What Is Digital Process Automation (DPA)? Your Complete Guide

Digital process automation (DPA) involves streamlining and automating processes using tools like low-code development. The goal is to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer experience.

And thanks to advancements in technology with artificial intelligence (AI), digital process automation is more effective than ever. Many organizations recognize the importance of automation to their business; our research finds that 83% of decision-makers at service organizations plan to increase AI investments in the coming year.

Let’s dive into digital process automation and how it's helping companies become more efficient, meet customer demands, and grow their businesses.

• What is digital process automation?
• Key benefits of digital process automation
• Processes suitable for digital process automation
• Steps for implementing digital process automation
• Best practices for successful digital process automation
• Digital process automation challenges and solutions
• How to choose the best digital process automation tools and technologies

Digital process automation allows companies to improve work processes and automate manual tasks using low-code development solutions. You can use these solutions to create apps, macros, and workflows simply by dragging and dropping (or pointing and clicking).

For example, you could use customer service automation software to reduce the number of steps an agent must take to address a missing delivery. With automation, an agent can click a single button to flag the delivery problem, trigger an investigation, and automatically send the customer a follow-up text message. What once took the agent 15 minutes now takes two seconds.

Digital process automation is distinct from two other techniques you may have also heard about: robotic process automation (RPA) and business process management (BPM).

Robotic process automation involves using bots (robots) to handle repetitive tasks, like retrieving data from a specific system for a monthly sales report. Business process management is the name for efforts to improve and optimize business strategy and processes. Digital process automation actually grew out of BPM.

Research from IDC indicates that 52% of organizations have too many manual processes and tasks. These organizations also report inefficiencies due to limited data access and cross-company bottlenecks.

Digital process automation helps eliminate inefficiencies, with the most benefits seen in IT, operations, and customer service departments. Here's are some of the digital process automation’s key benefits:

Automating manual tasks gives employees more time for higher level work. For example, automated self-service customer service can handle simple customer requests, freeing service reps to focus on more complex tasks.

Customer service automation benefits both customers and service teams. Our research finds that 99% of service professionals at organizations using automation report time savings. Automation helps service reps resolve cases faster, creating a better customer experience. Service reps also report improved ability to focus on individual customers, better connection with other departments, and fewer errors.

Digital process automation leads to cost-savings. IDC research finds that automation helped organizations save an average of 13.5% on operational costs.

Workflow automation also leads to increased revenue. For example, it gives service reps time to upsell customers on new products during service interactions.

Automation makes it easier for companies to scale to meet increased business and customer demands. Removing manual steps from processes saves your team time, freeing them to serve more customers.

Automating data entry and other manual tasks reduces human error and improves accuracy. This helps ensure compliance, crucial for highly regulated industries like financial services and health care.

Customer service professionals are under a lot of pressure. Our research finds that 77% of service agents report an increased workload. And 62% of IT leaders have trouble keeping up with demands from the business. This is where digital process automation can help. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Digital process automation simplifies complex customer onboarding processes. You can use it to eliminate manual data entry and ensure data is accurate and complete.

For example, a wealth management firm that automated its case management workflows reduced customer onboarding time from weeks to just 24 minutes. The company also integrated over a dozen systems into one. And it incorporated AI-driven analytics, giving financial advisors a complete view of client data and valuable insights at the click of a button. A low-code API solution reduced the IT department's workload, leading to a 50% decrease in maintenance costs.

Service teams get more done when self-service options handle simple customer requests. To improve agent efficiency, a large credit union used AI to create an automated chatbot for simple requests like resetting a customer's password. The company's chatbot deflected 60% of internal service cases.

Service teams are using AI to improve customer experience and boost agent productivity. Before implementing generative AI, a global information management services company's service reps had to search multiple systems to find the right information. This wasn’t necessarily fast.

Now, AI helps the service reps answer customers faster. Reps benefit from AI-generated suggested case replies, based on past cases and the company’s knowledge base. AI also boosts agent efficiency by creating case summaries. Finally, this company uses its AI to continuously improve and update the company’s knowledge articles.

Digital process automation requires careful planning, testing, and monitoring. Here are steps to incorporate into your plan:

1. Process audit: Examine existing processes to identify where automation can improve workstreams and eliminate manual, repetitive work. Uncover and document how and why processes are inefficient.
2. Goal setting: Set goals for the overall business and individual departments. Prioritize projects and develop a realistic plan based on resources and costs.
3. Find the right software: Choose technology solutions that integrate with your existing systems. Consider scalable solutions that allow you to start with a few key projects and tackle more when you're ready.
4. Develop automations: Design automated processes, including rules and criteria. Use low-code point-and-click tools to accelerate development.
5. Work out bugs: Thoroughly test and validate automations to find errors or room for improvement. Fix and retest as needed, and deploy validated automations.
6. Provide support: Train and support employees on new technologies, guidelines, workflows, tasks, and other changes resulting from automation. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, is a great way to get started.

Gather metrics: Use customer service analytics and AI to continuously monitor and improve processes.

Taking the right approach to automation can transform your business. Here are a few best practices to help set you up for success:

• Start gradually, then expand: Focus first on automating processes that will deliver the most significant improvements. IDC research found that 80% of organizations automated order management workflows, 70% automated customer service workflows, and 63% automated customer onboarding workflows. When automation achieves success in one area, expand to other areas of the business.
• Prioritize IT resources: Automating IT workflows, such as systems monitoring and data management, gives IT more time to support automation initiatives throughout the organization. Using low-code tools also frees IT to focus on advanced technical needs.
• Take an agile approach: Stay ahead of changing requirements with continuous planning, execution, testing, and improvements. Use analytics to predict and prepare for changing customer demands and software tools that let you scale up or down as requirements change.

Unite and align IT and business teams: Bring IT and business teams together for your automation effort. IDC research finds 75% of organizations report that IT is typically involved in building automation solutions. So it’s critical that they are involved every step of the way. Create a cross-department team to oversee automation processes and projects.

While the benefits of automation are undeniable, implementing it does pose some challenges. Our research revealed the four top automation challenges, according to IT departments:

• Security: While automation improves productivity, it results in less visibility for detecting potential security threats. Keep sensitive data secure with governance and security frameworks and software with built-in security features.
• Competing priorities/lack of resources: IDC research found that 37% of IT leaders in organizations struggle with skilled resource shortages critical to automating business processes. Low-code and no-code software decreases IT's workload, since little coding is required.
• Budget constraints: If funds for automation are an issue, show stakeholders how automation leads to reduced costs and increased revenue. Another tactic is to create an Automation Center of Excellence to gain visibility and champion the benefits.

Integration with legacy systems: Integrating multiple disparate systems adds complexity to digital process automation initiatives and adds to IT's workload. Choose software solutions that integrate with your legacy systems.

Choosing the right automation software solution for your organization requires careful consideration. Budget, business goals, vendor compatibility, integration with existing systems, and other factors play a part in decision-making.

Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind:

• Scalability: Consider software solutions that meet changing demands. Cloud solutions, like customer service software, can be easily scaled as requirements evolve.
• System integration: Make sure your chosen digital automation platform integrates with your existing tech stack. Bring all your data and systems together with an integration platform that lets you automate any task or process across your enterprise.
• Data security: Keep data secure with software that stops cybersecurity attacks and complies with data privacy regulations. Look for features such as 256-bit data encryption, change tracking and audit logs, event monitoring, and threat detection.
• Low-code tools and API integration: Speed automation and offload work from your IT department with low-code development tools that enable business users to automate workflows and manual tasks. Look for software that lets you create, govern, and manage reusable APIs.

Digital process automation makes it easier for companies to improve existing processes and adapt to change. Scalable service platforms like Service Cloud help companies automate, one process at a time. With 82% of agents and 76% of mobile workers saying customers ask for more than they used to, why not lean on technology to help you deliver exceptional service?