G is for Go For it | Governance | Git Hub | G-Suite |

Welcome to the seventh part of a 26 part series charting the A - Z of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Automation (IA) and Digital Transformation (DT). Having already looked at the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F but today's letter is the letter 'G'.

Go For It: In less than 60 days we have seen significant and fundamental changes in the way half of the world's population works.  When this health crisis abates, we will be in a new world. With countries in lock down people are turning to digital technology like never before. CV19 has created an inflection point in our global society. Lockdown has removed the luxury of choice for many of us. If organisations want to do business, then it has to be on screen.

Whether it is sharing Wosits and wine on WhatsApp; attending gigs on Google Hangouts; listening to an Opera on YouTube or a piano concert on TikTok; completing personal training online using TrueCoach; turning your TV into a big screen video recorder using TellyBean; grocery shopping online for the first time; Zumba'ing on Zoom; or learning over WhatsApp, the world has changed. There will be no turning back.

This is the perfect opportunity for organisations to rapidly spin up a website; launch a chatbot; bring their fitness or physio business online; introduce a take away restaurant delivery service; or rent out a property by taking a video on a mobile phone and posting it online for renters to view.

Businesses that have pivoted online are now surviving. Businesses that were born digital are thriving (e.g. Amazon, Netflix). Businesses and employees are now seeing work as an activity not a physical destination. Twitter has told its staff they don't ever need to go back into the office again, and Cambridge University says its lectures will remain purely online until the summer of 2021. Now is the time to go digital.

"Digital transformations are often done best with a handful of passionate people leading the charge. With kids, kittens and kitchens seen in 'newly digital homeworkers' backgrounds every day no one expects perfection any more. This opens a host of opportunities for firms to jump into digital and just go for it!"

Kieran Gilmurray, Global Intelligent Automation Leader

Governance: Governance and change control are key considerations required to effectively manage digital processes | robots | AI as organisations scale. Governance over process selection, policies, procedures, reporting, communications, operating principles, spend authorities, change control, risk appetite and benefit tracking is key to ensure an organisation delivers tangible value from its investment in IA | RPA | AI | digital transformation.

Video 1: Why do you need an AI Framework and an AI Strategy? (YouTube.com)

Teams can sometimes panic when asked to produce business cases or track business case benefit. Quite often business benefit is not considered at the outset of a project or best forgotten when no tangible value can be evidenced. However, making cost-benefit transparent is vital when holding teams to account for delivering tangible returns from IA | AI | RPA | digital investments. If an organisation cannot evidence tangible value from their investment, then quite often there are none.

• Intelligent Automation and Internal Audit (KPMG)
• Intelligent Automation: why you need governance over the new digital workforce (Genpact)
• The Role of Risk Management and Governance in Intelligent Automation (CIO)
• Good starts with great governance (BCG)

?Git Hub:  Git Hub is a web-based hosting service for software development projects. At a high level, GitHub is a website and cloud-based service that helps developers store and manage their code, as well as track and control changes to their code. Code can be shared with colleagues, team members or whoever at any time of day or night no matter the teams' physical location.  In lay terms;

• A developer creates and uploads a coding project online to Git Hub.
• The developer and their colleagues the project and start working on it.
• After few hours of work the developer and their colleagues may all upload their work to Git Hub (which always has latest working code) for review and approval.
• If anything happens the computer code on the developers and their colleagues' pcs you do not have to worry. Anyone can download the latest code from Git Hub at any time and continue as before.

What is Git Hub? (YouTube 3 mins 45secs)

Git Hub Channel (YouTube)

Using Git Hub means development teams can be located anywhere in the world. This allows companies to now hire the very best coding talent, regardless of their physical location.

G-Suite: The move off paper or company owned data centres to cloud does not have to be complicated or expense. Google launched G Suite as far back as 2006.  It is a suite of cloud productivity and collaboration tools, software and products comprising for example; Google Gmail; Google Hangouts (online chat); and Google Documents (spreadsheets, word-processing, slides/presentations, etc.), Google Sites (think intranet), Google Drive (online storage); Google Calendar; and, depending on the plan, an Administration panel (security and admin controls), Cloud Identity (account management); End Point (device management) and Vault (retain, search and archive data) for managing users and the services on offer.   

• Google Suite
• G-Suite (YouTube Channel)
• Learning Google Suite (LinkedIn Learning)
• Team Collaboration in Google Suite (LinkedIn Learning)

Whilst free to consumers there are costs associated with G Suite for commercial businesses (click here for pricing plans).  However, when compared to the total of employing a dedicated IT team, windows servers, backup system, the cost of system security and system upgrades; a well-managed, and properly costed, move to cloud can make a compelling business case.

Other similar cloud services tools are available from other providers (e.g. Microsoft 365, Zimbra, Kopano)

This article highlighted things relating to intelligent automation and digital transformation beginning with the letter "G''. There are many G's organisations need to consider but what G do you think is the most important?

If you like this article then you may find these useful too.

1. How to build a business case for Intelligent Automation and Robotic Process Automation
2. 30 ways to build a pipeline of processes suitable for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (IA)
3. I've met 100+ RPA developers but these are the 15 signs of an 'exceptional' RPA developer!
4. 8 questions to ask to ensure you select the 'right' processes to automate using RPA | IA.
5. 14 rules for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (AI) success
6. The A-Z of Robotic Process Automation, Intelligent Automation and Digital Transformation
7. 8 Key Roles in Your RPA Centre of Expertise
8. 14 rules for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (AI) success
9. The biggest lie told to RPA customers - 50 robots equals success
10. 40 essential selection criteria to choose an RPA platform

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