1. Report Overview
Process digitalization refers to the management, optimization and execution of enterprise business processes through information technology and digital tools. This includes converting various links, steps, decision points, etc. into digital processes to achieve more efficient, accurate, and controllable business operations. The core goals of process digitization are to improve business efficiency, reduce error rates, and enhance data traceability and monitoring capabilities to better support the organization's business operations.
From the perspective of technical architecture, the process digitalization market can be divided into the platform layer and the application layer. The specific market division is detailed in the figure below.
Focusing on the entire life cycle of process operation, including the five links of process design, process modeling, process optimization, process monitoring and process execution, the platform layer includes specific markets such as BPM, process mining, process middle office, and OA. The application layer refers to process digital solutions for vertical industries and general scenarios.
Figure 1: Panoramic map of process digitalization market
This report focuses on two specific markets: BPM and process middleware. After years of construction practice and development, BPM has become the main infrastructure for enterprise process management and is also constantly evolving. With the increasing complexity of enterprise process management requirements and the integration of various process management technologies and tools such as artificial intelligence and process mining, process middle platforms have become an important development trend in process digitization.
2. From process execution to analysis and decision-making, BPM evolves into a process brain
As enterprises’ digital transformation and process management deepen, how to mine the value of data to empower process management has become a new proposition.
On the one hand, in the digitalization stage, enterprises' demand for BPM is not only limited to achieving process execution control and efficiency improvement through business process management execution, but also hopes to further realize data-driven process optimization and intelligent decision-making. On the other hand, BPM, as the infrastructure of enterprise process management, has accumulated a large amount of enterprise process data, and the value of this data needs to be explored.
In this context, the enterprise's BPM platform is evolving into a "process brain". Based on process data integration and analysis, it provides data insights, process monitoring, process inspection and other capabilities to achieve intelligent monitoring and optimization of enterprise processes. Through the analysis of business process data, it assists enterprise managers to obtain data in real time, comprehensively grasp the operation and management status of the enterprise, and obtain decision-making support.
Taking the most basic invoice reimbursement process as an example, under the traditional process management model, the person in charge of approval can only see a paper document to be signed, but to make a decision on whether to approve it, he or she needs to communicate with the reimbursor to obtain relevant information. to make a judgment. A digital process management platform based on data analysis capabilities should be able to automatically trace relevant data such as reimbursement expenses, business conditions, customer conditions, project conditions, etc., based on the integration of process data from various systems, and assist the person in charge of approval to make decisions based on approval rules. .
Case 1: TCL Huaxing relies on the Lanling MK-BPM platform to realize process digital transformation and empower enterprises to collaborate across departments and systems
The world is currently undergoing a restructuring of the industrial structure. China's manufacturing industry has made rapid progress in applied innovation, and its scientific and technological strength and innovation capabilities have continued to improve. Driven by high-quality development, many innovative technology companies have continued to expand in scale. With the rapid expansion of enterprises, management complexity is also increasing, and the original process management model of enterprises cannot meet the needs of cross-department, cross-region, and even cross-border collaboration.
After manufacturing companies experienced rapid expansion in a short period of time, process management problems gradually became apparent. Manufacturing companies usually have the following process management problems:
Lack of comprehensive process sorting and planning, low efficiency of key business operations, and high communication costs;
The process system is old, low in configuration, and the cost of customized development and operation and maintenance is high;< /span> Process problems have led to high operating costs for enterprises. Manufacturing companies urgently need to optimize existing processes and solve the problem of low management efficiency in cross-organization and cross-system collaboration. Mobile terminal development capabilities weak. Only system functions are considered, and data security is weak;
Information sharing cannot be achieved between process engines;
TCL Huaxing hopes to upgrade its process management platform to solve management problems caused by the rapid expansion of enterprise scale.
TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (TCL China Star for short) was established in 2009. It is an innovative technology enterprise focusing on the field of semiconductor display. As one of the world's leaders in semiconductor displays, TCL CSOT has multiple bases at home and abroad, with 9 panel production lines and 5 module bases, with an investment of over 260 billion yuan.
The process pain points of manufacturing companies are also problems that TCL Huaxing needs to solve. As the reorganization and integration of the global LCD panel industry accelerates, TCL Huaxing has also continued to expand its corporate scale, which has led to an increase in management complexity, such as an increase in cross-department collaboration scenarios. TCL Huaxing has multiple internal process engines, some of which are self-developed by the IT team and some of which come from multiple suppliers. The intricate system has brought the following process pain points to TCL Huaxing:
Figure 2: TCL Huaxing’s process pain points
The above pain points have had a significant impact on TCL CSOT's business operations. For example, the existence of data islands makes business collaboration costly and inefficient, making it difficult for companies to grasp customer needs and slowing down the launch of new products. TCL Huaxing urgently needs to transform its IT operating model. By introducing a process management platform, it can upgrade its IT architecture to better serve cross-department collaboration and sort out the following needs:
Promote deeper and more precise optimization of the process, and synergize and improve efficiency in all aspects of business;
Deepen intelligent manufacturing, speed up the launch of new products, and quickly respond to customer needs;
Intensive production management, sharing of R&D, production and operation data in multiple locations;
Promote operational changes and achieve a sustainable "efficiency leadership" strategy.
TCL Huaxing chooses Lanling as a partner to build a core business capability management platform
Based on the above needs, TCL Huaxing carries out BPM (Business Process Management) product selection work. In the POC phase of the project, TCL Huaxing's main requirement was to verify the operation and integration capabilities of the process engine, such as interface ambiguity, process operation status, etc., and to use a real business system to interface with the bidding manufacturer's BPM system. In this process, Lanling MK-BPM can provide out-of-the-box page tools, and TCL Huaxing's IT staff only need to complete simple docking to achieve process engine authorization. Compared with the past development that required IT personnel to use interfaces, system integration costs are effectively reduced.
The person in charge of the TCL Huaxing project believes that the Lanling MK-BPM system can not only reduce the integration development workload, but also perform process data statistics and analysis based on a unified process engine. In addition, MK-BPM's process operation is more flexible, and its complex process operation capabilities are highly consistent with TCL Huaxing's needs. MK-BPM's hierarchical authorization is also a highlight of Lanling. It can not only delegate operation and maintenance permissions according to role groups, but also achieve data isolation between subsystems. After a comprehensive evaluation, TCL Huaxing finally selected Lanling as its partner.
After the project started, Lan Ling conducted a comprehensive review and evaluation of TCL Huaxing's corporate processes. Based on the data silos, low efficiency and other issues in TCL Huaxing's process pain points, he summarized the following project pain points and designed targeted solutions:
Table 1: Project pain points & solutions
Based on the project solution, Lanling delivered the MK-BPM standard product to TCL Huaxing's technical team in a localized deployment manner. During this process, Lan Ling was responsible for planning the system integration plan and executing the docking work between the MK-BPM system and TCL CSOT's first set of process engines.
During the project implementation process, the "coaching" delivery model is a major difficulty. TCL Huaxing hopes that after purchasing the Lanling MK-BPM system, the specific process implementation will be carried out by the company's internal IT personnel to avoid dependence on the manufacturer. Therefore, Lan Ling is responsible for providing training services to TCL Huaxing’s training team. During the project implementation process, although Lanling had implementation documents supporting the product, it was difficult for the documents to cover all operations when it came to code development issues. To this end, TCL Huaxing requested Lanling to provide more detailed and easy-to-learn information to facilitate promotion within the company. In response to this demand, Lanling developed an online coaching system for TCL Huaxing for MK-BPM process operation guidance. This system has received good feedback within TCL Huaxing. Now, Lanling has incorporated the above process operation guidelines into standardized products.
TCL Huaxing deepens the digitization of business processes based on the MK-BPM system, improves operational efficiency, and helps improve the efficiency of the innovation platform
After two months and twenty days of system docking and IT staff training, the project was successfully launched. Based on Lanling MK-BPM, TCL Huaxing builds Huaxing's core business capability management platform, deepens the digitization of business processes, improves operational efficiency, and helps improve the efficiency of innovative platforms such as smart R&D, smart supply chain, and smart manufacturing.
Figure 3: TCL CSOT core business capability management platform architecture
After the system went online, the number of users reached 43,000. Currently, TCL CSOT's core business capability management platform has nearly 200 process templates and 180,000 process instances. Without changing the original business habits, Lanling realized the deep integration of the business system and MK-BPM through API. MK-BPM does not store business data and only provides process-driven services. Users can complete the configuration operation without coding.
Figure 4: Operation effect of TCL Huaxing core business capability management platform
In addition, this project has greatly improved TCL Huaxing’s integration efficiency. Taking the enterprise occupational health and safety management system EHS as an example, it only takes 6 steps to complete the process integration of MK-BPM and this system, thereby realizing the upgrade of EHS approval capabilities, as well as the end-to-end business of other heterogeneous systems and this system. Collaboration.
The person in charge of the TCL Huaxing project believes that the project has effectively improved the efficiency of corporate process management and solved management problems caused by the expansion of corporate scale. With the help of Lan Ling, TCL Huaxing has broken through the limitations of collaboration scenarios and implemented enterprise digital transformation more smoothly in the digital era.
3. Process middle platform realizes process life cycle management and capability reuse
Process middle platform refers to the integration of BPA, BPM, iPaaS, process mining and other tools, with full process capabilities. An enterprise-level process capability sharing and service platform for life cycle management capabilities.
In order to adapt to the rapidly changing market environment, companies need to adjust their business and develop new processes in a timely manner. Based on specific business needs, enterprises will use specialized development and management tools at each stage of the process life cycle. However, the lack of synergy between process tools results in inefficient enterprise process management. In addition, if different process tools are used independently, the reuse rate of process capabilities will be low and process development capabilities will be wasted. Therefore, enterprises are gradually turning to the process middle office, hoping to realize the reuse of process capabilities and improve the full life cycle management capabilities of the process by integrating process management and automation tools.
The enterprise's demand for process mid-end is reflected in two aspects: process full life cycle management capabilities and process capability reuse.
Figure 5: The entire process life cycle of the enterprise process center
On the one hand, the process middle platform integrates all process services of the enterprise into the capability reuse platform for unified management. Enterprises need to manage enterprise processes from five aspects: process governance, development, automation, integration and optimization, and use the process middle platform to coordinate the processes required at each stage. Tools provide one-stop service for the entire process life cycle.
On the other hand, the process center needs to encapsulate common process components, RPA, etc., allowing enterprise users to quickly build or adjust processes in a drag-and-drop manner to achieve reuse of process capabilities.
Case 2: Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical builds a business process middle platform to realize cross-organization, cross-department, cross-system and cross-user business process automation
The epidemic has had a huge impact on all walks of life, including the pharmaceutical industry. As a leading company in China's pharmaceutical industry, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical feels more urgently that the company's overall management system needs to keep up with the rapid changes in the market.
Under the pressure of the epidemic, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical's software application system is difficult to meet business needs, and transformation and upgrading are imminent.
Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical Group was founded in 1971. The group is headquartered in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province. It currently has more than 16,000 employees and more than 20 member companies located in Taizhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou, Changzhou and other places; marketing network Covering all provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country.
Software application systems such as SAP ERP, QMS, DMS, WMS, LIMS, SRM, and CRM that have been successfully implemented before cannot fully meet Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical Group's current enterprise process optimization and business improvement needs in terms of functional coverage and flexibility. requirements, and systems exist in isolation. The variability of business determines the need for a more flexible and intelligent business central processing mechanism to lead the transformation direction of future enterprise management development trends.
The COVID-19 epidemic has promoted the digital transformation of pharmaceutical companies to be more thorough. They must use powerful digital transformation tools to open up the data value chain of the company's internal department, and maintain continued leadership in the pharmaceutical industry through technological innovation, production innovation, management innovation and other means.
Against this background, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical invited IBM's ecological partner Shanghai Dehui Information Technology Co., Ltd. to initiate the planning and design of the business process automation project.
Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical realizes cross-system calling and reuse, and assembles new functions and processes in a building-block manner
The project covers various fields such as finance, personnel, operations, production, and research and development of Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical. With the help of manufacturers, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical has comprehensively sorted out its business processes and summarized them into administrative office processes, business operation processes, human resources processes, financial capital processes, audit supervision processes, information technology processes, R&D and production processes, and marketing and sales processes. , distribution process, retail process, quality management process, procurement center process, logistics center process and project management process, etc., with more than 300 subdivisions in 14 categories. Next, the project team used IBM Cloud Pak for Automation to open up the business functions in the original application system, realize cross-system call and reuse, and assemble new functions and processes in a building-block manner to form a new Yangzijiang enterprise Business integration platform.
In May 2020, the first phase of the project was officially launched. After more than 3,000 hours of operation, it has achieved great improvements in terms of work efficiency and process support business complexity. For example, in terms of the personnel onboarding process, before process automation was implemented, it would take several days for new employees to be assigned work from getting an offer, reporting in, and finally entering working status. Now, after receiving an offer, new employees can submit materials online for pre-registration. Only special physical examinations in the pharmaceutical industry need to be conducted on-site. The rest include salary confirmation, electronic contract approval, dormitory allocation, email creation, internal office system opening, etc. Through automated processing, employees can enter work status on the day they join, which greatly improves the onboarding experience.
Project experience summary
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All parties involved in the project have unified ideas and smooth communication. At the beginning of the project, Shanghai Dehui reached a strategic agreement with Yangzijiang's CIO, business department, and financial department heads: to carry out business strategic planning from top to bottom and clarify stage goals.
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Adopting the concept of reducing the impact on original IT assets, the enterprise business integration platform obtained by this method not only protects Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical's original IT assets, but also allows existing application systems to maximize their effectiveness and Ability to make all IT systems, application systems and system platforms harmoniously and seamlessly form a whole. Moreover, this implementation method is a step-by-step process, from shallow to deep, which will not have any impact or impact on the company's existing daily business and application systems, and will have a negative impact on managers and managers when companies implement major changes in the past. Work obstacles caused by business personnel are minimized, which greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm and interest of business managers and employees, and their recognition and participation in the new process is increased.
Reference: Public information
4. Conclusion
Ai Analysis believes that hyper-automation is the future development direction of process digitization. Hyperautomation refers to platform products or solutions that use automation technologies such as RPA, iPaaS, AI, low-code, BPM, and process mining to realize end-to-end process automation and rapid orchestration of new business processes, helping organizations improve efficiency, innovation capabilities, and customer experience. plan.
The road to realizing hyper-automation for an enterprise needs to go through four stages from shallow to deep: task automation, process automation, operational automation and operational autonomy. Task automation mainly solves single-point problems such as development, approval, and integration. Task automation gives "neurons" to enterprise operations. Process automation solves the enterprise's linear problem by crossing businesses/departments/systems/platforms, and process automation gives Party A a "local nerve" for its operations. Operational automation builds an assembleable workflow, allowing Party A to quickly orchestrate new services. Operational automation gives Party A a complete and flexible "nervous system" for its operations. Large models may drive hyperautomation into the fourth stage - operational autonomy. At this stage, AI is upgraded from a tool to a hyper-automated "brain" to control the "nervous system" in the operational automation stage. By then, the way companies operate will change.