guru@Sawtrax.ca - +1-647-9608162
Today's digital economy is a key driver for innovation and competitiveness, leveling the playing field for Small to Medium businesses. This makes the business landscape very interesting and disruptive. Over the past 30+ years, I have managed and led numerous projects in enterprises, governments, sme's across various verticals. I have doggedly driven mega projects at Telecom providers and Technology vendors, and have learned that transformation comes not from only within, but several market forces and drivers, including competitive measures, regulatory environments & prevailing economic conditions. These factors need digital teams and leadership to remain agile and nimble to deliver projects that take the corporate into the realm of "infinity and beyond".
In today's market, not only is change happening quickly, it's forcing businesses themselves to change quickly. It's a constant flow of innovation, disruption - and sometimes chaos - that is moving us ahead, even faster than we ever imagined. Many say agility is the key to surviving in the age of technological hairpin turns. In fact, 68% of companies identify agility as one of their most important initiatives. But what does agility really mean? And how can it help you survive in the current landscape, moreso while transforming with the digital economy?
The definition of transformational agility is "the ability to move quickly and easily through digital transformation". You might wonder, in a business sense, how well your company is achieving that definition? Lots of things go into creating an agile work environment: Size - Shape - Culture - Governance - Technology Readiness. And all must align with your vision if you want to succeed in a meaningful way. A few key qualities of agile businesses, and tips for incorporating them into your company are described beside.
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> Focus On Continuous Improvement
The proverbial nail in any business coffin is in bold words, "That's how we've always done it." The most successful companies today are ones that are constantly seeking to improve their processes, most specifically the ones that deal with customer journeys. Change, than be stubborn to move ahead to succeed in the here and now - much less the future.
> Be Obsessed With Customer Experience (CX)
Continuous improvement doesn't just mean making processes faster. It means making every interaction that you have with your customer - be it on social media, through a chat bot, or via marketing drip campaigns - a positive and meaningful one. Even more, it means that you're constantly thinking of new ways to use technology to keep your customers happy, knowing that their expectations are changing by the minute as they interact with other businesses throughout their daily lives. Being obsessed with CX means being proactive and anticipating your customers' needs while thinking of new and better ways to meet them.
> Be Fast
People aren't just improving products quickly in today's market. They're creating new products and services that are turning our world upside down, often in what seems like the blink of an eye. Small startups have a definite leg up on larger corporations when it comes to moving quickly simply because they have less "stuff" or legacy (i.e. processes and people) to move around. Large companies have found that DevOps can help them trim the fat when it comes to real-time responsiveness in today's marketplace. That means breaking down silos and focusing on both feedback and collaboration to move more quickly through development and design.
> Pay As You Go
Why pay for third-row seating when you only ever drive alone? That's the question modern companies need to ask as they begin to utilize new technologies like cloud / on-demand computing and other aaS models. The most agile companies don't lug around the kitchen sink; they take what they need and take more only as their business expands. I'm not just talking virtual space. I'm talking on-demand office space, contingent workers, remote workers, and more.
> Stay True To Your Vision
Agile companies do not adopt every new trend just because they can! They use down-time to carefully consider what new technologies fit their customer base the best, and how they can use them to work smarter. Agile companies don't throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks; they think of smarter ways to make spaghetti.
> 6 Steps to Digital Transformation
1: Identify your transformation objectives.
2: Study technology enablers in the market.
3: Envision the future platform for digital business.
5: Organize for digital business innovation.
6: Execute an agile journey to the future platform.
The chinese proverb "we live in interesting times" has never been more prophetic or real. The recent outbreak of the Corona Virus in China has plunged the economies of the world in, to say the least turmoil. Now, more than ever we dont have a choice but to digitally transform or be irrelevant. Whether it be remote working or employee management, innovation in customer support, omni channel approaches to sales/marketing and leverage digital & social distance marketing to be ready for the new paradigm. Many believe that this will be the new realm, pandemics or not !!
There are 3 key elements that we need to consider when working in such challenging times a)Maximise and Motivating our Workforce (remotely in extreme cases as we face now) b)Continue the transformation journey or start now (it is now or never) c)Toolize. Read on beside, how we can accomplish that assuredly.
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1. Get organized - Set a strong set of norms and operating procedures to quickly assemble a capable remote IT team, or transition into one.
2. Select a strong leader - Choose a team leader that possesses a high level of social intelligence and collaboration skills (not the CIO or CTO).
3. Create a functional strategy - Agree on scope, time and quality with the team and ensure you receive at least weekly updates.
4. Build tight coordination - The remote team should be presented with a clear set of goals that all parties can understand and support.
5. Use a common collaboration platform - Select a collaboration platform that meets team members' needs and encourages vigorous interactions such as Zoom or Slack (most popular).
6. Don't neglect security - An important first step is deploying commonsense remote access safeguards such as VPN's.
7. Optimize communication - Dont work in isolation, routinely exchange information and use Video cameras during collaborative session to keep the personal touch.
> Having the right, digital-savvy leaders in place
> Empowering people to work in new ways
> Giving day-to-day tools a digital upgrade
> Communicating frequently via traditional and digital methods
Key Factors to Take into Account
> Management team established a clear path/story towards transformation
> Digital tools implemented to make information more accible to relevant teams
> Self-serve tools implemented for Employees / Partners
> Organization/Senior leaders sense of urgency on Tranformation projects
> Tighter collaboration between teams engaged in Transformation projects
> SOP's should include new digital technologies implemented
> Leadership encouragement to bring new ideas
> Continously Challenging old ways of working
> Traditional Web Technologies - XHTML, JAVA, JSON, XML ... (85%)
> Public/Hybrid Cloud Based Services ... (81%)
> Mobile Internet Technologies ... (68%)
> Big Data & Big Data Architechtures (data lakes etc) ... (56%)
Tranformation Leaders Adoption %
> Industrial Internet of Things ... (45%)
> Design Thinking ... (44%)
> Artificial Intelligence Tools ... (31%)
Tranformation Pioneers Adoption %
> Robotics Process Automation ... (21%)
> Advanced Nueral Machine Learning (deep learning) ... (17%)
> Augmented Reality Technologies ... (15%)
> Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing/Modelling) ... (13%)