation and data-driven transformation

will continue for years to come. This strengthening in

the importance of data is not surprising considering the

prevalence of remote working and the implementation of

hybrid work models.

Our respondents also noted the attractiveness of data to

the need to stop guessing in transformation initiatives and

the fact that success cannot be measured without data.

DHL’s Escobar sees this focus as “very good news”, since

adopting a data-driven mind-set as part of process data

collection and analysis will enhance the effectiveness of

OPEX practitioners’ work.

He explains that it enhances their scope to non-traditional

touchpoints in which they did not have enough data to

apply their methods in the past.

Escobar adds: “It is a very exciting new context in which

our solutions are boosted as predictive, with a prescriptive

methodology enabling better prioritization and accurate

measures of our success.”

One survey respondent, however, warns against the

lack of awareness and processes currently in place that

are disparate and produce “data dumps” that do not

generate the business intelligence at the level it should.

To overcome this, they recommend collecting good data

along with teams’ real-time issues to be the cornerstone of

any OPEX and transformation initiative.







FIGURE 13

Q: How would you rate the importance of data analytics in OPEX and business transformation initiatives at your organization?

Top five solutions in PEX Report 2021

1

Digital

transformation

2

Data analytics/

business intelligence

3

Cultural

transformation

4

Workflow

automation

5

Behavioral/employee

engagement

59% Very important 18% Fairly important 14% Important

4% Slightly important 2% Not at all important 3% Don’t know


FIGURE 12

Q: What solutions are you looking to invest in to drive your OPEX and transformation programs over the next 12 months?*

45%

0%

Resp

ond

ents

(%)

43%

Data analytics/business intelligence

Workflow automation

Digital transformation

AI

Behavioral/employee engagement

Process modelling/mapping tools

RPA

Business transformation consultancy

Process excellence consultancy

Automated process discovery

Intelligent automation

Cultural transformation

Digital business platform

BPM

Process simulation

Process mining

Hyperautomation

Other

34% 31% 29% 25% 25% 25% 21% 20% 19% 18% 18% 18% 15% 13% 12% 6% 5%




Although low-code and no-code have been around for

years, their importance has been highlighted during the

Covid-19 pandemic as a way for companies to automate

at scale and become more innovative by implementing

applications quickly. While 24 per cent of respondents are

already using it, only 6 per cent are looking to invest in it

in the next six months.

While they are interesting alternatives to counter the

growing demand of software developers and budget

limitations, complexity and compliance are two factors

that become more relevant as the companies grow and

regulations become more predominant.

Escobar explains that the low number of short-term

investment is due to mid and large companies having

limited attraction to these technologies as they will

face hard times with customization and dependency. In

effect, 51 per cent of respondents of this survey are

from companies having an annual turnover of $50m

and more.

JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s Subherwal argues that this

low number is down to talent and culture: if working

models and organizational culture do not become more

people-centric, the people that drive the leading-edge

capabilities such as low-code and no-code will not

be able to “step up”, and will ultimately leave. Legacy

modernizations usually take years, and organizations

need to find ways to execute on impactful experiments in

the near term, with leading-edge capabilities.

Subherwal remarks: “Statistics and trends around low-

code experiments are lagging indicators. Organizations

need to discover ways to rotate and train existing staff,

so that they can execute on these fresh ideas.”


FIGURE 14

Q: Are you planning to invest in low-code and no-code app development?

We are already using it

We are planning to invest in 0-6 months

We are planning to invest in 6-12 months

We are planning to invest in more than 12 months

We are not planning to invest in it

Don’t know

24%

6%

9%

8%

17%

36%

While process modelling was number 20 of the focus for

respondents’ process improvement work in PEX Report

2021, it has jumped to being number four this year, with

32 per cent, and Escobar believes it will have a strong

presence in the coming years.

“Digital transformation requires the understanding of what

is actually happening and it is more important than ever to

map the ‘as-is’ situation, otherwise the effectiveness of the

program is heavily compromised,” he says.



Top three process improvement works in PEX Report 2021

1 2Creating a culture for culture

for transformation

Change management

strategy3

Customer-centric

process management



Creating a culture of transformation remains at the

top (36 per cent in PEX Report 2021, 39 per cent in PEX

Report 2022), which shows a willingness for organizations

to design and transform internally before turning to

delivering to customers.

Escobar explains: “You cannot have a customer-

centric culture if your people, no matter which area

they belong to in the company, start thinking from

outside to inside. When the ‘voice of the customer’ is

guiding your actions and plans, you realize that every

interaction matters and even when you face an internal

customer you understand that you are helping toward

customer satisfaction.”


FIGURE 15

Q: What is your focus for process improvement work for the next 12 months?*

Creating a culture for transformation

Customer-centric process management

Change management strategy

Process modelling/documentation

Aligning process and IT

Implementing process management frameworks

Driving innovation

End-to-end process architecture

Integrating data into process

Developing leadership behavior

Agile transformation

Restructuring/redesigning the operating model

Redesigning performance metrics

Restructuring/redesigning the organizational structure

Holistic business transformation

Other

39%

35%

34%

32%

31%

30%

30%

29%

29%

28%

28%

27%

25%

21%

18%

2%




Cost and budget limitations remains the top challenge

for our respondents (35 per cent), while linking process

improvement with top-level business strategy has

moved from third in PEX Report 2021 to second in

PEX Report 2022 (12 per cent). It could be a surprising

evolution since it was revealed earlier in the report that

sponsors of OPEX and business transformation programs

are board of directors and CEOs.

OPEX Week’s Gu explains that the challenge is for

PEX practitioners to prove their process initiatives and

resulting efficiency improvements have reinforced

the company’s strategy, while also proving return on

investment (ROI) to higher management.

Deploying new technologies remains in the top three

of challenges (11 per cent) despite the respondents’

investment in technologies such as data analytics,

workflow automation and AI revealed in Figure 12. Evans

notes that OPEX practitioners who have been brought

up in a tradition of problem-based improvement might

see technology as a problem, but they need to embrace

it along with Agile.

“If you believe that OPEX is ‘understand, improve, sustain

performance’, then by being open and embracing the

change that comes with technology you can make

sure the operating management system works with

new technology,” Evans says. “As PEX professionals,

we should look for opportunity around how to help

with the management system that ensures you get full

benefit from the technology and not get frightened

by it. Improvement can get you so far but technology

changes the game.


FIGURE 16

Q: What do you see as your primary OPEX and transformation challenge for the next 12 months?

0%

Cost/budget limitations

Linking process improvement with

top-level business strategy

Deploying new technologies

Lack of alignment between business

and IT departments

Overcoming too much

short-term focus

Ensuring a customer-centric

focus throughout the business

Skills shortage

Sustaining change

Overcoming resistance

Securing executive buy-in

Maintaining executive buy-in

Other

40%

Resp

ond

ents

(%)

35% 12% 11% 10% 7% 6% 6% 4% 3% 2% 2% 2%

Top three challenges in PEX Report 2021

1

Cost/budget

limitations -

37%2

Deploying new

technologies -

18%3

Linking process improvement

with top-level business

strategy - 11%



The results of this survey have demonstrated that the

role of PEX practitioners and their OPEX initiatives has

been recognized as more important than ever before as

a result the Covid-19 pandemic. With hybrid work models

becoming a reality for many organizations, it is clear that

the visibility provided by data is now vital for process

initiatives and that transformation projects will become

data-driven in the years to come.

While this survey analysis is aimed at providing a

benchmark for organizations currently undergoing or

planning to start an OPEX initiative, the rest of this report

provides real-life success stories, advice and trends on

the future of OPEX from a range of PEX practitioners and

industry partners.

“We are passing the period of people needing to be convinced now, CEOs are more educated and attuned to what good OPEX can bring.”

Peter EvansDirector of service and performance management for shared services the LEGO Group

Conclusion


165,000+Opt-In Members

Position yourself as a thought leaderBuild brand awarenessGenerate direct leads

55,000+Social Followers

10,000+Event Delegates

2.2+Global Database

Download PEX Network’s media kit

https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/advertise-with-us

Welcome to OPEX Week 2022

Shell Chemicals Europe’s journey to continuous improvement success

How Twitter deploys AI to improve user experience

Spotlight on process excellence experts





Welcome to 2022 OPEX Week:Business Transformation World Summit

Dear colleagues,

As businesses poise for recovery and growth in 2022, it

has never been as critical for transformation executives

to take a leadership role in mastering the new ways of

working. Yet many OPEX and transformation leaders

find themselves in unfamiliar waters: The pace of

change spinning faster than ever, rulebooks torn and

redrawn, new trends and technologies surfacing, and

among all these a distributed workforce adding another

layer of complexity.

It is a calling card for the digital era. Retooling and

reskilling are urgently required and it is now absolutely

essential to sharpen your tool kits and insights for the

new norm of business and transformational excellence.

The 2022 OPEX Week: Business Transformation World

Summit returns to Orlando in January 2022 to support

decision-makers and transformation leaders to master

this change with the most relevant case studies from

Fortune 500 companies on rethinking your structure,

capabilities and processes.

Trusted transformation leaders will discuss developing

a readiness culture for change and enthusiastic

conversations will spark ideas on innovation and leading

transformation in the new hybrid environment.

As has been for the past 21 years, OPEX Week returns

to discuss tomorrow’s OPEX challenges and will cover

strategies, ideas, technologies and everything else

that you need to accelerate your business and digital

transformation in the new world.

I look forward to seeing you in January!

Cathy GuEvent director, OPEX Week and

Business Transformation

World Summit 2022


THE NO.1 BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION SUMMIT RETURNS!

Bringing back the magic, energy and everything you love about OPEX:

50+ OPEX And Transformation Thought Leader Speakers

15+ Deep-Dive Workshops

15+ Thought-ProvokingInteractive Roundtables

8 Global Awards Categories

9 Trend-Setting Themed Tracks

3 Amazing Days Of In-Person Networking

SAVE THE DATES:

January 31 – February 2, 2022

OPEX IN MIAMI

And A Brand New Location


https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathygu/

https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/events-opexweek?utm_source=Print%20advert&utm_medium=Portal&utm_campaign=11126.015%20-%20opex%20report%20portal%20ad&utm_term=&utm_content=&disc=&extTreatId=7551071?


Shell Chemicals Europe’s journey to Continuous Improvement successGerard Poolman, CI Master in Shell Projects and Technology, tells the story behind how Shell Chemicals Europe won the Kaizen Award for Continuous Improvement in 2019

In 2014, Shell Chemicals Europe started out on its

Continuous Improvement (CI) journey with two main

drivers. Customer centricity was really important and our

ambition was to become the best in our customers’ mind,

we wanted to be their partner of choice. By providing

value to customers, not only will they order more from

you, they will also attract others simply because your

reputation will improve. Our vision explicitly stated that

we wanted value growth via CI in a competitive and

stable regional market.

We also wanted to be an employer that people wanted

to work for. We had a specific goal to operate at Goal

Zero, which meant no harm to people and leaks of

chemicals, for longer than a year. We are dealing with

big equipment and sometimes dangerous chemicals,

and they can be under high pressure. Goal Zero is very

important for a company like Shell, and we wanted

to make sure that all our employees, contractors and

customers were safe.

Some of the CI initiatives start because a company

wants to save money and if that is the primary purpose,

organizations get resistance or no buy-in because

employees will start fearing for their jobs. A wrong starting

point and the wrong purpose is often a recipe for failure in

CI initiatives.

In my opinion, a better CI approach would be to ask

where you can improve, either by increasing margins on

the products you sell and reducing costs on your business

model. Saying point blank “we need to save money” will

not necessarily help the customers and it will certainly

alienate your own employees, which is an issue because

you need their buy-in.

We used the Shingo Model at Shell Chemicals Europe.

To achieve the desired results, you need to start with a

strong culture, use CI across the organization as a normal

way of working, and get enterprise alignment around your

purpose. Your platforms and processes have to follow

your purpose and the role of CI is to make sure that the

whole system fits together. You need to make sure that

you create maximum value, assure quality at the source

and set out to seek perfection.

Quite often, CI and operational excellence are used

synonymously: it is imperative that CI is not an isolated

initiative of a couple of loose projects happening in the

organization, but that it is the way we work, and it is part

of the value chain and how we create results.

At Shell Chemicals Europe, we wanted leaders and

staff to be highly engaged in the initiative and show

CI behavior. Our approach was both top-down and

bottom-up. The former because the purpose of the

initiative clearly came from the top, with our top leaders

communicating about it and role modelling, to drive

engagement in the initiative from the people. The

latter because it started with a thorough analysis of

the different product lines and understanding of the

customers from the employees.

RESULTS

ENTERPRISEALIGNMENT

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

CULTURALENABLERS

Shingo Model



https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-poolman-9026084/


The voice of the customer was important to make sure we

knew what the customers wanted and where we could

add value.

The CI culture is really at the root of everything and is

foundational. It is a culture of leading with humility and

showing respect. At Shell Chemicals Europe, I trained

leaders to ask the right questions and find out root causes

of problems to ensure they would not happen again.

When it comes to instilling the culture throughout

the organization, I had to make a decision on how to

approach it. I chose areas of focus, called seeds, to

deploy CI in a method called “inch wide, mile deep”.

I have learnt over the years that you cannot just give

people training and expect that they will do CI, it takes

time to adopt the mind-set. A CI culture and deployment

is all about learning new habits, good ones, but it is

also about unlearning bad habits, and it takes a lot of

coaching and individual attention.

If you really put your time and effort in the first seed,

and make it sustainable, you will know how to replicate

this in the second seed with less time and effort.

This mechanism you can use to transform the entire

company. This is the approach I chose and it proved to

be successful.

You also need to ask for patience to your management

because, in the beginning, CI is only sowing the seeds

(investing) and no harvesting. In year one you will have

a very small harvest, but throughout the years the

investment will decrease and the harvest will increase. In

the end you get a very high return on your investment.

We succeeded in achieving Goal Zero for longer than a

year. We did not have any incidents or leakages, which

was fantastic. Our customer feedback and Net Promoter

score improved a lot over that time.

Staff feedback also improved and we saw an increase

in employee satisfaction. We were able to achieve this

with less cost because we took out waste, extra and

dangerous work through CI. Winning the award only gave

us confirmation that we were doing the right thing, and it

motivated us to continue on that road.

Shell Chemicals Europe’s journey to ContinuousImprovement success

“A CI culture and deployment is all about learning new habits, good ones, but it is also about unlearning bad habits, and it takes a lot of coaching and individual attention.”

Gerard PoolmanCI Master in Shell Projects and Technology




How Twitter deploys AI to improve user experienceAndrae Kirkland, senior program manager at Twitter, explains how the social media platform is leveraging intelligent automation technologies to protect users from spammy content and improve their experience

At Twitter we are all about focusing on serving the public

conversation. That means getting users involved on the

platform, into conversation. We want to make sure that

they feel safe to share thoughts and interact with others

and that the Twitter platform is a place that respects the

ability to do so.

We use robotic process automation (RPA), artificial

intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation (IA) technologies

to identify compromised accounts and flag content that

may be violative against our spam policies. They are

not perfect, but these technologies provide significant

scale to our efforts of identifying abusive behavior and

accounts that are adversarial to the health of the platform.

By leveraging the capabilities of intelligent automation,

we can track progress toward our goal of protecting and

elevating a premium user experience.

Spammy content can take many forms, as outlined in our

rules and policies. This can range from URL spam, direct

messages and even mentions. Platform manipulation, a

broader term for spam and content health, can take the

form of fake accounts with stolen profile photos, copied

profile bios, or intentionally misleading information.

Malicious content that encompasses misleading and

deceptive links, phishing campaigns and malware, and

artificial engagement that includes selling or purchasing

followers, engagement trading and sale of Twitter

accounts are all additional aspects of the scope of

platform manipulation as well.

Spammy content is always evolving. Content that

exists as spam today may no longer be relevant or as

prevalent tomorrow. This could be for a multitude of

reasons, but can mostly tie to our efforts of developing

robust intelligent solutions and processes, and for the

simple fact that users who engage in spam campaigns

have moved on to other strategies. So, it is a constant

evolution of IA products and processes since solutions

we put in place today may be outdated as early as

tomorrow or next week.

The priority behind amplifying our usage of IA stems from

a business priority of serving the public conversation and

ensuring users feel safe on the platform. My role is all

about ways to develop and use models to become more

intelligent about the adversarial aspect of this space to

ultimately improve user experience. At the most basic

level, we first need to understand the specific type of

spam and its prevalence across Twitter. From there, we

can begin to take steps toward mitigating its reach and

reduce the unfavorable impact on our users.

A key point to understand, as I mentioned earlier with

respect to not being perfect, IA solutions rely heavily on

heuristics. As a result, there will always be an aspect of

false positives that is inherent to any IA solution we deploy.

We are always working proportionality and building tools

and remediations that maximize our ability to capture true

policy violations and minimize potential false positives.

Consequently, there is a need to think about a ratio

we are comfortable with managing, which could vary

based on the specific type of spam in question and what

“We use RPA, AI and IA technologies to identify compromised accounts and flag content that may be violative against our spam policies.”




https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrae-kirkland/


might tie to potential for harm as it relates to the user

experience. Ultimately, though, we need to minimize false

positives while maximizing our capture of valid cases. To

round out the process and help reduce that false positive

rate, from an operational standpoint, we review flagged

content as quickly as possible and implement feedback

to the algorithms to increase their effectiveness.

As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, process is always a

focus. The approach to implement IA technologies is

critically important to me because it is about identifying

the problem I am trying to solve versus investing in a

solution that only addresses a symptom. Once I have

discretely identified the root cause and really understand

the problem that I am looking to resolve, then I can start

building out answers to the questions that drive the

business logic behind IA models.

Falling back on continuous improvement methodologies

again, the “root cause versus symptom” discussion is

largely facilitated by tools such as Ishikawa (fishbone)

diagrams, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), or

even a simple 5-Why. I use these tools to deep-dive into

the specific pain point we are evaluating and structure

questions such as ‘what is the end-to-end process?’

and ‘what data do we have?’. Once we establish that

well-defined picture from both a data and methodology

standpoint, we can then pivot our attention to how we

deliver a new capability or a new process to resolve what

brought us to the conversation in the first place.

Whenever you deal with tech solutions there are always

going to be challenges. When it comes to platform

manipulation and my scope at Twitter in particular,

dealing with heuristics-based solutions brings significant

risk to the user experience. However, when leveraged

appropriately and vetted thoroughly, they can be your

strongest asset in delivering compelling value to both the

user and our internal operations.

How Twitter deploys AI to improve user experience

“As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, process is always a focus. The approach to implementing IA technologies is critically important to me because it is about identifying the problem I am trying to solve versus investing in a solution that only addresses a symptom.”





Process excellence success stories



Encouraging a culture of change following a major merger at Siemens Gamesa

How Nike is ensuring quality across its supply chain

How Deutsche Telekom is optimizing P2P with AI and machine learning

How Front Signs drove success when on the brink of collapse




How Spotify implemented 120 bots in less than 18 monthsSidney Madison Prescott, global head of intelligent automation at Spotify, explains her approach to creating a hybrid model for the company’s Center of Excellence and reveals the successes she has experienced with automation

Spotify’s intelligent automation (IA) Center of Excellence

(CoE) was formally launched in January 2020. The CoE’s

aim is to optimize the cross-functional approach to making

business processes more efficient and automate at scale

with technologies such as robotic process automation

(RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and

optical character recognition (OCR). The CoE is a global

effort, running processes across different regions, with the

goal of scaling out to all of Spotify’s global business units.

The team wants to provide valuable data and metrics to

better inform business stakeholders on their decisions. The

IA team is known within Spotify as the “Transformers”.

RPA was the baseline of the CoE’s work in 2020,

as the team developed use cases that work with

structured data and within well-defined parameters.

Tasks that RPA bots conduct include opening email

and attachments, logging into web or enterprise

applications, filing in forms, moving files and folders,

extracting structured data from documents, following

“if/then” rules, and making calculations.

One success we had with RPA was with the team

responsible for calculating profit and losses at the end

of each quarter was using a specific software which

was set to be stopped internally at the end of 2020. The

challenge was to keep the process alive and moving

despite transitioning off the software.

Before we implemented the bot, it took up to 1,000

minutes for employees to manually download all

the reports from our various reporting tools and run

the necessary queries to calculate transfer pricing

intercompany fees in Excel worksheets for each subsidiary.

Now, the Tax bot is responsible for extracting data from

the aforementioned system of record and uploading the

reports into a drive. It computes the transfer pricing and

populates it in an Excel worksheet for each subsidiary and

creates pivot tables that compute the transfer pricing

in each report that can all be used by the business

stakeholders for validation. It also sends an email to

the business stakeholders with the output files and

downloaded reports attached along with any business

and system exception.

Overall processing time has been reduced by 85 percent

and the process now takes 120 minutes of automated

end-to-end bot runtime.

In the middle of 2020, the CoE started looking at

enhanced automation and searched for use cases

containing both structured and unstructured data. This

particular type of use case can include some element of

human intervention or decision needed and can involve

ML models, out-of-the-box vendor tools, and a reach

into chatbots.

When it comes to enhanced automation, the team

focuses on enabling two elements. Firstly, building

customized ML models to provide the CoE with the

ability to take a process that includes unstructured

data, retool through a ML model to facilitate the

processing of that data and make it structured so it can

be consumed by our robotic processes. This allows us to

pick use cases that traditional RPA would not be able

to handle or provide us with a higher level of straight-

through processing.

Secondly, we focus on OCR, or document understanding.

We look at traditional PDF templates, CSVs, and all other

file types that traditionally would be difficult for a robot

to handle or process. The team is able to scrap the data

off the template and structure it in such a way that a bot

can leverage it to create a process around it.


https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidneymadisonprescott/


In 3Q2020, the CoE created a dashboard that pulls

all bot data and looks into which bots are working,

where they are operating and whether they are

attended (using user credentials to access systems

within Spotify) or unattended (working off of CoE

managed virtual machines).

The RPA dashboard is available to all stakeholders, and

it has facilitated the growth of trust for the CoE. The

data visualization continues to mature our offering, and

we prioritize a continuous feedback loop to better serve

business stakeholders through automation.

Our CoE is now reaching the middle point of enhanced

automation and has saved 40,000 hours through the

automation of manual processes since launching. We are

beginning to look outside of RPA to encompass the depth

and breadth of IA and as strong believers in continuous

improvement of our offerings to internal stakeholders, the

team is starting to think about true cognitive automation

for processes that traditionally need a strong focus on

human decision-making.

This is where AI is being used for predictive analytics

purposes, with a goal to have the bots to learn from

the nuances of processing transactions and making

“decisions” with little to no human intervention. We are

starting to branch out toward this initiative through

planning efforts in 4Q2021 and we are focusing on moving

into it in 2022.

Part of the success of Spotify’s CoE is due to providing

clear and concise insights into the purpose of intelligent

automation, how we can help business stakeholders

to understand the technologies we use, and how the

CoE plays an important role in enabling business users

to achieve company objectives. The CoE’s internal

marketing focuses heavily on showcasing the business

value we generate. This approach has been extremely

effective in providing credibility, establishing trust, and

motivating business stakeholders to take personal interest

in the innovation trajectory of the CoE.

Our approach to creating the CoE is not typical: The

team simultaneously scaled up a robust citizen developer

program on a global level while also enabling the building

of bots by skilled RPA programmers. The goal is that the

CoE becomes a hotbed of innovation and amplifies the

growth of a company-wide use case backlog and the

continuous enablement of automation.

The CoE focuses heavily on providing knowledge around

automation and teaching citizen developers to build their

own processes. Our citizens are encouraged to share

automation across the citizen community of bot builders,

and there are a set of rules defined by the CoE that

include stringent governance.

Spotify’s CoE currently has 130 bots in production and

the team is looking to hit more than 200 bots live in the

environment by the end of 4Q21.



“Part of the success of Spotify’s CoE is due to providing clear and concise insights into the purpose of intelligent automation, how we can help business stakeholders to understand the technologies we use, and how the CoE plays an important role in enabling business users to achieve company objectives.”

Sidney Madison PrescottGlobal head of intelligent automation at Spotify



Encouraging a culture of change following a major mergerWhen two of Europe’s largest wind turbine manufacturers merged to form Siemens Gamesa, global vice-president Mark Ghibril was at the forefront of the new entity’s approach to process harmonization and digital transformation

Since Gamesa and Siemens Wind Power came together

to form renewable engineering company Siemens

Gamesa in 2017, the renewable energy industry has

continued growing at a rapid rate as power generation

costs fell and governments support flourished. With

growth, however, came a more competitive market and

an increasing demand to drive innovation.

In his role as global vice-president – head of regional

CIOs and user engagement experience center

at Siemens Gamesa, Mark Ghibril has been in the

driving seat of the company’s approach to process

transformation since its 2017 merger. Ghibril’s role has

seen him get involved in many of the challenges the

company faced when standardizing processes across

the new organization, as well as in encouraging the new

enterprise to think and act as one.

“When the two companies merged, both came with

various legacy tools and processes,” Ghibril explains. “We

started holding IT workshops and defined our journey to

transform our IT tools landscape based on standardized

and harmonized processes.”

Early in the process, Ghibril and the IT team identified

that the merged entity was not able to lead with one

legacy landscape over the other, with both Gamesa

and Siemens Wind Power bringing outdated systems

that required new investment to the table. The

company adopted a greenfield approach to its digital

transformation journey, as it looked to digitalize from the

inside to ensure all global operations acted as one.

“It was a great opportunity to start from scratch,” Ghibril

notes. “The legacy companies were operating outdated

technologies and a diverse set of processes that did not

support the business’s goal of being the leading pioneer

in the global renewable energy market.”

To ensure conformity and adherence across a vast

change management program that covered numerous

offices and locations is no small task. To counter

the potential issues that would derive from such an

ambitious program, Ghibril says the company created

a dedicated team and competence center which

brought all employees to the center of everything it did

in terms of IT.

“This enhanced adoption and acceptance of new

tools helped our transformation projects and programs

by bringing users and employees along on our very

complex journey,” Ghibril explains. “Through physical and

virtual town halls and road shows, we presented

the argument that change is positive, introduced the

new tools it would bring and explained the benefits for

the business.”

Shifting attitudes require change agents

To ensure the change project was understood by all

Siemens Gamesa employees, the company onboarded

change agents who were tasked with explaining the

benefits of change by encouraging positive outcomes

and increasing engagement.

“We presented the argument that change is positive, introduced the new tools it would bring and explained the benefits for the business.”

Mark GhibrilGlobal vice-president – head of regional CIOs and user

engagement experience center at Siemens Gamesa



https://www.linkedin.com/in/markghibril/


“This helped us to drive each initiative, especially in the

face of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,”

says Ghibril.

Attitudes can often prove hard to shift during such a

large-scale project, so in emphasizing the ‘serious’ nature

of change management and digital transformation, Ghibril

and his team were able to get their message across.

“We made a clear decision to go as far as possible

to fully digitalize our systems to minimize interfaces to

other systems,” he explains. “This helped us to drive

automation much more quickly because we are able to

have standardized processes on a global level, making it

simpler, quicker and more effective.”

Among the challenges the team face was the availability

of people required to run such a large project.

“Time, effort and dedication were needed from

people who are experts in their field,” Ghibril adds. “It’s

easy to forget, however, that you can’t remove people

from their day-to-day work completely. We still need

to make money by selling wind turbines, so we had

to continue supporting the immediate needs of the

business too.”

To combat this and reduce the time required from

each person, the team created a business and IT

collaboration board, which came together to decide

on the changes that would be allowed to proceed as

defined by the standards defined during the design

phase of the project.

Ghibril warns, however, that “transformation never stops”

due to changing business demands and the need for

continuous process automation improvements.

“Now that we are future-proof, if we want to transform

a tool or process in a particular department, we only

need to do it once,” he asserts. This positive approach

led the merged company to adopt global standardized

processes, vastly contrasting with the past approach of

both legacy companies who both had in place numerous

systems and hundreds of varying processes.

Approaching automation at scale

To automate at scale, Ghibril advises process

excellence professionals to start by adopting a universal

approach to process harmonization across the entire

business ecosystem.

“If the different parts of a business are not initially

aligned on what a process should look like, then

you cannot automate at scale,” he states. “A good

PEX practitioner should define the links between all

processes and tools, so that they are aware of what can

and cannot be automated. If the tools do not interact

with each other, or if you have different processes on

different tools, it can become really hard and expensive

to automate.

Ghibril cites his experience in RPA, noting that any

change and transformation initiative should start with just

one automation tool performing an important function,

before tackling the next process challenge.

“Stick with it, because you will not be able to

migrate from one automation tool to another cheaply,”

Ghibril concludes.

Encouraging a culture of change following a major merger

“If the different parts of a business are not initially aligned on what a process should look like, then you cannot automate at scale. A good PEX practitioner should define the links between all processes and tools, so that they are aware of what can and cannot be automated.”

Mark GhibrilGlobal vice-president – head of regional CIOs and user

engagement experience center at Siemens Gamesa




How Nike is ensuring quality acrossits supply chainChris Hill, former process excellence manager at Nike, explains how the clothing giant’s award-winning Global Shipping Performance tool operates and breaks down its role in improving customer experience

PEX Network caught up with Chris Hill, former process

excellence manager at Nike, to shed light on the global

sports apparel company’s Global Shipping Performance

tool for its North America supply chain, which went live

in October 2015 and won the internal “Just Do It” award

in June 2016. Hill explains how the tool works and how it

helps ensure quality across Nike’s complex global supply

chain network.

PEX Network: What capabilities does the Global

Shipping Performance tool have and how does it work on

a day-to-day basis?

Chris Hill: The tool is a visual basic for applications (VBA)

data solution relying on code to eliminate the manual

tracking, aggregating and reporting of shipment data

through a standardized form, with encoded logic to

automate the aforementioned tracking and reporting

process in real-time.

It autonomously takes information input into a

standardized form created for data validation

purposes for team members across the supply chain

network. Its aim is to audit and track the quality, or

accuracy, of packed shipments, either before they

leave the distribution centers, once they reached

our Nike stores, or based on feedback from big-box

retail partners.

Then that data is autonomously aggregated and

transformed for output into a PowerBI dashboard that

can be refreshed at any point to provide real-time insight

on shipment performance in the distribution center, in our

retail stores, or retail partners.

These data visualizations are used to trace potential

problems or areas we can use to kick off process

improvement and quality assurance projects.

PEX Network: How has the Global Shipping

Performance tool helped your team ensure quality

throughout the company’s supply chain network across

various countries?

CH: It provides statistically significant and standardized

visibility into the performance of our shipments across the

network. Prior to the tool’s deployment, different teams

within the organization measured performance differently

and from different data sources.

By standardizing the process, automating the data

feeds and reporting flows, we were able to gather a

more real-time and representative view of shipment

performance to course-correct where necessary and as

quickly as possible.

The platform is integrated in our quality assurance

processes so we use what we see to determine projects

we can initiate to increase shipment performance.

PEX Network: How does the tool fit within wider

process excellence initiatives across Nike’s supply

chain network?

CH: Process excellence begins with data, whether it is

qualitative or quantitative. For the Lean and Six Sigma

community, it is all about the voice of the company. If we

have data that represents the voice of the customer, then

that helps determine what gaps may exist in providing

the best customer experience.

Since we now have this information and at a much larger

scale, we can figure out ways to drive process excellence

initiatives within our supply chain.




How Deutsche Telekom is optimizing P2P with AI and machine learningPeter Tasev, SVP P2P and head of finance digitalization at Deutsche Telekom, explains how a multidisciplinary internal team created an AI software to overcome a top challenge in the P2P process

Deutsche Telekom Service Europe, the shared service

center which oversees the telecommunications

company’s internal transaction tasks in several

departments including procure-to-pay (P2P), was able to

master the accounting tasks but still faced a challenge

in high workload for non-purchase orders (POs) related

invoices. This meant invoices where no tax or general

ledger account information was available, causing them

to taker a lot of time to manually process.

In Germany, one million supplier invoices are processed

by Deutsche Telekom every year. 100,000 are non-

POs related and lack certain information. These come

from both existing and new suppliers, such as energy

companies, government institutions and for purposes

such as taxes and penalties. Deutsche Telekom uses three

different entry channels for its invoices: paper, electronic

data interchange (EDI) and SAP Ariba.

Fabian Stadler, data science manager at the company

said: “To overcome the challenge of processing non-

POs, a multidisciplinary team of accountants, process

specialists and data scientists built in-house artificial

intelligence (AI) software SmartFI. Enriched by optical

character recognition (OCR) and a machine learning

(ML) algorithm to identify patterns in the data provided

by those non-PO invoices coming from all three entry

channels, the software has an accuracy level of 99.2

per cent for tax codes and general ledger account

predictions. It is also able to check if the invoices comply

with German VAT law, determine the account they are

sent by, and perform additional checks sometimes

required from country to country and supplier to supplier.

To ensure data quality and compliance, a threshold value

was implemented in the software to ensure that only

invoices answering a certain level of confidence could



https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tasev-a86b15109/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-booking-invoices-peter-tasev/?trackingId=jyz4g5zgA%2FUr%2BRM37zTtPA%3D%3D

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-booking-invoices-peter-tasev/?trackingId=jyz4g5zgA%2FUr%2BRM37zTtPA%3D%3D


be booked automatically by the AI software. For the

other invoices, it recommends at least the most probable

values to the accountants.

Deutsche Telekom is currently working to improve SmartFI.

Peter Tasev, SVP P2P and head of finance digitalization

at the company explains: “I have a team of a couple of

dozen data scientists who set up the data models to train

the ML algorithms and take out some manual tasks from

that process within a year. Now, we are introducing new

functionalities continuously in six-week cycles.”

Since implementing the solution, employees who used to

process the non-PO invoices manually are now able to

focus on value-adding activities such as increasing the

quality of invoice postings and overseeing the processes,

as Tasev explains.

“The biggest result is the optimized capacity for

improving the end-to-end P2P process.” he says.

“We are transforming the accounting organization

to focus on continuous improvement rather than

reducing backlog.”

These employees are being requalified to oversee the

automated process for these non-PO invoices.

“We need to continuously monitor the process and

find ways to automate manual activities,” Tasev notes.

“Employees now spot anomalies and issues within the

process and they resolve them.”

With this shift in focus, Tasev sees accounting becoming

a partner to the wider business, as opposed to only

posting invoices.

“It is not just about transactional activities, it is about

improving the process which is generating insight out of

the transactional data,” he says. “We can feedback the

information we have in the payment area in procurement

and use it for defining our negotiation strategy and select

the vendors we want to work with.”

While handling non-PO invoices is one process type

within the end-to-end P2P process, Tasev explains that

there are “other process steps in P2P that consume a lot

of manual workforce” in the overall value flow.

By using process mining, Tasev has a very good

overview of the end-to-end process and areas that

involve a lot of manual interaction. The company may

currently be at an 85 per cent rate of automation in P2P,

but Tasev still sees the need to continuously monitor

numerous manual activities across the process and find

ways to automate them.

“We have all the data in one system that is standardized

and structured and we can apply our technology

framework, the ML technology, for other process steps,”

he notes.

Tasev has recently been running a big data-driven

process excellence project to review all of the

manual activities and understand which ones can be

grouped so they can be automated using his existing

framework. Over the next two years, Tasev says he

hopes to achieve an automation rate above 90 per

cent once he has identified the next big use case

for automation.

How Deutsche Telekom is optimizing P2P with AI and machine learning

“The biggest result is the optimized capacity for improving the end-to-end P2P process. We are transforming the accounting organization to focus on continuous improvement rather than reducing backlog.”

Peter TasevSVP P2P and head of finance digitalization at

Deutsche Telekom




How Front Signs drove success when on the brink of collapseDiscover how a sign manufacturing and printing start-up shifted its operations and purpose to ensure survival during the pandemic

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck and lockdowns were

enforced across the globe, many organizations were

forced to pivot business offerings to survive. Front Signs,

a sign manufacturing and printing company, was hit hard

by the pandemic. Orders were declining to the point of

making the tough decision to either halt production or

begin laying off employees, as it was deemed impossible

to continue operating as-is from a financial standpoint.

After analyzing the situation and assessing organizational

capabilities, the start-up decided to shift its

manufacturing focus in order to maintain the level

of business necessary for survival. Front Signs began

producing sneeze guards, face shields, masks and safety

signs, all of which were in high demand at the height of

the pandemic.

The organization recognized this as an opportunity

to continue operating in what was a tough period.

Fortunately, according to Narine Daveyan, online

marketing strategist at Front Signs, the business did not

need to make any drastic process or operational changes.

“We were equipped with the materials and equipment

needed for the manufacturing shift, so there was not a

global process change in our case,” Daveyan notes.

Once the logistics of the switch had been planned

out, the next big challenge was implementing a new

marketing strategy. Aside from giving priority to the

promotion of safety signs and new market research, Front

Signs launched a “you buy, you donate” campaign. The

goal was to continue production while contributing to the

fight against Covid-19 by donating to hospitals with a

personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage.

The company’s marketing strategy had already been

planned before the Covid-19 pandemic, and updating

it in such a short time was a significant challenge.

Daveyan explains that this required flexibility from

every department but the shared goal of ensuring the

business’s survival and bigger purpose of helping to fight

Covid-19, ensured the team remained motivated and

inspired throughout the switch.

The new products and organizational mission were

well-received by customers, making this a win for the

company, not just from a production but also from

a marketing and customer experience standpoint,

explains Daveyan.

“Our main achievement was that we were able to use our

resources and remain self-sufficient, keeping the business

going and our staff fully employed, with sales covering

production costs,” remarks Daveyan.

Such a successful shift of business operations can offer

inspiration to many organizations who may have been

detrimentally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic or any

other unforeseen crisis. Understanding the resources they

possess and bringing together under a shared purpose of

ensuring business continuity or contributing to a worthy

cause offers organizations the opportunity to reinvent

business offerings and drive success even in the most

unlikely scenarios.



https://www.frontsigns.com/


Nintex’s CEO on why relying on a single process automation platform leads to failure and his

recommendations on five critical steps for process automation success

Low-code/no-code: The future of enterprise software explained by Creatio’s CEO

How Veritas’s process management initiative with Signavio enabled its digital transformation

Mavim on powering digital transformation with BPM, low-code and no-code

Expertise from our industry partners




Why relying on a single process automation platform leads to failureNintex CEO Eric Johnson discusses best practices for successful process automation, from picking the right processes to selecting multiple vendors

As the digital economy takes hold across the globe,

companies in every industry are recognizing the

enormous business value they can gain by automating

processes to accelerate operations, slash costs and drive

better business outcomes.

The range and scope of these projects vary wildly,

from mission-critical processes that cut across multiple

functional units and require high-end developers and

sophisticated technology, to very simple linear processes

that can usually be handled with wizard-driven solutions.

Unfortunately, for some companies, the successes they

have had with a particular automation project have

convinced them that the solution that worked so well

for one mission-critical initiative should be made the

standard across the entire company, regardless of the

scope or complexity of the process involved.

As I look at the vast experiences my company, Nintex,

has had with more than 10,000 customers and tens of

thousands of projects, I can say with great confidence

that the all-in-one approach to process automation

simply does not work. But as bad as “doesn’t work”

can be, it is even worse than that: those failed projects

burn up money, time, opportunities and often good

relationships with customers or key partners who had to

endure bad experiences with your company because of

those failed initiatives.

Automation solutions are designed for very specific

purposes, which is particularly true for companies

spending many millions of dollars and several years to

craft mission-critical solutions that involve dozens or even

hundreds of sub-processes.

That level of sophistication and technical depth simply

does not translate to a smaller-scale or even simple

processes that need to be automated. In fact, it is sheer

overkill and will result in wasted time and money, as well

as frustrated users and related stakeholders.

But in today’s high-change world, most companies

are facing intense pressure to move, change, innovate,

automate, optimize and transform as rapidly as

possible. In that context, it is understandable that

some business leaders might feel that since a certain

automation vendor did a great job in one department,

they should be used across the company for all our

high-urgency projects.

The magic number is between three and five

As I look at our deep experiences with

thousands of organizations in every major

industry, the ideal mix for mid-sized and

large enterprises is three to five automation

vendors. For example, certain niche

automation providers are exceptionally

strong for building consumer-grade mobile

applications and others are uniquely strong in

document automation.

Simply stated, one process automation vendor

just will not work, while 10 is too many.

Industry trendsExpert insights Success storiesSurvey analysis


https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebjohnson1/

Five critical steps for your process automation success

As you set out on your own journey to jump into the digital

economy and get your processes automated, here are

five steps to guide you in making the optimal decisions for

the specific needs of your company.

Start off with a high-level, three-step perspective.

Firstly, reimagine the processes you will need to

create in your digital future; secondly, automate

those and all sub-processes around them; finally,

relentlessly optimize those processes to drive the

best outcomes.

Always look for the easiest and lowest-cost solution

provided it solves your problem and delivers the

desired business outcome. Ensure that you are

considering both initial time to design and ongoing

application maintenance when making this decision.

Key to this will be who you are targeting to be

able to build these applications: is it professional

developers, operations professionals or power

users, or the average knowledge worker? Knowing

who will do the work is a critical consideration.

Strive to automate as much as possible and to do

so as quickly and inexpensively as possible. You

also need to ensure the solutions fully align with

what your users want and need, not only today, but

also in your digital future.

Do not get distracted by vendors who promise to

blow you away with wall-to-wall RPA, AI, APIs or

other fancy lingo. While those technologies are

fantastic for some processes, they are dead-wrong

for others.

Will the CEO of the automation vendor give you

their personal commitment to see your project

through to a fully successful outcome? If not, is that

a vendor on which you are willing to bet the future

of your company? Strong executive support, high

peer-review site ratings, high net promoter scores

and a willingness to provide customer references

are all good signs.

Today’s business environment is putting enormous

pressure on companies to move rapidly and aggressively

into the digital economy and an essential element in that

is process automation.

As you begin or extend that journey, remember that

not all processes are the same, designer personas are

very different and no single vendor can possibly deliver

all the great outcomes you deserve for each of your

automation projects.

1

2

3

4

5


https://www.nintex.com?utm_campaign=nintex&utm_medium=syndication&utm_source=pex&utm_geo=amer&utm_content=pex-report

https://www.nintex.com/


Low-code/no-code:The future of enterprise softwareCreatio CEO and founder Katherine Kostereva outlines how low-code/no-code can help companies provide hyper-personalized experiences for their customers

As we move into the future, expand our horizons and

develop new ways of delivering value to customers, the

tools and approaches we use will change over time. In

the past, large and mid-size enterprises used to rely

on their IT organizations to provide them with business

applications and help with automating processes

and operations. Now, as IT project backlogs have

significantly increased, the traditional way of

managing digital transformation and deploying

software is unable to keep pace with ever-growing

customer needs and expectations.

With customers in all key industries expecting hyper-

personalized and accessible service, with the ability

to innovate becoming “business as usual” practice,

organizations must find a better way to deliver on

automation projects. It is no surprise that low-code/

no-code have been among the most disruptive

technological trends for 2021, representing a new business

paradigm that can increase organizational capacity and

provide a competitive edge.

The promise of low-code/no-code lies in its ability

to enable non-technical people, so-called citizen

developers, to develop and deploy business applications

without deep technical skills. Democratization of software

is coming and it is important to get it right.

The key benefits of low-code/no-code tools include

the ability to resolve IT resources hurdles, accelerate

the development cycle and improve time-to-market.

Organizations that adopt such an approach can reduce

the tactical dependency of IT for development, boost

collaboration internally and empower business users to

deliver process automation on their own.

According to the recent report from Creatio, The state of

low-code/no-code 2021, respondents from our survey

indicated that the top two reasons for utilizing low-code/

no-code tools were their ability to accelerate time-to-

market and reduce applications development costs.

Constantin Mares, executive director of an OTP bank

subsidiary and user of Creatio, who spoke at our Low-

Code Marathon in June 2021, said: “The new approach

helped us rethink the way we go to market. We have

increased the self-sufficiency of the team and now are

able to deploy applications faster than ever before. We

have changed as an organization and we are not

going back.”

Gartner’s research supports this view, with 50 per cent

of medium-to-large enterprises revealing they will

adopt a low-code approach in some form by 2023.

It is evident that low-code/no-code companies are

becoming the norm.

What is even more exciting is that these benefits are

realized by all parties involved, IT, operations and

business teams. Each category can find its own reason

to invest in citizen development and new technology.

Despite some concerns that IT would not support the

new approach, we see more and more forward-thinking

technology leaders encouraging business teams to take

control of their automation projects and build strong

partnerships with IT.



https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-kostereva-284a523/


https://www.creatio.com/page/the-state-of-low-code-no-code-2021-report

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956079/magic-quadrant-for-enterprise-low-code-application-platf

https://www.creatio.com/page/the-state-of-low-code-no-code-2021-report

Such an approach allows IT to repurpose its resources,

increase collaboration with business and drive

innovations. Of course, IT professionals need to provide

the needed support to govern, integrate and administer

such applications to make sure they comply with the

company’s standards and procedures.

The benefits to business teams are also evident, as

they gain more freedom and the ability to inherit critical

capabilities immediately, without the struggle of going

through a painful change request process. Any business

user can become a software creator without spending

years learning how to code. More importantly, they can

apply these skills to make their job more intelligent and

automated, freeing up more time for creativity and

meaningful tasks.

Operational leaders, as big-picture thinkers, would find

incredible potential in driving excellence and process

improvement. When process automation becomes as

easy as drawing a diagram, you can better connect

teams, remove bottlenecks and deliver a lot of value

to your internal clients. There is always a sophisticated

process behind excellent customer experience but now,

creating these sophisticated processes becomes much

easier and a fun task to tackle.

As the effect of low-code/no-code solutions

begins to snowball, enterprise technology stacks will

become increasingly composable, meaning knowledge

workers of any company can combine “building blocks”

of software without a need for formal training or

technical experience.

This way, they are not reinventing the wheel, but are

rather using ready-to-go capabilities and positioning

them in the right order. Composability is a fundamental

part of the low-code approach and is a great enabler

for efficient and frictionless development. As such, low-

code/no-code tools can greatly accelerate software

development up to 10 times, according to Forrester.

Hopefully, you are convinced that no-code is a new

way of automation and thinking. Gartner found that 65

per cent of enterprise software will be built on top of

such platforms by 2024. I strongly believe this will help

organizations create no-code companies and deliver

more value to their customers, partners and employees.

It is definitely the enterprise market disruption we are

seeing and Creatio is thrilled to play a significant part in

this market change.

Low-code/no-code: The future of enterprise software



https://go.forrester.com/blogs/why-you-need-to-know-about-low-code-even-if-youre-not-responsible-for-software-delivery/

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3991199/magic-quadrant-for-enterprise-low-code-application-platf


How Veritas’s processmanagement initiative enabledits digital transformationBrandon Gerig, former process design team manager at data management service provider Veritas, discusses how the company’s global process management initiative streamlined process knowledge for more than 1,600 employees across six different operating sites globally

Veritas Technologies LLC was founded in 2016 after

demerging from Symantec. It specializes in data

protection and multi-cloud data management for

enterprise customers globally. Veritas services 86 per cent

of Fortune 500 companies and employs more than 7,500

people globally.

In this exclusive interview, Gerig explains the drivers

behind the company’s process management initiative

and what it has achieved since its introduction.

PEX Network: Can you please tell us about your

position at Veritas? What would you say is the

company’s operating philosophy and the way you

approach your work?

Brandon Gerig: I worked with the Veritas support and

services team. We fixed whatever was broken and we

catered to more than 1,600 employees across six major

support sites.

Veritas operates under the credo of unlocking truth held

within information. At the core of what the company does

is turn raw information into viable, actionable data. As

such, I approached work holistically, ensuring we looked

at processes from beginning to end. We needed to

understand the upstream, downstream and cross-stream

effects of any changes we are implementing.

PEX Network: What challenges were you are faced with

in your daily work?

BG: In being a global support organization, one of the key

challenges I faced daily was the consistency of processes

across our sites. Adding to the complexity of the work

performed by our support engineers, it could be quite

daunting to ensure that all knowledge workers followed

the same process for each customer interaction.

PEX Network: The stability of your processes is a

fundamental cornerstone of your success and that of

your customers. What was the reason behind starting a

process improvement initiative in 2016?

BG: We faced enormous struggles with business

stakeholders at each of our six unique support sites

because they were working from their own ‘best

practices’, which often contradicted or conflicted with

the other support sites globally. There were also multiple

process repositories and we were using Microsoft Visio

and a sea of PDFs.

We were drowning in processes and documentation.

Signavio’s software allowed us to focus more on strategic

initiatives, rather than continually following stakeholder

documentation, changing the entire landscape of our

process program. I cannot overstate the power of visual

process depictions.



https://www.signavio.com/

Through Signavio, we were able to reduce our repositories

from nine to one, and we were also able to take over

more than 800 PDF documents and visualize them. The

result is that we ended up with just 75 PDF documents

and around 65 business process model and notation

(BPMN) visualizations.

PEX Network: Who was the key driver behind your

process transformation initiative?

BG: My director and my team were the drivers of this

change. The director put out the vision, I found Signavio

and we then implemented it which was one of our best

business decisions.

PEX Network: What goals do you want to achieve with

the initiative?

BG: Signavio saved us from some costly decisions

being made. The technology fixed problems before we

even got started and the overview it provided us has

been pivotal.

Since implementing our program with Signavio, we

were able to hit our consistency goals and our strategic

process drivers. The learning curve to get more than 1,600

employees globally to use and interact with the Signavio

solution took a 15-minute training video. We were also

able to map out proposed projects and present them to

our leadership team quickly, logically and concisely.

PEX Network: Has process management become a part

of company culture?

BG: I was never in a conversation at work where the word

‘process’ was not used. We continually looked at how we

could be doing things better for our customers and our

internal stakeholders.

PEX Network: Did you reach the goals you set?

BG: We were able to reach our goals and Signavio

provided the stabilization we so desperately needed to

allow us to focus on strategic initiatives, and changed the

fundamental utilization of process at Veritas.

How Veritas’s process management initiative enabledits digital transformation


https://editor.signavio.com/p/register


Powering digital transformation with BPM, low-code and no-codeEdwin Jongsma, VP of Americas at Mavim discusses how combining BPM and low-code platforms can help organizations power digital transformation by digitizing complex business applications quickly and with no coding

Every company has a variety of software tools they use

to ensure their business functions properly and there is

organization within the back end of the IT technologies.

Many of these tools, however, can be costly and have a

slow time-to-value.

As the need for fast-paced technology applications

evolved, the concept of low-code development emerged

as an alternative solution, with the Covid-19 pandemic

advancing that pace. As low-code projects become

bigger and take on more complex responsibilities, there

comes a need for business process management (BPM),

with low-code platforms here to stay.

Low-code and ERP

Over the years, we have learned from the world of

enterprise resource planning (ERP) that aligning with the

business users at the process management level is critical

to overall success. ERP processes are complicated and

process design decisions can cause cost overruns that

often only become visible when it is too late. It is all about

transparent alignment with the customer in the design

phase. The key is to align with customers at the business

process level in a language they understand, in order to

manage scope, mitigate risks, contain cost and increase

user adoption and customer satisfaction.

As low-code enterprise business applications become

increasingly complicated, similar rules apply and what’s

more, low-code projects are adjacent to existing ERP

systems. Being able to build these solutions in-house

ultimately saves companies from spending extra on point

solutions, but when processes cross a certain complexity

threshold, the need for business process modelling and

governance grows in importance.

Advantages of low-code development

There are plenty of low-hanging fruit solutions that can

be quickly created without having to write code. Even

complex applications can start simple and then be

upgraded to something more robust and scalable when

the need arises. Although low-code is built for simplicity

as a tool for business users (citizen development), the

reality is that more complex applications still require

support from IT. Modelling applications at the business

process level allows the business users to seamlessly work

together with the architects from IT and produce rich

applications faster and cheaper.

BPM provides a visual language that bridges the gap

between business and IT. It allows for a standardized

way of working with the offshore teams of IT and system

integrator partners.

As technology has evolved, so have development

methodologies as seen in Microsoft Power Apps, one

of the low-code and no-code platforms available

on the market. It is a data platform providing a suite

of apps, services and connectors that offers a rapid

enterprise application development environment to

build apps using multiple applications: canvas apps,

model-driven apps, hybrid apps or apps without

front end like Power Automate tool which automates

processes and workflows.



https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwin-jongsma/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8OELnlRpE

Model-driven apps provide a predefined, out of the box

user interface (UI) framework and allow for the fastest

development, while providing very rich functionalities

such as create, read, update, delete operations (CRUD),

search and filtering. Users spend less time on the UI and

can, therefore, be more productive on a project. Model-

driven apps have a built-in UI for business process flows

that guide the users of the applications through multiple

steps to reach an end goal.

Many large enterprise-level organizations have thousands

of Excel applications and migrating some of those to a

platform like Power Apps will make the data available in a

database and lead to the creation of a modern scalable

web-based UI with a robust security structure.

BPM as a tool for business alignment

BPM can be used to govern the creation of complex

business process flow UI applications and provide the

tools to support the migration from Excel to low-code

platforms. Business processes are the main component

in starting to define a solution for implementations and

represent the functional language that is necessary for

alignment within a business. In order to describe future

solutions, current processes in the organization must be

understood by all stakeholders thoroughly, which can be

done with process mining.

Because these processes are connected to the

operational model, the actions are shown in real time,

which allows for continuous improvement by keeping

processes and implementation in sync, and creates a

visual roadmap from the “as is” to your “to be” future

vision. This allows you to start with a standardized

approach with the possibility to add your industry models

as you build and redefine your roadmap.

BPM becomes more than visual models in combination

with scalable low-code platforms. While traditionally

it has emphasized operational efficiency through

standardization, with the advent of low-code platforms,

it can also be used to govern the rapid pace of digital

transformation. Also, BPM can support the automation of

DevOps (work items and instructions), testing and support

the process related to user adoption.

The future of BPM and beyond

Low-code, in combination with BPM, allows for faster

and interactive digital transformation. By using BPM

for governance, companies can reduce risk, avoid cost

overruns and miscommunication. Companies that do this

consistently are building a digital twin of an organization

(DTO), or virtual copy of your organization.

This not only helps you to decide what is causing

problems and what needs to be fixed, but also shows you

how it can be molded into something better. DTO is

a superset of BPM for your entire organization, while

helping to prioritize which applications have the highest

need to be built.

Powering digital transformation with BPM, low-code and no-code


https://www.mavim.com/blog/low-code-no-code-business-process-management?utm_source=PEX&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=pex+BPM+report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKBfrJSjiA&t=6s

https://www.mavim.com/nl/mavim-platform/mavim-mining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKBfrJSjiA&t=6s

If you are interested in becoming a PEX Network contributor, please get in touch with our editor

Alice Clochet at [email protected]

If you want to be positioned as a thought leader to PEX Network’s community, get in touch

with our head of partnerships Ed Wells at [email protected]

EDITORIAL CALENDAR: June 2021 - December 2022

PEX Live: OPEX In Financial Services 2021

PEX Live: Change Management And Culture

Change For Business Transformation 2021

Accounts Receivable Report

Global Process Ownership

JULY 2021

PEX Live: OPEX APAC 2021

PEX Live: Process Simulation 2021

Digital Process Automation Report

Enterprise Architecture Report

Leveraging Data And Analytics For OPEX

Hire To Retire

OCTOBER 2021

PEX Live: Low-Code 2022

Digital Twin Report

Webinar: What Lies Ahead In 2022

OPEX In Government Update

Top 10 Data Center Applications

JANUARY 2022

PEX Live: Enterprise Architecture 2022

PEX Live: Digital Process Automation 2022

OPEX In FS Report

How To Leverage Data For Process Initiatives

APRIL 2022

PEX Live: OPEX in FS 2022

PEX Live: Change Management 2022

Process Simulation Report

Top 10 RPA Applications

JULY 2022

PEX Live: OPEX APAC 2022

PEX Live: Process Simulation 2022

Enterprise Architecture Report

Business Architecture Solutions Update

How To Optimize Accounts Payable Processes

OCTOBER 2022

The PEX Report 2022:

Global State Of Process Excellence

Record To Report

AUGUST 2021

Process Mining Report

Using Low-Code To Boost

Transformation Projects

Claims Processing

NOVEMBER 2021

PEX Live: Digital Mortgage Process 2022

Intelligent Automation Report 2022

Finance Process Automation Report

Webinar: Industry Insights In IA

Insights In Low-Code

FEBRUARY 2022

PEX Live: Workflow Automation 2022

BPM Report 2022

Webinar: Diving Into The State Of BPM

Insights In EA And DPA

MAY 2022

The PEX Report 2023

OPEX in Manufacturing Report

Webinar: Key Findings from The PEX Report 2023

Insights In OPEX For Financial Services

AUGUST 2022

Process Mining

Digital Process Automation Report

Webinar: Powering The Process Mining Revolution

Top 10 Process Simulation Applications

NOVEMBER 2022

PEX Live: BPM 2021

Order-To-Cash Report

Mortgage Processing

Finance Process Automation

SEPTEMBER 2021

PEX Live: Finance Process Automation 2021

PEX Live: OPEX Week 2021

PEX Trends And Predictions 2022

DECEMBER 2021

PEX Live: Process Mining 2022

Change Management Report

Hyperautomation In PEX Update

Insights In Digital Mortgage Processing

MARCH 2022

PEX Live: Procure-To-Pay 2022

PEX Live: IA And RPA 2022

Mortgage Process Report

PEX In APAC Regional Update

Top 10 Tips For Enhancing CX Processes

JUNE 2022

PEX Live: BPM 2022

Low-Code Report

OPEX Training Update

Top 10 Tips For Implementing a P2P Solution

SEPTEMBER 2022

PEX Live: Finance Process Automation 2022

PEX Live: OPEX Week 2022

2023 Trends And Predictions Report

Agile Support And Development Update

How To Enhance Global Process Ownership

DECEMBER 2022

Online

EventsPEX Guide

Monthly

Report*

Webinar

Series

Market

Update

Exclusive

Membership Content

Quarterly

Report

mailto:Edward.Wells%40iqpc.co.uk?subject=Interested%20in%20report%20partnerships

mailto:alice%40pexnetwork.co.uk?subject=Becoming%20a%20PEX%20Network%20contributor


https://twitter.com/PEXNetwork_Team?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.linkedin.com/company/process-excellence-network-pex-network---a-division-of-iqpc-/

mailto:Edward.Wells%40iqpc.co.uk?subject=Interested%20in%20report%20partnerships

mailto:alice%40pexnetwork.co.uk?subject=Becoming%20a%20PEX%20Network%20contributor

PEX REPORT 2022

Documents

Transcript of PEX REPORT 2022