I’m a CFO. Here’s how to sell me on digital transformation.

While no one knows exactly what work will look like after the pandemic, I foresee a hybrid future where most companies will need to support customers and engage employees through both centralized and virtual work. Companies that are further along in their digital transformation will be better equipped to manage these evolving experiences.

Digital workflows are the core of any digital transformation model. Let’s be honest, though. Digital transformation isn’t easy, nor is it free. Companies worldwide will spend nearly $7.4 trillion on digital transformation programs between 2020 and 2023, according to IDC. If you’re a CIO, how can you have confidence in your digital strategy, and how can you advocate for the necessary budget?

An important component of digital transformation is the ability to apply machine intelligence to make work, work better. CFOs are more likely to fund digital solutions that leverage AI and machine learning because they power more intelligent and forward-looking decisions, which leads to faster and easier solutions. And yes, save money along the way.

These advanced technologies, when integrated into core platforms, accelerate the effectiveness of your digital workflows. For example, our internal IT support teams use our Virtual Agent chatbot to enable self-service for common tasks like password resets and knowledge base searches. We’ve saved a total of 8,575 hours with Virtual Agent. Employees experience an 83% success rate in obtaining answers.

Our Technical Operations team uses ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence to find similarities across open incidents or cases. The system proactively creates incidents 41% of the time by analyzing the data that’s been collected. As a result, we’ve reduced issues reported by employees by 10%.

Companies were shifting to mobile platforms before the pandemic, because employees and customers were increasingly demanding work experiences that match the ease and simplicity of their favorite consumer apps. In the COVID-19 era, companies especially need mobile service delivery because fewer employees are in physical workplaces. A distributed workforce can still be a productive workforce though, if they have consumer-grade tools to help them get their work done anywhere, anytime.

Mobile in particular offers critical functionality as economies reopen and employers consider a return to physical workplaces. Companies will need to put processes in place that ensure workplace readiness and employee health and safety. Digital workflows can simplify and automate these tasks – which include everything from enforcing physical distancing to contact tracing, office cleaning, and assigning resources like desks, conference rooms, and PPE. Mobile apps like ServiceNow’s Safe Workplace Suite, which nearly 400 of our customers have implemented worldwide, can be a physically distanced way to gauge employees’ readiness to return to the workplace and address any safety concerns.

I tease Chris that he channels his “inner CFO” when he talks about the difference between “interesting” and “compelling” business conversations. CFOs don’t really want to hear about how upgrading some legacy IT tool will make your team marginally more efficient. We care much more about tangible business outcomes, strong ROI, and fast time to value.

How are you improving productivity? Will there be return we can reallocate? Can we count on these benefits long-term (at least five years ahead)? At ServiceNow we’ve achieved $40 million in IT productivity gains through automation. We’ve shifted 13% of our Opex from keep-the-lights-on to growth initiatives. And we’ve seen a 7% improvement in IT cost as a percentage of revenue.

That’s a compelling conversation right there. So next time you’re in a budget meeting with your CFO, figure out how to focus the dialogue on success outcomes. At the end of the day, that’s how your digital transformation project will get funded. More importantly, it’s how you’ll create value for the business.