Businesses that were still handling paper or maintaining on-premise solutions will have felt the business interruption during the Covid-19 pandemic significantly more than companies who had already moved to cloud and SaaS-based solutions. If you haven’t already switched over, it’s time to cease paper-based processing, and move to smart solutions.
Being able to access your data, documents, and content digitally with remote access has been crucial to help business operate through this disruption. This has made telecommuting and working-from-home possible for millions.
Many will feel the pressure to invest in new technology. But what should you be sure your tech can do to make sure it's not obsolete in 5 years?
1. Use solutions that turn your data into analytics and helpful content. Getting your key data and documents such as invoices into your systems electronically is the most important and basic step. However, using that that information into analytics and actionable insights is transformative.
2. Make sure it feels good to use. No one can predict what the next challenge to your business will be, or what disruptive technology will emerge in the next five years. But if your solution is static and doesn’t integrate well with other systems, there’s a chance it may become obsolete sooner than you would like.
3. Look for solutions that handle your corporate processes and meet local requirements within a single platform. You may have several people pushing you to digitize, but be sure any solution you invest in helps you achieve your strategic aims while also meeting local requirements. Bring process owners and process experts into your discussions. You don’t want to bring in technology, then suddenly find it’s not compliant in key regions, and end up having a chaotic patchwork of solutions, which will effectively undo your efforts to centralize, standardize, and simplify. Look for solutions that deliver a software platform flexible enough for your requirements and all of your enterprises’ entities.
A goal without a plan is just a wish. If you are aiming to digitize your operations, don’t skip over the initial planning stages, even when the pressure is on. Some companies may have found quick workarounds to digitize during times of crisis, but a successful transformation will be built on the foundation of aligned goals, visions, and technology that meets the needs of the whole business.
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