Effective automation means aligning results with business objectives as reported by a CIO or CFO. In practice, however, this always impacts the processes on the shop floor, and it’s the users of the technology who ultimately make the difference. So how do you ensure that automating all those processes across an organization aligns with a single strategy? This was the central question at Hyper ’25, an event recently organized by Incentro.
“It turned out exactly as we intended. The vast majority of attendees were practically involved in their organization’s processes,” said Floris Weegink, Field CTO at Incentro. He looks back positively on Hyper ’25, the first event in the Netherlands dedicated entirely to BOAT—Business Orchestration with Automation Technologies. “We aimed for high-quality speakers who speak directly to the people making a difference daily, instead of the usual C-level attendees at such events.”
He continued: “We specifically wanted to involve people from the operational side, because hyperautomation is about process automation. And who better to engage than those who actually perform the processes? Of course, the outcome of hyperautomation is optimization for the CFO and CIO, but it all depends on the people executing it.”
Orchestration
In practice, hyperautomation usually starts at the departmental level. “I see a promising bottom-up approach, which eventually needs buy-in from higher management. That’s where the CFO comes in, looking to reduce costs. They might notice a proliferation of automation tools and question whether the same work is being duplicated. Then the CIO gets involved and confirms the overlap.”
This creates a tension. “Different departments each try to work optimally in their own way,” said Weegink. What’s often missing is a horizontal alignment to achieve true end-to-end orchestration. Someone needs to take ultimate responsibility for that. “A department might achieve its own goals, but that doesn’t necessarily result in the best outcome for the organization as a whole.”
Friction
In his experience, hyperautomation does not usually trickle down from the top. “I believe the strength lies with the employees themselves—they know the details and where automation can be applied. You can’t just add some automation and AI and expect it to work. That’s not how it goes. At Hyper ’25, we wanted to highlight this friction, and we succeeded.”
His understanding of the shop floor’s role comes from firsthand experience. As Field CTO, he regularly visits companies to see how things work in practice. “What I often see as an outsider is that people become blind to certain inefficiencies over time.”
Data
One example he gave involved truck drivers who have to register three times at a distribution center and repeat actions and data input that is already known. “You only uncover these issues when you look across departmental boundaries and walk a day in the users’ shoes.”
“Another example was a service app we were building for field technicians. But when we joined them in the field, we saw they were working at heights in full sun, wearing fire-resistant gloves—making it nearly impossible to read or operate the app. Nobody considered that at the start of the project, but it became obvious on-site.”
Investment
“The problem is that people tend to throw technology at every problem like it’s a magic solution. That’s exactly why I appreciate the BOAT concept—business orchestration combined with technology. It’s about looking at the actual business and what people do, instead of buying technology from a major vendor just to check it off in the annual report. I don’t believe in that.”
“This is the first time in my 20-year career that an IT trend is starting from the business side,” Weegink said, referring to earlier trends like big data, cloud, or blockchain—technically driven innovations usually initiated by IT departments.
“Not everything should be an app just because someone thinks it can be. Sometimes it turns out to be impractical. At Hyper ’25, we wanted to cut through that fog. Work bottom-up, start small. Choose something with high value so that people immediately see the results. Technically, it’s often not that complex, but it builds confidence. That’s when people start asking what more is possible.”
AI
“That was one of the key messages I wanted to convey at the event: Be critical of vendors and don’t blindly accept everything about AI and agents. If you purchase blindly, it won’t be useful in the end. On the other hand, I often hear upper management saying they ‘must do something with AI.’ That kind of ‘AI-washing’ is not a good idea.”
According to Weegink, that message landed well. “Several people told me afterward they wished they’d brought their CIO to hear it. That shows we bridged a gap—not just by involving IT professionals, but also operational staff.”
“They can make the case to leadership by placing automation in a broader perspective. In other words, not just by presenting a profitable business case on its own, but also by showing the broader potential for the organization. Normally, operational staff only see their own processes, while higher-level management sees the big picture but lacks the details. A big part of our evangelism is mapping those grassroots initiatives and creating an automation portfolio from them. We then find the right tools to support it.”
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