Mike Boyle (Host):
Determining business needs is very critical to identifying an effective digital transformation strategy no matter what your business is. What are some of the best practices and industry standards companies need to consider to evaluate and select those systems for a successful digital transformation?

David Panitch:
We’re going to certainly talk more about this a little bit later on today but the first thing that we always recommend is just be observant, look around. If you are seeing things that you’ve done the same way for the past five years it’s really time to say, “Why? Can we do something different?” We’re also seeing that people are looking at both internal and external opportunities. So internally people are looking at ways to continue to reduce their paperwork and the movement of paper. They are also looking at any manual approval processes that they might have and figuring out how can they automate some of those or at least get them into the hands of people to make faster, more thought-provoking decisions. And it also breaks down internally some of the silos of information that sometimes the marketing department has knowledge of X, Y, and Z but the sales team doesn’t. Same thing can happen in the procurement area and the operations of an organization. So, it’s really looking at how do we break down some of these silos.

David Panitch:
And then when you think about external, it’s been done for many, many years but it’s listening to the customer, identifying where their needs are shifting, figuring out how do you meet them where they’re going to be. Similar to a great quarterback finding a receiver that’s running a route and he certainly doesn’t pass the ball to where the receiver was, he passes it to where the receiver is going to be. And I think that same philosophy can be used with your customers in understanding where it looks like they’re going to be and to meet them there.

David Panitch:
And then lastly, and Uber is probably a great example of this, how do you make the interactions with you more frictionless? So back in the day, we used to get into a cab after we hailed it down and maybe three passed us by. We finally got in and we got to our destination and the cab driver said, “Well, I don’t take credit cards.” So you reached into your pocket and you figured out that you had enough cash on you. But with Uber, it became you summons a car, you get in, you get out and you’re done, you’re at your destination. So it’s those types of philosophies and thoughts that we’re encouraging our customers to really think about as they look at where their customers are going.

Mike Boyle (Host):
Let’s dive into company considerations when it comes to thinking about a digital transformation. Let’s pretend I’m the president of Acme Widget Company. How do I know that my company needs a digital transformation?

David Panitch:
Well, the first thing that really has to happen is it has to get someone from leadership to really buy into this. But I think that if you know that you’re ready because you’ve been struggling with growth, you’ve been maybe handcuffed with some manual processes that are just the only way to get them done faster is by putting more people to them. So, by taking a look at the number of manual processes that you have, taking a look at unmet customer requests for real time and really any time information, if an organization is experiencing some market slippage or if there’s some evidence that their profitability is compressing those are all really great signs that you are ready for some level of digital transformation. And then it’s the process of how do we do it? How do we get that done?

Mike Boyle (Host):
Yeah. That was my next question. It’s like so I’m running my widget company here and I’ve decided I guess I need a digital transformation. So how do I go about starting that journey?

David Panitch:
Well, it’s not so different than any other major initiative and that is we have got to get leadership onboard. They have to endorse and support the direction that you’re headed. What we typically will advise especially when we’re talking maybe with some middle management organization people and that is find really a project that is aligned very closely to your organizational goals and objectives. It’s those types of projects that typically get some traction and get leadership’s buy-in.

David Panitch:
Then we help them identify on what are the outcomes. Rather than focusing on well we’re going to this type of technology or that if you can focus on what the outcome is you’ll be able to better identify where you’re going to be at the end of this project, what’s your ROI is going to be, and really identify how do we get a lower resistance to change. So by identifying where you’re going to go and the outcome it can help really smooth the path for the project. It goes without saying but you have to have a detailed project plan. Without that plan, and plans do change, but you have to have a plan to start with so you understand the path that you’re on.

David Panitch:
The next really important aspect is to get key change agents onboard. This is almost always the hardest piece because it’s typically your A-players. And all organizations have A, B and C players and we’re certainly trying to get your C players to become B and B’s to become A’s but when it comes to a project like this you really need to engage with your top players, the people that really embrace change and can help evangelize that change to the rest of the organization. And that advantage realism really is marketing internally. Let people know what are we doing, why are we doing it, what are we going to look like when we get to our destination. And if you put all those pieces together, you are highly likely to have a successful outcome when it comes to that digital transformation.

Mike Boyle (Host):
You were talking about projects as a whole here so let’s focus a little here on digital transformation projects and what they look like including the technology, the processes, the duration, team effort, team size, team makeup, all those elements.

David Panitch:
Sure. So, the durations themselves can vary widely but if you can focus on some impactful wins in short, people will say sprints but in the short term that will really help propel the overall project success and move it forward. But let’s talk about some of the potential projects that you could undertake. One and it’s been around for awhile, it’s how do we go more paperless? I don’t want to say paperless exactly because I’m not sure we’re ever going to get to paperless, certainly not in my lifetime, but we can get moving in that direction. So, are there scanning opportunities? Are there data storage opportunities that you can take advantage of that will allow you to reduce the amount of paper that is ingested and stored and tracked within your organization?

David Panitch:
E-commerce is another significant digital transformation opportunity. Many organizations are doing e-commerce today but I would venture to guess other than ones that whose whole focus is e-commerce there’s still a ways to go. So I think there are opportunities for organizations that either haven’t embarked fully on e-commerce or even the ones that have. There are improvements that can be made. Ease of use is really top of mind when it comes to e-commerce. How do people find what they need quickly and easily and can consummate that purchase and be satisfied with what they are getting? There are also building internal knowledge bases to help your internal staff answer questions to your customers.

David Panitch:
The customer self-service portals and even vendor portals to help people collaborate more frequently and more effectively is another really important area to look at. And it probably would be remiss not to talk about artificial intelligence today. That has been growing and becoming more and more mature and becoming more focused so that embarking on artificial intelligence in a good way to really help figure out what are your customers looking for? How do you help them get to that point where they can make good solid decisions? Artificial intelligence will help you get there without a doubt. You asked about I think it was the team makeup.

Mike Boyle (Host):
Yes.

David Panitch:
As I mentioned before, you’ve got to have A players. Without that, if you’re trying to get some people that have a lot of time on their hands, those sadly might be your C players, they’re going to be a tough group to really move a project forward. But there’s a book that I always recommend and it’s not my book but it’s a book by Patrick Lencioni, it’s called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” And it really spells out how do you build a team and how do you ensure that you don’t have these dysfunctions. And we turn it around and we talk about their dysfunctions as highly functional which is, and I’m just going to list them off, accountability, trust, healthy conflict and problem solving, commitment to the project and being results oriented. Those are all great characteristics and elements of a team that will help you move things forward. And you can always go back on those foundational blocks when the project might go awry and be able to bring back to why are we here, what have we agreed to and get people moving forward.

Mike Boyle (Host):
One more time, the name of that book and the author?

David Panitch:
It is called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and the author is Patrick Lencioni.

Mike Boyle (Host):
Gotcha. The last question that I wanted to bring up with you is actually something that you mentioned a little bit earlier and it’s probably the most important cog in the wheel, I guess is maybe the right way to say this, but how should you go about explaining digital transformation to your leadership team because you’ve got to get their buy-in?

David Panitch:
Without a doubt and most projects fail when leadership either was never brought into the picture or they got really distracted with something they felt was more important. So, I think that if you can align with the goals and objectives of the organization finding a project that you can demonstrate has strong ROI, has a great maybe not as quantitative but maybe a qualitative improvement the organization, focusing on solving either a problem or improving business processes is really what leadership is looking for. If it’s a pet project it may have legs but it’s unlikely to really get moving forward. So make sure that you really understand what is this going to do for the organization? How is it going to help you move things forward?

David Panitch:
It’s also really important to express concretely the values to the organization. It cannot be said enough that you have to continue to remind people why are we doing this project? What is it that are we going to look like once we get to the potential end of that project? And I think leadership these days is really looking for projects that have strong ROI, have other benefits that may be not as tangible but they can understand them and wrap their heads around them, whether it be a quality of life at work, whether it be just efficiencies that get improved upon, it’s those types of things that leadership is looking for these days.

David Panitch:
And especially again, we’ve had some challenging times of late and this goes without saying when things are good a lot of times people don’t do the things that they should be doing to become more efficient because things are fine. When things get a little bit rougher that’s when people pay attention. Sometimes that’s too late. I think we’re at a point right now where the economy is in a decent place, certainly some market segments are struggling more than others, but this gives us a great opportunity to really move projects forward and get leadership’s attention on projects that are important to the life and wellbeing of the organization.

Mike Boyle (Host):
Well, this has been a lot of great information that you’ve given us David about preparing for a digital transformation and I want to thank you for joining us today. Could you tell us where people could contact you if they wanted some more information about Results Technology Group?

David Panitch:
Absolutely. Probably the best and easiest way to do that is through our website which is rtg-inc.com. And you can reach out. We offer a free 30 minute conversation about really whatever topic you would like but focus primarily on technology. And there are opportunities for you to learn more about what we’ve done. We’ve got a whole thought leadership section on our website that has many different articles about digital transformation and other technology initiatives.

Mike Boyle (Host):
We should also tell folks that you will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Digital Transformation Symposium which is being presented by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business in partnership with us here at Ad Victoriam Solutions. It’s a five week course. It begins February 9th, 2021. And I will put a link for more information about the symposium in this episode’s show notes. But in the meantime, tell us David what your role will be in the symposium.

David Panitch:
Absolutely Mike. So the major role that I have is one of the sessions is going to be on how do you evaluate and select a digital transformation initiative. So we’ll be talking about some of the details that we didn’t have time to talk about today to really help people walk away from that particular session with the ability to start a project, figure out where are they going to go and determine what technology makes the most sense for their organization.

Mike Boyle (Host):
Well, we certainly are going to look forward to your participation in the symposium and perhaps we’ll get you back here on another edition of Salesforce Simplified and we’ll get a little deeper into digital transformation. David, thank you so much for being with us.

David Panitch:
Mike it’s my pleasure. Take care.

Mike Boyle (Host):
You too. And lastly, if you our audience would like to learn more about how a digital transformation can help your business just visit our website it’s advicotriamsolutions.com. And again, I’ll put some more information and some helpful links in this show’s notes regarding digital transformation. I’m Mike Boyle from Ad Victoriam Solutions. Thank you for joining us for our latest Salesforce Simplified podcast. And if you like what you heard be sure to tell your friends, subscribe to our podcast. It’s everywhere, just pick your preferred channel you’ll find us there, including Pandora who just started carrying this podcast. And you listen on Apple podcasts, they do that review thing, we certainly would appreciate a five-star review for today’s episode. It helps us get the word out about the podcast. So thanks again. The next edition of Salesforce Simplified is just around the corner.