The 3 key challenges in digital transformation (and how to overcome them)

While today’s chief transformation officers (CTOs) are key drivers of organizational change, they face distinct obstacles that affect their ability to maximize revenue, achieve operational excellence, and secure high ROI.

Why?

A 2023 survey by Everest Group found that transformation leaders face three key challenges: identifying transformation opportunities, talent shortage, and a siloed approach.

In this blog post, we will dive into those three challenges and the best ways for CTOs to overcome them.

Challenge 1: identifying transformation opportunities

According to the Everest Group, nearly half of C-level executives cited identifying transformation opportunities as a significant challenge. This difficulty is mostly due to the complexity and lack of visibility in end-to-end business processes. The challenge doesn't end with identifying opportunities; prioritizing them based on their return on investment (ROI) introduces an additional layer of difficulty.

To address this issue, C-level executives and CTOs need a data-driven view of current operations—using transactional data to piece together end-to-end processes allows executives to understand where improvements can be made.

With better visibility into processes, organizations can move beyond tactical automation and improvements to strategic end-to-end process transformation that impacts key performance indicators (KPIs) and business outcomes. AI-powered technologies like process mining, task mining, and communications mining give CTOs that much needed real-time visibility into end-to-end processes.

What’s the ROI of that transparency?

By visualizing their process end-to-end, İşbank, Turkey’s largest private bank, saved 116,000 hours by simply removing a duplicate approval step.

Challenge 2: talent shortage

According to Manpower Group, 75% of employers globally are struggling to fill roles. And a Korn Ferry report found that “by 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them.”

Reasons include more people aging and exiting the workforce (retiring), not having the skills companies are looking for, and choosing to work less as savings increase, according to Forbes.

Automation and AI technologies can help organizations address the shortage. CTOs can leverage AI via an end-to-end automation platform to augment their workforce, allowing employees to focus on more strategic tasks (and improving the employee experience helps retain employees).

Take, for example, and organization analyzing their processes. Typically, that is a very manual activity—employees use interviews, surveys, workshops, etc. to analyze a process. Mining technologies can help organizations spend less time analyzing, and more time taking action, saving up to 75% of the time spent on process analysis. This maximizes the value of human talent while driving efficiency through automated process discovery and automation of repetitive and rule-based processes.

Challenge 3: siloed approach

CTOs can’t implement strategic transformation initiatives without buy-in from and collaboration with leaders across departments. Unfortunately, they’re not getting it.

From the same Everest Group report, about one-third of C-level executives surveyed said that a siloed approach or lack of collaboration across teams was one of their biggest challenges. This is especially relevant for complex, end-to-end processes with multiple hand offs between people, robots, and systems. The errors, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks that arise from a siloed approach ultimately impact process outcomes and KPIs.

The UiPath approach enables organizations to break down these silos by providing end-to-end process visibility. By analyzing data from across departments and systems, CTOs can identify interconnected workflows, optimize processes, and foster collaboration. The UiPath Business Automation Platform provides integrated capabilities for process, task, and communications mining, enabling 360° insight into every step of business processes. This streamlined approach guarantees that transformation initiatives align with business goals and drive maximum value.

As an example, Wärtsilä, a leading Finnish manufacturing company, combined UiPath Platform automation and process mining capabilities to optimize hand-offs between departments. They saw a 30% improvement in their end-to-end manufacturing processes.

The UiPath advantage

UiPath leads in delivering transformative technologies and helping organizations on their digital transformation journey. By combining AI-powered 'discovery' capabilities like UiPath Process Mining, Task Mining, and Communications Mining with automation, the UiPath Platform offers a comprehensive solution for CTOs.

Key takeaways

Discovery, AI, and automation are the building blocks that empower CTOs to overcome their unique transformation challenges.

By harnessing the power of these technologies, organizations can unlock their full potential, drive innovation, and achieve their strategic objectives.

Read why analysts recognize UiPath as a leader in process mining.