DOCUMENT Strategy Spring 2020

AN INSIDER’S LOOK...

INSIDE:

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES. PAGE 22

DOCUMENTmedia.com | Spring.20

THE FUTURE OF HYPER-PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS

By Ross Kittley PAGE 10

IS YOUR OMNICHANNEL VISION 20/20?

By Scott Draeger

CCM’S EVOLUTION TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

By Will Morgan

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION: Selecting the right technology partner

By Kashyap Kompella

TABLE OF CONTENTS volume 27 issue 1 | Spring.20 | DOCUMENTmedia.com

FEATURES 10

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The Future of Hyper-Personalized Communications Will it be abandoned, or will addressing a few issues spur growth?

By Ross Kittlety

Is Your Omnichannel Vision 20/20?

How your business approached the last new channel is a good predictor of how it will support any upcoming channel

By Scott Draeger

14 How to Hire a Digital Workflow Consultant

Most organizations will likely require a team rather than one person

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By George Dunn

The Future of Communications

CCM’s evolution to customer experience management

By Will Morgan

Robotic Process Automation Selecting the right technology partner

By Kashyap Kompella

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DSF ’20 An insider’s look at digital transformation strategies

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AI and Machine Learning Process Automation and RPA

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It isn’t a matter of it, it’s a matter of when, where and how

By Connie Moore

DEPARTMENTS 05 06

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What’s New Letter from the Publisher

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Masthead Contributors Think About It

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What’s New Catch up on all the news, opinions, and featured articles that caught our eye on documentmedia.com.

Madison Advisors Publishes Market Study on Latest Trends in Inbound Document Processing The study provides insights on the latest trends in the inbound document processing market with a focus on how capture service providers (CSPs) are positioning their offerings to stay current with technology and strategic services to meet customer demands https://documentmedia.com/ article-2966-Madison-AdvisorsPublishes-Market-Study-on-LatestTrends-in-Inbound-DocumentProcessing.html

Moments That Matter: CCM and CX in Times of Change

There is an expression, “The only constant is change.” That certainly appears to be true in 2020, and especially so for communicators in almost every industry. https://documentmedia. com/article-2976-MomentsThat-Matter-CCM-and-CX-inTimes-of-Change.html

RPA: Promising, but Still a Work in Progress In the communications area, RPA is attractive because it allows organizations to fix problematic data in their legacy systems, automate processes, expedite master plans of delivery, lower the error rate and free up knowledge workers to do things that are more mission critical. https://documentmedia. com/article-2980-RPAPromising-but-Still-a-Workin-Progress.html

Overcoming the First Mile of Data Processing with Automation

Driving Strategy with Technology in 2020

There are plenty of technology shifts on the horizon worth giving a closer look as we enter the new decade. Here are some trends that will impact how work gets done in a digital business in 2020. https://documentmedia. com/article-2965-DrivingStrategy-with-Technologyin-2020.html

Defending Your Information Management Practices There is a growing discussion among business organizations, regarding the challenge of defending information practices, emphasizing the need for updated governance and process documentation, stakeholder education, and automation for consistency and auditability. https://documentmedia. com/article-2972-Defending-Your-InformationManagement-Practices.html

For all the focus on data and its critical role in gaining a competitive edge, most organizations today still struggle to access and use it at scale. The foundational “first mile” of data processing remains overly complex and manual. https://documentmedia.com/article-2979-Overcomingthe-First-Mile-of-Data-Processing-with-Automation.html

Four Tips for Successfully Accelerating Regulatory Disclosure Updates

Today, more and more companies are recognizing the inherent benefits of modernizing their processes and systems with a centralized content hub that simplifies disclosure management and communications generation through sophisticated crosschannel, cross-touchpoint content sharing and targeting rules. https://documentmedia.com/article-2978-Four-Tipsfor-Successfully-Accelerating-Regulatory-DisclosureUpdates.html

Ensure the Quality of Complex Documents with QA Testing

While technology has made it easier to produce and distribute documents, the production process can still suffer complications and errors. https://documentmedia.com/article-2975-Ensure-the-Quality-ofComplex-Documents-with-QA-Testing.html DOCUMENTmedia.com spring.2020

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Changes

Yes! It’s finally spring. Here in Wisconsin, that means a time for warmer temperatures, putting away all our winter clothes, skis, snowmobiles and of course the annual spring cleaning. This year, spring also is marking a number of changes for DOCUMENT Strategy Media and for all of us.

Here at DOCUMENT Strategy we have seen a big change with our Editor, Allison Lloyd, stepping away from the media to devote 100% of her time to the DSF ’20 event (see you there…

November 11-13 in Chicago). After 10+ years, we will miss Allison’s experience, knowledge and dedication to driving the direction of the media.

She is also a good friend and we wish her the very best with her new career.

Along with Allison’s departure we are also excited about two additional changes with our editorial team. First, we are fortunate to have the chance to be working again with a very skilled, hard-working and always enthusiastic Erin Eagan. Erin worked as managing editor of DOCUMENT several years ago, and she’s back to take over those duties. Secondly, for the first time, we are creating a small advisory board that will work together with Erin and myself to help develop our educational and strategy-building

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content for the coming years. We are currently looking for 2 more advisors. If you are interested or know a qualified person who would be a great fit, please reach out to Erin at erin@rbpub.com with your qualifications.

Lastly, is the biggest change we are all dealing with together — this pandemic. Everything about our day to day seems to be different, both personally and in business. These times are challenging to say the least; however, one thing we can all do is take this as an opportunity to take a look at ideas as a team for improving how we do things within our companies and how we work with our customers. For DOCUMENT Strategy, we are working on several new initiatives for the rest of this year and next year to get you even more helpful information — and using more channels to deliver them to you. A big part of this will come from your suggestions as we want to make sure to get you the details you need to best develop, deliver and maintain the best customer experience.

Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring!

All the best and take care,

Ken Waddell Publisher

president Chad Griepentrog publisher Ken Waddell managing editor Erin Eagan [ erin@rbpub.com ] contributing editor Amanda Armendariz contributors Scott Draeger George Dunn Ross Kittlety Kashyap Kompella Connie Moore Will Morgan advertising Ken Waddell [ ken.w@rbpub.com ] 608.235.2212 audience development manager Rachel Chapman [ rachel@rbpub.com ] creative director Kelli Cooke

PO BOX 259098 Madison WI 53725-9098 p: 608-241-8777 f: 608-241-8666 email: customerservice@rbpub.com DOCUMENT Strategy Media (ISSN 1081-4078) is published on a daily basis via its online portal and produces special print editions by Madmen3, PO BOX 259098, Madison, WI 53725-9098. All material in this magazine is copyrighted ©2020 by Madmen3 All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Any correspondence sent to DOCUMENT Strategy Media, Madmen3, or its staff becomes the property of Madmen3.

The articles in this magazine represent the views of the authors and not those of Madmen3 or DOCUMENT Strategy Media. Madmen3 and/or DOCUMENT Strategy Media expressly disclaim any liability for the products or services sold or otherwise endorsed by advertisers or authors included in this magazine.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: DOCUMENT Strategy Media is the essential publication for executives, directors, and managers involved in the core areas of Communications, Enterprise Content Management, and Information Management strategies. Free to qualified recipients; subscribe at documentmedia.com/subscribe.

REPRINTS: For high-quality reprints, please contact our exclusive reprint provider, ReprintPros, 949-702-5390, www.ReprintPros.com.

CONTRIBUTORS Ross Kittlety Head of CCM, Paragon Customer Communications Ross is a customer communications pioneer and Head of CCM at Paragon Customer Communications. Highly experienced in customer experience management, Ross has delivered cuttingedge multi-channel communication strategies to a number of large corporate, public, central government and independent clients including retail, finance, marketing and gaming.

Will Morgan Connie Moore Vice President and Principal Analyst, Deep Analysis Connie is a widely recognized and respected analyst throughout the world for her groundbreaking research in business process management and information management. Previously, she led the business process and content collaboration research teams at Forrester for over 20 years. She also received the highly coveted Marvin L. Manheim Award from the Workflow and Reengineering Association (WARIA).

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Senior Research Analyst, Aspire Will is an experienced industry analyst with expertise in the Customer Communications Services market. He works alongside the wider team to provide advice, insight and vital intelligence to the company’s expanding customer base on both sides of the Atlantic.

Before joining Aspire, Will worked with Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends’ Customer Communications and Business Development Advisory Services.

THE FUTURE OF HYPER-PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS

WILL IT BE ABANDONED, OR WILL ADDRESSING A FEW ISSUES SPUR GROWTH?

BY ROSS KITTLETY

oncerns are growing among the enterprise community about the future of hyper-personalized communication.

The influential advisory giant, Gartner, has predicted that, by 2025, poor return on investment (ROI) and the risks of customer data management will force 80% of marketers who have invested to abandon it. Indeed, it goes on to cite burgeoning regulation, increasing distrust by consumers and technology companies erecting tracking

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barriers as further contributors to personalization’s impending disappearance.

However, there are solutions which can address these problems.

The increasing value of data Data is essential for personalized communications, but for companies to make effective use of it, they need better ways to harness its potential.

Today, this means analyzing it using advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). These tools

provide meaningful insights which empower companies to devise customer-engaging communication strategies that deliver incisive targeting, endto-end customer journey mapping and, when the most appropriate communication channels are employed, cost-efficiencies.

For any company wishing to adopt hyper-personalization, having a comprehensive overview of the customer is vital. This, however, requires the breaking down of operational silos between

out via the customers’ preferred channels, e.g. print, email, SMS and app notification, as this increases the likelihood that customers will see and act upon any messages in a timely manner.

Overcoming communication challenges Although personalization comprises 14% of the marketing budget, more than one in four marketing leaders cite technology as a major hurdle to its adoption. The increasing need to implement personalized communication strategies, therefore, puts companies in somewhat of a quandary as there is often a requirement for an intelligent technology-led approach.

the entire customer journey is that it breaks down silos and increases the visibility of all communications between company and customer. As a result, customers receive a more unified communications experience from which conflicting messages or branding, distributed by differing internal departments, is eradicated. In doing so, some of the mistrust that has increasingly been seen as a major issue for personalization strategies can be avoided.

With regard to concerns over ROI, a single platform’s capacity to deliver the timely creation, approval and delivery of omnichannel communications ensures consumers are provided with the most appropriate information at the right times and via their preferred channels.

This enables companies to build a platform from which these opportunities can be leveraged to increase sales.

Although personalization comprises 14% of the marketing budget, more than one in four marketing leaders cite technology as a major hurdle to its adoption.

different departments so that all the data can be brought together. It also requires an intelligent platform that provides absolute visibility across all consumer touchpoints. The omniscient understanding of the consumer that this offers, gives brands the opportunity to deliver an enhanced customer experience and drive lasting value.

A key feature of hyper-personalization is omnichannel communication.

Its importance lies in its ability to ensure that all interactions are carried

In order to put a viable solution in place, for instance, many companies are seeking to utilize an array of enabling technologies, from AI, to data analytics, and advanced marketing tools.

Unfortunately, such an approach can pose many trials, none moreso than the resultant significant in-house investment.

The value of a managed service Modern customer communications management (CCM) systems offer the infrastructure needed to create a single, centralised platform that is capable of supporting high-volume, end-to-end, personalized communications, on demand.

The value of a centralized communications platform that works across

One solution being embraced by many companies is to work with a single, experienced communications partner.

Such a partner can help overcome many of the issues that Gartner sees as hindering hyper-personalization and which are preventing companies from adopting data-driven communications. They empower companies to use their data to greater advantage and provide the intelligent technologies needed for complete customer overviews. At the same time, they supply the capacity to design, manage and deliver high-volume, personalized communications to customers, on-demand and via the channel of their choice, all from a unified, centralized platform. O

ROSS KITTLETY is Head of CCM at Paragon Customer Communications. For more, information, visit www.paragon-cc.co.uk.

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IS YOUR OMNICHANNEL VISION

20/20?

How your business approached the last new channel is a good predictor of how it will support any upcoming channel

By Scott Draeger

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here’s a rumor that a new channel is on its way and it will likely spawn several prominent new social networks, interaction types and other innovations. Will your company and your team be ready? What I’m referring to is the several articles in the news about the impending release of Apple’s augmented reality headset. Many of them have been focused on general availability of the device landing somewhere between 2020 and 2022. The timing, if it happens, is kind of cool as there will certainly be many references to the year 2020 and vision. How your company will react to the reality of a new device that creates a totally new channel can be found in how your organization approaches the ever-changing omnichannel environment we are currently experiencing. I have seen three approaches: 1.Omnichannel Leaders If you are an omnichannel leader, any new device on the horizon will already be a part of your three-year planning.

Aside from the device itself, you are aware that there will be a crop of new social networks, data to collect and the customer experience to consider.

This is where omnichannel leaders have different perspectives than most.

Omnichannel leaders are already planning on how they will support this new device even though the app development kits are not yet released. The omnichannel leader will reserve some placeholder budget for new software, some new hardware, new people, additional cloud computing capabilities and some updated microservice integrations. Being first to market is important in your environment.

2. Fast Followers If you are a fast follower, you will not have this device featured in your

three-year planning process just yet.

You need to see if it’s going to be popular and transformative before you invest any time or money in the idea.

In fact, you might wait for the device to be released before you determine if you want to embrace it as a new channel. You might watch what other firms are doing to help you formulate a plan of action. Then, when this research is behind you, you can pounce because you have enough flexibility on the finance side of the business to execute projects that are outside of the budget when they make sense and there is a good business case for doing so.

ecosystem to be large and valid. Jumping into new channels is a serious matter for many enterprises, so it pays to be cautious about adding channels, as the exit costs can be high.

Whether you or your company sees itself as a leader, first follower or late adopter, it is important to understand that, while it is unknown when a rumored device will release, what types of social networks may be created around it, or how this could impact the customer and employee experiences that comprise your business, we are in control of our reactions. Just for fun, let’s take this opportunity to think about which team would potentially support the new device first.

If you are an omnichannel leader, any new device on the horizon will already be a part of your three-year planning.

3. Late Adopters If you are a late adopter, most likely you don’t pay attention to tech rumors.

And you are not alone. Plenty of people wait to react until after a technology adoption has matured. There are many good reasons to take this approach.

First, there are already several AR/ VR offerings that haven’t caught on yet and which many think are toys, including the HoloLens from Microsoft, Vive from HTC, Oculus Rift from Facebook, PlayStation VR from Sony and Glass from Google. Your analysis may determine that the communities are small and the development costs for engagement on these channels is too high. You may be waiting not only until a competitor engages, but for the

What came before may be an indicator of what comes next How your business approached the last new channel is a good predictor of how your company will support any upcoming channel. Were you early to mobile apps? When was your first QR code introduced? Are you delivering rich push notifications yet? Did you dodge a bullet by passing on Google Glass (unlike my team)? Most importantly, do you wish any of your answers to the above questions were different? If so, 2020 is the perfect time to exercise some vision and look at the infrastructure, business constraints and organizational goals that are shaping your channel strategy. If there is any confusion in direction, this is a great opportunity for your team to take the time to define a clear picture of each. It’s the key to being prepared for the next big idea – and knowing how you plan to respond to it. O

SCOTT DRAEGER, CCXP, M-EDP is Vice President of Customer Transformation, Quadient.

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Consultant responsibilities include ongoing user training and the growth of the digital workflow system.

HOW TO HIRE A DIGITAL WORKFLOW CONSULTANT

BY GEORGE DUNN

Most organizations will likely require a team rather than one person

roadmap. For the projects selected, a conceptual design, workflow map(s) and a high-level project plan will need to be assembled. To be objective, the workflow consultant, conducting planning, should be independent of the vendor team selling or providing the software.  For digital workflow to show maximum benefit and ROI, process cleanup and improvement before deployment, using methods such as Six Sigma, LEAN and Business Process Management (BPM) is encouraged.

If a vendor has not been selected, a vendor request for information (RFI) or a request for proposal (RFP) will need to be developed. These requests should incorporate the requirements identified in the enterprise plan, conceptual design, process improvement goals and workflow map(s). Vendor questions should assess vendor software, integration and ongoing support capabilities and costs.

I

 User group executives, managers and staff should be involved in all aspects of planning to gather support for the budget required and to ensure acceptance of process changes caused by the implementation of workflow.

s your organization involved in planning for or implementing digital workflow? To be successful, your organization will need to hire or train a workflow subject matter expert (SME). An important consideration for this position is what roles (planning, implementation/support and expansion) the digital workflow SME will need to fulfill, and if one person or a team is required.

IMPLEMENTATION/SUPPORT — Consultant responsibilities include the development of a detailed digital workflow technical design and a detailed project plan to support implementation. This includes documentation of database/index, integration and user interface requirements. The consultant will also need to set up/program the workflow, database and integration with other systems as well as testing, training and on-going maintenance.

PLANNING — Consultant responsibilities include the development of a digital workflow enterprise plan, vendor assessment, cost/benefit — return on investment (ROI) analysis and project

 Key to the development of detailed implementation requirements and setup programming of digital workflow is experience with the software tool utilized. It is best if this role is filled

by the software company or integrator selected for the initial implementation; however, much of this role may be transitioned over time to the internal workflow consultant.

EXPANSION — Consultant responsibilities include ongoing user training and the growth of the digital workflow system. The consultant will need to adjust the project road map and plan, develop conceptual/detailed design requirements, workflow map(s), process improvement, setup, programming and training. Typically, this role is staffed by an internal IT resource assigned to business unit and an internal power user within the group.  For the first number of projects, the internal expansion workflow consultant(s) will require support from the workflow planning consultant and the workflow implementation consultant. For major expansion of the system, this support may be required on an ongoing basis.

As indicated earlier, an organization will most likely require a team of digital workflow consultants to provide planning, implementation/support and expansion assistance. To avoid the workflow project stalling out over time, ongoing participation from the user groups is mandatory, as is the establishment/update of an enterprise plan, budget and ROI, showing how digital workflow will provide value to the organization. O

GEORGE DUNN, President of CRE8 Independent Consultants, is a worldwide digital workflow and process improvement consultant, speaker, and author. Since 1995 he has assisted hundreds of organizations with planning for workflow technology across numerous industries. For more information, see www.cre8inc.com, follow him on Twitter @ CRE8consultants, or connect with George on LinkedIn, or contact@cre8inc.com

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THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATIONS CCM’s evolution to customer experience management

A

recent research study by Aspire entitled, “The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation” uncovered exciting intelligence on the radical changes transforming the Customer Communications

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Management (CCM) market on an evolutionary scale.

According to the study, the first and most important driver behind the evolution is a fundamental shift in enterprise

priorities. Consumer expectations of instant access to relevant, personalized information has made customer experience an increasingly important metric in B2C communications. As a result, enterprise communication priorities are shifting from reducing cost and risk to increasing business value. The study also found that CX was the top priority for nearly two-thirds of the over 500 businesses surveyed globally, outpacing all other perennial customer communications concerns.

The second driver is the rapid pace of technological progress reshaping the communications landscape. Advances

CORPORATE PRIORITIES Customer experience Omni-channel communications Digital transformation Single customer view Mobile engagement Personalization Content services/content mgmt.

N = 512 Multiple answers allowed

Process automation

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Source: Aspire, The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation, 2019

By Will Morgan

in emerging technologies, an exploding digital marketing technology ecosystem and rapid adoption through increasing business model innovation and license flexibility are all factors. Digitization, AI-assisted processing and data analysis can help enterprises realize the promise of true bi-directional interaction with customers instead of static, one-way messaging. CCM vendors are adjusting their approach in order to take advantage of these developments so that they can offer their clients the best chance for success in this new market paradigm.

The final transformative factor is the shift from on-premise installation to

cloud-based distribution. While only 13% of businesses prefer to pay for CCM software through a subscription today, 43% reported they will be shifting to subscriptions within two years. Across all the surveyed organizations, job roles and verticals, CCM purchase preference is shifting toward subscriptions.

CCM cloud migration provides a range of benefits, both tactical (reduction in operating costs and security risks) and strategic (instant scalability and faster integration allowing experimentation in workflow). Ultimately, cloud-based distribution allows enterprises and service providers to integrate CCM with a wider set of digital technologies that optimize customer experience by putting consumers front and center.

Instant access to relevant information, personalized experiences on a preferred channel and consistent communications in terms of style, branding and tone-ofvoice have become crucial elements of superior CX and all three of the primary dynamics behind CCM’s evolution share one thing in common: They are designed

to enable business users to improve CX for the end consumer.

For this reason, CCM has become part of Customer Experience Management (CXM) — the practice of managing all customer interactions with the express purpose of improving the customer perception about that business. The zenith of this transformation would see an indelible shift from traditional outbound messaging triggered by regulatory requirements, toward customer-centric, two-way interactions based on consumer needs and calibrated to their preference and convenience.

This evolution is creating an ecosystem where any number of business solutions, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Content Management (ECM), process automation and more are extended with a communications or customer experience technology layer, and all the components are connected through an integration platform.

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micro-services architectures, continually optimized with the overarching goal of providing personalized, channel and device-agnostic communications and digital experiences at scale, all in the name of improved customer experience and increased business value.

Aspire has mapped the path to maturity within this ecosystem into three stages defined by the business unit making communications decisions.

In the most rudimentary environments, IT continues to control CCM and the organization retains a document-centric perspective. Instead of being guided by coordinated strategy, their CCM investments are reactionary and defined in terms of cost and risk reduction. Investments are reactionary rather than proactive, initiated by the renewal of a print agreement, the end of a system life cycle or the passage of new regulatory requirements.

Advancements tend to be more tactical in nature, like a “lift and shift” or migrating from print to digital communications, though, characteristically,

this digital push is aimed at cutting postage expense rather than achieving a more valuable (albeit intangible) benefit, like improving CX. As organizations advance along their evolutionary journey, the needs of the business eventually eclipse cost savings as the primary motivator in CCM investments and they enter the second stage. Investments in this transitionary stage are directed by the line of business and focused on securing the agility and adaptability necessary to achieve the fastest time to market through the customer’s preferred channel. While cost reduction still remains important to fund those new initiatives, the primary driver is to achieve higher customer satisfaction.

However, needs are often expressed from an “inside-out” perspective that doesn’t consider actual consumer need, leading to requests for digital and mobile services and channels often without any understanding of what problem they solve or why they’re needed.

To reach the third and final stage of CXM maturity, organizations must place the needs of the customer ahead of the business when planning B2C communications strategy. True converts to CXM prioritize CX through data analytics and the development of meaningful customer and journey insights.

Within these systems, customer communications are owned and managed by a centralized CX team or steering committee who understand the journeys that customers take across all touchpoints, continuously monitoring them to ensure that those experiences are optimized and relevant.

Aspire’s research found that businesses embracing a transformative strategy centered around customer interactions (instead of traditional oneway messaging) projected growth that is 23% greater than the average and 41% greater than their IT led counterparts. As the graphic on page 21 illustrates, an organization’s perception of customer communications naturally informs their CCM investments.

CXM: A NEW MARKET ECOSYSTEM

Source: Aspire, The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation, 2019

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THREE STAGES TO CXM MATURITY

STAGE 1:

STAGE 2:

STAGE 3:

IT Led Organizations

LOB Led Organizations

CX Led Organizations

 Document mindset  Reactive rather than proactive  Focused on reducing cost and minimizing risk  Print centric  Multiple voice to the customer

 Focused on relevant communications  Investing in emerging channels and data analytics  Motivated by the needs of their business  Moving toward mobile first  Working toward cohesive messaging

 Focused on growing business through superior CX  Investing in making customer-centric approach cohesive throughout customer journey  Prioritize customer needs  Channel and device agnostic  Consistent personalized messaging

+/-30% OF TODAY’S MARKET

+/-60% OF TODAY’S MARKET

+/-10% OF TODAY’S MARKET

Source: Aspire, The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation, 2019

Savvy investment is a vital component of the journey to CXM maturity, but an organization cannot spend its way to full evolutionary success. Since

customer experience is the sum of all interaction during the entire lifecycle, true transformation means evolving technology to fully understand

MOTIVATIONS DRIVING COMMUNICATIONS INVESTMENT IT Led

LOB Led

CX Led

Increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention

Operational savings

Increase up-sell/cross-sell, wallet share growth

Risk reduction

IT savings

0%

N = 512 Multiple answers allowed 20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

customer behavior and the ability to interact in a channel and device-agnostic way, alongside organizational changes that overcome functional siloes and improve coordination and collaboration as well as developing more agile and automated processes. CXM strategy makes efficient use of customer data and insights to understand their needs, behavior and communication preferences, looking holistically across all touchpoints and channels to understand where the experience is broken and how it can be improved. If executed well, it will drive loyalty, retention, up-sell/ cross-sell opportunities or reduced service cost. O

WILL MORGAN is an experienced industry analyst with expertise in the Customer Communications Services market. As Aspire’s Senior Research Analyst, he works alongside the wider team to provide advice, insight and vital intelligence to the company’s expanding customer base on both sides of the Atlantic. Before joining Aspire, Will worked with Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends’ Customer Communications and Business Development Advisory Services.

Source: Aspire, The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation, 2019

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ROBOTIC PROCESS

AUTOMATION: Selecting the right technology partner

By Kashyap Kompella

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he mantra for success of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) implementations is “Selection, Selection, Selection” — that is, selecting an RPA product, implementation partner and business processes to automate.

RPA technology itself is seemingly simple but the technology selection process can be quite nuanced. What do many enterprises get wrong with technology selection? The most common mistake is to treat product features and functionality comparison as the be-all and end-all of technology selection.

Elementary, but invariably this is where the most emphasis is placed, and time and energy are spent. However, this approach is sub-optimal. To be sure, product functionality is definitely an important consideration but don’t start with that.

Instead, start with the strategic choices in front of you. The RPA marketplace can be thought of as comprised of different categories of vendors such as horizontal technology platforms, vertically focused products, niche products, products from adjacent software markets and even products from systems integrators and consulting firms. Each category comes with its own pros and cons. For example, where do you stand on buying a software product from primarily a services firm? They may be your existing vendor and may be offering a good deal, or even throw in the RPA tool as a sweetener for a larger services deal.

But would a services firm be able to do product innovation at the same pace as the product vendors? If not, would you be locked into an out-of-date product in the long run? Are you increasing the overall risk of your automation program?

To clarify, there are some services firms that offer decent RPA products. These may make the most sense for your enterprise but that’s a decision you consciously choose to make.

Another important consideration is best-of-breed versus single platform approach. A horizontal platform may let

you automate multiple use cases while niche products may support a limited number of use cases but excel at the use cases they do support. Similarly, your existing software vendor (e.g. from an adjacent category like BPM) may also have an RPA tool, and working with an existing vendor with relationships in place is preferred by some enterprises.

Note that each of these choices represents tradeoffs and your enterprise preferences. Does your enterprise prefer to work with larger vendors or does your enterprise jibe well with smaller

Does your enterprise prefer to work with larger vendors or does your enterprise jibe well with smaller vendors who may be more flexible? vendors who may be more flexible?

Another way of looking at this (and this is true not just of RPA but software vendor selection broadly) is that an enterprise needs to first examine its own internal capabilities, choices and preferences and shortlist the vendors who are aligned to these. Perhaps, this is what is known as culture fit? My point here is that internal enterprise diligence is as much of a critical success factor as external vendor diligence.

The next part of technology selection which is the product functionality is reasonably well understood. Core RPA functionality out of the box, automation models (attended, unattended, hybrid), scripting/development languages, ease of automation development, security certifications, governance and control mechanisms, deployment and overall architecture, scalability, add-on modules, “AI” features, documentation,

reusable templates, support for distributed teams, usability for business users, developer and admin tools, integration and extensibility options, product roadmap, deployment choices (cloud, hybrid, on-premise) — the list can be really endless — you’d want to compare and contrast your shortlist on these key factors. Optional modules such as AI components, process discovery and process mining are also increasingly bundled along with RPA products. A vendor’s library of reusable components as well as third-party modules are being made available via an “exchange” or “marketplace.”

Important to note that features and functionality are in themselves not an end goal, but they support the realization of your use cases or use scenarios.

The feature-functionality comparison should ideally roll into a scenario-based evaluation. Any available product reviews, customer satisfaction scores, licensing models, size of the ecosystem (no. of partners, developers, marketplace) support and customer success footprint, geographic presence, company size and stability will also have a bearing on vendor selection.

From a process point of view, once you’ve identified your top 3-4 choices, you can down select to the final product(s) after developing pilot automations and proof of concepts in your enterprise to get an actual feel of what it’s like to work with the products and vendor, and ensuring they meet your expectations.

All said and done, RPA technology selection remains an art, and by using this approach, you can make it approximate to be a science and select your best-fit technology vendor. O

KASHYAP KOMPELLA is the CEO and Chief Analyst of RPA2AI, a global industry analyst and advisory firm focusing on automation and enterprise artificial intelligence. Kashyap is also the co-author of “Practical Artificial Intelligence – An Enterprise Playbook,” available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter @kashyapkompella.

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Think About It / GAUTAM JIT KANWAR /

/ PATRICK KEHOE /

QA TESTING HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE A VALUABLE AND NECESSARY COMPONENT IN THE DOCUMENT CREATION PROCESS BECAUSE IT OFFERS BUSINESSES AN EXTRA LAYER OF PROTECTION FROM COSTLY, CATASTROPHIC ERRORS WHEN CHANGES ARE MADE UNDER THE PRESSURE OF QUICK TURNAROUNDS.

REGULATORY CHANGES ARE NOW HAPPENING AT A RATE THAT IS THREE TIMES WHAT IT WAS IN 2011.

/ SCOTT DRAEGER /

IF YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEED FOR SPEED, EFFECTIVENESS AND EXPERIENCE WHEN YOU ARE CREATING COMMUNICATIONS IN A CRISIS, YOU WILL QUICKLY UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUR CCM SYSTEM.

/ BOB LARRIVEE /

/ BILL STROGIS /

In today’s climate of COVID-19-related uncertainty, organizations today can, and must, take a critical look at their

There are steps you can and should take now to prepare for a time when defending your information management practices will be questioned.

operations to see how they’re set up to handle mission-critical document processing, and make sure that they can conduct business effectively.

/ KEITH WOEDY /

If RPA development follows the typical path of technological development, the relatively small, but expert, development firms likely will be acquired by larger firms with a broader array of related offerings.

AND MACHINE

LEARNING PROCESS AUTOMATION AND RPA

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It isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when, where and how

By Connie Moore

IN

’ve been speaking at length with digital process automation vendors about the state of the process automation software market.

Whenever we discuss trends, the conversations inevitably turn to the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in process automation and robotic process automation (RPA). Frankly, I’ve found that most vendors latch on to the idea but have very little substance behind their words in terms of strategy and product roadmaps. Many of them aren’t sure when customers will want to buy AI/ ML, or how and where to add AI/ML to their process automation platforms.

There’s a reason why the vendors are so unsure. For AI/ML to work in applications, the tools must be applied in very specific, targeted ways. The AI/ ML platforms that we read and hear about — IBM Watson, Salesforce Einstein, Google TensorFlow, Microsoft

Azure AI and Amazon AWS Machine Learning — are just that… platforms.

They are pre-trained for generic purposes, but software vendors looking to use them must build their own applications to meet their own needs. As my colleague, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, writes in Practical Artificial Intelligence (the book he co-authored with Kashyap Kompella), “every time the AI/ML platforms are used, they are used differently with some elements of the platform leveraged and other elements not, depending on the circumstances.”

Each time Einstein or Watson, for example, is used in a software product, it requires a new AI/ML instance with new data. “In reality, platforms such as Einstein and Watson encompass armies of large and small AI products,” Alan writes. “Some leverage this or that model, others a variant of some other model,” and so on.

If it sounds complicated – it is.

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 Identify duplicated global processes and recommend the best version  Analyze process performance data to correct inefficiencies  Use process mining for predictions based on process models  Use AI/ML for intelligent capture

That reality puts cracks in the process automation AI/ML holy grail, which is something along these lines: An event automatically triggers human actions and automated systems based on machine advice and creates new processes on the fly; for example, when a system detects an intruder and dispatches a guard to look at the situation while at the same time updating other systems and even IoT devices.

(With thanks to Mark McGregor of Signavio for the suggestion.)

Most intelligent applications leverage the common AI/ML platforms, but these platforms are the base building blocks; software vendors must add their own secret sauce and, most importantly, their own data for their applications to work. Then they must train their AI/ML product using that data. The bottom line is that no two AI software applications are alike.

They all have unique data and unique learning experiences.

Despite the steep ramp for adding AI/ML to digital process automation, there are some use cases already deployed, such as:

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 Fraud detection in financial services and government agencies  Natural language processing in contact centers and process modeling (Nintex)  Facial and pattern recognition in retail websites  Voice recognition in service industries But there are two main challenges to moving forward, Alan writes: The first challenge is to maintain a broad and holistic view of customer needs, which is hard for any vendor to sustain. The second is to understand the limitations of AI and work within them. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are powerful tools, but without good quality data and clear business ownership, they can be at best blunt objects and, at worst, destructive.

Keeping that reality in mind, digital process automation vendors might be able to add AI/ML functionality such as these going forward:  Analyze workstreams to determine the value of different workflows  Combine case data and business data to improve decision-making  Recommend design options in modeling and RPA scripting  Eliminate duplicated/conflicting processes  Improve process models based on process mining outputs

In conclusion, it isn’t a matter of whether we will use AI/ML in digital process automation and RPA, it’s a matter of when and of how much effort it will take to get there. Buyers can help by letting their vendors know which of the many AI/ ML uses within business processes they value, and which take priority. O

CONNIE MOORE is a Vice President and Principal Analyst with Deep Analysis, focusing on digital process automation, RPA, and digital experience platforms. Prior to Deep Analysis, Connie was Senior VP of Research at Digital Clarity Group, where she managed the research team’s coverage of customer experience technologies. Before joining DCG, for more than twenty years, Connie was VP and Research Director at Forrester Research, where she managed Forrester’s acclaimed business process and content/collaboration research teams. Connie is widely recognized and respected throughout the world for her forward-looking and groundbreaking research in BPM, information management and digital experience. In recognition of her many contributions, Connie received the highly coveted Marvin Manheim Award from the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) for thought leadership in business process management, case management and workflow. She is also a former director of AIIM International. Connie holds an MBA from George Washington and a BA from East Carolina University.

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