Intellect | Guest Blog | Digital Transformation
Blog: Interneer blog
Ravi Kajaria is the Founder and CEO of Granuler. He provides CIO as a service and IT advisory services to his clients globally.
As part of the technology stack for advanced tools, Granuler partnered with Intellect. The benefits of this partnership are product and consulting which are key differentiators. We invited him to write a blog on this considering his vast consulting experience.
Introduction
As we see, technology selection is one of the critical steps towards digital transformation, which can shape the future course of actions for any organization. In which time, cost and resource investments are also involved. If the right technology is adopted the Return on Investment (ROI) will be positive. However, in case of a wrong technology choice, the overall IT Roadmap can be at risk. Unfortunately, the results are seen over a period when it’s too late to reverse the decision.
To overcome the negative impact, I have mentioned some factors that need to be considered when selecting the right technology for your organization. We listed down the 5 most important factors that can enable you towards a smooth transition.
1) Business Ownership
Based on my erstwhile experience, it is often observed that many organizations define a core team involving IT personnel to decide the right technology for their business. This core team usually provides multiple options to the business along with high-level analysis . The decision makers go for the best option proposed by the IT team. According to me, this is a gamble in which both ) management and IT take part. A Tt usually results into high-level of customization to the new technology. Ensuring that key requirements are not missed out and highly customized solution is maintained.
Let us take a look at the successful transformations which usually take a different route:
– Key business members are involved from day one.
– The IT teams gather a detailed user requirement specification document
– The product capabilities are measured based on the requirements provided in URS as well as technology capabilities.
This ensures the involvement of the right people. Not to mention that this makes gaining business approval required Sponsorship easier.
Also, such projects usually provide an opportunity for the businesses to re-align their processes with the best practices available.
2) Integration Capability
Introducing a new product / tool to the existing IT Landscape should also ensure smooth integration capabilities.
This reminds me of a project my team was involved with in the past. The Technology team finalized a tool that provided the capabilities as per the requirements and also promised Integration capabilities with their existing IT Landscape. However, after the project implementation, it was observed that this Integration requires a dedicated team to address the related issues. The middleware required for connecting these systems had its own set of issues too. Moreover, after 3 years, there was a change to the entire IT Landscape as some upgrades were carried out. Now the tool selected 3 years ago was turning out to be a showstopper towards the entire technology transformation project as the technology was obsolete. Considering the earlier investment cost , it was difficult to convince the management for further approval.
Integration with current technology tools as well as advanced or futuristic technologies should be analyzed carefully by the technology teams.
3) Technology
As we are seeing, the current pandemic has not only exposed the way a business functions but also has brought more focus towards dependency on technology.
In a normal scenario, IT Teams are usually stationed in a single workspace and integrations and support structures are well defined. The support team ensures 24/7 support with minimal breakdowns.
However, now let’s observe this operation closely in a pandemic scenario with a majority of support moving remote. The cost of managing these systems and the turnaround time have now a larger impact. Organizations today are exploring ways to operate remotely so the strategy on how new technologies can help reducing the overheads is the requirement for today’s CIO’s.
Tools like Intellect surely bring the required solution considering the features they provide. A BPM Platform that provides a complete QMS solution with integrated applications and a well-designed analytics platform. It is easily customizable with users’ needs and reporting requirements. Features like:
a) High Security (On cloud / On Premise)
b) No-code Platform
c) Highly configurable Tool
d) Simpler UI and Mobile applications (IOS, Android) and a robust product support
Remote working with less effort on maintaining the systems is going to be the new trend as cost savings on IT spend is going to be the deciding factor in the management board meetings.
4) Importance of UI/UX
UI/UX is one of the most important factors which is often missed out during the selection or implementation of any product / IT solution. In my experience, many products provide the solution to a complex business solution but make it difficult for the business teams to execute those transactions on a regular basis, If the screen flow is very complicated as it results in high-level of trainings and resolution of defects. Constant issues arise due to the wrongly executed transactions. This finally has an impact on the user adaptation and resource productivity.
It is observed that there is a correlation between the UI/UX designed and the user adaptation. The cost of maintaining the system is also reduced.
5) Operating Costs and the ROI Model
Any technological advancement has an impact on the cost involved. The question usually arises on how to arrive at the Operating Expenditure for technology selection. Few important factors which can be considered: –
Recurring Costs. Year on Year (YoY) calculation for the next 3-5 years.
Define the Return of Investment (ROI) model.
Detailed cost analysis enables taking the right decision. (Capex / Opex).
Conclusion
Our clients at Granuler have gained the required benefits by following the above-mentioned methodology. This enables a smooth journey towards the digital journey as it provides benefits to the organizations over a longer period as all the major factors are considered (time, cost, productivity, business involvement and futuristic technology). An open-minded approach by the business and technology teams is required to the ever-changing technological advancement.
Many companies often seek for expert advice from external sources which provide a neutral view. It also helps in overcoming the “confirmation bias”.
At Granuler, when we initially planned to partner with Intellect, we had prepared an evaluation metrics to make sure that we are taking the right decision. Intellect scored higher markings in our metrics as compared to other technologies available. What does your metrics say!
About Granuler:
Granuler provides CIO as a service and IT third-party advisory services. It also enables organizations to gather expert advice from reliable external sources. Granuler has vast experience in Leading IT transformation projects. With a well-structured partner network, Granuler is positioned to offer the right solution to its clients. Partnership with Intellect expands Granuler’s overall portfolio towards Technology offerings and a futuristic IT Roadmap for their clientele.
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as digital business transformation is all about reinventing a business’s model, people, technology through advanced digital solutions, this will have a massive impact on your vendor and customer relationships, so partnering with the right Digital transformation services is important.