How Celonis and the Orchestration Engine can automate front office processes

In today's dynamic business world, companies are faced with the challenge of not only optimizing their back-office processes, but also establishing seamless connections to the front office. Following the successful implementation of Celonis in order management and inventory management, new opportunities are opening up to leverage the process data and insights gained to automate marketing, sales, e-commerce, and service processes. The Celonis Orchestration Engine plays a key role in this by using trigger events from the back office (process intelligence) to intelligently control and automate front office processes.

The bridge between back office and front office

The traditional separation between back office and front office often leads to information silos and inefficient processes. While back-office systems such as ERP and inventory management contain valuable data about orders, stock levels, and delivery times, front-office departments often lack real-time insights into precisely this information to initiate intelligent actions. Celonis closes this gap by providing a cross-system, holistic view of business processes and converting these insights directly into automated actions through the Orchestration Engine.

The role of the Orchestration Engine

The Celonis Orchestration Engine is a powerful technology that enables processes to be orchestrated and automated based on real-time data from the Celonis platform. It works by:

• Recognizing and responding to trigger events from the back office

• Coordinating process steps across different systems

• Orchestrating actions for people, systems, and AI agents to optimize business results

The Orchestration Engine continuously monitors key business metrics by consolidating data from various sources (warehouses, e-commerce platforms, ERPs, order management systems) and creating a holistic view of business performance.

Automation scenarios for front office processes

Marketing automation

By integrating Celonis into marketing systems (e.g., Marketing Cloud, Hubspot, or Google Marketing Platform), fully data-driven campaigns can be developed that are based on real customer behavior and current inventory situations. For example, advertising measures are automatically adjusted to stock levels: products with excess inventory are given greater prominence, while items with low stock levels or long delivery times are advertised less. At the same time, customers receive personalized reminders for reorders that take into account their individual consumption patterns and current delivery times. In addition, products for which suppliers provide rebates or marketing budgets can be automatically highlighted in promotions, opening up additional sales and margin potential.

Sales automation

Real-time process information enables sales teams to prioritize their activities and improve the customer experience in the long term. Leads are automatically evaluated based on inventory availability, estimated delivery times, and historical process data, allowing the team to focus on the most promising opportunities. At the same time, sales receives proactive notifications of potential delivery delays before a customer places an order, enabling them to make realistic delivery commitments right from the start. In addition, delivery, credit, and invoice blockages are automatically detected and quickly resolved, so orders move through faster and customers receive their goods without unnecessary delays.

E-commerce automation

In e-commerce, the Orchestration Engine enables the customer experience to be optimized in real time. It dynamically adjusts the delivery times displayed on the Commerce Platform Shop by continuously accessing current process data and the actual performance of suppliers. At the same time, it generates product recommendations that not only take individual customer behavior into account, but also current inventory availability and the efficiency of underlying processes. By calculating delivery times in a proactive and realistic manner, the engine also significantly reduces the risk of cancellations – customers receive reliable commitments, while suppliers benefit from lower cancellation rates.

Service automation

In customer service, proactive notifications and automated workflows also open up new opportunities to efficiently improve service quality. The solution detects deviations early on and automatically informs customers of potential problems before they actually occur. At the same time, the return process is largely automated as a self-service return, which significantly reduces both processing time and costs. In addition, intelligent ticket assignment ensures that incoming service requests are routed in real time to the appropriate team or the most competent specialist, based on current process data and proven solution patterns from the past. The result: faster response times, more satisfied customers, and customer service that can focus on value-adding activities.

Use of AI in the context of process orchestration

The Celonis Orchestration Engine combines process intelligence with generative AI to create self-driving workflows. Using Action Flows, an embedded ChatGPT step retrieves relevant process and ticket data, formulates a tailored support response in seconds, and transfers it directly to the CRM—without any manual intermediate steps. Similarly, a Perplexity agent can act as a research node, pulling market and supplier information from external sources, correlating it with the Process Intelligence Graph, and automatically providing the purchasing department with a fact-based recommendation, including a risk assessment. Both scenarios demonstrate how AI services are securely authenticated by the AgentC Suite, provided with context via the Process Intelligence API, and deployed as standardized steps in low-code workflows. The result is shorter throughput times, fewer errors, and data-driven decision quality that can be scaled as needed without additional developer resources.

Implementation approach

To successfully introduce automation, a clearly structured approach is recommended: First, all relevant trigger events in the back office must be defined – i.e., those events that are to trigger actions in the front office. Based on this, detailed process flows are then designed using the Process Orchestration Designer, which respond precisely to the identified triggers. The next step is to connect all affected front office systems to the Celonis platform so that data and actions interact seamlessly. The automations are then rolled out step by step, starting with simple but effective use cases to achieve quick wins and gain experience. Finally, continuous monitoring and optimization are essential—performance data shows where adjustments are needed to permanently increase the efficiency and impact of the automations.

Summary

The Celonis Orchestration Engine links back-office data with front-office systems, taking marketing, sales, e-commerce, and service to a new level. Campaigns, leads, and product recommendations are automatically aligned with inventory levels, delivery times, and real customer behavior; potential delays or blockages are identified and resolved early on. In the online store, delivery times are adjusted live, recommendations take inventory into account, and self-service returns are almost completely automated. At the same time, customer service receives proactive alerts and immediately assigns tickets to the right teams thanks to process insights – all orchestrated in real time.

To implement this, triggers are first defined in order and inventory management, then processes are modeled in the Process Orchestration Designer, relevant systems are connected, and the automations are rolled out step by step. Continuous monitoring refines the workflows on an ongoing basis.

The result: lower acquisition and labor costs, faster turnaround times, optimal inventory utilization, and a consistent, proactive customer experience—a clear competitive advantage in a connected business world.