Improving Organizational Resilience By Scaling DX
The shift to remote work seemed like an overnight shift — one day, employees filled the office; the next, it was all but empty. Inevitably, some organizations were better prepared than others for this shift, showing greater resilience in uncertain times.
According to Gartner, before COVID-19, nearly 90% of senior business leaders said digital transformation (DX) was key to success and a top priority; however, only 40% had reached scale for their digital initiatives. As a result, organizations that were slow to embark on their DX journeys are now less resilient. Here’s how they can turn things around.
Get digital
It’s time to go 100% digital. While it may sound obvious, there are still some organizations that rely too heavily on paper-based processes, which in today’s digital world is already setting them back. Organizations that shifted to remote work overnight were able to do so because their processes allowed them to continue operating and servicing customers from “afar.”
In addition to improving operational resilience, going digital provides several benefits such as:
- Reduction in human error and information loss through automation of key business processes
- Greater efficiency with finding, collaborating on and sharing information
- Faster response times and improved customer experience
- Enhanced information security and governance
- Lower environmental impact
Move to the cloud
As part of an organizational shift to digital, business decision-makers should look at cloud technologies to enable greater flexibility and resilience. While digital technologies can improve operations, they are rendered useless to remote workers if they need to be in a physical office to access them. By utilizing cloud technologies, employees can securely access the information they need to communicate and collaborate, reducing IT costs, and freeing up IT leaders’ time to focus on broader strategic issues. Ultimately, it enables organizations to provide access to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Modernize collaboration and information management
It is essential for business leaders to understand operational resilience doesn’t just manufacture itself on the back of DX. It must be built into the business. The best way to do this is by implementing a digital collaboration strategy with three core objectives:
- Connect people. Remote work has allowed many companies to continue operating, but it can also have a negative impact on employees and their wellbeing. Leaders need to focus on maintaining a strong corporate culture and keeping employees engaged. Collaboration technologies enable this, but only if used appropriately. It is up to the organization and its leaders to ensure this happens.
- Simplify access to information. By consolidating and updating information, organizations can achieve greater productivity during a crisis. Fast, efficient collaboration is essential, but unfortunately, too many professionals are wasting time searching for information. According to our research, on average, 26% of workers across Australia and Singapore spend at least one minute (often more) looking for a specific file or piece of information.
- Automation of information governance. By automating governance policies (e.g., retention and archiving of documents), organizations can ensure compliance and remove excessive workload on remote employees.
Protect your assets
Finally, it is essential to not only have the right cybersecurity infrastructure in place but to foster a cyber-aware culture.
Cybersecurity infrastructure should include endpoint protection, given the volume of remote work. However, it mustn’t stop there. By conducting regular training sessions and ensuring employees are attuned to cyber risks, businesses can increase their cyber resilience. It will ultimately enable them to continue operations without disrupting files/servers being locked due to a ransomware attack or other cyber-attacks.
DX is not a one-stop-shop or an overnight implementation. It’s a journey driven by everyone within the organization and led by the C-suite. If the technologies are implemented and adopted appropriately, organizations can improve their organizational resilience and will be prepared to face adversity and uncertain times — whatever and whenever they may be.
Albert Nel, vice president for APAC at OpenText, authored this article.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends. Photo credit: iStockphoto/gustavofrazao
