Digital Disruption is a call to action and FlowCentric Technologies can provide the tools and technology to analyse, automate, integrate, simplify and deliver your own disruptive technology.
If you look up the word ‘disrupt' you will notice a few things.
Firstly, the word is a verb, it is action, it’s about doing. Secondly there are a number of very interesting words used in the definition of this verb, words such as ‘disorder’, ‘turmoil’, ‘destroy’, ‘radically change’.
With that in mind, it is no surprise that the now infamous term ‘Digital Disruption’ can invoke fear and panic. We have already seen the consequence of disruption in previously untouchable industries. Industries built on traditional, sound business principles. Industries such as media, transport, travel and leisure. These are the obvious examples and as you read this, you will already know the names of the companies who have been depleted and destroyed by the digital warriors.
But remember this, the disrupted industries and companies were built on solid, tested business principles. We have to believe that they ignored the warnings and pretended that the small band of digital warriors attacking the fringes of their business were unprepared, ill-equipped and annoying. And that is how empires fall. And that is how industries have been annexed.
There are complex decisions to be made when you are under attack, but where to start?
- Firstly, stop wondering if you are under attack. You are. Start moving. Disrupt your own business before someone else does;
- Secondly, you must re-organise your business to be truly technology-driven;
- Thirdly, you need to understand your business processes so that you can ruthlessly simplify every aspect of delivery; and,
- Lastly, you need to understand that unless you automate and integrate your delivery, you cannot compete with the digital marauders. The war is no longer won by the ground-forces, it is all about the technology.
Information is Key
If you can gather enough accurate information at each point in your business process, you can start painting some interesting business pictures and asking some important questions. Information is key when it comes to building a technology-driven business.
When you are able to gather information that describes who is doing what, when they are doing it and how long it takes you can start asking the most important question, ‘Why are they doing it?’
It is such an important question but often remains unasked because it points to some very sore-points in a business. Many employees are doing what they do because that is how it has always been done. It is this embedded legacy attitude that will prevent a business from re-organising. But this information must be gathered and analysed and these difficult, awkward questions must be asked. The answer to ‘Why are we doing this?’ will always set the path, light the way and describe the challenges. The trick is to align everyone in the organisation to the same ‘Why’, and then to align the technology to enable delivery.
Technology-Driven
Being technology-driven doesn’t mean that we all use the same network and e-mail each other. A technology-driven business builds infrastructure, systems and processes that collectively deliver real-time, automated, accurate and relevant information. Every piece of the system must deliver information to enable real-time assessment of process efficiency, real-time adjustment of tactics and real-time delivery to our constantly connected client.
Technology-driven means that we understand the client requirement and we then set out to deliver the best solution using our technology. When our technology cannot deliver, we do not change the process, we do not change the requirement - we change the technology.
Technology will be the greatest advantage going forward and it is more important that we update, change, develop and deliver technology that can deliver the real client requirement, in the most efficient manner.
Disrupt from within!
Remember that by its very definition, disruption introduces a new business model that is at odds with the current one. The way business has been done until now, and the processes that that you have always relied on to produce income, are often directly opposed to disruptive processes.
In this new paradigm, your current business processes cannot simply be changed or updated. True disruption is not about iterative improvement; it is about disturbing the status quo and changing the way you do business.
This is where Business Process Management (BPM) technology really comes to the fore. Using BPM we are able to analyse, understand and map processes - we can map the old and we can design the new.
Within your business you should have your own ‘special-ops’ division who are challenging every aspect of your delivery systems. This division should be autonomous from the business and should be equipped with specialist tools, such as the FlowCentric BPM Platform to enable them to design and build the new business models from within.
To succeed in digital disruption, you need to challenge the ways your industry has traditionally made money. Challenge the norm. Challenge every aspect of your business model, and do it now - because while you’re still deciding if your business is under attack, lean technology start-ups are challenging everything that your industry has been doing, and they’re coming up with amazing, efficient and simple solutions.
You need to be providing these solutions internally, long before your traditional business units are even aware that they are under attack.
Internal disruption is key to survival. Unfortunately, your traditional business owners and often your clients don’t always understand this. When Netflix disrupted their own business by moving from DVD to streaming technology their share price dropped significantly. However, they understood that they had to disrupt themselves or lose everything. This visionary move paid off.
Accelerate your disruption
Once your ‘special-ops’ division has analysed and mapped the required processes you need to adopt and implement these within the traditional business as quickly as possible.
This is another area where the FlowCentric BPM Platform excels. The newly created processes can be designed, developed and tested in a fully functional, fully integrated test environment and then rapidly implemented in a live environment. Acceleration is key!
Once the new processes are developed, they must be implemented rapidly. The new processes can only deliver tangible results if they scale rapidly. There is little value in a slow, incremental release of disruptive technology and processes into your business. If the new processes have been designed properly and they deliver as intended, they must be rolled out to the business as quickly as possible.
If you get this right you will see that instead of the old business processes and practices being the norm, your new processes have become the norm. You may find that the old, legacy business no longer exists and that you have re-designed and re-developed a new, technology-driven product delivery system.
It is a relatively simple choice to make. Either you’re disrupting your business and industry, or someone else will. Either you remain a viable business by developing the ‘new normal’, or you continue with the legacy systems and you find that very rapidly, you no longer have a business.
FlowCentric Technologies provides the tools and technology for each phase of your internal Digital Disruption.
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FlowCentric Technologies can help enable your internal digital disruption initiatives.
