When you imagine our business 10 years from now, what do you see?
Do you have holographic, virtual meetings? Do you even have a physical office?
What makes business exciting, is that there's always a way to evolve, perform better and create more. Whether it's conceptualising a better process, or discovering a new technology.
We are living in the age of constant digital transformation. Evolving is crucial to remain current and competitive - stagnation is effectively a modern death sentence.
But implementing a technology change is hard.
Many businesses inadvertently get their technology change process wrong, calling the project unsuccessful.
We want to stop that!
Being an evolving business ourselves, we have worked out the 4 steps we typically go through when rolling an internal change: Assess, Design, Implement & Manage.
We elaborate further on our proven process below.
Stage 1: Assess
When gearing up to make a technology change, you need to take a moment to look around, take stock of your current situation, and the vision you have for your organisation's future.
It's important to establish where your strengths and weaknesses lie, as a business, in your ability to conduct a technology change.
Most businesses don't have adequate in-house expertise, or if they do, they lack the scale needed to roll out the desired changes efficiently. For those who evaluate that it's not practical to implement the changes using in-house resources, or need to extend their internal team, partnering with technology experts who can fill in the gaps is crucial.
Stage 2: Design
The second stage involves creating a strategic, personalised road map for change implementation.
The success of this stage is determined by the ability to set a clear, realistic timeline, and communicate these to those directly involved, as well as staff throughout the organisation.
In this stage, communication is key, not only to establish priorities, outcomes, gain clarity or direction, but also to prepare your organisation for the mental shift needed for success.
Your business has it's own traditions and ingrained 'laws', a technology change (depending on how radical) can not only mean a change in culture, but also how your staff work. Some will thrive in this environment, others will be left paralysed with uncertainty about their job security, or their ability to adapt and perform. Clear communication, addressing their concerns, and providing solutions will help you to overcome these barriers to change, and get them on board with the new business vision.
Another important aspect of this stage is establishing accountability and project ownership, along with allocating sufficient resources and involving the right expertise. Outlining these in your design stage, will lay the foundations needed for a successful implementation.
Stage 3: Implement
This is the fun part – implementing your vision!
Being able the follow through in accordance with the road map and proposed timeline requires effective project management, clear key performance indicators, and realistic time frames.
Having a technology expert at the helm of your project, who has strong management skills, will help to ensure your project stays on track, and is executed as per the design. Key performance indicators help leaders to measure the effectiveness of the implementer(s), and a detailed, realistic time frame provides targets and accountability.
As changes are implemented, it's important that your staff receive adequate training so they can master their new tools, and your organisation can realise the full benefits of the new technology.
Stage 4: Manage
The fourth and final (often neglected!) stage is managing the new changes. This takes place by long-term, ongoing monitoring and accountability to the new KPI's.
By managing the new changes, you cement them into the organisation - the new becomes the standard.
Furthermore, as we suggested earlier - there is no finish line with technology. It is a continual evolution, but once you're on the path and up to date, keeping up is a lot easier.
The secret to the greatest success stories, is seen in organisations who refine and improve their solutions to fit their organisations changing needs, over time.
As technology becomes the corner stone to business success, many organisations aren't equipped to implement (or manage) a technological change in-house. However, there is an emerging industry trend, where businesses are partnering up with technology providers to ensure their business stays a head of the curve.
If you would like to explore the possibilities a technology partnership could give to your business, we are giving away a limited number of complementary, no obligation IT reviews with our experts. You can learn more about our offer, or register your business, here.
