Do You Have the Right Software for Your Digital Transformation?
Succeeding in digital transformation begins with platform selection — finding the right constellation of basic apps plus the ability to rapidly regenerate error-free, running code to support a business’ changing processes. Small and midsize businesses’ front office software is under-configured for a digital transformation. Many companies have old software suites that no longer fit the demands of a work-from-anywhere world. Also, their systems are not well integrated, causing extra work for users who often wrestle long hours with their software, often on personal time, to support what should be simple business processes.
Most small and midsize businesses run on old software suites. Their systems no longer fit the demands of a work-from-anywhere world. Even worse, they are not well integrated, causing extra work for employees who spend long hours, often on personal time, toggling between programs to support what should be simple business processes. On top of that, poor software support erodes the vendor-customer relationship, because it makes conducting business more difficult.
Not surprisingly, many employees dislike the software tools they work with. A recent survey of more than 500 inside sales professionals that we conducted sheds light on why. Workers told us that they routinely keep as many as eight screens or windows open at once to capture and source the data needed to do their jobs in sales, marketing, and service. When we asked them to compare the onerousness of using their software with other less-than-pleasant activities such as waiting in line at the DMV, jury duty, arguing with their significant others, or even cleaning the bathroom, an aggregate 66% preferred any of those activities over using their front office systems. Significantly, customer relationship management (CRM) suites only ranked fifth in popularity compared to general purpose social media, email, and word processing systems.
All of this creates serious problems for businesses. How can companies expect to compete in the digital age with outdated systems that no one wants to use? How can employees properly serve customers when performing even basic functions is as frustrating as a trip to the DMV?
Many businesses are trying to update their systems to solve these problems, but they don’t really understand how to build a digital organization from the ground up. They want to undergo a digital transformation, but they don’t understand what that entails. Simply purchasing new software isn’t going to make a difference if those tools don’t integrate and work well with one another. In this article, we examine why forming a cohesive strategy for systems integration and data management is critical for creating compelling customer and employee experiences.
Fixing these problems is possible, but not if companies do what they’ve always done by purchasing the next bright, shiny software object. As Raju Vegesna, Product Evangelist at Zoho puts it, “Businesses are tired of stitching together apps and hoping they’ll all work together.” That’s why the software platform has become so important.
Today, winning the differentiation battle in business has gone from something close to a big company’s inalienable right — stemming from its market power — to a fight to be the first to present a credible solution with the right offer and price. Fundamentally, then, digital transformation is about making organizations faster and more easily adaptable in the face of ruthless competition from all sides.
Speed and adaptability can only occur for businesses that have built or deployed software systems that are well integrated and easy to use. But you can’t buy flexibility and no honest software vendor will try to sell it. Flexibility comes from software platforms that allow a plethora of applications to work with the same data, as well as supporting functions like integration capabilities, workflow, analytics, journey mapping, and content management.
