COVID-19 makes automation more important than ever for enterprise integration

As a veteran supply chain technology expert and leader of a software company focused on enterprise (B2B) cloud integration, I have observed several key trends shaping the fate of e-commerce and digital transformation as organizations transform the business Impact of progression overcome pandemic. These include the need for more IoT deployments and the rise of collaboration platforms to cope with increasingly remote and hybrid work environments. We also see end-to-end visibility of the enterprise across the entire business ecosystem becoming a top C-suite priority.

These factors will help define the level of success companies can expect in converting data into value and impact. Ecosystem integration, an advanced approach to enterprise-wide B2B/EDI integration that creates seamless end-to-end integrations that connect partners, applications, systems and marketplaces, enables companies to leverage collaborative platforms and the end-to-end -Increase visibility. It’s a multifaceted approach with different technologies that combine to create more than the sum of their parts. Let’s get into that for this article automation as the common underlying capability that will best serve as an increasingly critical linchpin for successful adoption of ecosystem integration in the coming months and years.

Pandemic fuels rush to introduce automation

As we continue to adapt to the new normal of pandemic-related pressures on the supply chain and business processes at large, automation and no-code will become increasingly important as the foundation for digital transformation. That’s because COVID-19 has shown the fragility of manual processes. Remember how companies struggled under the pressure of workforce lockdowns and the virus hampered efforts to become more agile in supply chain and other operations disrupted by the pandemic.

The pandemic isn’t over yet, but it’s advanced enough to see how companies like Amazon and others that have invested in automation have been able to grow both sales and profitability despite the shutdowns. These success stories are catching on, and that is driving consensus and C-suite support at more companies to automate core business processes. Another accelerated adoption is the increasing availability of tools and techniques that lower the barriers to entry for organizations that may have thought automation solutions were out of reach.

Automation tools and the low-code technologies they support lead to an expanded list of use cases and applications. Low-code automation simplifies the complexities of traditional backend programming with more user-friendly interfaces and apps. This can shorten development cycles and allow companies to automate more of the core processes that have the greatest impact on operations and revenue.

Helping businesses where they need it most

Automation can help companies in the process areas hardest hit by the pandemic. Consider the realm of transportation, a key part of the supply chain equation at a time when supply chain logistics have been battered by COVID-19.

Developer Experience (DX) teams can automate order processing and customs documentation with new EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) capabilities, complete with rules engines to validate load offers, invoices and shipment status reports. Trucking providers can also improve their API (Application Programming Interface) integration to achieve more accurate load tender processing and eliminate errors between freight customers’ different Transportation Management Systems (TMS). With the right automation, these efficiencies can persist even at the scale of large fleets.

Transportation logistics may be near the epicenter of a pandemic’s impact, but that impact stretches far and wide across the spectrum of business operations. Because of this, the opportunities and benefits of automation extend across the broader spectrum of business process automation.

For example, companies that want to excel in e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business can use automation to gain visibility and control over revenue-critical business processes like order-to-cash and procure-to-pay . This can be done by automating end-to-end processes that directly streamline the integration of internal applications with the external ecosystem of business partners, e-commerce sites, marketplaces, and even consumers.

Automation: A top digital transformation priority in 2022

Automation enables more efficient, scalable, and flexible control over a variety of integration use cases that deliver more valuable insights and smoother operations. With that comes greater visibility and more resilient and secure innovation as companies evolve their operations, even in the face of pandemic disruptions and other business headwinds. For this reason, as we head into 2022, automation and no-code are cementing their place as key components of any digital transformation.

Mahesh Rajasekharan is CEO of Cleo.