1.
Going global
There’s
no question that transforming your company from regional-based systems to
global systems is a big job. Global applications, global processes, global
network etc. that takes tech expertise to the nth degree. You need to talk with
the regions, departments, and teams to ensure that you have all the business
requirements clear and know how the end-to-end processes now need to work
before you can consolidate disparate systems or stand up new ones.
That
being said, chances are that you’ll find those separate regions have their own
cultures, methodologies, goals, and initiative and they like it that way. It
often works, and works well – for them. The most important thing when talking
to these regions is to remember that people want to be heard and valued for
their expertise. This doesn’t mean they’re absolutely tied to the old way of
doing things. Most likely, they simply want to provide context so that their
voices and inputs are considered in the new direction.
So
as you transform your ERP apps to span the world, or plug in new SaaS apps to
transform the user experience, you simultaneously need to build a culture that
helps people move out of their regional silos. Hear what they have to say
before you encourage them to embrace a new perspective. Having listened, you
can then encourage them to look at what is best for the company and for the
customer overall. Let them see the benefits that will come from globalization,
such as the removal of inconsistencies or duplication. Acknowledge that they
are giving up something when they lose their regional approach, but assure them
that there are great answers to the ever present question “WIIFM”: “What’s in
it for me?”
Information
technology (IT) transformation has plenty of complexities including how people
can make or break the changes.
2.
Migrating legacy applications
There
are often – though not always – financial benefits associated with migrating
legacy applications to the cloud. Unfortunately, it’s never a matter of just
moving the app from Point A to Point B and shifting dollars from capex to opex.
Customizations, integrations, security requirements, and concerns of protecting
personally identifiable information (PII) often impact the timeline and present
unexpected hurdles. Reward your team for adapting to and overcoming roadblocks
and ensure if you select an implementation provider, they are willing to
partner with you every step of the way.
What
often happens is that migration to the cloud changes not only how IT supports
the application, but drives a new user experience. For example, employees who
are accustomed to accessing data in one way might need to learn a new system or
procedure. The infrastructure team that used to function as a “Lone Ranger” now
needs to work with a third-party vendor. In addition, customers or vendors who
are used to hardcopy quotes, contracts, and invoices might discover that a
migrated app delivers quotes on demand, click-through contracts, and online
invoices. The data is the same, but the digital presentation of it and how you
access it might be very different.
3.
Changing domains
The
fact is, changing your domain involves massive file migrations, starting over
from a search engine ranking perspective, and modifying marketing materials,
voice recordings, and forms. You have to change how people login to portals,
authenticate to applications, and manage their mailboxes and workflows. And
then there’s all the communication that has to go out to alert customers,
vendors, and partners that your email addresses are changing.
So what’s the challenge here? Internally, it’s
making sure people track down every ramification of your new domain. Build a
cross-functional team soliciting impact from every department in the
organization. Communicate often and early. Be creative in how you trigger
awareness to your end user community that they need to take action. Align with
your marketing and internal communications teams for assistance in rewording
the messaging. The systems changes behind the scenes are not what will get
their attention. It’s ensuring that once the change is made, our customers have
a seamless experience.
4.
Building bridges
The
last change I want to talk about doesn’t involve technology directly, but is
intimately connected with IT. In an era where business units often have their
own technology budgets and are looking for quick solutions to address evolving
business needs, IT needs to take the stance of partner – not gatekeeper.
Why do you want to do this? Too often I’ve seen IT get cut out of the
conversation in technology selections because they’re perceived as too
dogmatic, too conservative, and too slow. The best approach? Reach out to your
business stakeholders, listen first before proposing solutions, and once a
technology is selected, talk in terms of what it will take to get it done
rather than focusing on the barriers. Governance is a good thing, but only if
your business partners know you’re on board.
IT
has the distinct purview into knowing how data flows across systems and what
integration points, security measures, and support models are needed to run an
application. They not only want to do the right things, but they want to do
things right. Giving this message to your business partners will open the doors
for them to seek out IT as implementation partner, not avoid you as a
roadblock.
I
could give you more examples, but as you can clearly see, the key to success is
not transforming your systems … it’s transforming your culture. One of the
biggest challenges to implementing technology change is that you need to engage
people. If you approach people with the belief that they have knowledge
and context that will drive success and if you listen first, you will get the
engagement you need to drive change. Remember – technology change is supported
by business users who are also running operations. People are the hub of every
change.