To be successful in today’s information economy, organizations need not only keep up with the pace of innovation but also accelerate past their competitors. This requires tools and best practices that allow business operations to operate at the speed of light while also pushing digital transformation initiatives forward. New easier-to-use tools are coming to market to make this possible and effectively democratize information-technology (IT). These new process automation tools, built on robust cloud-based business services, simplify the assembly of process applications, reducing costs and accelerating the execution of competitive strategies.

The democratization of IT enables non-IT workers — those who are usually closer to the business need to participate more directly in the delivery of digital transformation initiatives. This adds to the development capacity and allows valuable insight from those closest to the business. Model-based application design tools with a low-code/no-code approach are targeted at the citizen developer — the business analyst or process designer — who can apply their business acumen to the visual design desk to rapidly create and adapt automated processes to meet changing market needs.

Digital transformation requires combining a broad set of technologies into compelling new solutions. Process services, including robotic process automation, automate workflows and user engagement. Integration libraries are needed to connect enterprise systems and applications into processes. Presentation services enable the all-important user experience. Furthermore, the current regulatory environment requires that content captured or created through processes is managed and governed in compliance with regulations adding the need for secure repository services.

The capabilities above are often provided by separate technologies, each with unique design environments. Integrating these capabilities into applications adds complexity, increases cost and slows the delivery of important digitization initiatives. However, standards-based services delivered from the cloud are providing a new approach to process automation. Services are easier to integrate, scale to meet demand and can connect processes to users inside and outside the organization.

ASG sees a huge opportunity to bring business process automation, robotic process automation, mobile application development and content management together to form new digital automation platforms. IDC estimates that by 2020, 40 percent of organizations will invest in cloud-native applications for the purposes of, “automation, orchestration, and content life-cycle management.” This can empower the business-oriented citizen developer to create applications that will increase delivery speeds with a low-code/no-code approach. The platform would also provide visibility into processes and information through applications aggregated into a portal dashboard.

Organizations compete most effectively when they can shorten the deployment time for new applications and enable them to be used on any device. New technologies are making it possible for organizations to redefine how work is done.