Are Enterprise Apps On the Way Out? - ' Much more can be ' (
Page 3 of 3 )
done to automate business processes.">
Finding 5. Plenty of opportunities for BPI progress: Much more can be done to automate business processes.
Decades into the information revolution, business functions still have a long way to go before they are fully automated—especially processes involving sales, marketing and service delivery. But even processes that are highly automated may provide opportunities for further automation. Take customer service: After
spending billions of dollars on CRM and business intelligence systems, 79 percent of respondents believe this function can be more automated. The financial services industry also has a long way to go: Although it is more automated than other industries, just 48 percent of financial services respondents say their service-delivery processes are extremely or clearly automated, and 34 percent say that's true for their sales processes. The IT function, too, hasn't exhausted its potential; it's the most automated function in the company, but it presents more opportunities for additional automation than any department besides customer service.
Overall, it seems companies have far from exhausted the possibilities for increasing productivity, cutting costs, and boosting revenues by using IT to improve processes. That's why IT budgets and IT staffing continue to grow in the short term, and probably in the long run too: No organization is in a better position to help companies improve productivity than the IT department.
Research Guide:
Finding 1: Improving business processes is the top priority for many IT executives, especially at small and midsize companies.
Finding 2: Although process improvement is a priority, the pace of change is moderate.
Finding 3: Business process software and services often fail to meet expectations.
Finding 4: New integration technologies are starting to displace older enterprise applications.
Finding 5: Much more can be done to automate business processes.
Upcoming results from the BPI survey
October 25: Lack of Cross-Functional Cooperation Thwarts BPI Efforts; The Problem Children of Process Improvement
Read our previous surveys on process improvement:
Top Trends 2006: The Pursuit of the Frictionless Business Platform
Necessity Is the Mother of Velocity
Focusing IT on Innovation Will Come Back Into Vogue
Mobile Devices Will Become Strategic Necessities
Mobility + Collaboration = Productivity
Process Management Revs Up
The Real-Time Enterprise 2003: Can You Keep Up With Business Change?
Business Process Management
