Investing in a new innovative technology solution can be a key investment for an organisation, it can mean the difference between profit and loss, employees succeeding and failing, customers saying yes or no. It is no exaggeration to say that every industry is now in some way moving to the digital age, and those industries that lag behind thinking there is no way digital technology will change the way they work are often the industries most likely to be offset by a ‘digital disruptor’.
Although somewhat of a tired point, who would have though Taxi firms would be facing challenges from organisations like Lyft, Uber and so on? Ten years ago no one thought that taxi drivers would be brought into a mobile first, e-commerce based system, and the reason it has transitioned so seamlessly is the investments organisations have made in making the digital solution not only better for business, but better for the users.
Many organisations fail to see the distinction between these two points, but it is the difference between a true digital transformation and what can be described as a ‘white elephant’. Taken from dictionary.com “white elephant. Noun: a possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner”
Almost every organisation with an IT department knows of their white elephant, that fabled project that perhaps was poorly communicated, or forced upon users then rejected, and now strikes fear into the IT Manager’s heart at its mention. Put simply, failure to properly train, communicate and educate end users on the benefits, positives and how to use new software will simply mean that the technology will not deliver good value and be deemed a waste of money.
Put in simple terms, we would all like to fly a helicopter to work and beat the traffic on our morning commute, but if someone bought you a helicopter and told you it would make your life easier, you would probably say thanks but no thanks as you don’t know how to pilot it, and it all looks a bit complicated and unsafe. The exact same principle applies to an upgrade to Office 365, it is all very well telling a team that they can now collaborate, share and work on multiple devices – but if you fail to educate your users, they will still be emailing files to themselves, saving files on ancient shared drives and all the while complaining that there is no difference between this technology and the previous one.
True business transformation comes from your users, not your technology. IT exists to enable the business to work more efficiently, by empowering staff to do more with their time. A major transformational project needs user training as part of the project plan from the beginning, by working with a learning partner as well as an IT partner, your organisation will be flying on their journey to true digital transformation.
Robert Meehan, Marketing Analyst, risual
