Founder and CEO of Decision Inc Nicholas Bell discusses the issues surrounding the introduction of a new AI system and how this would effect the company's operations.
Companies are rapidly needing to pivot their technology stacks to ensure that they can take the most advantage of advances such as artificial intelligence. Yet, doing this in a way that doesn’t break the budget, is fit for purpose, and can grow as needed can be a daunting task.
Decision Inc. founder and CEO Nicholas Bell says this is where independent input is invaluable, because the rationale behind moving to a new system needs to be understood from an operational perspective first. He says this doesn’t just mean looking at it from how it will aid the company’s operations, but also how implementation of, for example, a company-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, will affect daily tasks.
Nicholas says many companies are currently seeing that their legacy systems and processes are holding them back from being able to run better businesses. Yet, taking the leap in putting a new system in place can be daunting, he adds. “The reality is that for a lot of enterprises, they've been burnt in these big implementations and these big programmes.”
What CFOs are currently concerned about is the risk factor when it comes to the massive investment required, says Nicholas. “They are concerned about whether the investment will provide a return, and how long this will take.”
In addition, he adds, CFOs must be certain that they have the right operating model to ensure that the company can progress in a very competitive environment. “A lot of conversations that we have are around whether a solution they are looking at is the correct solution and whether it will make a difference given the process involved,” he notes.
“Companies don’t necessarily need a ‘big bang’ solution or ERP implementation. Businesses are saying that they want to invest smaller amounts at a time and build on systems, allowing them to grow as they grow while reducing the potential operational and financial risks,” he says.
Nicholas adds that what CFOs need is a company to help them with decisions, especially when it comes to implementation and managing the process.
Decision Inc. aids companies to implement digital solutions in a way that enables them to cater for their business strategy, be as forward looking as possible, and have minimal disruption on operations through being a strategic partner.
As an example, Nicholas talks about an insurance company that was about 15 percent into implementation, and then realised that it wasn’t going to be a good fit with their business strategy. “But they had implemented so much of the system that they had no choice but to continue, and the whole project ended up costing them twice as much.”
This isn’t the only cost to a company, Joanne Tanner, group CFO of Decision Inc. says. She points out that there is a large impact on people. “On large projects, you split your time between your day-to-day work and then must spend time getting the project going. If a digital solution is implemented in a more agile manner, it will be a lot easier for people to manage and that will assist with change management,” she says.
Joanne adds that, in some cases, people could end up doing their work twice because they must double check the new system as well.
As Nicholas points out, new systems can bring current operations to a grinding halt, especially if employees don’t understand how the new way of working will benefit them. In addition, he says, implementation needs to be flexible and take employees’ specific needs into account so that the end result is a fit for the company, and not a waste of money.
“This needs to be a journey as you are building a company’s future. It’s important to design and map it out, not just for today, but for tomorrow as much as possible. As companies evolve, the solution also needs to evolve. It must consider where people are and take them on a journey.”
An important part of the implementation journey is working on an upfront use case, understanding a company’s vision and aiding them with business cases that they know can deliver a return if a solution was deployed, says Nicholas. “When you do rigorous work during the proof-of-concept phase, or proof of value, we can show that the business case can work, the technology can deliver the job, and it can execute.”
He says that this allows a company to engage with the system to ensure that each section is trialled and reviewed, making it possible to have a clear blueprint of where a business is moving. “And in that whole process, you need to be absolutely crystal clear on how this will create value and what job it's going to do.
“As you roll that out, your probability of success is just that much higher if you spend the time building a use case for the business strategy and go into a large amount of detail understanding how the system will work and how the integration will take shape,” he adds.
