Amit Mathradas is the CEO of Nintex, an AI-powered process automation and application development company.
For businesses looking to stay competitive and resilient, automation and AI are no longer just “nice to have” — they’re essential. In fact, leaders are already making necessary changes to embrace the technology. According to IDC, 80% of CIOs will leverage organizational changes to harness AI, automation and analytics, driving agile, insight-driven digital businesses by 2028. Organizations of all sizes are under pressure to do more with less, streamline operations and deliver faster, more personalized experiences. And yet, despite the urgency, many businesses still struggle to get automation right.
Most leaders know they need to automate, but getting started can feel overwhelming. Which processes should you tackle first? Which tools do you need? How do you avoid disrupting what’s already working? And perhaps most importantly, how do you build an automation strategy that can scale and evolve over time, rather than a patchwork of quick fixes?
To get to the answer, I think we must first look back at how many organizations have approached automation in recent history.
All Roads Seemed To Lead To SaaS
Over the past decade, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has become the go-to answer for organizations looking to modernize and automate. Instead of building custom solutions from scratch, companies could simply subscribe to specialized apps that promised to solve specific problems, whether it was HR onboarding, sales tracking or customer service management.
At first, this approach made sense. SaaS offered speed, simplicity and a way to “rent” domain expertise and innovation without major investments. But as time went on, the cracks began to show.
Organizations now find themselves buried under dozens of SaaS apps that don’t talk to each other, each managing a small piece of a larger process. This SaaS sprawl has led to:
• Fragmented data and workflows, forcing employees to jump between systems just to get basic tasks done.
• Skyrocketing software costs, as subscriptions add up across departments.
• Rigid processes that don’t align with how teams actually work.
Instead of simplifying work, SaaS overload has created a new kind of complexity—and made it harder to deliver seamless, efficient processes.
Process Automation And Custom Apps Could Help
To unlock the value of automation, organizations need to start understanding and optimizing their core processes and systems and building flexible solutions that fit their specific ways of working. That’s where process automation and custom apps can provide help. Unlike off-the-shelf SaaS, this approach focuses on orchestrating workflows across the entire organization, connecting people, data and systems in a way that’s tailored to your needs.
Process automation allows you to streamline and standardize repetitive tasks, freeing up employees for higher-value work and improving how work gets done. And building custom apps lets you build user-friendly interfaces and tools that fit seamlessly into your teams’ daily routines without forcing them to adapt to someone else’s software logic.
In short, automation isn’t about adding more tools—it’s about creating connected, intelligent processes that improve workflow.
Four Steps To Reset Your Automation Strategy
So, how can organizations move from a tangle of SaaS apps and manual processes to a smarter, process-first automation strategy? Here are four steps to get started:
1. Identify high-impact, high-friction processes.
Focus on the areas where broken processes are causing the most pain—for employees, customers or both. These are often cross-functional processes like onboarding (for employees or customers), procurement or case management. Fixing these areas first delivers quick wins and visible impact, which builds momentum for broader automation efforts.
2. Map and understand the full workflow before automating.
Don’t jump straight to technology. Start by mapping out the process as it works today, including all the steps, handoffs and pain points. Engage the people who actually do the work to get a complete picture. This helps ensure that automation solves the real problem, not just digitizes a broken process.
3. Choose a flexible automation platform that works for you—not just another app.
Look for a solution that can handle process management, workflow automation, system integrations and custom app development. This allows you to tackle a wide range of processes and adapt as your needs change, without cobbling together multiple tools.
4. Empower business users to drive automation with IT’s support.
The people closest to the work often have the best ideas for how to improve it. Give them the tools and support to automate what they know best—while keeping IT involved to ensure security, compliance and scalability. This partnership model leads to faster, more effective automation and more engaged teams without the added risks of shadow IT.
Key Considerations For Business Leaders
1. Automating broken or poorly understood processes.
Teams often rush to implement technology without fully understanding how a process works, leading to automation that simply reinforces inefficiencies.
To address this:
• Prioritize process discovery and mapping with input from frontline users.
• Use visual tools or workshops to document handoffs, delays and dependencies.
• Consider process mining or task capture tools to supplement interviews with data-driven insights.
2. Tool overload.
Organizations may adopt new automation apps that add to—rather than solve—SaaS sprawl, creating silos and inconsistent experiences. Leaders can address this by evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of platforms not just by features, but by how much it reduces your overall tool footprint.
3. Lack of business and IT team collaboration.
Business users may go rogue with automation (shadow IT), or IT may block innovation due to risk concerns that can stall momentum.
Address this by:
• Establishing a governance model where business units can build solutions within IT-approved guardrails.
• Providing low-code/no-code tools with role-based access controls to empower non-technical users.
Conclusion
AI and automation are critical to modern business success, but the way organizations approach them makes all the difference. Rather than layering new tools on top of old problems, focusing on process-first automation and consolidating technology with purpose-built apps gives you the flexibility and control to solve problems at their root.
It’s time to move beyond SaaS sprawl and start building an automation strategy that works for you—one that streamlines work, drives growth and positions your organization for the future.
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