96 implementing new solutions reveals a lot of gaps and inconsistencies in current processes. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that works for everyone, there are four key strategies we’ve learned that help to contribute to success. Involve key stakeholders early When we help clients with implementing our software, one of the first things we do is get key stakeholders together, so we can deeply understand their needs, priorities and the challenges that keep them up at night. Implementing any given business solution can affect multiple departments, so success depends heavily on bringing in expertise from all those areas of business. Plus, getting people involved early on can help to encourage buy-in for new software and processes. Getting all those people together will not just help implementation go smoothly, it’ll help to maximise return on investment. Clearly define existing processes Many organisations lack clear definitions for their current processes. The knowledge of those processes might exist only in someone’s head, across separate departments, or not at all. The challenge here is that technology hates ambiguity. Without clearly defined processes to work from, it’s impossible to encode the right business logic and rules into any software a business is using. It’s also much harder to figure out where the gaps are when processes aren’t mapped out to begin with. Having that clear foundation lets organisations think about automation more deeply and better prioritise which gaps need to be filled. It’s also important to think about how those processes could evolve with the right tools. Many of our clients look for ways they can use the efficiency they’ve gained to enhance the customer experience. Create feedback loops One of the effects of increasing competitiveness and customer expectations is the pressure to be more agile. Creating efficient feedback loops helps to ensure those changes are pushing the organisation in the right direction and that everyone has the tools they need to be successful. One of the big challenges we see often is that information doesn’t flow effectively throughout the organisation, either because the right data doesn’t exist or it’s hard to bring it all together. This makes it impossible to create efficient feedback loops and utilise the information it has at hand. Addressing this challenge is about balancing seemingly contrasting needs. On the one hand, each department has unique workflow, automation and feature needs. On the other, utilising different systems specifically tailored to those needs can make it difficult to get all those systems talking to each other. The good news is that the overall businessto-business technology landscape has generally shifted toward giving users more control. Highly flexible and scalable platforms with application marketplaces make it easy to find new tools that integrate directly with core systems right from the start. That doesn’t VIEWPOINT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=