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Information Technology - facilitator of change
The adoption of Information Technology (IT) has followed a remarkably similar path across industries. It can be mapped and helps to identify how best to respond and make the most of the opportunities. There are also some interesting similarities in the use of technology that have facilitated change in the structure of industries as they adapt to the changing competitive position and opportunities.
The formative period of IT adoption
During the formative period, industries adopt information technology as the basis for mechanizing business processes. While paper-based files are replaced with databases, everyone transitions into a data entry clerk. The processes that control fundamental data are the first to be automated and this creates silos of data in departmental systems. As the departments in a business get automated it soon becomes apparent that there is data that is common to a customer or a client and if we consolidated this we would have a better understanding of their needs.
The financial services industry will always be recognised as one of the early adopters of technology in recognition of the need to be able to rapidly consolidate and balance the books. In its early days this industry was very much focused on daily trading and after hours consolidation. In its wake other industries, e.g. the Accounting industry, followed and structured themselves similarly.
The transformational period of IT adoption
The drive to change in any industry is predominantly driven by competition and I refer to this as the ‘Transformation’ period. There are some very interesting constructs that identify and cause changes to occur, with obvious business opportunities. Firstly the industry breaks up and forms individual areas of expertise in contrast to the formative period which typifies fully integrated businesses. In the newly formed business structure inter-company communication and dependance on partners becomes a strong construct.
The use of technology moves from simply administering processes to being facilitators of process change in pursuit to become more efficient and increase competitive capabilities. This change is interesting because the relationship changes from the formative period where the relationship is mainly Buyer/Vendor to that of developing “Partnerships’. Early movers gain competitive advantage and create industry best practice. During this period we see the development of ‘Exchanges’, which are technology based environments that accommodate business processes, workflows and inter-party communications to enable the consolidation of information in real time.
This is the approach taken by Reward Super who have used their domain knowledge of the super administration sector along with their business processing capability to use technology as the basis of a sophisticated exchange services that brings together the data required in a timely manner to ensure an accurate consolidated analysis of self-managed superfunds.
Towards the consumer period of IT adoption – cloud computing
Running this as a service is another trait of the transformational period and a foundation of the next stage of technology adoption that I refer to as the ‘Consumer’ period. This is when the new mobile technologies that have become a ubiquitous part of our lives are also the means by which we can make and communicate decisions as well as receive timely information and prompts to exercise options or make decisions. We definitely want to know that our information is being held safely and securely but we don’t really need the responsibility of having to house and manage the data and systems ourselves. These can and should exist where possible in what we are now all becoming familiar with - ‘The Cloud’.
Author: Denis Tebbutt, Managing Director Dudley Mann International, (former CEO InterSystems Corp Australia NZ)
Change Management crucial for adoption!
With this and future blog posts I would like to share our experiences with the practical implementation of RSDataWeb.
A recent case: One of our trial clients expressed doubts about going forward with the roll-out of our web technology to their practice.
- The senior person in charge of the trial process had "too much on her plate" and wasn't comfortable testing the details of the system herself.
- The nominated project Champion, an experienced contract accountant, was quite happy with the way he performed his daily admin work and the tools he had at his disposal. He concentrated his assessment of the new technology not on how it could improve the performance of their practice, but rather on trying to find and highlight "errors" in the new system.
- The embedded Workflow and Work-in-progress monitoring feature was not deployed right from the beginning, so that the real time and cost savings were not properly identified.
What did we learn from this exercise and what will we share with future trial clients?
- The project Champion needs to be a senior person actively committed to change/automate traditional time-consuming and mundane work practices.
- The project Champion mustn't be a person in a double-bind situation, i.e. someone who makes a living from the current work practices and at the same time is being made responsible for assessing a new system which will drastically change current work practices.
- Our Workflow and WIP feature needs to be activated right from the start of the trial to be able to compare current with changed work practices on a client, task and work-item basis.
- Change management insights and practices need to be inserted into our initial trial client teachings.
Resource: http://www.rewardsuper.com.au/index.html#6
Author: Wolf Schumacher, wolf @rewardsuper.com.au
