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A guide to digital transformation

WHAT KIWI ORGANISATIONS NEED TO DO IN 2016

A GUIDE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – WHAT KIWI ORGANISATIONS NEED TO DO IN 2016 – © INTERGEN 2016 PAGE 2

The business case for improving productivity has been made – in 2016

the challenge facing CIOs and business leaders is to identify effective

strategies and then implement the enabling technologies, without

impacting negatively on internal morale, cohesion and collaboration.

Against a backdrop of increasing global competition and disruption

to established business models, leaders are examining organisational

strategy and effectiveness. There is an urgent conversation under way

inside many New Zealand organisations today about whether or not

they are taking full advantage of cost-saving, efficiency-improving and

productivity-boosting technologies.

The three pillars of digital transformation are the technical landscape,

the required functionality and change management. This guide is

intended to add some clarity to conversations about the technical

landscape. It draws on practical insights from a range of engagements

with clients, some quoted here, each of whom is at a different stage of

their transformation journey. From camper van rentals and healthcare

providers to government agencies with an international remit,

transformation is becoming the new norm and delivering tangible

benefits. What haven’t changed are the universal principles of effective

IT project management, design and implementation aligned with

short-, medium- and longer-term business goals.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Expectations have shifted: digital engagement is becoming the norm

Short-, medium- and long-term goals must be established

Digital technology drives efficiency, competitiveness and cost savings

The benefits are real


CONTENTSHOW TO SET OBJECTIVES

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Commodity Computing

Microsoft Office 365

Social Media

Data Analytics

Mobility

Agility & the Connected Business

NEXT STEPS


HOW TO SET OBJECTIVES FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IT strategy has traditionally focused on core business processes because these were mission critical, but today almost every process can be transformed for incremental productivity gains. The real question facing New Zealand businesses is not whether to embrace digital transformation, but, rather how to do so. The shared experiences of organisations across industries is that a digital transformation strategy must go broader and deeper, from replacing simple paper-based processes, to moving vital infrastructure to the cloud. A strategic approach, complete with objectives and timeframes, is necessary to avoid the pitfalls of introducing pockets of technology as short-term solutions.

It’s not about doing things differently; novelty has little value in and of itself. It is about doing things better. The general approach should be to examine how to make staff more productive while driving up ease and convenience for all, including customers and suppliers.

Also consider how your organisation presents itself externally, and the brand impact of improving speed, accuracy and quality of engagement with customers and other stakeholders.

Above all, digital transformation must deliver consistency of experience across a growing number of channels – including telephone, email and social media – integrating enterprise applications from the back end through to the front. Accessibility of information to the right people at the right time is paramount, together with strategy, governance and appropriate process.

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be difficult. With the emergence of commodity computing, cloud services (prominent among them Microsoft Office 365), capacity on demand, mature enterprise software systems and proven service providers, quick wins can be achieved, which build confidence for more ambitious transformation.

Digital transformation is being tackled by organisations from a range of industries

The targets for process transformation are broader than core applications

Consistency of experience across channels is essential

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be difficult


Digital transformation comes with immediate cost, convenience and productivity benefits. Enabling technologies include commodity computing and the cloud, Microsoft Office 365, social media at work, mobility, and business intelligence and analytics. Two characteristics common to all successful digital businesses are agility – giving the ability to rapidly respond and adapt – and connectedness of systems and processes – unifying all facets of an organisation.

KEY TECHNOLOGIES FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Staff spend 50% of their working hours

searching for, gathering or duplicating information

Workers spend 16 hours per week, or 40% of their time, filling in

forms and processing documents

70% of projects are likely to fail due to lack of user acceptance and adoption

Income levels of companies with engaged workforces

are on average double those with disengaged workforces

36 Emails checked on average every hour

16Minutes to refocus after

reading an emails

62Meetings a month.

On average, 50% of these are considered unproductive

6Weeks per year are wasted

by executives searching for lost documents

THE CASE FOR PRODUCTIVITY*

*From Intergen’s Future of the Productive Workplace Information Guide 2015


CASE IN POINT

By deploying Cohesion, an all-of-government ECM (enterprise content management) as a service solution, the Ministry for Primary Industries is equipped to maximise its information assets.

The cloud-based solution provides users with a secure enterprise-grade service, which includes comprehensive content management and collaboration, and the tools and processes to effectively manage content and information through its lifecycle. Users can easily create, find and access information from wherever they are, achieving significant productivity gains.

Technology standardisation also frees information. Olwyn Crutchley, MPI’s Manager Information and Data Management, explains: “The integrated experience Cohesion gives us with other Microsoft technologies is critical, as are its collaborative aspects, such as co-authoring functionality and social tools. We also saw that it would give us a strong platform future growth.”

Crucially, the solution enables end-users, as Crutchley makes clear: “Cohesion’s usability makes it popular with our people. It strips back complexity, and because it takes care of routine hygiene factors in the background, like records management, it frees up our information managers to become more consultative and business focused.”

Delivered as a service, the total cost of ownership of Cohesion is just 60% of that of an on-premise solution.

Commodity Computing: Why the cloud just worksThe potential of cloud computing now features in many board-level discussions. Powered by remote infrastructure and delivered over increasingly high-capacity networks, a full range of services is available at low cost. This includes storage and computer capacity, and enterprise applications.

Some IT professionals would even argue it’s too easy. As companies use cloud to meet at least some of their technology service requirements, many face the risk of ‘shadow IT’, as individual teams sidestep the IT department.

Migration to cloud services is made easier and less risky thanks to hybrid infrastructure, which allows for the best of both worlds. Most organisations will seek to preserve at least some elements of on-site infrastructure, even for a transitional period.

With the ability to extend on-premise applications to the cloud, or make them ‘cloud-aware’, the process of digital transformation is accelerated. As a result, the benefits of applications (and information) that are no longer bound to physical locations can be realised.

Cloud computing has matured and is being adopted with greater confidence

Hybrid infrastructure offers an easy transition from on-premise to cloud services

The ease of provisioning cloud services means anyone can do it

The cloud and commodity computing can catalyse digital transformation

On-premise applications can fit neatly into digital transformation strategies, where appropriate


Microsoft Office 365: Cloud’s tipping pointIn moving its popular office productivity suite into the cloud, Microsoft created an inflection point against which companies of every size, from the micro-business to the enterprise, can easily, and at low or no risk, assess for themselves the benefits of cloud computing.

By integrating low per-user monthly charges, routine server-side updates for security and new features and cross-device compatibility into Office 365, Microsoft has demonstrated precisely what the cloud can do.

Start-ups or newly created teams within established organisations can now access a ‘business in a box’, getting all the services necessary to operate in an agile, low-cost way.

Furthermore, the range of cloud applications from Microsoft continually expands, delivering low-cost access to anything from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), to business intelligence, and more.

With the release of Office 365, the mass-market has experienced cloud computing benefits

Easy integration with a range of native applications and services rapidly enhances the Office 365 cloud value proposition

CASE IN POINT

Tristin King, Head of Technology at JUCY Rentals, provides a perspective on how Office 365 has provided a pivot on which the company’s digital transformation has turned. “Everything started with Office 365; we were early adopters three years ago. Thanks to Office 365, we developed quite a heavy presence in SharePoint and that, in turn, drove a lot of automation.”

By that, he means JUCY took the first steps towards paperless operation (and it operates in an industry traditionally heavy on paperwork). “We looked at all repeatable processes which are governed by paper and how we could leverage Office 365 and SharePoint to eliminate the paper.

“When we reached the limits of what was possible, the seed had been sown. We started looking at other things like CRM, ERP and how we could improve, accelerate and build better ways of doing things. Now, with PowerBI (a recent addition to the Office 365 suite) hooked into SharePoint, our users can start reporting on the digital information that was once paper-based. It’s led us from being a purely ‘gut feel’ business to one that combines gut feel with ‘do we have the numbers to support this?’ – and thanks to digitisation, those numbers are readily available.”


Social Media: The changing landscapeCollaboration is a fundamental human trait and it has proven to be addictive. With the inclusion of Yammer in Office 365, Microsoft is integrating social media into the productivity applications that are used daily by millions of people, further driving the ability for teams to work together without boundaries.

The concept of social media at work has broad appeal: world-conqueror Facebook has recently introduced Facebook at Work, while other business social networks include Slack, Socialcast and Convo.

Social media in the workplace is the formal digitisation of professional interactions. As email has proven in the past, having a referenceable record of interactions can prove immensely powerful, while facilitating the ability for multiple individuals to work together towards organisational goals.

Social media reflects how people communicate today in their personal lives. It facilitates immediate information sharing in a conversational manner between employees at all levels, rather than through the intermittent, top down and one-way methods of the past.

Social media at work is a dialogue in which everyone has a voice – but few New Zealand businesses are leveraging its power and potential.

Social media is part of the corporate landscape

Improved collaboration can drive improved performance and outcomes

Social media at work digitises personal interactions

CASE IN POINT

New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator, Ryman Healthcare, has enthusiastically implemented Microsoft’s Yammer. Managing Director Simon Challies routinely shares insights and information with all employees through the service, which offers immediacy, authenticity and two-way communication with staff.

The Yammer feed also gives all staff the ability to subscribe to groups, such as HR vacancies and news, which they can read from anywhere on the smartphone app. Polls can be quickly created to gauge sentiment on issues of the day.


Data Analytics: The power to knowAdvances in data analytics mean that the discipline of Business Intelligence (BI) is being applied more to look forward, anticipating the future, rather than looking back. Gartner has tipped demand for data analytics in 2016 to grow 9.1% in Australia, and 8.1% in New Zealand, against a backdrop of overall IT industry growth of 2.8 and 2% in each country respectively.

To be even remotely successful, data analytics depends on information availability and accuracy. When information is trapped in manual processes, paper documents or even spreadsheets, it remains isolated from the rest of the organisation. Digitised processes are a foundation for analytics, and businesses using the wrong tools at a basic level will not be able to use analytics for better decision-making.

Organisations are investing significantly in data analytics

As companies digitally transform, more data is available for analysis, providing valuable insights

The basics still apply: accurate analysis depends on appropriate foundations

CASE IN POINT

JUCY Rentals recognises the vital role of analytics in driving business performance. A self-service BI environment and executive dashboards allow team members to track business performance and KPIs, be proactive in assigning valuable resources and achieve greater business efficiencies through data insights. “We had all the transactional details but our ultimate goal is to understand costs per rental, and in doing this we can be much smarter with our data,” says Tristin King, JUCY Head of Technology.

JUCY selected Microsoft’s Power BI. “As we were early adopters of Microsoft Exchange Online and Office 365, Power BI easily clicked in. And it’s proving to be a fantastic tool. We’ve taken a mobile-first approach to BI, so that our people can access their dashboards, gauges and targets wherever they are. And if they need more information they can head to their desktops to delve deeper,” he explains.

The IT team is an enabler and acts as a project management office focused on helping the business to deliver the benefits of any given project. “We want the business to drive the project and run with it,” says King. “The key thing is to give ownership of the IT-enabled digital services back to the business. We keep our touchpoints to a minimum, making sure the services are up and running, and letting the business units own their experience.”

He describes the approach as one of ‘teach them to fish’. “For example, rather than just giving users a BI dashboard, a workshop taught the skills to use the available tools to create their own solutions without coming to IT. Our users are able to meet their own needs.”


Mobility: Move with the timesThe maturity of mobility, reflected in the low cost of powerful devices and apps and almost ubiquitous connectivity, presents new opportunities for innovation. It is now possible to mobilise and digitise at an extraordinarily low cost. The emergence of apps for business, including Microsoft’s Office 365 apps, is delivering levels of quality associated with consumer apps (which have to impress within minutes, or face deletion). Business apps, like consumer apps, have to be so good that individuals choose to use them compulsively. What mobility and apps represent today is the ability to access information anywhere, anytime, and participate in enterprise processes even when out of the office, with no barriers to access.

Mature mobile ecosystem delivers powerful, low-cost devices

Ready-made apps for business dramatically accelerate deployment

More valuable information is generated and made accessible than ever before

Mobility presents opportunities to innovate

CASE IN POINT

Ryman Healthcare is leveraging mobility to innovate in its sector.

The company is replacing what was a largely paper-based system of delivering healthcare and assisted living services with digitised processes. With processes formerly revolving around written notes stored in physical files, administration was accounting for up to 25% of a caregiver’s time.

Through the combination of digitised processes and moving them to mobile, caregivers are made more efficient by using an ‘in-room’ device (which is also available to the patient to use for Skype or browsing the news, for example).

The ‘myRyman’ app provides every patient with direct access to their own healthcare information, and has the ability to create and assign tasks to staff and take care of rostering.

Rest home coordinator Lot Idago explains that previously all paperwork was done at a nurses’ station. Now caregivers enter all data in the resident’s presence on a tablet in their room. “We have more time, and because we’re entering a resident’s history with them, we find out a whole lot more.”

Simon Challies, Ryman Managing Director, says digitisation is all about people: “We’ve designed it from scratch to be as user-friendly as possible so it won’t need any sort of instruction manual. The potential of these mobile solutions to improve the experience of residents and staff who care for them is just amazing.”


Agility: Get it done, fastTwo defining characteristics of digital organisations are their ability to rapidly respond to changing circumstances, and the ability to easily access and use information. These are connected businesses.

This partly reflects leadership and culture, and is also a function of connected businesses and how their services are designed. Cloud services, whether infrastructural like storage and compute, productivity applications (like Office 365), or enterprise applications (like ERP and CRM), are designed for flexibility. If demand changes, the services expand or contract.

Agile systems encourage an innovative culture because they reduce the financial and opportunity cost of failure. The connected digital enterprise can rapidly deliver the required infrastructure and services to go from concept to proof of concept in mere hours.

The digitally transformed organisation is equipped to respond rapidly

Flexibility in service provision is matched by the ability to locate and use information fast

By using readily available technology services, new opportunities can be created and leveraged

CASE IN POINT

By adopting an agile approach to a business problem, AsureQuality rolled out a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution in just three months. The project included the replacement of a multi system on-premise CRM solution with Microsoft CRM (serving 250 users, with 80 people active from day one), integration with AsureQuality’s ERP solution and SharePoint. The result is a more connected business in which customer information is made available where, when and how users require it.

AsureQuality works alongside customers in the food and agricultural sectors to ensure their products met both domestic and overseas market access requirements. It is an information-centric company at heart, for which digital business processes have an obvious advantage in allowing the rapid exchange of insights, advice and expertise. It also has a digital information strategy which seeks to provide “leading, integrated insights everywhere”.

Once a suitable solution for digitisation is identified, any moment that passes where that solution isn’t being used represents lost opportunity. An agile approach to the project meant the business started deriving value from the investment within a very short timeframe – with the implementation set to deliver value from the first day of operation.

“AsureQuality is quickly changing the way we do business, with a lot of focus around simplifying and enhancing our customer’s experience. One of the first steps on that journey is having a system that supports the way we want to do business, delivered at a pace we want to operate at. The speed with which we implemented our first release of Dynamics CRM Online has meant that we’ve achieved that,” says Darren Wilson, AsureQuality CIO.


Take the next steps to transform your organisationUnderstanding where each organisation lies on the path to digital

transformation should be on all executive agendas. It certainly is

for our clients.

Digital transformation is relevant to every business, regardless of size.

For start-ups, it means easy and inexpensive access to the latest technology

services. For established organisations, it may mean some hard decisions

about existing investments and legacy technologies, and which processes

can be preserved or enhanced.

Each organisation’s approach to digital transformation differs and must take

into account variables such as existing technology and personnel constraints,

the point at which the organisation is located on a digital continuum, and the

extent to which any given solutions are suitable.

Intergen’s CEO Simon Bright says: “Ultimately, as organisations we need to

make sure our digital transformation plan underpins our business strategy

and enables us to achieve our strategic objectives faster.

“Change management serves as a constant: with the introduction of new

technology or modification of ways of working, training, support and

positive reinforcement are essential to ensure enduring success. A digital

transformation strategy must be aligned with business strategy, with the

overarching purpose of improving efficiency, productivity and convenience

by identifying and removing the impediments of manual, paper-based and

repetitive tasks.

“Short-, medium- and long-term goals must be established, against a

backdrop of understanding the capabilities of the business and the vertical

market in which it operates. With the availability and ease of access to today’s

digital technologies, quick wins that make a dramatic difference are entirely

possible. Even so, these quick wins should not be reflexively introduced, but

rather planned with an eye on the longer term goals which can include major

new systems and even organisational changes.

“Consumer expectations and those of employees have fundamentally shifted.

Digital engagement is expected in the workplace and from suppliers,

and those organisations that cannot deliver the experiences that customers

and employees want, will lose both.”

Digital transformation is relevant to every business – but the approach will differ for each

Three pillars underpin digital transformation: the technical landscape, the required functionality, and change management

Digital transformation must be aligned with business strategy

NEXT STEPS

Simon Bright Intergen Chief Executive Officer


About this guideThis guide draws on the collective expertise of Intergen’s subject

matter experts and provides real-world digital transformation

examples from some of New Zealand’s most innovative, productive

and forward-thinking organisations.

Designed as an overview of the key characteristics of technology-

enabled digital transformation and the steps organisations need to

take in order to achieve this, the guide underscores the advantages

that can be gained by identifying a technology roadmap and clear

steps towards digital transformation.

Irrespective of the technologies being implemented, two core

organisational drivers in particular are common to every solution

we work on with our clients: Firstly, the achievement of productivity

gains across an organisation and, secondly, the efficiencies and cost

savings made possible by digital transformation.

We hope that this guide provides helpful insights, inspiration and

evidence that will help your organisation to further embrace the

digital possibilities and productivity gains available today.

ABOUT INTERGEN

Intergen, a subsidiary of ASX-listed

Empired Limited, is one of

New Zealand’s leading dedicated

Microsoft solutions providers and

a leading member of the Microsoft

Partner Network. Intergen has a team

of nearly 400 across New Zealand

and the United States, and a further

500 people across the wider Empired

Group, spanning the Asia Pacific region.

Intergen’s key focus is on empowering

organisations to embrace cloud-based

technologies and to leverage the full

advantage of integrated Microsoft

technologies spanning an entire

enterprise.

Intergen’s offerings include:

Modern Applications, Mobility,

Data Insights, Digital Experience and

Design, Enterprise Resources Planning,

Customer Relationship Management,

Cloud Design, Integration and

Migration, Enterprise Content

Management, and Expert Guidance.

To find out more or to talk to us about your next steps, please get in touch.

We’d love to hear from you.

Email: [email protected]

intergen.co.nz/digitaltransformation

http://www.intergen.co.nz/DigitalTransformation/?utm_source=Intergen&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=DigitalTransformation2016

A GUIDE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WHAT KIWI ORGANISATIONS NEED TO DO IN 2016

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A guide to digital transformation - Techday · A GUIDE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – WHAT KIWI ... – integrating enterprise applications from the ... Two characteristics common