Every year, new challenges influence business practices and drive innovation. Ed McQuiston, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Hyland, takes an in-depth look at how digitization is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity as a result.
It is fair to say that the world has changed dramatically over the past few years and continues to evolve. And while we largely have emerged from the pandemic and its associated challenges – social distancing, remote work, the Great Resignation – the hits keep on coming.
Supply chain issues are leading to stock shortages and long wait times, which is driving up inflation. Lack of skilled migration is leading to low unemployment – more people in the workforce is also putting pressure on inflation. As a result, interest rates are rising and investors are being increasingly cautious – especially in the technology sector.
Coupled with these economic trends, the physical world we inhabit seems to be equally volatile. The seeds for this article were planted on a trip to Australia, where the Eastern Seaboard has experienced sustained flooding for the past 12 months. Prior to that, there were catastrophic bushfires.
The situation seems to echo what is happening back home in the United States – significant parts of Florida, where I had hopes of sailing my boat in the near future, are still dealing with the aftereffects of Hurricane Ian, which devastated many popular beach destinations.
Despite all this, the world keeps turning and companies continue to evolve in tune with it. Organizations are most definitely rising to the challenge and finding new, better ways of staying ‘in the game’ – despite distributed workforces, fires, floods, plagues and pestilence.
A big part of rising to that challenge lies in digitization, with the need to modernize and update critical services remaining central to Business Continuity and even survival, pandemic and widespread upheaval or not.
Because of this, digitization is not something to be taken lightly; instead, it is a serious undertaking which must be meticulously planned. As such, there is a definite gap between expectation and delivery – in other words, the creation and finalization of those plans and the actual outcome.
One issue is the disruption that will inevitably occur when systems are taken offline, new applications introduced and new business processes come online.
There is a significant attrition rate between an organization looking for a service and having that service working smoothly and adding value to the business. Many will cancel or alter their plans along the way, for a variety of reasons.
The ease with which a platform, application or general business solution can be planned, rolled out, taught to users and made fully operational makes a big difference to the overall success of a digital upgrade. As such, a content services platform can be of great value before, during and after such an operational upgrade.
In the context of a modernization plan or Digital Transformation program, a content services platform can help people buy time – effectively mitigating much of the pain that stands between looking for a new service and the organization having that service fully operational and ready to roll out to the company.
Content services can help by providing a holistic approach to modernization, with a 360-degree view of information across all services. Federated change allows for business processes to remain active and fully functional while systems are taken offline, or new solutions rolled out.
This holistic view of an organization – whether it be a hospital, university, insurance agency or financial institution – essentially makes life easier for the employees and other stakeholders. It allows them to perform their core tasks better, with less time spent looking for information.
Consider the efficiencies that can be gained from say, a university review process. 70% of people respond to the first offer they receive. The ease at which that individual feels they can work with the institution can go a long way towards swaying their decision, effectively bringing more business to the university. If information is flowing freely between admissions and review boards, as well as the different faculties involved – then that potential student’s journey to enrolment is made faster and smoother and the more likely they are to base their decision on a fast, easy process.
The same can be said of a healthcare organization. The total experience of a patient determines their satisfaction with the clinic or hospital – from the time they walk into reception or triage, through to the care they receive, medication dispensed and discharge procedure.
The healthcare organization’s ability to instantly read or present that patient’s records, treatment program or X-rays provides a seamless experience, cutting down on the waiting time that is often associated with medical procedures and general care.
Clinicians and healthcare employees also benefit from having a 360-degree view of the patient. If all medical information is immediately available right across the organization, clinicians are able to make more timely and accurate diagnoses and all healthcare staff can remain laser-focused on the task at hand; that goes for the patient, too, if there is no roadblock between them and the information they require.
It becomes apparent that easy, productive digitization and modernization of systems is an inherently difficult task and one that can cause significant business disruption. However, there ARE ways to combat the risks of taking down a legacy system and replacing it with a modern solution and there is a multitude of benefits in doing so.
Simply put, if systems work better together and employees have greater access to and visibility of information, then they can provide better quality work and subsequently the business can provide a higher level of service or care.
It is no longer so much a case of ‘digital modernization is nice-to-have.’ It can be a strategic advantage to the organization and in modern times – where customers have greater control over their business decisions and the ability to quickly and easily switch between providers – it can literally be the difference between success and failure.
