Creating an 'Always On' business

"Our hours of operation are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Mon-Fri" - in the last decade this sign has become obsolete faster than the VCRs and FAX machines. There are two forces clearly at play now - the push from technology and the demand from customers; and both these forces are moving businesses into the digital world. Technology enablers like Cloud, AI, ML, Bots, Robotics, 3D printing can transform a business rapidly and they allow the business create new products and services that were impossible earlier. At the same time - customers are becoming more demanding by the day - they need service across multiple channels - anywhere & anytime. One of the many benefits of being a digital-enabled business is the ability to be 'always on'. Just to be clear - an 'always on' business is very different from a business that (seems to) work 24x7. The railway network runs 24x7 - but, if your cargo is being shipped in a rail car - the chances are - you will not know the exact position of the cargo, or the accurate arrival time or the estimated unloading time. That's not an 'always on' business - it's a traditional 24x7 business. Here is the next big question as well - does all businesses need to be 'always on' or only a few specific types of businesses are required to be 'always on'? I guess, the answer is - to ride the powerful digital wave - every business needs to transform (or at least think about it).

In the 90s, the first wave of digital became reality with the arrival of the internet and most businesses took a giant step towards a digital future when they registered their domain names and threw away the yellow pages. That was the first step that made them 'always visible'. Since then we have seen numerous technology upshifts from client-server to Service-Oriented-Architecture (SoA) to cloud to Microservices that allowed businesses to be agile and optimized. This laid the foundation for the businesses to be 'always working'. Then came the power of networks - social in particular - that connected the business stakeholders and many of the businesses became 'always connected'. These create the foundations of an 'always on' business.

In the last few years we have seen a huge amount of technology innovations coming our way and they contributed heavily towards making businesses digital:

• IoT makes it possible for businesses to always monitor 'things' 
• Bigdata makes it possible to store and crunch large data that were not possible earlier
• AI makes it possible to make data driven decisions and transform from reactive to proactive
• ML gives the power to build reusable models that changes as the business grows
• Bots allow businesses to automate tasks and perform them without human intervention
• Algorithms allow businesses to optimize every aspect from supply chain to HR
• AR/VR assist businesses to train, build faster and increase productivity
• 3D printing and robotics make building 'things' faster and accurate
• CUI (conversational UI) makes it possible for businesses to interact with its customers without any customer service agents

This list will grow even more soon. Each item in the list helps a business to be 'always on'. From a small deli to a airlines manufacturer - every business now can stay on 24x7 and serve it's customers. Even a deli with a brick & mortar setup can become an 'always on' business -

• Customers can interact with a ChatBot in the deli's website and place their orders 24x7
• AI/ML driven analysis can make the orders personalized in real-time
• Bots can analyze orders, look at trends and predict the raw materials and order them
• Smart ChatBots can handle 24x7 customer service request at a minimal cost (negligible compared to a call center) and take actions (like refund)
• Bots can monitor the multiple social channels and create the marketing plans
• And who knows may be a 3D printer aided by a few robots can print the donuts

This transforms the deli's operations - customer service, order fulfillment, marketing, managing supply-chain and makes it a connected 'always on' business. And, the best part is - the cost of being 'always on' is really a fraction of what it would normally be in a non-digital world.

As we go towards more complex business models - even large businesses can become 'always on' and at the same time save resources & cost. In fact, some might argue that without a 100% digital adoption - the journey to 'always on' might not even be possible.

Let's also address the process of becoming 'always on'. The first point to note is - it's not a very difficult task if planned well. All the tools and technologies are there and the main catalyst the business needs is a framework to guide the transition. In order to simplify the journey - let's examine a simple framework that does the following steps:

• Map all the stakeholder journeys/processes. Create the customer flows, the supplier flows, the internal process flows - all of them.
• Identify the bottlenecks in these flows which are still manual and or time consuming
• Identify all 'approval' type tasks and create rulesets for them
• Identify all 'inspection' type tasks and create conditions for them
• Identify all 'monitoring' type tasks and create events for them.
• Create strategies to automate these parts of the flow. Yes, it's sometimes tricky and the business might have to fight a perception problem that humans are being replaced by machines and algorithms - but, when done correctly - it's actually machines and algorithms helping humans.
• Put solutions in place for all of the above pieces to make them automated and design them in a way that they can stay 'always on'.
• Create the investment plan (3-5 years) for the digital initiatives as identified above and start rolling the projects out.

This digital journey will probably be the most important one for any business that wants to survive the next few years. In fact I feel businesses who take this journey will enjoy the ride as well.