Digital Software Solution Implementation in various Organizations– Why so challenging and creeping!

Organizations from Clinical, Healthcare, Productions, Manufacturing, IT, Automobiles and other operations are still depended on the legacy systems and paper based data recording and storage in shelves and lockers etc. In most of the cases where the implementation of the initial digital solution as planned does not go live due to some short falls or lacking in meeting the complied events or procedures or due to the proposed way of managing partially on paper or vice versa. Hence, there is no end of limits and acceptances that can be ascertained to make justifiable option.

Dependency on the legacy systems:

In most of the cases the organizations are heavily dependent on their legacy system and their business operations has made it almost not to switch to the latest technology or the processes. There is no one specific reason for this big switch so called, getting upgraded with newer ways and processes where the manpower, efforts, hard paper prints, time consumption in getting reviews and approvals, operational costs, management costs, maintenance costs, storage costs can be reduced. The positive impact may take sometimes but can definitely expedite the entire operational flows and associated operations.?

If things can be looked from an improvement and process expedition perspective, then definitely the need of upgrade with newer processes and custom made quality checks and reviews can result into a multi-fold improvement and output generation.

Managing multiple vendors for value additions and integrations:

Process failures and managing the entire operations in any industry with crawling procedures are much more common when process driven industries are audited and reviewed for their in-house processes and approach to manage the operations and management. In such cases, when the digitization of the end-to-end process is managed in bits and parts that too heterogeneously managed and integrated, that further leads to a chaotic process where the “tracing of events and actions becomes a challenge, reviewing becomes a cumbersome job, project specific report pulling becomes a hectic task to collect and align to make one complete report to prove end-to-end results”.

Challenges being faced when the digitization is a multi-vendor/hand managed process:

-??????Lack of harmonization.

-??????Multiple dependencies on managing the impacts and breaks in processes while implementing in one part of the application (software)/process.

-??????Lack of quality checks points.

-??????Hard time to deal with when it comes to collaborate and do the implementation for any integration.

-??????Lack of support for dependent part from cross vendor during cross data application communication setup or integrations.

-??????Lack of process, compliance and real time based challenges being faced by user groups.

There could be many other challenges to be tackled in order to manage and maintain the integrity of the running application or process when it is multi-vendor managed using cross servers and Application Programming Interfaces (API), uni-directional integrations, bi-directional integrations etc.

Reluctance at acceptance level by user groups:

In today’s time, organizations are very much concerned to multiply their productivity and the outputs to meet the demand and supply chain. In order to multiply anything, be it the production of materials, drugs/medicines, software applications, support, goods etc. that needs the touch of automations and the implementation of software or automation tools or processes.

The major disinclination is being faced in the implementation and analysis phase is very much at user’s group that usually doesn’t praise the idea of getting something digitized, automated or much better/faster in terms of getting something done in less time. There is always a fear factor that gets into the picture and delays the entire process and visualization. Factors are, fear of getting replaced by the machines, fear of losing the job, fear of proving more output in less time, fear of not being able to adapt the changes, fear of not being able to compete, fear of losing ground, fear of losing the important in organization despite of not being so engaged in allotted duties, the list is a never ending in this situation that keeps people at backseat when it comes to adapt the less walked paths. There could be instances, where the reluctance by unified group of people may kill the interest of real performers and gradually the zeal towards getting something done with quality and newer approaches gets slogged and the entire organization has to get used to the same old practices.

Unwillingness to do something contrary to the set customs:

Workforce that have become used to of a legacy system or crawly processes with no set KPIs to get their activities done are least interested to follow less walked paths and hence that continues to keep them away from agile processes and standard practices. Such situation does arises by some or group of folks in organization or team who are usually unified in such a way that will never get to move onto the discomfort zones.

In many instances such unified workforce leads to the mismanagement of the practices at such a poor level that kills the entire set process and interest just like the cancer cells.

Gap in Communication and Process knowledge:

The mismanagement of the stuffs may occur at any point of time that may result in deviations and poor results as the end product. Getting a good end result of any initiated product/project needs a conglomeration of subject knowledge and process quality approach, planning, subject matter experts, proper compliance checklists, references from the benchmarks and other relevant standards along with out of the box processes that may not be defined in the standards but shall surmount the normal standards or ways.??

In general, the project definition starts with converting the paper based flow and approach into a digital data capture, but the most important part is always missed while doing the mapping of user practice. The focus should be on the end results in compliance with standards but the practice in digital solution shall not always mimic the paper based practice. This is where the tussle takes place and the correct direction is given to an overall approach to a project definition and blueprints. In many cases the complete mapped processes as per the user’s current process generally leads to several loopholes that can’t be accepted by other user groups in similar organization and that ultimately leads to the major customizations and developments to inline the paper based process to a digital solution.

Constant updates at technology side:

The evolving technology every now and then with upgraded systems and upgraded protections is also a big obstacle that keeps people away from thinking about the IT infrastructure and its storage and maintenance. As, moving to the technology demands regular maintenance, trained people and parts replacements as required and its validations/calibrations at equal interval to make sure the same works without any deviation over its continuous use in operations. Hence, looking at the higher side of its financial engagement, it becomes an easy to work on paper based followed with management of entire stocks of paper in storage. Though both has its pros and cons but moving to more advanced side of technology and computing is being found to be always resulting into ?the growth of productions, outputs as always desired by the management to meet the demand of the market.

Constant and Stringent updates at compliance level:

The continuous upgrades in domestic and international standards at compliance side and practice side are also a real bummer about the changes in their current practice in iterations by involving a good amount of time in its planning and implementation. Hence, managing the planned operational activities while also managing the regular implementation of the versions is always a pain part for any process. And if risk assessment is not performed as required, that again open grounds for auditors to raise questions and queries in process.

Confidentiality of the collected data and its storage and retrieval:

It looks and goes easy to manage the hard records at the in-house storages of the organizations, whereas in case of digital platforms being captured the entire confidential records digitally gets backed up at multiple servers at multiple locations, hard disks and other devices. There is always a equal risk involved at digital side of various types like crashing of the servers, hacking of the confidential data, malfunctioning and corruption of the files, multiple thefts along with heavy amount in its maintenance and validation.

This infrastructure side costing along with the risks involved is always a bothersome affair for any organization to step up their practices while fulfilling the compliance requirement at the other side.

Gist:

Improvement and enhancement of best practices at work is always a win-win game for everyone, the right decision can help the organizations to gain momentum in long runs when the differences of the practices and the outputs can be properly compared and analyzed.

The must required risk assessments and the compliance checks can help avoid the breakings in the operations and output. All possible associated identified Risks and the absolute Mitigation plans and proper procedures as per the users’ practices can be kept in place to avoid situations of blackout in the process.

Utilization and making sure of the guidance and lead in right hand at decision level also helps organizations to save time and efforts at every level.?