The Most Common Business Process Improvements From Digital Transformations

Business process improvement is one of the biggest drivers for digital transformation, but it’s also one of the vaguest. Organizations pursuing digital transformation want to automate, gain visibility, improve efficiency, deliver better customer and employee experiences, and optimize their supply chains. But what does “business process improvement” actually look like in practice, and where does the greatest business value come from? In this post, we break down the most common, and most impactful, business process improvements we see across digital transformation initiatives.

Automate Manual Processes

The most common improvement organizations expect from digital transformation is automating manual processes. It’s often the lowest-hanging fruit and the easiest to address, which is why it tops the list.

Automation applies across nearly every function: marketing, sales, supply chain management, manufacturing, warehouse and inventory management, procurement, and more. Spreadsheets used to track and manipulate data can be replaced with systems that handle transactions automatically, freeing employees to focus on exception management and strategic work.

In our experience, the organizations that see the most value from automation are those that target highly repetitive, rules-based processes first. For example, in accounts payable, machine learning can learn normal purchase order patterns and process routine payments automatically, flagging only exceptions for human review. This alone can eliminate 70-90% of manual work in that function.

Enterprise technologies, whether ERP, CRM, HCM, or supply chain systems, are increasingly embedding machine learning to push automation further. The key is identifying which processes are best suited for this and sequencing them appropriately within your transformation roadmap.

Centralized Visibility to Information

Another high-value improvement is centralized visibility. Instead of manually searching across systems, asking colleagues, or manipulating spreadsheets, organizations gain a single, real-time view of business performance.

This matters not just because it saves time, but because it enables better decision-making. When leaders can see what’s working, what’s not, and where trends are heading, without waiting for someone to pull a report, they can act faster and with greater confidence.

Tools like Microsoft Power BI and Tableau provide dashboards and business intelligence capabilities that bolt onto existing systems. ERP platforms also offer built-in reporting that consolidates data across functions. When we advise clients on this, we recommend starting with the decisions they need to make and working backward to determine what data and visibility they actually need, rather than building dashboards for their own sake.

Financial Consolidation

For larger organizations, especially those that are publicly traded or have investors requiring timely, accurate financials, improved financial consolidation is a critical outcome of digital transformation.

Many organizations dedicate significant manpower to closing their books each period. Large teams of accountants perform manual journal entries, reconcile data across systems, and compile reports under tight deadlines. Digital transformation can dramatically reduce this effort through automation, data centralization, and improved accuracy.

In our experience, organizations that address financial consolidation as part of their transformation see benefits in both efficiency and regulatory compliance. Accurate, timely financial data isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement for organizations facing audit scrutiny, investor expectations, or complex multi-entity structures.

Shared Services Model

The improvements above are what we’d call “incremental.” They are significant, but only scratch the surface. Shared services represents a more transformative shift.

Large organizations that have grown through acquisition or operate across multiple locations often have redundant functions, with multiple teams doing the same work in accounting, HR, IT, or procurement, each in their own way. A shared services model consolidates these functions into a centralized team with a common operating model and toolset.

When we advise clients on this, we recommend that the technology transformation and the organizational redesign happen in parallel. Technology alone won’t deliver shared services benefits. You need process standardization and change management alongside it. Done well, shared services reduces cost, improves consistency, and allows the organization to scale more efficiently.

Better Planning and Forecasting

With predictive analytics, AI, and better data infrastructure, organizations are finding they can plan for the future with greater accuracy and confidence.

This applies across financial planning, demand planning, sales forecasting, manufacturing scheduling, procurement, and inventory management. AI and machine learning can analyze historical patterns, identify trends, and flag risks, enabling more proactive decision-making.

Supply chain management is one area where better planning delivers outsized value. Broken supply chains, bottlenecks, and unpredictability remain persistent challenges. In our experience, organizations that invest in supply chain visibility and planning tools as part of their transformation see some of the highest returns on their technology investment.

Improved Data Management

Underpinning all of the improvements above is data management. Without accurate, well-governed data, automation fails, visibility is misleading, and AI produces unreliable outputs.

Master data management, data governance, and transactional data quality are foundational business process improvements. They may sound technical, but they directly impact every other benefit on this list. In our experience, we find that organizations often underestimate the effort required for data management and overestimate how clean their data actually is. We recommend treating data management not as a technical workstream, but as a business-critical initiative with executive sponsorship.

What Are Examples of Business Process Improvement in Practice?

To make this more concrete, here are real-world examples we frequently encounter:

• An accounts payable team reducing invoice processing time by 80% through automated three-way matching
• A manufacturer cutting monthly close from 15 days to 5 by consolidating financial data across plants into a single ERP
• A retail organization improving demand forecast accuracy by 30% using AI-driven planning tools
• A multi-location services company eliminating 40% of redundant administrative roles through a shared services center

Each of these outcomes started with a clear understanding of which processes to target and a realistic plan for how technology would enable the improvement.

How Do You Measure Business Process Improvement ROI?

Measuring the return on business process improvements requires defining clear baselines before your transformation begins. Key metrics to track include:

• Cycle time: How long does a process take end-to-end (e.g., order-to-cash, procure-to-pay)?
• Error rates: How often do manual errors occur in financial reporting, order processing, or inventory counts?
• Cost per transaction: What is the fully loaded cost of processing an invoice, onboarding an employee, or closing the books?
• Employee capacity: Are employees spending time on strategic work or manual data entry?

When we advise clients on this, we recommend establishing these baselines during the planning phase, not after go-live. Organizations that skip this step often struggle to demonstrate the value their transformation delivered.

What’s the Difference Between Business Process Improvement and Digital Transformation?

Business process improvement focuses on making specific processes faster, cheaper, or more effective. Digital transformation is broader. It encompasses technology modernization, organizational change, operating model redesign, and cultural shifts.

Business process improvement is a critical outcome of digital transformation, but it’s not the whole picture. The most successful transformations we see are those where business process improvement is embedded into the transformation strategy from day one, not treated as an afterthought once the technology is live.

If you’re looking to strategize an upcoming transformation or evaluating your ERP options, we’d love to share insights from our experience. Contact us at eric.kimberling@thirdstage-consulting.com.

Be sure to download our latest Digital Transformation Report for additional industry benchmarks and best practices.