Consultants, CIOs and IT leaders are using out of date tools for digital transformation. It’s time to automate the digital transformation process and accelerate innovation.
September 2000, John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster and Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix sat in a boardroom in Dallas. They were discussing a potential merger where Netflix would run online operations for Blockbuster. $50 million was the proposed fee for Blockbuster. The salient and arrogant response from Antioco: “The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown.” He refused the deal and sent Netflix packing. 14 years later, Blockbuster closed its last store, while Netflix is worth $30 billion, and has even benefited from making a nostalgic documentary revealing the story of Blockbuster’s demise. Ouch! What is the lesson learned? Whether by ignorance or arrogance, digital transformation is inevitable. Netflix is effectively a pokemon-style evolution of Blockbuster. It is what digital transformation looks like when done successfully. Most companies appreciate that it is important, but they don’t know how to digitally transform or what tools to use.
Various sources suggest the top 10 tools to solve problems within the technology evaluation process but they don’t speak to your individual needs. They definitely don’t worry about integrating with each other to run a seamless collaborative technology evaluation process. Often these are tools meant for other activities and are currently being applied to the digital transformation process.
You don’t need the confusion and you certainly don’t need a million different tools to solve problems in isolation. You need a trusted resource to guide the process and augment your decision making.
Why digital transformation?
Digital transformation is not an attempt to eradicate traditional businesses, it is an attempt to keep businesses moving with the times. It helps you meet customers where they are rather than where they were. It uses the modern tools at your disposal to become more efficient and more profitable.
Business in 2021 has changed dramatically. Consumer expectations are switching to online everything. Customers take to the internet to read reviews, make orders, speak with customer care, arrange delivery and more online.
Even the employee experience is digitally transforming. New workflow, ERP and knowledge management services have come to the market solving bottlenecks and process challenges. If your company is not planning on transforming, your best employees will migrate to your competitors who are already in the process of transformation.
The digital transformation has been taking place for years but so many businesses are taking a dangerous approach. They reactively and hastily buy out of immediate need rather than as part of a long term strategy. It is leading to rushed and short-sighted decision making that impacts employees and customers.
What tools are companies using now for technology evaluations?
Real digital transformation means creating a strategy, getting the input of the stakeholders and deeply understanding your needs and then evaluating the solutions available. However, that is not what the typical sources of advice will suggest. The unfortunate irony is that the waterfall processes and old school tools are still used to evaluate technology. As transformative and innovative as the process is supposed to be, there is no innovation within the system of finding the tools. Innovators are using outdated technology to innovate. The irony!
The advice channels that CIOs are turning to supposedly work but for who? They don’t help you find solutions that work for your company. The sites that suggest the top 10 tools typically have a vested interest and receive payment for featuring certain vendors.
Is your business constructed around the sales needs of your suppliers? Unlikely. So, why would your digital transformation? Your transformation should revolve around you and your needs.
Where do you start and what tools do you need to be successful?
CIOs, digital transformation leaders and IT departments usually all start with the same idea. “We need this software to help” and then go to Gartner, Capterra or another comparison site to see who leads the market. We challenge you to think differently.
At Olive, we believe you need to begin by looking at the problem you are trying to solve first. Take the time to speak to the stakeholders involved. In their opinion, what would a software solution need to do? What are the priority requirements? Only by speaking to your employees will you get their buy-in when it comes to implementation. Post implementation, ask them how it went. Are there any gaps in the implementation that should be fixed?
Olive is a tool that guides your organization through the digital transformation process.
A quick google search of “digital transformation tools” turns up a laundry list of solutions, that the CIO or Consultant must cobble together to run the technology evaluation process. If only there was a tool where you could manage and run the entire process, from aligning on the business goals to post implementation?
There is! It’s Olive. Our platform is the ultimate tool for digital transformation as it guides you through all the major milestones of the software selection process, and facilitates an agile collaborative process. With Olive, you will find the right enterprise technology for the company’s specific needs.
Swap countless discovery meetings for Olive’s surveys, giving you data into what your business needs to transform, and free up precious resources for deep exploration of key requirements.
Replace the round table or zoom call of stakeholders arguing over who has the most important requirement for an agile collaboration on requirements ranking, directly in the platform.
Have you frankensteined a bunch of tools together to create what we’ve already made for you? Is your digital transformation toolbox bursting at the seams with out-of-date tools cobbled together to run your technology evaluation process?
The only tool you need for digital transformation is Olive!
Reduce the cost of your technology evaluations, increase process effectiveness, increase employee satisfaction (keep talent and automate the frustrating and mundane activities) and find the solutions that transform your business, with Olive! Here’s how it works
Interested? Book a Demo
