A new report from Microsoft and Adobe find that time and operational constraints are limiting organizations’ ability to restructure their digital workflows in the wake of the pandemic and the shift to distributed work, and two-thirds of CIOs say they want to develop their digital document processes further.
The joint report from the tech companies, “Tapping Into Advanced Workflows to Grow and Energize Your Business,” sheds light on how digital leaders are digitizing workflows and making use of data analysis and insights to improve the business and reduce costs.
In partnership with Forbes Insights, the companies surveyed more than 600 senior digital and tech executives on their organizations’ digital workflows and found that 49% of CIOs say time and operational constraints are leading to incomplete or unsatisfactory digital workflow restructuring, and two-thirds plan to develop those processes further.
According to the survey, less than half of CIOs say their digital document processes are either advanced or leading, which the report defines as document digitation that is available to everyone and supported by artificial intelligence.
When those digital processes are lagging, efficiency and productivity suffer, according to the survey, as 51% say legacy workflows impede productivity in their organizations.
Conner Forest, a senior research analyst at 451 Research, says in the report that automation and AI will help free employees up to work more strategically and creatively in addition to keeping them more engaged.
“The more we invest in the tools and technologies we use to get our work done, the better engaged our employees are,” Forrest says.
Workflow digitization can also help improve the customer experience, says Andrew Wilson, Microsoft’s chief digital officer.
“If employees aren’t spending time scanning and uploading documents or chasing down contracts, they have time for higher-value work — and that work can often directly impact the customer,” Wilson says.
On the flipside, CIOs at organizations with fully digital workflows and processes cite more efficient employees (65%) and higher morale (63%) as the two most likely outcomes.
The report identifies better business outcomes as the most critical reason to invest in digital workflows, with nearly 40% saying they expect to better leverage data analytics and insights as a result, and 38% cite new business or revenue opportunities as a top benefit.
According to the report, a key aspect of improving organization-wide collaboration is removing data silos, but most CIOs say silos still exist.
While nearly 65% of CIOs say there has never been a greater need for cross-department collaboration, only 17% say they had a single source of truth where everyone in the organization could access the knowledge they created.
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