QAD Users: Digital Transformation Made Easy…!

Evolve with Digital Transformation

For anyone who has been following our marketing content over the past few weeks you have read about Digital Transformation (DT) and our definition of  DT; ‘Connecting People and Processes via the Cloud, Mobile and Social Media with Approval Routing and Workflow Technology’. You may have seen the slide deck we used in our recent Webinar titled, ‘The Secret of Digital Transformation’, and learned a bit about our 3-step methodology for digitizing business processes, as well as  heard the secret of focusing on small processes to fill the gaps left by the ERP application(s).

As we’ve mentioned and believe it’s very much worth stating again… According to a recent survey conducted by Progress Software and Loudhouse, a specialist research division of Octopus Group, “Organizations have one or two years at best to make significant inroads with digital transformation before they suffer financially and competitively. Many are worried they are already too late. It’s a transformation of the entire organization to become more agile and deliver compelling customer experiences”.

This may all sound daunting, especially when it’s coming from the C-Suite in your organization, which is why we chose the following topic for this week’s discussion:

Digital Transformation made Easy

We believe that one of our responsibilities as a process improvement solutions provider is to make the transformation to become a ‘digitized organization’ as painless as possible. We have been delivering solutions to manufacturing organizations for 35+ years and understand the disruption new technology and new processes can cause. On the same hand, we have seen the value it can deliver once the changes have matured, sometimes to the point where the organization cannot remember, nor imagine reverting back to the old-school way of performing business.

We have seen that if new technology and processes cannot be implemented ‘easily and quickly’ to deliver value then it won’t be embraced, and the changes will not produce the ROI expected.

That’s part of the ‘secret’ of Digital Transformation

Think small [processes] and fill the ‘gaps’ left by the larger ERP applications

Digital Transformation is not a quick fix. It’s an evolution in thinking ‘how to’ creatively and productively change old 20^th century routines into 21^st century digitized processes utilizing current technology for generating untapped value. It’s a ‘way of thinking and behaving’ rather than ‘when will we be done’. There are literally hundreds of small and medium size processes going on within an organization every day. Many of them can and should be improved to produce more value, but most of us are too focused on the big processes (fightin’ fires!) and the smaller processes continue to be performed in an old, inefficient way. Although each small process may only be a cog in a large wheel, without improving these small processes companies are ‘leaking’ ROI with unsatisfied requirements (gaps) left by the large ERP applications. By changing ‘thinking’ and ‘behavior’ and focusing on the small procedures, over time more and more of the small cogs will be digitized, and the wheel will begin and continue to run more efficiently; producing improved results with the same or less resources.

ISS Group has developed our technology and solutions with that primary objective in mind. Ease of use. It must be easy for the Users to manage, and easy for the Administrator to implement and maintain. Of course it needs to satisfy specific business requirements, but just as importantly it needs to be EASY.

How do we define easy?

• The solution needs to provide the Users an intuitive interface which is basically self-explanatory, but provides immediate help if required.

• It needs to be not only configurable that will satisfy 90% or more of the business requirements, but it must also afford the ability for minor customizations as may be required. It cannot be “what you see is what you get!”

• It needs to provide personalization functionality so the users can ‘tailor’ the solution for their individual needs.

• It must install easily and be pre-integrated with QAD; configure easily to ‘customize’ the user experience, and it must be maintained easily with minimal resources.

• ….and it needs to begin delivering results in 30 – 60 days requiring minimal Client and Consulting support resources for implementation

Don’t get stuck in Digital denial…!

Our iApprove™ solution for QAD EA has been proven throughout many organizations in the QAD User community to be a valuable tool for digitizing business processes easily. It has been used for digitizing the sales quoting process, the purchasing process, a sales-person incentive pay process, and various financial data control processes. Utilizing our Process Digitization Methodology, we were able to not only automate, but change (digitize) the process to take advantage of current technology (Cloud, Mobile, Social and Workflow), which improved the process in many ways and is generating significant value. The implementations were quick and easy, and the payback period on the investment was under a year.

One of the reasons our solutions are easy is the underlying workflow technology. This technology is easy to configure and is typically learned within a few hours, yet is very flexible allowing for connectivity and workflows to be created for any process utilizing any data stored within the QAD DB. The approval routing and workflows can be simple or they can satisfy significant routing requirements, all with a very simple point and click maintenance program. No programming required! Easy.

According to IDC, “By the end of 2017, two-thirds of the CEO’s of Global 2000 companies will have Digital Transformation at the ‘CENTER’ of their corporate strategy.” This is well in line with the Progress survey, where 86% of respondents say they have two years to make inroads with Digital Transformation (55% say a year or less!) before they begin to suffer from financial or competitive threats. Placing more urgency on the situation. 59% of the respondents are worried they may be too late already.

BUT…don’t get caught up in all the marketing jargon about Digital Transformation. Digital Transformation does not need to be complicated or hard! ISS Group has been a leader in the QAD community with this technology for the past 20 + years. Just think small and keep the solutions easy.