One reason why digital transformations fail

You decide to take the leap and start an information technology project at your company. A group of consultants come in to help you improve your existing processes and begin the change management phase that will lead you to success. The strategy is defined, and you begin the implementation phase. Then something happens…
Your employees do not seem to find the system as useful as you believed. You start noticing that there is some resistance to change and you may start doubting the consultants. After all, many of your employees have been with you for a long time.
Consultants bill in hourly rates most of the time, and the ensuing delays might make you believe that they are extending the assignment on purpose. This resistance to change is a very common situation that creates doubt in the benefits of an Information Technology project.
Last year, we had one client that was kind enough to share their feedback with us. They had been in operation for over 20 years and they did not think software was going to save them. Yet, they were not profitable.
Is this a correct assessment of the situation at your company?
Let’s consider another point of view. Technology makes things easier and more transparent for management. The ability to organize all areas of a company in a single platform gives you access to knowledge.
If you never had systems before, then this data will give you visibility into True Productivity, a measure of the actual performance of your employees. If someone has been taking extra time to do something, you would be able to know exactly for how long.
It may be that a business area is not performing on time by the quoted amount that you are invoicing clients. In many cases this leads to overtime pay and high costs of operation that make certain projects unprofitable.
This is a sensitive topic as it could imply that the interests of your workforce do not always align with a digital transformation, and it is something that might be hindering the performance of your organization.
What to do?
One way to tackle this issue for a successful digital transformation is to empower your workforce with knowledge. Change can be intimidating for some, and by equipping employees with information about what to expect it will make it easier.
Some benefits are:
- Improved collaboration: Avoiding the blame-game by keeping issues separate from individuals or business areas. A system allows for enough transparency to encourage a common ground between groups. Statement: “We are working towards the same goal, here we can see that we need to work on…”
- Decrease of Re-work/Scrap: As costs decrease and overtime is reduced the company is not at risk of closing. This means continued employment for the team and potentially new incentives that can ensure that everyone continues to be rewarded.
- Less frustration on day-to-day work: One of the main benefits of a digital transformation is a happier workforce. As the numbers of issues encountered decrease, so do the stress levels of everyone involved. This in turn leads to everyone becoming more engaged in their work and a sense of camaraderie that will in turn lead to further improvements.
Another client of ours chose to proceed with a digital transformation. It was difficult in the beginning to change the way they had worked for so many years, yet by following our approach their productivity has increased significantly.
The tools that were implemented allow them to collaborate on tasks remotely and receive feedback in real-time. Documents are not getting stuck in personal emails, and with a centralized document repository available to everyone, easy access becomes the standard and everyone can work from the latest version.
There are more benefits than disadvantages in moving forward with the adoption of technology. Communicating the benefits of such a transformation will only make it easier and faster to adopt. With technology it is “sink-or-swim”: only those that evolve will survive.
For more information on the Macro Trends that changed the rules of business please contact the author of this article Luis Salazar
lsalazar at winhallmill.com
