According to a survey that the Intelligent Automation Network conducted among its members, 55% of participants expect their budget for digital transformation to increase in 2023. That sounds rosy until you consider that the previous year's figure was 63%. Perhaps even more striking though is that the percentage of respondents who expect their digital transformation budget to actually drop went from 3% for 2022 to a despondent 22% for 2023.

What might be slowing down and affecting the evolution of these perspectives? How, despite a seemingly fearful environment, is it possible to continue increasing the contribution of value to the company?

Myriad challenges are causing companies to forecast that their business models will suffer in the year ahead. The world is facing a macroeconomic scenario marked by inflation at the highest levels seen in 40 years. Rising interest rates hinder access to finance for investment and growth plans. An energy crisis is spiking production and distribution costs. War in Europe is generating geopolitical uncertainty and severe recession fears.

If we add to this morose cocktail the increasing difficulty in retaining the workforce ― mainly after the pandemic ― the scenario becomes increasingly adverse.

That’s why companies must rethink their operating model to see how they can increase their capacity to produce and provide greater and better service ― both internally and externally ― without losing sight of the fact that, in many cases, cost increases and workforce retention issues will still remain sobering challenges. This is where automation becomes a lever to accelerate business transformation, generating efficiency and creating value.

But for these automation efforts to have a relevant impact on a company’s results, they must stop being implemented in silos within the organization (IT, Shared Services Center, etc.) and start being understood, defined and executed as efforts that permeate the entire organization. Automation should be a dimension to consider in every initiative you want to launch. This way of thinking and applying automation is what is known as Hyperautomation, a process estimated to obtain a 40% improvement in productivity and efficiency.

Chief Experience Officers (CXOs) must redefine their strategies, operating models, growth plans, and day-to-day workflows, with a marked approach based on Hyperautomation and keeping technology in mind as the starting point.

To achieve this, it is necessary to carry out a holistic, end-to-end review of business processes, always with an agnostic approach from the point of view of the technology to be applied, identifying which technique or set of combined automation techniques (RPA/IPA, Process Mining, BPM/Low Code Process Automation, Knowledge Automation, Conversational Assistants, Intelligent Processing of Unstructured Sources, etc.) are the most convenient to optimally solve the challenges you are facing.

Within this holistic review of processes, historically much focus has been placed on the "back" part of companies. However, if in addition to the impact on efficiency and costs, it is desired to have a relevant impact on the experience of both the internal user and customers, it is necessary to extend these efforts to the "front" part as well.

Applying the previously mentioned recipes will help ensure that each of the transformation levers has its maximum impact and that, applied in the appropriate sequence and interacting with each other, they manage to have a multiplier effect on efficiency and get closer to a Hyperautomated Operating Model giving you a competitive advantage in the market.

It may indeed be true that difficult times are ahead and that the need to carefully monitor resources puts companies in a more timid and austere position regarding investment in technological tools. However, this may be the best time to optimize processes through Hyperautomation and move towards achieving more efficient processes and operations. This will save time and costs while simultaneously attaining greater employee and customer satisfaction, with improved compliance and productivity as additional benefits.

Why not take the first step?