Camunda Survey Shows Automation Growth Remains Flat, Despite Increased Investment

Camunda today released its annual State of Process Orchestration Report which found that, despite continued investment in process automation in the last year and 91% of respondents experiencing business growth in 2023 due to that investment, organizations are still facing challenges scaling their automation efforts.

In fact, 50% of organizational processes have been automated according to the 2024 Report, a slight decrease from last year's 52%. Similar to recent years, 90% of the surveyed IT decision-makers plan to increase their automation investments further in the next 24 months. However, the relatively flat rate in automated processes highlights the need for more than monetary investment in individual automation projects to keep up with increasingly numerous and complex processes and to achieve automation maturity.

"This year's study confirms how process orchestration directly impacts automation outcomes," said Jakob Freund, chief executive officer at Camunda. "Highly mature organizations think beyond automating single processes toward strategic, scaled, end-to-end automation. More and more teams understand the need to integrate multiple process endpoints and align all of their stakeholders to increase their degree of automation and achieve success ? via the use of process orchestration strategies and technology."

Automation challenges
When it comes to barriers to scaling automation, this year's report shows that a mix of technology, budget, and communication issues of cross-functional teams are holding back automation initiatives:

• 51% of respondents see an increase in complexity due to processes spanning multiple systems, up from 45% in 2023.
• 39% say legacy systems are difficult to connect to. 62% agree legacy tech is standing in the way of achieving their hyperautomation and automation fabric goals.
• 34% of respondents identify budget as a major roadblock to digital transformation vs. 25% in 2023.
• Over half (58%) point to a disconnect between IT decision-makers and business leaders around their processes.

Process orchestration crucial for digital transformation
Faced with these challenges, 94% of IT decision-makers and business leaders agree that process orchestration plays a role in accelerating digital transformation. Even so, more than half (52%) of IT decision-makers and business leaders say they have not reached the level of maturity to achieve end-to-end process automation. There has, however, been some major progress in the right direction: 79% say the company has moved past fixing what is broken, toward initiating strategic processes that bring tangible value to the business.

In addition:

• 25% have incorporated process orchestration into a single use case
• 47% have incorporated it across multiple use cases and several functional areas/departments
• 22% have incorporated it organization-wide.

Process control and optimization
Many teams still point to challenges that can be addressed with process orchestration. Most IT decision-makers and business leaders surveyed agree (86%) that they need better tools to manage how their processes intersect. Visibility is a key part of this management challenge; 61% agree they need a place to see processes all in one place. And, 56% agree that they have a lot of automation in place, but no good way to control it all. By advancing their process orchestration maturity, teams can gain more control over their end-to-end processes, moving closer to the ultimate goal of strategic, scaled automation adoption.

Additional Resources

• To download the report, visit camunda.com/state-of-process-orchestration
• To learn more about the report, read the blog article camunda.com/blog/2024/01/state-of-process-orchestration-report-2024
• To get more information on how to advance your automation maturity, visit camunda.com/process-orchestration/maturity
• For more information about Camunda in general, visit camunda.com

About the Report
Camunda commissioned Regina Corso Consulting to conduct a survey among 866 respondents in total. All respondents are at least somewhat involved in process automation at their company with at least 250 employees. This survey was conducted online between September 20 and October 4, 2023.

About Camunda
Camunda is the leader in process orchestration software. Our software helps orchestrate complex business processes that span people, systems, and devices. With Camunda, business users collaborate with developers to model and automate end-to-end processes using BPMN-powered flowcharts that run with the speed, scale, and resiliency required to compete in today's digital-first world. Hundreds of enterprises such as ING and Vodafone design, automate, and improve mission-critical business processes with Camunda to drive digital transformation. To learn more visit camunda.com.