In digital transformation, technology should be an afterthought—here's why

James Wickham is a London-based consultant, a member of HiveMind Network, and an expert in digital transformation. He spent much of his career in senior management positions successfully leading change programs in both the public and private sector and local government organisations.

The technology is only the enabler 

Over the last ten years I’ve led several major transformation programs in both the public and private sector, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that digital transformation means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. 

For many, it’s all about new technology and what it can offer. There are plenty of scholarly articles on Google telling you that their application can provide you with the power of transformation. 

I too love new technology, but digital transformation is also about the final outcome—what needs to take place aside from the installation of the technology in order to transform the organisation, for the better. 

The solution you need may well be a digital one, but you must only think about that once you have found out why you need the solution in the first place and what the desired outcome is. 

So what is Digital Transformation all about? 

A previous client I engaged with bought a finance system for hundreds of thousands of pounds without consulting or asking questions first. They soon found out the system was not compatible with their set-up and a huge amount of money had been lost. It was like buying an electric kettle for a house with no plug sockets.

"While technology is certainly an aspect of digital transformation, it should be an afterthought"

Another client brought in a CRM (Customer Resource Management) system but hadn’t looked at how it would work on a customer level. I had to find another system for them because they hadn’t done any consultation or figured out why they wanted it in the first place.

Both incidents show that while technology is certainly an aspect of digital transformation, it should be an afterthought. True transformation can only occur if you concentrate on the required solution and outcome. 

It’s essential we ask ‘why?’ before anything else. You’ve got to figure out what it is you want in the future and why you want it. 

Before the tech enters the room, there are three key pillars that truly determine whether digital transformation can take place. 

People 

In an organisation, the key element to success, failure, or indeed, whether it exists, is people.   

I worked in IT and transformation for many years, and while technology remained a passion, overtime I’ve developed a more strategic approach. I began to realise the importance of understanding the user’s or customer’s needs and the experience they’re trying to achieve. Only once you fully understand their needs and the desired outcome should you bring in the tech. So many of us know and acknowledge this, so why is this not the norm?

We are not yet in an age of true AI and sentient robots ruling the roost (thankfully!) and whilst ICT applications can advise on some operational functions, the big decisions are still made by humans. And so if transformation is to be truly successful, the organisation needs to take their personnel on a journey, ensuring all are involved and using many soft skills to ensure its success.  

The clients I mentioned earlier could have avoided very expensive mistakes had they involved other departments and experts earlier on in their decision-making journey.

Remember, you can buy an application that runs the key elements of an organisation, such as an enterprise resource planning system, but without the appropriate training, and most importantly, adoption of the solution, it will soon be replaced by silos and spreadsheets. 

Holism and systems thinking—not just processes

Traditionally, transformation has been delivered in a linear fashion, even if there has been talk about how it should be more holistic. This needs to change and, in my opinion, we need to adopt systems thinking.

Steve Jones, a professor at Southern New Hampshire University, neatly defined systems thinking when he said: “Systems thinking is about investigating what set of factors and interactions are contributing to or could contribute to a possible outcome.”

If an organisation needs a new finance system, we should look at how that system would fit in with the whole organisation. When there are so many varying factors and different combinations to consider, we need to avoid linear mindsets.

Each transformation needs to look beyond its internal walls and be more circumspect and welcoming to how outside forces will affect its implementation. 

Data 

Data is important but, possibly controversially, I do not believe it is paramount. 

It can only be paramount if the data we are using to transform an entity is the right data—that means: Were the right questions asked in order to collect the information? 

Data is ultimately a statistic, and statistics can be used to reflect many sides of the stories. 

Thus, for true transformation, data needs to be gathered in the correct way, analysed in the right way, and the understanding that it is not black and white (qualitative and quantitative data from many data points) is essential. 

Can many organisations honestly say they do this? 

Find out more about HiveMind  

If you want to know more about transformation and why it’s not just about technology, please contact HiveMind.