Business Process

Eliminating paper-based business processes from your company may be one of the best software development projects to undertake in times of pandemic!  Have you thought about it?

We have written in previous posts that Digital Transformation is taking place on two main poles or towards two main goals, if you prefer:

• Improvement of Customer Experience (in real time)
• Improved Product Development (in real-time)

From these two main poles a large number of Communication, Marketing & Sales and Development projects and activities are derived in organizations, but unfortunately, many of these projects and activities still rely on paper business process.

Paper-based Business Processes in Customer Experience

Being able to communicate in real time and at any time with Customers allows you to ensure Customer / Consumer Satisfaction and also, to benefit from invaluable Customer Intelligence.

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Not easy to identify non-performing processes with high performance gain potential because not all non-performing processes are created equal; some show higher earning potential than others.

In fact, the challenge for an IT manager is not only to identify non-performing processes, but also to identify the processes that will bring the most gain to the business when optimized. As an IT Director, you need to be able to recognize the performance improvement indicators that are important for your company.

Clues to identify non-performing processes with high earning potential

What are these revealing elements, indicating a major hassle that can lead to significant performance gains?

First of all, let’s mention a common plague in the workplace, a remnant of the last Millennium, which reflects a deficient way of doing things; that is Excel. Not that we condemn its use, far from it, because Excel is a formidable and powerful office automation tool. However, if you use a complex Excel spreadsheet for the management and/or calculation of critical data or processes in your company, which only a few insiders master; then you should strongly evaluate its performance!

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How do you identify your software development priority in times of pandemic as several companies are currently experiencing its repercussions.  As the Prime Minister said, some are “on pause” while others are unable to find the necessary employees to meet demands.

One thing remains though, what did not perform well before the pandemic, is still not performing well during the pandemic and will not perform well afterwards.  However, we will return to performance issues in a context of pandemic and economic downturn in a future post.

Of course, you could also embark on the Digital Transformation project, which we have already discussed at length in previous posts, or on an Agile Transformation project, i.e. the integration of Agility into the enterprise. These projects are certainly very worthwhile, but we have something else in mind for you.

Identifying software development priorities in times of pandemic?

For some companies, it will be a question of doing more with less, while for others, it will simply be a question of doing better?

Indeed, any IT manager will seek either a gain in productivity or a gain in performance.  However, there is a third path that is less obvious but certainly just as profitable, the path of Intelligence (not artificial, that is ?).

So, if your company is on idle, why not take advantage of this time to recover Business Intelligence? Such a Business Intelligence-oriented software development project, while requiring good thinking, will not sideline your critical applications. Moreover, whether it is Financial or related to your Customers, this Business Intelligence will prove to be an invaluable competitive advantage in the recovery.

Now, is Business Intelligence identified as a software development priority in your company? It should.

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At the base of any IT initiative, there is the need of profitability for the company, this is the objective. And this goal is facilitated by IT, mainly through the implementation of more or less automated processes.

Business processes are as varied as there are business sectors and departments in companies. And the role of IT in most processes is mainly driven by automation and optimization. Ranging from the automation of simple and repetitive tasks to that of complex calculations, all running between multiple systems, multiple entities and users; this generates complex processes, often heavy, and not always effective.

In short, there is a need to get back to the basics and re-examine business processes to evaluate their performance; now, more than ever!

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In a MuleSoft survey of 651 IT decision-makers from enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, respondents said integration was a major barrier to digital transformation.

And organizations have a lot to integrate; on average, companies with more than 1,000 employees use more than 1,000 individual applications in all of their businesses.

Integration between systems, the pitfall of digital transformation

A common way for businesses to connect applications to each other is to custom code their applications and APIs, often referred to as point-to-point integration.

However, for a company with more than 1,000 applications, this level of tight coupling can create problems when changes, evolutions, or updates occur.

IT decision-makers say that on average, only 29 percent of their business applications are currently integrated or connected.

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Digital disruptions continue to weigh heavily on businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, as consumers, customers, employees and partners now expect everything to be accessible on demand, at all times; in short, everything needs to be fully connected.

If your business is already in tune with the digital age, great!

Otherwise, “it’s time to wake up” because we are no longer in the era “the biggest eats the smallest” but rather “the fastest eats the slowest”.

In this second post, which relates the MuleSoft (Connectivity Report) survey of 650 IT decision-makers from companies, more than 1,000 employees, from the US, Australia, Germany, England, Netherlands, Singapore and China, we will focus on the challenges faced by IT decision-makers in their digital transformation project.

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So the combination Big Data plus IoT will enable predicting and personalizing in real-time Clients Relationships, do risks analysis, redesign products by extrapolating the impact of some functionalities, offer custom heath care, reduce maintenance costs, up date your website in real-time, identify new opportunities, etc.

Or so they say!  Why?  How?

Big Data is basically the analysis of astronomical quantity of data so to extrapolate patterns and therefore predict behaviours, be it consumers or machines, consumer behaviour and satisfaction or performance and durability, etc.

So if you put together,  Big Data plus IoT, you now have access to the physical world of connected objects, and to data from M2M (Machine to Machine) relationships but also M2P / P2M (Person to Machine).

The more Big Data plus IoT will accumulate data over the longer period of time, the more its predictions will be right and sound…

And this formidable combination of Big Data plus IoT is already running at full speed as we speak, changing our lives even though we are not aware of it. Having doubts?  Well, read this carefully:

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Even though it might look so, it’s not necessarily true; and some questions about it must be revisited from time to time? So, how to assess the gain of Tablets for the Mobile Workforce?

I know, I know, you must think: « Come on, are you serious? ». In 2015?  But in fact, even though everybody has a mobile device today, it’s not crystal clear whether it’s really useful or even necessary.  More than often, and many have witnessed it, mobile devices are a source of distraction at work and the cause of errors, productivity loss, time loss, data loss, etc.

Well, let’s see it through…

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