Fares Asadi, Senior Manager – Solution Consulting, MEA, ServiceNow, says when embarking on any digital transformation endeavour within an organisation, the first step must involve people
What challenges are companies facing in terms of multipoint solutions such as CRM, HRMS, and so on?
When we assess the current landscape of organisations, it becomes evident that many of them have made significant investments in top-notch products, spanning areas such as ERP, CRM, marketing platforms, and more. However, this has ultimately resulted in a digital sprawl across the organisation, with numerous tools that lack effective communication and integration. This fragmentation gives rise to disjointed processes, which can impede the seamless flow of work across the entire organisation.
Moreover, these circumstances pose challenges to operational effectiveness. Consequently, there is a pressing need to explore how organisations can attain comprehensive visibility into end-to-end processes. When various processes are dispersed across different solutions, it ultimately results in fragmented experiences for all stakeholders, be they employees, customers, partners, or vendors with whom you engage.
Given the current circumstances and the multitude of challenges we face, the issue of risk assumes paramount significance. When assessing risks such as administrative, technological, third-party, and regulatory risks, it becomes overly challenging for companies to effectively oversee, track, and comprehend their risk landscape scattered across various silos within the organisation. Furthermore, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have also emerged as a crucial focus area for companies today.
Why should organisations be looking at switching to a platform architecture?
As ServiceNow, our aim is not to replace any of the existing solutions already in your arsenal. These solutions excel in their respective domains. Rather, our purpose is to integrate and complement these capabilities and solutions, enabling organisations to construct harmonious workflows that span the entire organisational landscape. Consider, for instance, the end-to-end process of “hire to retire” that traverses multiple systems. Here, we provide an overarching layer that streamlines and automates these processes while facilitating comprehensive management throughout the entire organisation.
This results in exceptional experiences for both your employees and stakeholders, fostering fluid and efficient processes. It further offers enhanced managerial insights, granting a comprehensive view of the end-to-end process landscape. Additionally, as you extend this approach to encompass all your diverse business processes within a unified platform, it significantly simplifies risk management and enhances your comprehension of your risk profile.
Consequently, you gain the capacity to continuously oversee all controls within various processes, promptly identifying any issues that might pose potential risks.
In terms of platform solutions, can you highlight maybe three to four best practices for implementing this?
Let’s revisit the fundamental principles that have been a consistent topic in discussions about digital transformation: people, processes, and technology. It’s crucial to prioritize them in this specific order. When embarking on any digital transformation endeavour within an organization, the first step must involve people.
This encompasses securing executive sponsorship, obtaining buy-in from various stakeholders, and ensuring the readiness of those individuals who will be instrumental in the success of the digital transformation initiative. These individuals may include those responsible for platform management, integration execution, and related tasks.
Considering the people aspect, it’s of paramount importance to set up strategies, control boards, and technology controls that revolve around individuals. Subsequently, shifting focus to the process perspective presents an excellent opportunity for organisations to delve deeply into their existing processes. This juncture allows you to decide between a shift-and-lift approach to a new platform or a more innovative route that involves dismantling existing process silos. The objective is to explore how to effectively automate these processes across the entire organisation.
Start thinking about hyper-automation use cases today, given that you possess a platform that seamlessly links all facets of your enterprise. Hyper-automation has transitioned from an aspiration to a tangible reality, ripe for implementation. Also, study the technological dimension of your organisation. Scrutinise your array of systems of record and the means to interconnect them. Consider the architecture of your future state and devise strategies for its realisation. Employ both a top-down and bottom-up approach to manage your initiatives effectively.
