When implementing a new technology, companies need to not only focus on the technical aspect but also the people side. How are employees going to react to the change? Do they know why the change is happening? Cavan Arrowsmith, UK Managing Director, Turnkey Consulting, explains why some Digital Transformations fail because there is too much of a focus on technology.
Picture the scene. An organisation changes its office entry process from a swipe card to an app installed on the smartphone of every employee. The objective is to increase security and make it easier and more efficient to manage who can come in and out of the building.
However, unless all employees that need access to the premises know from day one both the new process and fully understand why it has been put in place, the system will fail before it has started. The net outcome? The new practice is far less effective than the manual procedure that it replaced because it results in people getting locked out of their work premises and therefore unable to do their jobs.
Transposing the issue to an enterprise operations context, it continues to throw up problems. Suppose a business introduces an organisation-wide collaboration platform to streamline communications and organise tasks and workspaces with the aim of making it easy for everyone to work as effectively as possible. Fulfilling this objective requires everyone to know how to use the new tool – but also to be committed to the reasons for it being introduced. Without this engagement, it is likely that people will continue to use their old channels, risking messages being missed or duplicated.
An evolving business environment
There are many, many scenarios such as the two above, in which tech-based projects that are not correctly executed are neither effective nor efficient, meaning they have the potential to significantly undermine the integrity of business operations.
At their core, these issues have their roots in technology being viewed as technology. That might not sound a problem, but it misses the crucial point that this technology is used by people – and those people need to feel invested in deploying the new systems if they are to be truly valuable and meet the goals of the project.
It is a situation that is increasingly raising its head as paper-based functions die out and organisations look to automation to adapt to the evolving working environment and improve operational efficiencies. Or to phrase it in popular parlance, business transformation.
Today’s tools are fundamentally changing business processes. But for their implementation to deliver long-term value and return on investment, enterprises need to consider the overall objectives of the project and how the changes that it introduces will impact them overall.
Technology is vital – but not the whole story
Taking a 360-degree view helps to illustrate why introducing tech-driven change can be a challenge. Technology projects are driven by the IT team, who may also have initiated the venture in the first place, and whose day-to-day way of working is – understandably – based on resolving a problem with a technical solution.
There’s no question that technology underpins most of today’s organisational operations. However, it cannot operate in isolation – a Boston Consulting Group assessment of Digital Transformation projects found that the proportion of companies reporting success was five times greater among those that focused on culture than those that neglected it.
In short, success requires a business change strategy that transcends the technical implementation to encompass the whole enterprise.
The importance of (the right) partnerships
Most major technology implementations involve at least one third-party tech provider, the selection of which is critical. As with any implementation, the right technical skills are obviously essential. But more than that, any organisation looking to change the way its business operates needs partners with the intent and ability to fulfil a strategic role, one in which they understand why this is important and have a team able to work with the enterprise on its complete business transformation journey.
A strategic partner helps to identify and address the specific needs and challenges of the organisation in question. But in recognising that the IT project is part of a wider vision that fuels the organisation’s growth strategy, it goes much deeper because every decision is made in the context of the overall business objectives.
Employee engagement for business success
As outlined above, employee buy-in is an essential component to the success of any business transformation project. A key role of a strategic partner therefore is to build in initiatives that engage the people in the organisation with the changes taking place.
For example, with the same endpoint and following similar trajectories, separate technology and business change workstreams can look at different slices of the enterprise; the former will engage the IT team to embed the technology into operations, while the latter addresses the process change that needs to occur within the enterprise for the new systems to be effective and deliver on the business goals.
Putting the implementation in the context of the bigger, external picture is vital for the business workstream, along with explanations of why the new technology is necessary – to make back office or compliance processes more efficient for example. Transparency should be a core element so that different groups across the organisation know exactly how and why they will be impacted and, ideally, that an element of automation will enhance their day-to-day activities.
A robust internal communications strategy will ensure the right messages are presented at a time when they will have the most impact in order to bring people on the transformation journey from day one, while senior leaders sponsoring the project can help to reduce challenges to its adoption organisation wide.
People power
Too often, poor implementation results in technology being seen as a ‘blocker’ within the organisation – a barrier that adds a layer of complexity to employees’ tasks, as well as frustration – without delivering any perceivable benefit.
In contrast, good business transformation empowers everyone to use technology tools effectively to do their job better. And in streamlining day-to-day processes and transforming mindsets, the enterprise is properly placed to do things differently and secure its future in a rapidly shifting world.
A business change project is only partly about technology; ultimately it will live or die on whether employees have the know-how to make it work – and are invested in doing so.