SoÖWhat's Digital Process Automation?

For a long time, back before Digital Transformation became a proper noun that justified capitalization, when people talked about managing and improving processes, they talked about BPM. It's right there in the name: business process management.

As the grizzled Silicon Prospectors out west used to say, "There's a new acronym a-brewin'."

Get ready to hear a lot about DPA.

It's Digital Process Automation. It is billed as the next stage of BPM ñ "traditional" BPM turbo-charged for the demands of the Digital Transformation era. So again, it seems, it's right there in the name.

So what does that mean?

The idea that an evolution of the term is needed comes from an indisputable fact: what work is, how it gets done, by whom (or what), and where and when is all changing incredibly quickly.

Work is barreling down two paths simultaneously. Everything that can be automated is being automated. And not just repetitive tasks anymore. Process automation is extending to decision-making in a meaningful way through AI and bots. The non-human workforce is emerging.

At the same time, human intervention ñ the real "knowledge work" ñ requires new modes of expression.

• • Total mobility.
  • Extreme collaboration.
  • Data immersion delivered in a highly-consumable way.
  • And, of course, slick, streamlined processes.

A Digital Process Automation platform delivers all of the above.

But, not just that. It also delivers it all at Digital speed. There's an emphasis on low-code application development techniques and their related Agile methodologies. The result is speed and power in shaping how your organization manages, orchestrates, and optimizes what the machines do, as well as what the people do to serve your customers.

There is, of course, a lot more to say about DPA.

Stay tuned (as I will do) to see how the discussion evolves.

Ben Farrell

Vice President, Communications