Chief Executives should not be held to ransom by technology
By David Mills, Executive Vice President, Operations, Ricoh Europe
It is startling to hear that according to recent research from the Economist Intelligence Unit, almost one third (31 per cent) of business leaders worry that new technologies and not business needs, will dictate the future direction of their company and how it will be managed.* Also, more than one third (37 per cent) believe that by 2020 their organisation will be unable to keep up with technology and they will lose their competitive edge*. There is little doubt that technology is one of the leading forces that will drive further change in the workplace. It was recently rated by global business leaders as one of the top three macro trends that will do most to change how businesses operate over the next decade*.
Therefore it is crucial that business leaders are not held to ransom by it. Instead, they should be provided with the right tools and expertise to ensure that they are maximising it to implement innovative business processes for the future. Optimised processes in turn will enable them to react more quickly to customer needs, support employee knowledge sharing and ensure an agile and flexible business structure.
The majority (70 per cent) of global business leaders do acknowledge that that there are still plenty of gains to be made in using technology to improve operating efficiency*. They also expect technology advances to deliver greater speed and responsiveness toward customers and, through ever more sophisticated data analysis, the ability to tailor products and services to an unprecedented degree.
So how can CEOs ensure technology meets their expectations and that the business’ operations are future proof and agile enough to ensure the organisation remains competitive in the future?
Start at the right place – Analyse the journey critical business information travels before it is turned into knowledge or is adding business value. Information is one of an organisation’s greatest assets. It gives competitive advantage; it defines the purpose and focus of a business. Employees should be able to access the right information quickly to support their core business roles. Start with an audit of the core information processes that are at the heart of the organisation. Typically these include sales transactions, invoicing and customer engagement processes.
Challenge the norm to uncover the bottlenecks. Assess the efficiency of the core processes by challenging the traditional ‘way of doing things’. There is no doubt the processes were efficient when first implemented but are they meeting business needs in today’s big data environment? Questioning the status quo will enable organisations to uncover bottlenecks that are impacting business agility. A Ricoh customer in the public sector in Spain reviewed the way it was processing forms submitted by individuals through its office each day. After a redesign of the entire process, introducing digitisation and integrating with an ERP system, it has reduced the time spent processing applications from several days to just minutes.
Keep an eye on the target – the workplace will continue to change but if the core business processes have been optimised and performance is reviewed on an on-going basis, the organisation can keep its focus firmly on meeting business goals. On-going audits to identify further areas for optimisation should be included in any service agreement with a third party expert. The end result will mean that businesses information processes are led by business needs, instead of the all too common pitfall of a technology lead process that isn’t used to its full capacity and isn’t adding value to the core business.
As business leaders look to the next decade of business challenges, many (six out of ten) acknowledge that the markets where they operate will be significantly altered between now and 2020, bearing little similarity to today1. There is no doubt that the successful organisations of the future will be those that embrace change and harness the benefits that are to be gained from innovative technologies and ensure that they maximise them in order to future proof their information infrastructures and create competitive edge.
www.ricoh-europe.com/thoughtleadership
* Economist Intelligence Unit. Executive Summary - Frontiers of disruption: The next decade of technology in business. Sponsored by Ricoh. October 2011.
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À propos de Ricoh Luxembourg PSF
Depuis sa création, Ricoh Luxembourg PSF a su évoluer avec le marché et les technologies. Ainsi, outre son métier de fournisseur de matériel bureautique, Ricoh Luxembourg PSF propose aujourd’hui à ses clients des solutions d’impression (office solutions), des services documentaires gérés (managed document services), du matériel pour l’impression de production (production printing) ainsi que la gestion de services informatiques (managed IT services). L’objectif de Ricoh Luxembourg PSF est d’assurer la gestion globale du flux documentaire et de l’infrastructure IT de ses clients, en s’appuyant sur la performance de ses choix technologiques, la pertinence de ses offres de services et la qualité de ses équipes. En fournissant à la fois des services, de la consultance, des logiciels et du matériel aux petites, moyennes et grandes entreprises, Ricoh Luxembourg PSF s’impose comme le « one-stop-shop » incontournable pour moderniser les espaces de travail, améliorer les processus documentaires, augmenter la performance et accroître la profitabilité. Pour de plus amples informations : www.ricoh.lu, tél. +352 33 58 88, courriel : info@ricoh.lu.
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