CLARITY FIRST, TRANSFORMATION SECOND

We are currently in the midst of a disruptive storm, and companies and organisations are doing everything they can to transform themselves and not miss the digital train. However, before embarking on a #digitalbusinesstransformation as an organisation, they should ensure that all their internal business processes are clear and manageable. At least, that's the theory. In practice, unfortunately, it is often a different story. Transparency, clarity, the role of ICT, flexibility, cross-functional impact, culture and collaboration are all factors you need to consider.

Transformation is about value creation

Transformation is an ongoing process to continuously create business value and improve the customer journey. It needs a clear foundation to build on in terms of understanding technology and organisation. As long as those processes are not fully understood, it is difficult to improve them, argues Hantson. And that is important because digital transformation is not a finite event. It's not a matter of starting tomorrow and being done in six months.?

Transparency and clarity

Sometimes, organisations try to put the cart before the horse. "Not only do many neglect to 'clarify' their processes but often those processes are completely opaque, like a black box," says Hans Hantson, EMEA Director of the American company AgilePoint . Everything is put into an ERP and a CMS, but no one can make sense of the individual processes anymore. And yet, those processes are crucial for gaining insight into your business operations. For a digital transformation to succeed, transparency is essential. #transformation always follows transparency and clarity.

ICT is an enabler, not a driver

Clarity and simplicity is also the raison d'être of AgilePoint, says Hantson. "Agilepoint is an automator of business processes intended to give control back to the business people. Currently, IT is at the helm, and that is actually strange. ICT is only an enabler. ICT should be the GPS and the sensors, but the steering wheel should be in the hands of the business.

Rigid

Another problem is the rigidity of the processes. You can also see that rigid processes eventually work against the company. That has become very clear during the COVID-19 crisis. For example, many companies could not adapt because no one knew how to adjust their ERP. As a result, they had to hire expensive consultants to fix things.

Everything is linked

Many technological solutions today focus only on one aspect of the organisation. In reality, processes are broader than a single department. Processes like HR onboarding, for example, extend beyond the HR department alone and permeate throughout the entire organisation and multiple software applications.

Culture

Furthermore, Hantson explains that there are also cultural aspects. Providing more agility to your company is more than just speeding up or adjusting the software. You also need to change the internal culture. However, resisting change is very 'human,' as employees do not like change. That is why you need communication, clarity and transparency to give staff insight into your processes. It then becomes much clearer why you want to change. And then that resistance will melt away.

Collaboration

In pursuing closer collaboration between business and IT, many new concepts are being devised, such as 'Fusion teams' and 'Composable business.' "Fusion teams are teams where business and IT come together and truly collaborate," explains Hantson. Together, they can combine their knowledge and create a 1+1=3 effect.

Composable business means that you don't view your company as a rigid block with departments but as a collection of building blocks where it is straightforward to improve or replace a particular function. The goal is to increase the overall agility and resilience of the organisation by constantly changing shape.

Sectors

A few sectors stand out and implement these insights faster than others. The financial sector is one of them. Hantson says, "There are two significant reasons for this. Many banks and insurance companies were burdened with old legacy systems they wanted to eliminate. This sector was also heavily challenged by young start-ups and fintech companies that pressured them and forced them to reorganise.