Strategizing Automation Resilience Through Symphony in the Future
Jakob Freund, the mastermind behind Camunda, leads a software company focused on advancing end-to-end process orchestration.
Many businesses struggle to harness the full power of automation due to tangled systems, disconnected tools, and siloed processes. As automation becomes increasingly complex, businesses find it challenging to adapt, grow, and embrace new technologies like AI agents. On average, organizations claim around 50 components (or endpoints) are involved in their automation strategy—an number that's grown by roughly 19% over the past five years.
Rather than adding layers to an already convoluted automation architecture, companies are pivoting towards a more cohesive and intentional approach in 2025. This strategic shift aims to achieve true automation success and a future-proof strategy, making AI easier to adopt, scalable, and safe.
Mastering Modern Automation
While automation isn't novel, its complexity has exploded in recent years. This surge can be attributed to the myriad "endpoints"—people, devices, and systems involved in a process. These systems range from cutting-edge AI advancements to decades-old legacy systems. Even some individual automation tools (e.g., RPA) focus on standalone functions. Without some degree of integration and coordination, an efficient process from start to finish can be difficult to achieve.
Have you experienced a lousy customer encounter due to automated processes? Consider a frustrating situation where you order tiles from a flooring retailer for in-store pick-up. After placing the order, you're told the tiles will be ready in two hours. However, despite the passing time, no further communication is received. Upon contacting customer service, you learn that the order won't be ready until the following afternoon. This disjointed experience serves as a prime example of the pitfalls of inefficient, uncoordinated processes.
Such disjointed processes are all too common, stemming from:
- Disparate tools and disconnected systems
- Legacy systems and the lack of integration resulting in technical debt
- Limited oversight across workflows spanning multiple process endpoints
These issues hinder innovation and make it more challenging to win executive backing for automation initiatives. However, a strategic, orchestrated approach can trigger meaningful change and business transformation.
Five Key Strategies for a Future-Proof Approach
By focusing on both automating and orchestrating business processes, organizations can boost internal efficiency, improve customer experiences, and maintain regulatory compliance. The key is to coordinate every endpoint into a seamless, end-to-end business process.
Here are five practical ways that an orchestrated approach to automation can future-proof your strategy for 2025 and beyond:
1. Look at the big picture, not just individual tasks.
Business processes consist of multiple tasks. All too often, organizations rely on task-based automation over the holistic process. Step back and assess the individual steps in your process. Frameworks like Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) can help you visualize these steps and find potential inefficiencies. Visualizing your processes in a flowchart can help you focus on the entire process rather than on a single technology or underperforming task.
2. Eliminate friction in the customer journey.
Every business aims for smoother, more reliable customer experiences. With your processes visualized, you can more easily identify areas prone to customer friction. For example, in a retail workflow, customers should receive timely notifications and status updates. If these aspects aren't incorporated, adapt your process design to address customer needs and reduce confusion.
3. Align IT and business objectives.
The process modeling and design phase presents an opportunity for IT and business teams to collaborate. During this stage, both teams can work together on designing processes using BPMN or similar visual frameworks, ensuring business requirements are met and process performance can be effectively measured over time.
Organizations might choose to use a federated center of excellence (CoE) approach, where a committee or team spearheads automation efforts. This approach works by providing support and enablement for business units to implement their own automation projects.
4. Integrate AI without creating silos.
Technologies like generative AI or agentic AI must fit within existing processes. Adhering to industry regulations and emerging AI laws requires maintaining oversight of these systems, ensuring their accuracy, and offering traceability for AI-driven decisions. Implement human checks at key automation points to verify AI-driven outcomes, ensuring process integrity and minimizing costly errors.
5. Manage change and continuously improve.
Teams often falter due to a lack of visibility into their business processes and the ability to make improvements. Ensure your team can visualize bottlenecks, identify broken processes, and proactively suggest improvements, making way for faster, more accurate automated business processes.
Navigating Automation's Waves of Innovation
As automation progresses towards intelligent and autonomous systems, it's essential to shift from task-based optimization to a holistic, process-centric approach. With this approach, organizations can tackle automation's constant flux:
- Realizing the potential of AI and emerging technologies
- Adapting to future technological shifts
- Guaranteeing transparency, accountability, and control
By embracing these principles, businesses can evolve beyond isolated automation efforts, fostering a more agile, efficient, and customer-centric operational model.
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Jakob Freund, the founder of Camunda, will lead a future-focused strategy in 2025, aiming to simplify automation efforts by integrating multiple endpoints effectively. Freund understands the challenges businesses face in navigating the fragmented automation landscape, especially with the proliferation of around 50 endpoints in the average organization's automation strategy. To succeed in this complex environment, his emphasis is on a holistic approach that overcomes technical debt, minimizes friction, and aligns IT and business objectives, ultimately ensuring a more efficient, customer-centric, and adapting automation architecture.
