The widespread disruption we’ve all seen in 2020 is driving every organisation to take a long, hard look at how they do business. Unfortunately, in our current circumstances, many business leaders don’t like what they see. 

Gartner Business Continuity Survey from earlier this year revealed just 12% of more than 1,500 respondents believed their businesses were highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus. In another survey by Yahoo, only 15% of executives believed their companies’ top leadership will succeed in managing disruption  from an event such as COVID-19. 

Much of this pessimism stems from an existing feeling that our organisations could, and should, be operating more effectively and efficiently. Yet it can sometimes be difficult to rouse the appropriate level of concern ‘if it isn’t broke’. 

Winston Churchill famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” That advice is pertinent for senior leaders who realise their business operations are no longer performing adequately. Wanting to change, however, is far easier than actually following through. So where should organisations be focusing their operational transformations? 

 

Processes can’t be optimised if they aren’t measured 

Across every industry, customer spend has contracted while financial markets and supply chain volatility are driving increasing costs. This creates a need for leaner and more agile operations that leverage digital technology and automation for higher levels of efficiency. 

Most organisations know their business processes can be improved and may have embarked on process improvement projects. However, very few have accurately measured these projects to track and predict return on investment (ROI). Rapidly scaling your process improvement projects requires an approach that includes: 

  • Creating data analytics visualisations and metrics of key processes. 

  • Identifying process waste and building a business case for improvement. 

  • Leveraging robotics and automation tools to digitise manual processes, while reducing human error and labour costs. 

  • Deploying modern workplace technologies for more effective employee collaboration. 

     

Working smarter, not harder, to realise IT value 

Nowhere has the pressure from disruption been felt more than in IT teams. Technology leaders are being asked to do far more with fewer resources, and in much tighter timeframes. What has become apparent is that the old model of managing IT is no longer efficient enough to meet new demands for cost-effective agility. 

According to McKinsey, as much as 30% of IT spend can be saved by taking measures that include: 

  • Reducing demand volume and service levels. 

  • Eliminating discretionary spend. 

  • Delaying non-essential projects. 

  • Decommissioning applications with little usage. 

Understanding where to make these reductions will differ for every organisation. Getting external strategic advice is essential for developing a proactive programme for driving ongoing value and efficiency gains from your digital investments. To achieve the best possible results, we suggest augmenting your team with external capabilities such as: 

  • Networking and security. 

  • Agile and DevOps capability. 

  • Cloud platform best practices. 

  • IT managed services for reducing unnecessary complexity and costs. 

At Datacom we’re here to partner with you on these crucial phases of your digital transformation. Through our consulting and advisory services, we can help you develop a road map towards organisation-wide process optimisation and IT-value realisation. 

Find out more by downloading our Digital Recovery Framework today. 

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