In a previous post, we set the foundation of getting the most our of your strategic initiatives. Subsequently, we dove deep into one of the key pillars - power skills that are essential to make your strategic initiatives successful. We also took a detailed look at how process improvement can help you get the most out of your strategic initiatives.
In this post, we take a detailed look at how technology adoption can help you get the most out of your strategic initiatives.
Technology adoption
Technology adoption is crucial in ensuring the success of strategic initiatives for organisations in today's digital-first, ever-evolving business landscape. Technology adoption can play a pivotal role in enabling organisations to keep up with changing customer needs, find efficiencies over their competitors and make smarter decisions, ultimately leading to increased profitability.
According to Gartner 56% of CEOs say digital improvements have increased revenue. Gartner also predicts that 90% of corporate strategies will specifically reference information as a critical business asset and analytics as a critical competency.
The top 4 reasons why any organisation should undertake technology adoption are depicted below:
Creating exceptional customer experiences
Creating exceptional customer experiences by enabling organisations to deliver personalised, timely, and convenient services. With technology, companies can gather and analyse customer data to understand preferences and tailor their offerings to individual needs. Automated processes and self-service options make transactions faster and more efficient for customers. Furthermore, innovative technologies like AI, chatbots, and virtual reality can enhance interactions, provide personalised recommendations, and create immersive experiences.
In fact, according to PwC, nearly half of all companies say improving customer experience and customer satisfaction were the leading influences to starting a digital transformation.
Improving employee productivity
Improving employee productivity by automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and providing easy access to information. With the use of technology, employees can complete tasks more efficiently, freeing up time for more strategic and value-added work. Collaboration tools and communication platforms enable seamless collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members, regardless of their geographical location. Additionally, technology provides real-time data and analytics, empowering employees with insights that inform decision-making and enable proactive problem-solving.
Smarter decision making
Smarter decision making by collecting and analysing vast amounts of data from multiple sources, enabling a deeper understanding of market trends, customer behaviour, and operational performance. This data-driven approach allows decision-makers to make more informed and timely decisions, reducing the reliance on intuition or guesswork. Advanced analytics tools and algorithms can uncover patterns, detect anomalies, and generate insights that may not be apparent to the human eye.
Drive cost reduction
Drive cost reduction by automating processes, optimising resources, and reducing operational inefficiencies. Automation reduces the need of manual labour for simple tasks and leads to faster and error-free operations. Technology can also provide real-time insights into operational processes allowing businesses to remove any bottlenecks, and optimise resource usage. Additionally, technology can promote remote work, reducing the need for costly office spaces and business travels. Use of cloud computing can also lower costs in terms of underlying infrastructure, IT support, and data centre maintenance.
Get a competitive advantage
All the factors described above help an organisation gain a competitive advantage by streamlining operations, enhancing productivity, proactively monitoring market factors, reducing costs and making better decisions.
While technology adoption initiatives should be well considered, there are some business functions that would greatly benefit by digitisation, irrespective of industry. Some key business functions that are a must for digitisation are:
Internal and external communication
Inter-departmental collaboration
Project management / work management
Procurement and finance
Business development
Organisation goal tracking
Your core business function (whatever industry you operate in)
Bringing the 3 pillars together
The connectedness between the 3 pillars helps create a coordinated effort when designing and implementing strategic initiatives. Skill development helps the organisation evaluate and prepare for the new way of working. Process improvement carefully designs the new way of working. Technology adoption, in turn, leverages improvements in the new way of working.
Together the 3 pillars help an organisation prepare itself for growth while ensuring operational excellence. When any one (or even two) of these is missing, the organisation can be assured of sub-standard success in strategic initiatives. It is thus essential that those in leadership positions carefully allocate budget and resources to each of the 3 pillars to set their organisation up for success.
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