Delays. Workarounds. Bottlenecks. Redundancies. For organizations, these ongoing inefficiencies reduce profits, hamper operations, and impact employee morale. Broken processes—from manual entry to process duplication—stall productivity and eat up valuable time and money. How well is your organization able to adapt? Can you make the changes needed to offer better service, expanded functionality, and enhanced value? The answer may depend on the extent of broken processes throughout your industry—or within your organization—and the power you have to fix them.
Survey highlights broken processes by industry
We surveyed more than 1,400 large companies across 12 countries—representing financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. We asked respondents to describe broken processes and assess their company’s willingness and ability to fix them. The results were enlightening. Here are some of the highlights.
1. Process challenges were a constant across industries
No organization or industry is immune to process challenges. Specifically, respondents felt:
- Broken processes affect productivity
- Many processes are broken or do not work effectively
- Many processes are still manual and/or paper-based
- They spend an inordinate amount of time on manual processes
- They lack the tools to automate work or are unable to do so without IT help
- They would leave their organization for another with fewer manual processes
2. Broken processes vary by industry
Though the broken processes varied by industry, the ones cited as most broken were critical to operations.
| Most broken process within the organization | Financial Services | Healthcare | Manufacturing |
| #1 | Finance & Accounting | Patient support | Inventory management |
| #2 | Customer service | Compliance | Compliance |
| #3 | Contract processes | Client onboarding, contract processes, inventory management, intake processes | New vendor setup |
3. Departments needing the most work were critical to organizational success
Within industries, the departments seen as having the most broken systems or processes were also critical to the success of the organization.
| Department with the most broken systems and processes | Financial Services | Healthcare | Manufacturing |
| #1 | Finance & Accounting | HR | Operations |
| #2 | IT | Support | HR |
| #3 | HR | IT | IT and support |
4. Commitment to fixing broken processes varied by industry, but financial services appeared most committed.
| Very or extremely committed to fixing broken processes | Financial Services | Manufacturing | Healthcare |
| 70% | 55% | 48% |
5. Belief in their organization’s ability to fix broken processes was also strongest in financial services.
| Above average ability to fix broken processes | Financial Services | Manufacturing | Healthcare |
| 71% | 59% | 51% |
#6. A variety of process efficiency technology and tools were being used to fix broken processes
| Technology and workstreams | Tools and automation software |
| · Document business process
· Process automation · AI/automation · Process optimization · Process center of excellence (COE) |
· Collaboration
· Cloud content management · Workflow automation · E-signature · CRM · Process mapping · Employee engagement · RPA · Document automation |
Taken at face value, these survey results appear encouraging. But given the prevalence of broken processes, the results may indicate that while many organizations have the tools to address process improvements, they have yet to fully implement them or commit to a pervasive culture of process excellence.
How process automation can help
Process automation helps tame the chaos caused by broken processes. In just a few days, the right low-code automation platform can transform your operations, services, and productivity—from inventory management to compliance verification. This gives your employees a chance to shine as they serve your customers more quickly, efficiently and effectively.
Nintex offers solutions that support process discovery and mapping, workflow automation, and process intelligence and optimization. These solutions can fix broken processes, increase productivity, and automate manual tasks for faster, more accurate, and more coordinated decisions.
Read our latest eBooks to learn more about what you can do to fix broken processes.
Request a live demo of the Nintex Platform today or contact us should you have any questions or if you are ready to put the Power of Process™ to work today.
