Digital transformation is a major focus for many enterprises in the UAE today, with a similar picture playing out around the globe. Full digitisation is often the end goal for companies, but reaching this point is complex as there is much to consider. Some of the most important – and most-often overlooked – considerations are the various operational processes.
Let’s look at what’s preventing companies from achieving full digital transformation and failing or stumbling in their efforts towards digitisation.
Why digitalisation often fails
Research from McKinsey shows that digital transformation programmes fail a whopping 70 percent of the time, despite companies’ best intentions. It’s not a quick or easy process, and there are many reasons for failure.
There can often be a disconnect between business and IT leaders, with both sets having different intentions and ideas. There can be too much emphasis on back-end infrastructure, while the front end is ignored or undervalued. It’s important to define and agree business outcomes before adopting new software, tech or IT solutions.
Not only that, companies often don’t realise that a major culture shift is needed for a successful digital transformation programme. Enterprises must encourage a culture that embraces change and continual learning. This should be modelled by leaders across the business, enabling IT and business teams to collaborate and build strong, lasting working relationships. Business leaders must also bear in mind the longevity of new processes and systems, ensuring they’ll work or flex to suit future requirements.
Operational transformation is another area that cannot be neglected at this time. IT leaders and CIOs often put too much emphasis on core solutions to shore up their customer relationship management (CRM), data analytics capabilities or enterprise resource planning (ERP). Operational solutions are neglected and ignored as they’re not prioritised by IT teams. But without operational transformation, full digital transformation simply isn’t achievable.
Long-tail tasks and why they matter
When we talk about operational applications and tasks, we mean processes like managing approvals, the IT helpdesk, incident management, creative requests and onboarding customers. We call all of these ‘long-tail’ operational tasks and projects – and all-too-often they are inefficient and cause bottlenecks and blocks in the system. If they are ignored as part of your digital transformation journey, these manual processes take up valuable time and resources – and prevent you from achieving your goal of complete digital transformation.
How can you include these long-tail operational tasks in your digital transformation programme and achieve the results you’re looking for?
Utilise low-code and no-code tech
To achieve operational transformation, these long-tail tasks need to be automated. And, fortunately, it’s now possible to utilise low- and no-code tools to enable people in the business to contribute to operational change and control and manage operational tasks.
Solutions for automating processes have traditionally been unwieldy and needed extensive management, adding heavily to IT workload. But with the rise of low-code and no-code platforms, other business users can own and apply tools to automate and digitise processes. The people who operate these low- and no-code tech solutions are known as citizen developers, and this is a great way to address the digitisation of these long-tail tasks. It allows IT teams to spend more time focusing on more complex, strategic solutions, and also on scaling low- or no-code apps once they extend beyond the capabilities of citizen developers.
Utilising low-code and no-code platforms and empowering people with no coding experience to use these tools is extremely valuable to a business. Applications with pre-built templates and a design that doesn’t need high-level skills enable citizen developers to boost your operational transformation efficiency. There are often custom configurations to allow people to get the most benefit they can for their particular use case.
Operational efficiency contributes to digital transformation
When a company sets out to implement a digital transformation programme, it’s vital that operational processes are included. Without addressing and automating long-tail processes, a company won’t be able to achieve their goal of full and complete digital transformation. The advent of smart, simple-to-use low-code and no-code platforms are key in helping businesses to remove the blockages caused by inefficient long-tail processes.
And no-code, low-code tools aren’t only helpful because they contribute to digital transformation and add value to the business. They can also improve employee motivation, satisfaction and productivity as it removes time-consuming and onerous manual tasks. Citizen developers are often very invested in the outcome as they are keen to streamline inefficient processes that affect them every day.
Working together for success
As enterprises across the UAE embark on and continue their journeys to digital transformation, it’s vital to include operational tasks when planning and adopting new tech and solutions. Automating operational tasks can be the foundation for true, complete digital transformation. Working collaboratively across the business and enabling people in areas other than IT to contribute to digital change and focus on these long-tail tasks can accelerate digital transformation and ensure companies reach their goals.
