How organizations can evolve to people-centric processes and operations

With the blurring pace of the modern workplace, business leaders are learning that while optimizing processes is essential, it also isn’t enough. To achieve world-class performance, businesses must also simultaneously create people-centric operations around automated processes.  

In Nintex CEO Eric Johnson’s latest paper, Make the leap to people-centric operations, he outlines why people-centric operations are imperative to business success, and how low-code automation technology is powering people-centric processes and operations.  

IDC analyst Maureen Fleming recently developed the idea that companies must evolve their cultures from process-centric to people-first. Based on our experiences with more than 10,000 customers, we at Nintex agree completely with Maureen’s thesis and have seen the many benefits this approach can generate for a business. 

A guide to operations that center people within a process  

So, on the strength of our experiences and outcomes with 10-plus years of successful engagements with customers, we’ve created a data-driven evolution model to help business leaders build cultures that allow everyone across an organization to become part of the process-excellence revolution—called the Nintex Process Automation Maturity Model. 

The four stages for evaluation  

This model proposes a 4-step journey—initiate, ramp, accelerate, and scale— that companies can follow across multiple functions to put people at the center of new processes that are purpose-built for success in the modern world. 

Our experience has demonstrated how companies that follow the 4-step model outlined in this graphic will be able to quickly and effectively shift from a heavy focus on processes and automation to an emphasis on empowering people to be more effective and have greater impacts on the business.  

Let’s define the four stages that can be applied to different automation scenarios, characteristics, and attributes. 

1. Initiate
   This exploratory phase includes laying out the specific automation tools that are needed for a particular project. This can include low-code automation, workflow, forms, RPA, document generation, eSignatures, and process mining—but nothing is in production yet. 
2. Ramp
   Looking beyond individual projects to organizational capabilities, IT and LOB teams select key vendors and begin training a wide range of users to facilitate automation projects across several departments.  
3. Accelerate
   As momentum builds across the organization, a shared-services team from IT or a line of business—or ideally both—is formed to deliver automation centrally at a larger scale. 
4. Scale
   In this final phase, more and more people are fully involved and making significant contributions, which drives a people-first culture of process improvement. A single version of the truth arises as business users embrace process mapping, which also identifies next-wave priorities for continuous improvement; all employees are equipped with leading-edge tools; and ROI metrics are shared across the organization. 

Apply the stages to automation attributes  

Using these four stages defined above, the maturity model measures an organization’s ability for continuous improvement through various characteristics or attributes. Each of the four stages provides a measuring scale to determine where you are in your process automation maturity.  

The Nintex Process Automation Maturity Model evaluates and describes 14 unique attributes to identify an organization at a particular stage.  

Here are some examples of the attributes listed in the Nintex Process Automation Maturity Model: 

• Number of processes automated within an organization 
• Number of departments/divisions with access to process automation outcomes 
• Executive sponsorship of process automation technology 

Examine your own process maturity  

Evaluate where your organization is on its process automation maturity journey and then you can identify the steps needed to evolve into people-centric operations and processes.  

Access the Nintex Process Automation Maturity Model and read our CEO’s guidance on the maturity model in his latest paper and a recent podcast available here.  

Want to try out how your organization can evolve to people-centric processes and operations? Request a live demo of the Nintex Platform today.