Will dd.mm.yyyy hamper Digital Transformation dream of your Organization?

This incidence happened many years ago, when I was part of support desk for an SAP project that had just gone live. Had a franetic call from one business user and rushed to his desk. He complained of not being able to save a payroll record, having entered all data right. A study of the screen surprised me, where the user had entered ‘dd.mm.yyyy’ in the From Date field. When questioned why he did that, he showed the end user manual, where the instruction read ‘enter dd.mm.yyyy in From Date field’. I held patience and corrected his understanding to enter the actual date and not dd.mm.yyyy. Loaded with his profound thanks and appreciations, I returned to the support desk, only to get called by the same user within the next one minute. ‘What now’ I asked, and to my utter dismay, he replied ‘System is not accepting dd.mm.yyyy as the entry for To Date field also. Can you help?’

This incidence is a case in point for your introspection in a scenario of your organization embarking on a Digital Transformation journey. Are you high on a Technology roller coaster losing sight of the important ‘People’ dimension, without whose competence, this entire program will remain a piece of technology? This question assumes larger significance in the context of

1.     Technology driven innovations in business models, processes, Go To Market strategies

2.     Frequent innovation releases in new age digital applications, like quarterly releases in case of SAP S/4HANA Cloud

3.     Multi generational work force in any organization, with varying IT literacy

4.     Divergent learning preferences across the syles of Solitary, Social, Visual, Aural, Kinesthetic, Verbal, and Logical

5.     Multi modal learning including class room, peer, self paced

We from SAP Education essentially focus on this often ignored but important ‘People’ dimension. While the System Ingration Partner prepares Technology, we will prepare your People for the Digital Transformation. This we have done for several customers, using a proven framework of Create Knowledge – Consume Knowledge - Calibrate Knowledge – Confirm Knowledge.

Do you see merit in my Point of View? Do reach me at [email protected], to further our discussion for a partnership, ensuring your Digital Transformation dream turns a reality