Presented by Jakob Freund, CEO at Camunda The world is going digital. Within the next few years, business processes will be automated to an extent that we can barely imagine today. Almost any disruption of traditional industries with new business models--sometimes executed by existing organizations that modernize their infrastructure (often referred to as “digital transformation”), sometimes executed by new startups in industries such as fintech--requires a high degree of complex business process automation. To this end, many new technologies are added to the mix, including up-and-coming trends such as RPA or microservices orchestration. Workflow automation sits at the very center of this technology puzzle and is an indispensable cornerstone for the vast majority of business process automation endeavours. In my keynote, I will explain why workflow automation technology can make or break your digital business, how this technology is evolving, and how it fits with other pieces of the puzzle.

1. The (Re-)Emergence of Workflow Automation
Jakob Freund - CamundaCon 2018

2. Commerzbank to be replaced by Wirecard in DAX 30
2
Mr Zielke also
argued that the
ascent of Wirecard
shows that
Commerzbank’s own
strategy is the right
one: “This
development . . .
spurs us on to push
ahead with the
transformation into
a digital enterprise.”

3. Lidl cancels SAP introduction, focus on homegrown tech instead
3

4. Volkswagen consider acquiring software companies
4
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/volkswagen-chef-herbert-diess-erwaegt-zukaeufe-von-software-firmen-a-1224408.html
Software in cars plays a decisive role.
“But if we are being honest, this is not
the domain of German car
manufacturers, big techs like Amazon and
Google are much better at this. However,
if we want to survive, we must achieve
this digital transformation.”

6. Microsoft bought GitHub for $7.5 billion
6
https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/
Today, every company is becoming a
software company and developers are at the
center of digital transformation; they drive
business processes and functions across
organizations from customer service and HR
to marketing and IT. And the choices these
developers make will increasingly determine
value creation and growth across every
industry.

7. Outline
7
• We’re all turning into technology companies.

8. The Chief Digital Officer (CDO)
8
A chief digital officer (CDO) or a chief digital
information officer (CDIO) is an individual who
helps a company, a government organization or a
city drive growth by converting traditional
"analog" businesses to digital ones using the
potential of modern online technologies and data
(i.e., digital transformation).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_digital_officer

9. If you ask senior executives in the insurance
industry - who are currently driving digital
transformation projects - about their main
objective, the usual answer is: “Getting an
insurance needs to be as simple as buying a
product on Amazon.com”
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/digitalisierung-versichertvon-amazon-1.3747260

10. … as confirmed by Capgemini
10

11. ING Bank: Going “real-time”
11
Example: Customers can immediately
activate “international payments” when
travelling (self-service via web).

12. From Batch to Real-time Processing
12
=> As a customer, I need to wait for the next day.
=> As a customer, I get what I want right away.

13. Outline
13
• We’re all turning into technology companies.
• Digital Transformation relies on Business Process Automation (BPA).

14. A quote from the “World Insurance Report”
14
“German insurance companies are leading the
pack when it comes to automation: When asked
about Robotic Process Automation, Artificial
Intelligence, Machine Learning or Blockchain, the
number of German insurance companies claiming
that they are piloting or already implementing
those technologies is clearly above average.”

15. The Problem
15

16. Google “Robotic Process Automation”
16

17. Gartner Hype Cycle vs. Technology Adoption Cycle
17
Source: https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle
Source: https://smithhousedesign.com/models-predicting-future-geoffrey-moores-crossing-chasm/

18. Status Quo: The “Terrible Legacy Monolith” (TLM)
18

19. TLM Feature Highlights
19
★ Clumsy user interface
★ No proper API
★ Just one big piece of code
★ New features released once per year
★ Supports parts of our core processes
★ No actual transparency re those processes

20. Process Mining can reveal process logic
20
Terrible Legacy
Monolith
Source: https://www.celonis.com/product/

21. RPA can help integrating the TLM
21
Terrible Legacy Monolith
User Interface
RPA Product

22. Some RPA flow example
22
Terrible Legacy Monolith
User Interface
RPA Product
Source: https://www.uipath.com/platform

23. The “P” in RPA might be a “T”
23
Source: https://www.rpaandaisummit.com/agenda/day-2

24. End-to-End-Process?
24

25. Orchestrating RPA Bots as part of End-To-End-Processes
25
RPA Product
Workflow Engine
Terrible Legacy
Monolith

26. Google Trend Curve for RPA
26

27. In the long run, we must get rid of the Terrible Legacy Monolith!
27

28. RPA vs. Microservices
28

29. The Crux about Thinking in Silos
29
F I R !

30. Martin Fowler on Event Notification
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Event notification is nice because it implies a low level of
coupling, and is pretty simple to set up. It can become
problematic, however, if there really is a logical flow that
runs over various event notifications. The problem is
that it can be hard to see such a flow as it's not explicit
in any program text. Often the only way to figure out
this flow is from monitoring a live system. This can make
it hard to debug and modify such a flow. The danger is
that it's very easy to make nicely decoupled systems
with event notification, without realizing that you're
losing sight of that larger-scale flow, and thus set
yourself up for trouble in future years. The pattern is still
very useful, but you have to be careful of the trap.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/201701-event-driven.html

31. Workflow Engine
Workflow Engine can participate in Event Stream
31
Event Bus
Event Type: “My Event”
Payload: abc = “xyz”
Event Correlation:
abc = “xyz” => Workflow Instance 123
subscribe
Event Type: “Other Event”
Payload: abc = “xyz”
notify
Publish

32. Exemplary, simplified Roadmap to Digital Transformation
32
Technology 2018 2019
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
RPA Setup Phase out
Process Mining Setup Phase out
Microservices Replace TLM Functionality with Microservices based Infrastructure
Workflow
Automation
(Camunda)
Setup RPA Bots Orchestration Phase out
Setup Process Events Monitoring
Setup Microservices Orchestration

34. Outline
34
• We’re all turning into technology companies.
• Digital Transformation relies on Business Process Automation (BPA).
• BPA is a technology puzzle that suits your business.

35. 35
“The 21st century will be dominated
by algorithms.
‘Algorithm’ is arguably the single
most important concept in our
world.”
Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus, 2016

36. Business Processes
are the
Algorithms
of an Organization.

37. BPMN - a language for describing business processes as algorithms
37
If
An event occurs
A task is completed
Data have certain values
Then
Wait for an event
Announce an event
Trigger a task

38. Workflow Automation means running those algorithms
38
Workflow Engine Running
Workflow

39. Model > Execute > Improve
39

40. Why BPMN is successful
40
EasytoUnderstand
ExecutableCode
Established ISO-Standard

41. A flexible Workflow Tech can help in any setup
41
Workflow Engine
Technical Operations
Tool
Business Optimization
Tool
Service Legacy App
Workflow Design
Tool
µs µs µs
pub/sub pub/sub pub/sub Orchestrate via
pub/sub
Event Bus
Orchestrate via Req/Res Orchestrate via RPA
Orchestrate via
Task Handler

42. Outline
42
• We’re all turning into technology companies.
• Digital Transformation relies on Business Process Automation (BPA).
• BPA is a technology puzzle that suits your business.
• Workflow automation is always one piece of that puzzle.

43. “Workflow Automation” is not exactly a hype topic
43

44. “Workflow Automation” vs. “Camunda”
44

45. Our Mission:
Create the best possible technology stack
for workflow automation.

46. Our Vision:
Any significant business process
automation project in any organization is
using Camunda technology.

47. Our Impact:
Provide the Backbone for
Digital Transformation.