On the one hand, the IT industry does evolve faster than other fields, which means that the team understands the need for innovation.
At the same time, no one likes change. Just because people work in the IT field, it doesn’t mean that they just love changing project management tools, payment processes, and communication channels every few weeks.
This creates another challenge: how do you effectively innovate?
What does this even mean?
Well, you need to find a formula that will allow you to understand when a change is due and when it’s premature or unnecessary. With that in mind and without further ado, here’s a brief rundown of how you can manage the opportunities for transformation in the IT industry and massively capitalise on this.
Identify your business goals
To begin with, the first thing you need is to figure out why you’re doing any of it. What are you hoping to achieve with this transformation?
This seems like an easy task, but the truth is you can do it in many different ways. For instance, you may want to improve your work process efficiency, employee performance, and customer experience.
Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish, finding the IT change management solutions that will get you there becomes a lot easier. As with any other type of change, the first step is always introspection.
You could also recognise a new tech trend that you believe will be huge in the future and hope to create a transformation that will provide you with a great foundation for future scalability.
The truth is that each of these objectives requires a slightly different approach to the problem at hand. The IT industry is dynamic, and while every industry has its own evolution, trends have a completely transformative property, and they happen overnight.
This is why you need a blueprint for future change and evolution.
Take an example where you decide to improve the productivity of your staff. Figuring out which technologies to implement becomes a lot easier, not just now but also in the future. As soon as the new tech that boosts productivity appears, it will become apparent that you have to make this migration.
The same goes for customer satisfaction, only that you’re more likely to pick the hints up from early adopters in your industry rather than recognise them through market research. When someone else offers a service, your audience will start demanding it from you, as well.
All in all, once you have goals, future innovation becomes clear, as well.
Assess your current technology
Another thing you need to do is assess the technologies you’re currently employing. Some just need an update, while others need a full rework or replacement. Still, without an up-to-date technology audit of your organisation, you’ll have no idea which is which.
Your first step should definitely be inventory and documentation of the technology currently in use. If your employees are using the BYOD model, ask them to submit information about their devices. If not, make an inventory of all the devices that are in use at the office.
Second, start listing all the software and platforms that your team is using on a monthly basis. Sometimes, you’ll find interesting insight. For instance, you might find that they are using separate tools instead of an end-to-end platform that incorporates all these services. This way, you could centralise and streamline your workflow and cut costs quite significantly. After all, why spend money on multiple licenses when one is all you need?
Next, you need to assess the suitability of your IT infrastructure. How old are your platforms, and how competitive are they at the moment?
For instance, a few years back, Basecamp was all the rage but was since surpassed by both Trello and Monday. Still, making a switch would be a tremendous move, the cost of which might surpass any benefit that you are hoping to gain (at least in the short run). Without the right assessment, you will not be able to make a data-based decision.
Once again, scalability is the most important thing to assess. While the platforms and hardware you’re currently using may be good enough for your current team and workload, what happens when your team grows?
Consider it from a financial standpoint
Every decision that a business makes is a financial decision. In order to make a change, you’ll have to cause a temporary bottleneck by implementing an adjustment period. This will result in the loss of some profit or productivity.
You’ll also have to make new investments, such as paying for new licenses, restructuring your monthly subscription list, or acquiring new hardware (which can be a sizable one-time investment).
Still, you need to take a few steps to ensure that this decision is financially viable.
- Return on investment: This is the simplest, most straightforward way of figuring out the financial aspect of the investment. How much you invest vs how much you stand to earn. Still, this is a bit of a crude estimate and you can do better than just that.
- Cost-benefit analysis: Sometimes, the benefits are not that easy to quantify. Sure, the costs are more than just acquisition and licenses. There’s also training, maintenance, etc. When it comes to cost-benefit analysis, what you’re actually looking to do is enhance revenue and increase efficiency. Even saving time counts toward this score.
- Payback period: If you just have to cancel one subscription and buy a different one, this is a pretty simple thing to calculate. However, what happens if you’re exposing yourself to a higher financial investment? How long until you break even?
- Scalability and future-proofing: The cost of having to replace this new system could make it not worth it in the long run. Sure, every new technology seems like it will be the next big thing, but what if it doesn’t turn out to be? This is something you have to prepare for.
Ultimately, running a business is one big game of cost management and risk assessment.
Nurturing digital culture
Just adding new technology seems simple enough, but your team has to embrace it. A team that’s not accustomed to transformation will take a longer time to onboard, and the results will be limited. This will offset all the costs mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Still, how do you nurture a digital culture?
You need to start from the top. The organisation’s leadership needs to show a high level of commitment to promoting various digital initiatives. They need to speak about the importance of digital transformation, but they also need to set a precedent and lead by example.
Digital literacy training sounds redundant in the IT sector; however, you would be surprised at how long one may work in this field without ever actually grasping even some of the most basic terms. Even people who aren’t directly tied to specific tasks can benefit from knowing these processes in depth.
Digital culture is also a culture of experimentation. It implies that you’ll try various things even if you have no intention of adopting all of them. So, what you need to do is encourage some of your team members to pilot new digital projects.
Define success metrics
Ultimately, you need to know if the process was successful or not. This means that you need reliable metrics and a range to measure them in. Here are some of the KPIs (key performance indicators) that you should focus on:
- Innovation rate: At what speed are these innovations brought to the market? This is a crucial metric that accesses your decision-making time, adoption time, and the time at which you actually start using these tools as intended.
- Operational efficiency: How much time have you saved using this new tool and process? How much has the error margin dropped, and how high has your accuracy rate been since implementation?
- Employee engagement: Are your employees really using this new tool? Was the onboarding process short and effective enough? Most importantly, what do your employees think about this new trend and process? Are your employees happy with these changes? Employee experience is a tricky metric, and it’s always reflected in employee engagement.
- Scalability: If your business has experienced growth since the implementation, how are these new changes holding up against it?
Ultimately, success comes in all shapes and forms, but as a business, you need a clear definition. You can’t leave these things up to interpretation.
Running an effective transformation in the IT industry requires a systematic approach
Overall, transformation and effective transformation are not the same. Change is always a difficult process, and even in industries like IT (where change is common and inevitable), no one is looking forward to it. Still, as long as you have the right approach and abide by a set strategy, you should do just fine.