This article is an adaption of the webinar hosted with ALGIM. Watch the webinar here or read on.
It has been a roller coaster ride for us Kiwis the past few years. Earthquakes, floods, covid, a cost of living crisis, a double-dip recession and now a change in government. The current market is incredibly tough for councils and organisations alike. Belts are being tightened across the board.
While budgets will be adversely impacted, the business will still need to provide a high-quality service to customers/constituents. Core to the business’s critical services is the technology that enables it.
So with all this in mind, how do we do more with less?
(Warning: What follows is not the most glamorous list of suggestions, but they do work.)
1. Retain your IP
Personnel costs are increasing along with everything else. But have you thought about how you manage and maintain the information flow within your organisation? And have you thought about how that impacts your budget?
As people move in, out and through the business how do you ensure their knowledge of your business is retained as IP? Or are you letting it walk out the door every time a role changes hands?
So how do you retain IP?
Knowledge management.
Many organizations tend to give up the will to live when it comes to Knowledge Management. The team at STATE3 have found that the lack of data is the key problem. If the information is lacking, then there is no way to input that information into the internal knowledge stack to make it discoverable and useful for others in the organisation to reference/consume.
The key to successfully implementing knowledge management is combining it with change Change Management.
Rolling out new initiatives is hard, but it is a whole lot easier if there is a strong change culture. Combining Knowledge Management (knowing where information is stored, who owns it and how it is updated) and Change Management (a process that is followed when decisions are made within the organisation that ensures the right documentation is updated and the change is implemented as intended) ensures there are clear processes and procedures in place.
Many organisations use tech, or a stack of tech, to implement their knowledge and change management processes, but still struggle to see the full picture. That’s where Organisational Technology Intelligence solutions are helpful as they bring all the information into one place.
2. Don’t stop digitisation
We all know digital isn’t going anywhere. Customers expect a fully digitised experience on mobile from almost any organisation they interact with. That ever-increasing digitalisation demand is an ongoing challenge for digital teams. As the demand increases, so does the need to keep data safe and secure.
So how do you derisk your digitisation?
You know your current state.
Sounds simple enough, right? But too often we hear from customers ‘We have difficulty knowing our organizational current state’ or ‘We have not mapped out our critical services and how technology supports them’. If you don’t know your current state, how do you ensure projects are successfully implemented on time and on budget?
Too often companies are flying blind not knowing how their technology connects to the rest of their business. As changes are implemented the impact is unknown, processes break, and the cost, you guessed it, blows out.
Luckily, current state is what we specialise in. STATE3 Enterprise (S3E) takes in all the data from your technology and business to provide a clear view of your current state and understand the impact of changes before you make them.
3. Make Technical Debt a Focus
Technical debt is the self-opening pinata, the gift that keeps on giving.
How concerned should you be able technical debt? Well, the Business of Tech Podcast recently found that 50% of US CIOs were concerned that technical debt will severely impact any attempt to consider AI within their organizations. On top of that McKinsey suggests that the cost of not dealing with technology debt equates to a 10-20% cost on any project. While the report didn't go into massive detail, it's not hard to argue that from a technology side, this will include unknown integrations, migration of data, licensing implications, along with added people internally / externally to tame the beast. Not our definition of fun, that’s for sure.
Organisations need to be better at understanding, addressing and eliminating technical/digital debt. But how can they do it?
Firstly, by determining criticality and risk.
Knowing where your tech is and how it is connecting to your critical services is essential. If critical systems/technology/infrastructure is running a risk higher than the appetite of the business, then it needs to be swiftly addressed. These aren’t easy conversations and decisions to make, but how long can they be avoided before they become a serious problem?
Secondly, by introducing frameworks and ownership.
One approach to ensuring smooth running in this area is the adoption of Criticality and Risk frameworks, and again these need to be linked to critical services and risk appetite.
Technology teams, tend to take more responsibility relating to technology than they probably should. Technology is an enabler, the business is responsible for the processes, the fitness of the technology it relies on and the data that flows through it. Low maturity around ownership can be addressed in a multitude of ways – from agreed business ownership (i.e. if you are the CFO you own the business systems you rely on, the processes, the data), technology ownership and Process ownership. When you add end users and customers (internal & external) you start to paint a picture of key stakeholders.
At a risk level, this is a team play. While technology and digital teams can determine, explain and address the issues they see, the business is required to determine if they can stomach the level of risk that goes with it.
4. Deal with Duplication
To better with less, we have to deal with duplication.
Online credit card purchases are a shocker for auto-renewals and if happening at scale, can impact an organisation financially. One customer we worked with had ~149 different Adobe licenses over 1000 users. This was a ‘swipe card’ purchase at a unit/individual level that quickly added up. Few variables were clear – a need required a purchase, but probably wasn’t getting used properly.
The answer to dealing with duplication is truly as simple as you think it is.
Audit what you have. Understand how you use it. Then standardise.
It isn’t a groundbreaking suggestion but when you are dealing with a large, complex organization, it is far from simple.
That’s where using current state specialists, like us, can help you get started.
Our product S3E gathers connects and uncovers the intricate relationships between technology, infrastructure, people, business processes, data, locations, and contracts. This enables you to see a clear current state, address duplication/technical debt and make informed decisions to manage risk and support change management.
If you want to talk about the challenges you are facing in your organization and how to change, get in touch.
Written by Tania Armstrong, Co-founder/CEO, STATE3
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