COMMENT
Managing digital
culture shock as you
implement the next
wave of technology
The CIO, HR director and other members of
the C-suite must work closely together to
seize the opportunities the next wave of digital
technologies has to offer, explains Keith Fenner,
VP, Sage Enterprise Africa and Middle East.
T
he world is changing at rapid
speeds as new regulations come
into play, customer expectations
change and global competition grows.
To keep up, African organisations are
under pressure to modernise ageing
legacy systems as well as to automate
manual business processes.
That begins with implementing a new-
age business management system,
which can in turn provide a solid
foundation on top of solutions such as
3D printing, advanced robotics, artificial
intelligence (AI) and the Internet of
Things which can be deployed. The real
challenge that most organisations will
face as they roll-out these technologies
lies in reskilling the workforce and
bringing about cultural change.
Let’s start by considering the business
management solution – a more
agile and future-ready evolution of
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
software. Where traditional ERP was
slow and disruptive to implement,
slow to deliver return on investment
and inflexible, today’s solutions are
powerful, adaptable and quick to pay for
themselves. Today, you can get a cloud-
based business management solution
up-and-running in a matter of months.
Sweeping away silos
However, the success of the
implementation lies in how successfully
the enterprise prepares its workforce
to use the new system. Implementing
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INTELLIGENTCIO
an integrated business management
platform will erase many of the
technology and data silos in the
business, allowing it to coordinate
processes across divisions and
departments in an integrated way.
But if the people don’t use the solution
as they should, the organisation will
not gain the full benefits of integration
of processes and systems across the
enterprise, a single view of corporate
data, and better process discipline. To
get it right, the business needs to not
only train people in how to use the
system, but also help them understand
their role in the overall business process.
Automating processes will also change
many job descriptions and require
workers to learn new skills. In some
cases, process workers will see their roles
change as paperwork is digitised. In
others, workers will need to leverage data
from the system to make operational
decisions. That’s why end users should
be involved in the implementation, and
why adoption marketing and change
management are key.
Digital revolution is
just beginning
Looking to the future, it is important
for the CIO, the HR director and other
members of the C-suite to work closely
together to seize the opportunities the
next wave of digital technologies offer to
serve the workforce and the business. As
much as digital technology has already
Keith Fenner, Vice President, Sage
Enterprise Africa and Middle East
changed the world, we are just in the
early stages of the digital revolution.
Connected devices and sensors,
cloud computing, advanced robotics,
intelligent software, and a range
of other technologies will enable
companies to automate more and
more of the tasks humans have done
on factory floors, in financial call
centres and even in hospitality and
retail. Against this backdrop, where
many traditional job roles will change
or disappear, managing digital culture
shock will be essential to success.
Humans and machines
working together
For example, how do we manage a
workforce comprised of a pool of full-
time employees, a growing contingent
of freelancers, contractors and on-
demand labour services, and smart
machines and AI? In this world, many old
hierarchies and job descriptions no longer
exist – what does that mean for the
customer experience and the employee
experience? How do we reskill a process
worker for a world where they’ll need to
be entrepreneurial and creative?
These are challenging questions, but we
are living in a time of exciting possibilities
for organisations and their workforces.
It is up to each enterprise to take
advantage of the opportunities the next
wave of digital technologies present, and
to use the newest tools and solutions to
maximise the potential of its people. n
www.intelligentcio.com