Process Orchestration and What it Means for Better Business

When you streamline and simplify your technology environment, it can be quite magical — and musical — for everyone.

If you run a small or medium sized company, you may not be familiar with “process orchestration.” Larger organizations are more likely to use some form of process orchestration — cloud, container, DevOps, etc. — to process tasks. But many SMEs are not using orchestration or even automation. And that might be simply because it’s not well understood, or the benefits haven’t been made clear. 

But you know what? Process orchestration offers innumerable benefits regardless of the size of your organization.

First, what is orchestration and why should you care about it? Simply put, it does what it says on the label: It “orchestrates.” It is the automated configuration, management, and coordination of multiple systems, applications, and services. Job no. 1 is to help IT to manage the lifecycle of complex automated tasks and workflows (a series of tasks and the data processes needed between these steps), end-to-end, more easily. This includes development, testing, monitoring, and execution across teams and existing systems.

Think about an orchestra. There is a conductor who doesn’t play an instrument but ensures that each instrument required for the performance is present and is being played at the correct time in perfect sync.

Before process orchestration, there was automation (in our orchestra example above, there are robots playing the trombones and timpani instead of humans). For example, a job scheduler runs batch processes at night or at regular intervals, a separate run gathers customer data, and a collection of custom scripts moves that data between environments. All function as separate automated tasks with no connection between them. This traditional automation approach worked well when organizations had fewer systems and change happened more slowly.

Change happens at lightspeed now and businesses need to be nimble and responsive. Here’s a real-life process orchestration example. A flight-plus-hotel booking system involves four different processes, each making a call to a different service: process payment, book flight, book hotel, and notify customer. Orchestration executes, monitors, and manages all the processes, end-to-end, to complete all four requests, seamlessly.

Which brings us to the big picture, and why process orchestration can be a gamechanger for an organization. First, it extends the capacity of existing tools and connects formerly siloed technological environments. Second, when tasks and processes are managed holistically, staff are no longer required to spend time manually bridging the technology gaps. The big win: people are freed up to focus on more high-value work.

But there are many more benefits to adapting process orchestration, such as end-to-end improvements in efficiency (fewer manual operations), adaptivity (reductions in processing time), and overall performance. With that comes the potential of increased revenue and better customer experiences.

At Accelera, process orchestration is built into our studio, and sits on top of integrations. Existing tools and systems are put into place so that the end user doesn’t need technical knowledge to integrate, update, or make changes. Processes are agile and adaptable and can be changed as the organization strategy changes — and without a large investment.

Simply put, process orchestration can dramatically reshape and improve how your organization works — affordably — and have your staff and customers humming a new tune: a song of sweet satisfaction.