I was asked a question the other day from someone wanting to know what would be required to become a fully digital company. Big question I know and I didn’t have much time in which to answer. I came up with a fast list. This is an attempt to remember and add to it but still in the spirit of off the cuff thinking, so I’m not going to dig into too much detail. Great exercise, you should try it. So this list is extended beyond the original list to include 21 items in total, for 2021 natch and seeing as that we are at the end of it 😜
So this is a list of technologies which I think are essential for your organisation to have in place or to be thinking about having in place if you don’t already. Or improving on existing technologies. This doesn’t take into consideration the non-technical and organisational requirements you should have in place to make these technologies work for you because after all, they are just technologies. Things like a good strategy, plan, culture and processes, to name just a few. So in no order of priority:
- Collaboration, communication and content covering productivity, projects, teamwork, documents, etc.
- HR covering performance management, payroll, rewards, career management, etc.
- Strategy management covering performance metrics, OKR’s, strategy development, etc.
- Custom apps – low/no code to solve everyday business needs, citizen development, etc.
- AI and machine learning covering things like service BOTS, data mining and large scale processing, predictive analytics, etc.
- Process digitisation covering workflows and automation
- Customer success covering customer experience and satisfaction management
- Business intelligence covering analytics, reporting, etc.
- Meeting technologies covering hybrid work (virtual and physical meetings)
- ERP covering supply chain, orders, logistics, etc.
- Employee experience covering onboarding, knowledge management, learning/growth, etc.
- Marketing covering social media management, content marketing, etc.
- Sales covering CRM, performance management, incentives, etc.
- Culture covering wellness, diversity and inclusion, employee health scores, etc.
- Finance covering business model management, financial planning and forecasting, etc.
- Product/service management covering the development process, customer support, etc.
- Digital infrastructure management covering critical business systems migration to the cloud
- SaaS management including moving and managing your core applications to vendors and managing them
- Data management including where and how the date is stored, compliance, etc.
- Security covering cybersecurity, information protection, etc.
- Metaverse covering digital twinning, IoT, edge computing, virtual worlds, etc.
Arguably some of these could have been combined but I do think on the whole they merit separate attention. What do you think, what would be on your list?