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Technology Adoption Services
To stay competitive, organizations need to be more agile than ever before. Change is inevitable, especially when it comes to the implementation of new technologies such as ERP systems, business applications, mobile technology, and cloud-based applications that help enable digital transformation. At GP Strategies, we understand this challenge and we have the proven approaches and frameworks to enable employees to effectively leverage new technology to deliver critical business outcomes.
Whether you are embarking on a new IT implementation, an upgrade, or are continuing your rollout to reach new employee communities, your end user solutions must be focused on workforce performance to ensure success through all phases of your implementation project lifecycle. GP Strategies is committed to providing you with the change management expertise and learning experience that meet your organization’s needs, help your organization achieve its business goals, and enable your people to harness the technologies of the 21st century workplace. Contact us today to help ensure you maximize the results of your technology investments.
Digital Transformation Services
Modern technology provides the opportunity for organizations all over the world to leverage digital solutions that will allow them to connect with their customers, streamline processes, gather crucial analytics, and make full use of mobile platforms to drive business initiatives. The positive impact of digital transformation on your business cannot be understated; at the same time, it is important to take into account the effect that this massive change will have on your workforce.
To avoid business disruption, your entire workforce will not only need adequate preparation for Day One in the new work environment your initiative will create, but they will also need ongoing support to sustain performance well after the technology goes live. At GP Strategies, we understand that it is critical to focus on the people in your organization—not just your technology—that is the key to a successful digital transformation initiative. Let our experts help ensure your workforce effectively adopts your digital transformation vision.
Organizational Change Management (OCM)
Our change management solutions target the critical factors required for a high-performing organization. Working collaboratively with your people, we prepare your organization for new ways of working, enroll all levels of leadership in the transformation, help establish an agile learning culture, and deploy innovative solutions to build your employees’ capabilities to perform in the 21st century’s digital environment. Our solutions are tailored to the specific needs of your organization, whether you are undertaking a major transformational change or facing the constant small changes associated with cloud technology. GP Strategies’ focus can be strategic, operational, or tactical, but in all cases, our methodology allows us to shape our services to meet your needs.
2 questions to ask yourself before adopting technology
For all the hype, articles and analysis of emerging tech, leaders still struggle to understand the inherent value of the latest tools and solutions as it relates to their organization. Marry this ambiguity with the stark statistic from The Project Management Institute’s 2017 Pulse of the Profession survey, which stated that 1 in 4 of strategic initiatives are considered outright failures.
Today it is more difficult than ever to decide which technologies will help your organization achieve its goals while increasing operational efficiency. There is simply too much technology for any organization master it all, but those who develop a structured approach to technology adoption are more likely to succeed.
Here’s how leaders should evaluate and carefully consider their next technology investment.
How does the technology fit into the big picture?
Reference architecture If an organization has established a reference architecture, decision makers are far more empowered to make the right choices about new technologies. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) provides an enterprise architecture methodology assists in describing any organization’s reference architecture. While a reference architecture can contain multiple levels of detail, having it available can help the organization maintain confidence in its “North Star” and can more easily align technology adoption decisions to an accepted reference point.
Strategic evaluation Today’s technology decisions cannot be made in isolation; every system is connected directly or indirectly. This shift impacts how IT investments are valued within organizations. Every investment should be evaluated to determine if it’s required for a point solution or part of a wider value for the organization. For those technologies that impact the wider organization, there needs to be more tolerance for return on investment (ROI) and the value IT can bring to the wider organization’s goals.
Setting the lifetime horizon Conder that every new technology introduced into the enterprise will typically remain in place for a long time. COBOL, programming language introduced in the 1960s, remained in use for decades and some organizations still depend on it today. Therefore, you need to take a long-term view of the technology. Is the it going to be around in 5, 10 and 15 years from today?
How will the technology will be operated, supported and implemented on a day-to-day basis?
Standardization Very few IT investments are isolated point solutions, so it’s important to consider the integration of the new technology with technology that’s already in place.
Consider the deployment of a new General Ledger system. An organization should consider what interfaces are supported? Are there any standards the system is compatible with? Does the system contain any open source elements and does the system allow modifications by the end user organization?
Lack of standards and openness can quickly drive an organization into a monopoly arrangement whereby you are limited in the number of vendors who can support and enhance the system. This drives up cost and gives way to vendor lock-in—something agile organizations should avoid.
Using a value framework Several frameworks exist, such as ValIT, and Value Measuring Methodology (VMM), that attempt to empower decision makers on making better IT investment decisions. Unless the use of these metrics is adopted within the organization and has been widely accepted these frameworks should only be used with caution, ideally utilizing the expertise of a specialist who has experience in the use of such frameworks.
Support, knowledge and skills Unlike the past, leaders can easily mix the technology stack for project requirements without experiencing much technical difficulty. But the ease with which an organization can implement a new technology depends greatly on teams’ ability to master it, and in turn deliver business impact.
The wider the technology portfolio an organization has, the greater the number of skills needed. Objectives often accompany the adoption of new technology, but how regularly does the strategy include a plan for ongoing education and training of talent? Learning should be more than informal knowledge sharing: consider enablement through documentation, certifications and a technology learning platform.