5 CLEAR SIGNS your tech is ​ hurting your business​ lf There are se driving cars hy out there. W r u o y n do you ru n o business Excel? Within the last years digitization and technology has spread through all sectors to become a determining factor in the success of corporations down to small businesses. However, the path to a tech driven business can be a frustrating one. Finding and adopting the right technology fit for your business is hard given the overwhelming number of available solutions. No matter whether you are a high tech startup or working in traditional sectors, market success will heavily depend on your ability to combine digital capabilities and your business. Here are clear signs your technology could better support your business. 1. You are spending too much time on manual and repetitive tasks. It’s a fact employees spend on average 3 hours per day on repetitive tasks that can be easily automated here . From collecting files received in your mailbox to copying values from PDFs to Excel files from Excels files to ERP solutions over and over, manual tasks arehindering your business. They: • Cost you money to repeat • Create opportunity cost by tying up your staff who could otherwise generate revenue • Are hard to monitor and optimize • Are prone to human errors resulting in higher financial and even compliance risks The good news is these tasks can be easily automated nowadays! Many vendors propose automation software, to the point it has become hard to know which tool is best for your business reality. On top of this, technical questions make your life hard from the start: • Which tool better integrates within my existing environment? • Should I first upgrade my current tech environment to accommodate better tools? • Are out of the box features enough or should we go for a tailored solution for our business? • What about implementation and maintenance: Do I need a data engineer? or a software developer? a .NET developer? or ...? This level of complexity is a blocker for most, who fail to reap the benefit brought by automation. To overcome this obstacle, seek independent expert advice which focuses on your business benefits rather than on the sales potential of the corresponding implementation project. 2. You have plenty of data, but you can’t answer even the simplest questions Are you struggling to finding an answer to crucial business questions such as • Am I doing better at this very moment than last year? • Did my pricing strategy yield higher profits? • Does this new process reduce costs and increase time to delivery? • Can I reduce costs by modifying my operations’ planning? Many businesses have the data in house to answer these questions, but face the following challenges • Collecting and integrating this data from sparse excel files or differenttools • Having or finding the right skill set to meaningfully process and report this data The great news is that leveraging your data is easier than you think. Several technological partners nowadays provide low-cost solutions to easily integrate your data and get meaningful insights out of it. What you need is a guide to help you: 1. Identifying which use cases will generate the most business value from your data 2. Clarifying the technology requirements to realize these use cases 3. Assess technology vendors and ensure a successful use case implementation Embracing these challenges is crucial though. A recent study by the IDC shows that companies leveraging data for decision making generate an average 5-year ROI of 431%. Rely on your te ch work th to e way it should 3. People are the extension of your tech and you keep firefighting IT issues The financial impact of IT failure can be huge. In 2014, KPMG’s Tech Risk Radar reported that IT incidents cost on average 500.000€ based on 522 sample incidents. We all know a story of a server crash supporting a business application, momentarily freezing your sales or internal activities. And the impact goes beyond numbers, it also affects your reputation. These technology failures sometimes can’t be avoided, but they can be minimized by: • Defining and following a coherent technology strategy • Ensuring your IT infrastructure is up to date according to latest standards • Guaranteeing your IT support providers are there to support you efficiently in troubleshooting and fixing your issues • Ensuring your IT support contracts include the right mechanics, responsibilities and clauses to minimize your financial and operational risks This where experienced advisors can help you put the right tools and the right support for them in place. Make sure your IT contracts include proper SLAs and maintenance agreements with the right vendors. Rely on your tech to work the way it should so that your your staff can focus on added value for your business. instead of spending days in solving IT issues while your business loses money and customers. 4. You struggle keeping up with your clients’ expectations Technology innovation has a deep impact on client expectations; your customers are used to the slick experiences provided by Google, Apple or Amazon, and consider those table stakes. It results often in: This fixes expectations around: • 1. Digital integrated channels for interaction 2. Quick answers to requests & complaints 3. Easy, quick and correct provisioning of documents such as orders and invoices Outdated-tech has limitations in reaching/matching these expectations and generating a satisfactory customer experience. • • • Slow customer onboarding Manual errors along the ordering process Lack of integration increasing the time to delivery And low reliability on customer service reaction on requests and complaints Let’s face it. It can be enough to push your clients away. Now the good news is that leveraging technology to enhance your sales and customer support processes is easier than you think. Quadronics can guide you in designing frictionless experience for your customers anytime they interact with point of contacts within your organisation. From automated email and request processing, to reliable data management in order to avoid mistakes when delivering support or products. 5. Your technology is disconnected from your business strategy If the above applies to you, you probably already know you need to act. Here is another fact though: 70% of all so-called digital transformations don’t reach their goals (Harvard business Review). 4. Failing to get support from appropriate talent to drive, control and support transformation. Running through a digital transformation requires experience and skills, it is not a part-time job. The most-cited factors leading to these failures are: Going through a digital transformation is not just buying and installing software. It requires consistent thinking, monitoring and interventions on several facets of your business: 1. A lack of long-term business goals defining the actual purpose and direction of the digital transformation. Without a goal you can’t reach your destination. 2. A lack of involvement from business leaders. Digital transformations are business projects and hence need the attention and active contribution of the corresponding decision makers. 3. Neglecting the organizational change effort to support the digital transformation. Transformation involves learning efforts and new ways of collaboration across different functions to reach the desired outcome. • What are our long-term business goals ? • How do our business processes impact our goals? • How can technology enhance our processes? • Which skills are needed to integrate this technology ? • What is a future proof technology infrastructure that can expand and allow the business to grow? The good news: You can get support for all questions in a modular and modern way by engaging with senior experts in an On-Demand manner. Get your tech working again It is nowadays clear to everybody: embracing technology is a life changer for businesses of any size. The question is why didn’t you make the move yet? Is it about inertia or lack of time and support? Do you feel overwhelmed by the large number of selfproclaimed technology solutions “solving it all” in front to you? Building an IT strategy supporting your business effectively in the long term is certainly a challenge. What you need is a trusted partner guiding you through the process and with the knowhow to realize it. 1 Let‘s have a call 2 Let‘s renovate your tech Let‘s get started today www.quadronics.com 3 Let‘s realize your potential