(BPT) - When's the last time you took a close look at your company's frontline workflows? If you review your processes, chances are you'll find that what was once routine is too complex for manual processes to keep up. With work quickly changing across virtually all industries, improving workflows cannot wait.

"The call to modernize operations has never been more urgent," said Joe White, chief product and solutions officer, Zebra Technologies, a global leader in digitizing and automating frontline workflows. "That's why leading organizations are reimagining their workflows and building intelligent operations which integrate advanced technologies like AI, automation and data with human expertise to optimize business processes."

The value of intelligent operations by the numbers

The importance of workflows cannot be overstated. Workflows are where speed, visibility and precision drive growth. By investing in the latest technologies to automate workflows, businesses can elevate frontline productivity and improve the customer experience.

This isn't just talk. According to a research study titled, "Impact of Intelligent Operations" from Zebra Technologies and Oxford Economics, the digitization of workflows drives a 20% productivity increase to boost frontline performance.

The gains of intelligent operations are hard to ignore. For example, retailers reported a 21% improvement in customer satisfaction, manufacturers cited a 19% increase in employee productivity, and transportation and logistics (T&L) leaders reported a 21% increase in productivity with better workflows.

The retailers, manufacturers and T&L firms that participated in the study reported that the integration of AI, automation and data significantly increased revenue and profitability. The study indicates:

• Retailers achieved up to 1.8-percentage-point increases in revenue growth and profitability through improvements in their prioritized workflow of inventory management.
• Manufacturers optimizing their top workflow of quality control and assurance saw revenue growth uplift by 2.4 percentage points and profitability improvements of 1.4 percentage points.
• T&L firms optimizing key delivery and inventory workflows experienced a revenue growth increase of up to 3.4 percentage points with a similar increase in profitability.

Based on this research, Oxford Economics estimates that if the top 20 organizations from the Forbes Global 2000 list in each of these industries - retail, manufacturing and T&L - achieved meaningful improvements in their frontline workflows, each company could potentially earn an average of $3 billion in higher revenue and an average of $120 million in added profit.

A dedication to better business every day

Modernizing your workflows may seem daunting, but there are tools that can make the transformation easier. As an industry leader, Zebra Technologies is a strategic, trusted advisor to organizations of all sizes, helping them continuously drive better processes and adapt to changing conditions.

From the warehouse floor, production line, and retail aisle to the patient bedside, Zebra provides solutions that help organizations navigate persistent challenges such as labor shortages and shifting consumer expectations.

Zebra's new brand platform, "Better Every Day," reinforces the company's commitment to deliver intelligent, connected solutions and services that continuously enhance frontline performance, agility and responsiveness across critical workflows.

Through deep industry expertise and a global ecosystem of partners, Zebra harnesses the power of these advanced technologies in a portfolio of products and solutions that enable organizations to:

• Capture and act on real-time data to inform faster, smarter decisions.
• Streamline repetitive tasks, reduce manual errors and improve consistency.
• Redesign workflows for simplicity, speed and increased productivity.
• Leverage AI for the frontline to continuously drive innovation at the point of work.

Transform workflows to boost your business at every level

Don't get left behind. By digitizing and automating your workflows, your organization can accelerate processes as well as improve productivity and customer experience, sowing the seeds for significant payoffs.

"Intelligent operations simplify complexity by augmenting the frontline with advanced technologies," said White. "This enables organizations to adapt to rapid change and thrive in competitive markets."

To learn more about how your business can benefit from connected frontline, asset visibility and automation solutions that support modern workflows, visit this landing page.