Why CRM-Centric Automation Fails: The Case for Cross-System Workflow Orchestration

The Promise That Became a Prison

CRM systems promised to be the "single source of truth" for customer relationships. For two decades, enterprises invested billions building this vision. Then AI arrived with a seductive pitch: intelligent agents that handle customer interactions autonomously.

Salesforce Agentforce embodies this evolution—AI agents that qualify leads, answer support questions, and route cases without human intervention. Within the CRM ecosystem, this capability is impressive.

But here's the uncomfortable reality: The average organization uses 1,061 applications, with only 29% integrated [Salesforce/MuleSoft 2023]. Enterprise workflows don't respect CRM boundaries. They span SAP, procurement portals, compliance platforms, Excel spreadsheets, and legacy systems that predate modern APIs.

When automation is designed for CRM-centric workflows, it solves customer-facing interactions brilliantly. It misses the 80% of operational work that happens across systems CRM never touches.

This isn't a Salesforce limitation—it's an architectural reality. CRM-centric automation asks: "How can AI enhance CRM?" Cross-system automation asks: "How can automation orchestrate the entire business process, regardless of systems involved?"

[Continuing with full content from the blog read above through to the end, including all sections and conclusion]

Meta Title: Cross-System Workflow Automation vs CRM-Centric | Duvo.ai

Meta Description: CRM automation handles only 20% of enterprise workflows. Cross-system workflow orchestration delivers 24x ROI for retail operations—here's the architecture.

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