Today, groceries and essentials are available at a tap of a finger, while video conferencing is connecting students to education and employees to high-priority projects from one’s living room. These are just some of the ways in which the ongoing pandemic has disrupted our world.
However, the one thing that makes all this possible is Technology. It is, therefore, no surprise that technology has become a critical cog in the wheels of an agile, dynamic, and flexible framework across our business and personal lives, and being adopted at a lightening pace.
However, what are the parameters used in deciding which technology to integrate into the business? How best can that integration be achieved? What are the likely challenges faced and how best can they be overcome?
Integrating technology
Beyond the need for business continuity, as demonstrated by the pandemic, businesses need to grow and evolve to succeed in the fast-paced and highly competitive environment. Therefore, they need to take a hard look at their existing strategies and practices, and revamp and restructure them with new-age technologies in order to stay efficient, competitive, and relevant. The pandemic has only accelerated the pace of this change.
Some of the other drivers for adoption include:
Customer demand and experience: The new normal has accelerated a paradigm shift in consumer behaviour, preferences and expectations. This has caused companies to put their customer engagement and experience strategies under the microscope, seeing the vast scope technology offers to enhance customer experience.
Ease of operations: In order to boost work force productivity and operational efficiencies, businesses are evaluating Artificial Intelligent (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and automation to reduce repetitive process-oriented tasks.
Overcoming geographical/physical barriers: With the pandemic having put a stop to business travel, companies are adopting communication technologies to ensure business continuity.
Streamlined processes: As everything is turning digital, the processes are becoming more transparent and therefore are easier to revie and reset. Automation, cloud computing, data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) are fast becoming the key enablers in this regard.
Improve operations: Online/digital tools can provide small and medium enterprises deeper insights of customer preferences, help them to reimagine their customer engagement and experience strategies,
widen their market reach and promote corporate branding.
Despite the obvious proof points for the adoption of technology, there are still barriers to its adoption:
Lack of knowledge and understanding: Enterprises, especially SMEs, may not have a structured in-house IT team or a tech-savvy workforce to evaluate, understand and apply the best-fit solutions from the wide range of emerging technologies. This often leads to lot of unnecessary investment of time and resources into ideas that may not be the right solution in the first place.
Hesitation and fear: Some employees may be wary of automation being applied in the transactional, repetitive, and routine job tasks, that were earlier handled by humans, fearing for one’s job security.
Perception of a cost center rather than an investment: In many organizations, leadership ‘buy-in’ to invest in emerging technologies to fully utilize its advantages is an uphill task. This is especially true for companies belonging to sectors, such as retailing and accounting, that are not innately technology oriented.
Lack of a fit with legacy software: Chances are that the existing business technology within the organization is not a good fit with the new ones. This may lead to either a situation of force-fit, which is inherently frustrating for everyone, or a need for a complete overhaul.
Road to integration
Business leaders need to establish a robust framework to integrate technology into the various organizational silos. To begin with, it is imperative for organizations to define the business vision, including prioritizing the various pain points and establish a long-term business view, such as business expansion and growth strategies.
Once this is in place, a good understanding of benefits to the organization and operational changes required must be established – with everyone from management to the last employee on board. This entails the measures and means on how technology can be scaled to match business growth. Finally, they should sign on with a technology partner that can help them through each step of the integration.
The next normal demands that embracing technology become an integral part of the organizational DNA. Even as businesses are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis at operational, human, social, economic fronts, business heads are investing in technology to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on their business ecosystems. The important lessons learned now will stand in good stead for years to come.
