What's Next?

THE OPERATION

The Covid has forced many companies to start the Digital Transformation, others to accelerate it and some, the fewest, to consolidate it. In this third article I discuss ideas to improve the operational area and align with The Strategy and Organization.

The Digital Transformation has given a vertiginous impulse to business operations. In just a few years, all companies have become technological, regardless of their industry or sector. However, many simply introduce new technological tools without order or concert, avoiding analysis of their current processes and automating workflows that are rarely optimal with mediocre results.?

LEAN PROCESSES. Evaluate and analyze processes, identify unnecessary or low-value steps, simplify coordination between departments to its maximum expression, reduce waiting times, and of course, rely on digital tools to automate the execution of part or all of the workflow. A multidisciplinary group of process experts will find it relatively easy to do this analysis.?The Design Thinking methodology can be very useful in this exercise. Many of us relate this practice to the creation of products or services, which is true, but it is also an excellent method for problem solving.

The CLOD introduces great advantages, without it many companies would not have been able to survive in Covid times. The mobility offered has allowed part of their employees to continue working from home, and also to meet the needs of customers and suppliers at the exact point of action. ERPs, CRMs, SCMs, and other business systems have their own cloud mode with similar features and more benefits, cost reduction and instant scaling according to business needs. It is not recommended to migrate all processes to the cloud in a single step, but by operational areas that will offer "quick-wins" and motivate other departments to follow the same path. Having a strategic "Roadmap" is necessary.?

There are countless digital tools for PROCESS AUTOMATION, from advanced systems based on Robots to small applications called ChatBots that provide customer service through digital or telephonic means. Automation offers great advantages: it allows to focus staff on more creative activities, minimizes execution times, reduces errors, ensures a consistent and homogeneous execution, reduces operating costs, among others. It is relatively easy to identify tasks that could be automated by asking a few simple questions: is it a high-volume task, does it run frequently, does it involve several departments and/or roles for its execution, does it require constant follow-up, and does it require constant monitoring?

Marketing has changed.?Traditional media still work, but DIGITAL MARKETINGis increasing market share at a rapid pace. Regardless of the nature of your products or services, being in the digital world is vital, even going further and having an E-Commerce portal to make sales 24/7.?For this, the web and some sporadic publication in social networks is not enough. We must have a clear strategy that helps brand recognition and improve the experience of our customers. For example, we can provide customers with accurate and updated information about your services, product operating manuals, use cases and tips, answers to frequently asked questions, video or text guides. If your organization does not have this knowledge it is advisable to approach a digital media agency to define and execute the strategy.?

We cannot improve what we cannot measure. Currently we have no excuses to continue making decisions not supported by metrics. Without dashboards with operational and efficiency indicators, OKRs, or some other monitoring mechanism, we will not know the current situation and we will hardly be able to improve. Continuous improvement is the mantra of competitive business. There is a wide range of Business Intelligence / Analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, etc) that allow us to intuitively and easily analyze our data and environment to convert them into useful information for decision making. At a general level we can identify 3 types of analysis: Descriptive (seek explanation to what happened), Predictive (predict future behaviors or trends), and Prescriptive (analysis of different scenarios to identify the best alternative). We can even go a step further and use Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to identify behaviors and patterns to support real-time decisions. It's not just Netflix that can predict our behaviors, ML is available to everyone.?

The Post-Covid era presents significant challenges and great opportunities. It is up to us to tip the balance on one side or the other. I invite you to re-evaluate the STRATEGY of your company, to adapt the ORGANIZATION based on the new objectives, and to modernize the OPERATIONS to be prepared for the new market demands. By aligning these three pillars we will have a guarantee of success, as long as there is COMMITMENT and LEADERSHIP from the directors.