Those in charge of Digital Transformation programs should remember that the light-bulb was not invented by trying to improve the candle. Digital Transformation should involve re-thinking how business is done, rather than simply using new technology to replicate old processes.
Recently, it seems that every innovator is describing their new
technology as disruptive. This isn’t surprising; only by disrupting the status
quo can real progress be made.
eSignature and Digital Transaction Management are disruptive
technologies in the true sense of the term in that they are displacing
existing, paper processes. The reality, though, is that disruption is just
another word for change, and change needs to be managed.
Those of us in implementation know that the same technology used
in different contexts can realise wildly different levels of success. One
large, multinational consulting organisation, for example, noticing the amount
of time employees were spending on social media, spent millions deploying a
Facebook-style ‘internal social networking’ website on their intranet. Nobody
uses it, because nobody sees any reason to.
Human nature is resistant to change. Individuals tend not to
want to modify their behaviour unless there is a very good reason to do so.
IT buyers must realise that it is no longer enough to procure
and deploy technology with the potential to be disruptive. They must create a
vision for change, manage progress towards that vision and make that technology be disruptive.
Cloud solutions can be deployed quickly and offer a
greatly reduced Time to Value without the need for investment in IT
infrastructure. Whether a technology is Cloud-based or not, however, its
ability to drive genuine, game-changing disruption depends on people.
Disruptive, transformative progress requires individuals who can
diagnose business problems, establish how technology will help solve these
problems, and make sure that those solutions are adopted.
To design transformative solutions, you need an appreciation of
the ‘art of the possible’ that only goes with specialist, technical knowledge
of the platform. To drive adoption, you need an understanding of the business
and the ability to mandate how individuals change their way of working.
Success depends having individuals with this combination of
business and technical skills available when you need them. Without these
elements, you end up with technology that doesn’t deliver as much value as it
should and you end up just improving the candle when what you really need is a
light-bulb.
Kevin Boyle is
an eSignature and Digital Transaction Management specialist with DocuSign. Follow on Twitter.
