Starting digitalization. 2. Difficulties of the first step.

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In the previous article (Starting digitalization. 1. Drawing the information map of your business.), we have already defined the process map of the business. And even filled it with meanings and information from our own work processes.

If we want to achieve a high level of digitalization, we will have to bring the standardization of work processes to the required level.

If you approach this issue purely rationally, you simply need to standardize each work role and its communication completely. This includes types of communication that are not explicitly defined but result from mutual support/resistance within the work team.

It seems we just need to roll up our sleeves, assign tasks, and get the result.

Too much work?

Of course, you can get carried away and review the execution standards to avoid having to do things twice. And here we have already justified why it is necessary to do things this way and not otherwise. The optimal solution has won in every question. All participants agree on which parameters to consider the work completed and what determines its quality.

And suddenly, we have immediate improvements, rationalized suggestions have been implemented, we even called in experts to deliberate and approve. Everything is visible and understandable to everyone, manageability, and self-management are at their peak, training newbies takes place faster and easier.

Hey, IT specialists, do we really still need digitalization now that we have captured and brought under control almost all sources of inefficiency and failures?

A good, important question that definitely needs to be addressed in the digitalization project…

But the most significant achievement of this stage of the project is this: now we can calculate the benefits of digitalization compared to this newly seemingly maximally improved situation.

However, there is another piece of good news: Detailed standardization is only necessary for workplaces that involve a lot of physical work. Especially those where the outcome of the work influences significantly the success of the whole business.

Digitalizing office and intellectual work, on the other hand, is much easier. Yes, this is not a typo. After all, digital technologies were originally aimed at intellectual work.

Yes, many jobs are either simpler and do not require such efforts for standardization. Or they are related to decision-making processes, research, and their results are seen much later, after being applied in practice. But even the latter are being digitalized through innovations (we will write about that separately).

But let's not delve too deeply.

The purpose of this article is simply to describe the most accessible approaches to achieving digitalization results for businesses.

Up to now, in this and in the previous article of this series, we have described nothing other than what people typically do at their work: standardize and optimize ongoing processes.

But now we must take the first step to prepare for transferring specific actions to machines, and this is not so familiar anymore. It turns out that people use much more information for their daily work than they realize at the moment. “I didn't mention that because it's obvious”, “Even my child knows that”.

The machine will have to be quite meticulous "explained" everything that does not need to be explained to a person who understands the meaning of their work as a result of long-term education and common knowledge.

It must be said that any work on describing processes, whether for other people or for transmission to a machine, annoys us because it makes us realize long-stereotyped knowledge and, at the same time, think mechanistically, like a machine. Anyone who has ever written or read a job description, or even an instruction manual for a simple coffee maker, will easily recall these difficulties and understand what we are talking about.

“Press the button with moderate force using the index finger of your right hand...” (I can already see your faces)

Therefore, we entrust this work to an analyst-engineer who will ask questions not in an IT way, but in your professional, business, and simply human way. And then he will reformat and present the answers to software engineers to create IT solutions. In fact, his work is to build bridges between what people need and how to enable machines to serve the goals of humanity business well and effectively.

At this stage of the digitalization project, we have already obtained intermediate results, but there are still many pressing questions. And the most common one is:

How to assess the cost of digitalization project and reduce expenses on “digital assets” to acceptable levels?

After the work of the analyst-engineer has been completed, there is finally the opportunity not only to make precise technology proposals for digitalization, but also to fairly accurately assess the benefits of digitalization for the enterprise.

In the next articles, we will discuss how to properly and enjoyably evaluate the benefits of digitalization, as well as how to obtain government grants for the entire digitalization project (spoiler: it's easy).

Other important questions:

Why is it helpful to view enterprise digitalization as a project?

At first glance, digitalization may seem like “coming up with a case, handing it over for development, and using it as intended.” In reality, software is a tool just like any other fundamental assets of the enterprise, only of the “soft” type. The ability to manage business-related events is the basis for timely and informed decisions.

What is the purpose of a digitalization concept for an enterprise?

An enterprise is a complex object, and the living processes within an enterprise are even more complex to describe and understand. The information that needs to be considered is diverse: from knowledge and conditions of the production and service technologies to the management, corporate culture, and the variety of IT technologies.

The concept of enterprise digitalization will not only include innovations but also bring together everything essential optimally and link the business goals of all interested parties within the enterprise.

Equally important, this concept will serve as the basis for tasks for developers and serve as a coordinated development management foundation from the client's side.

How to assess the benefits of digitalization?

There are two levels for assessing the benefits of digitalization.

The first level is executive. Here, it is easy to focus on the concept of reducing costs in work execution, work management, and labor productivity. Every digitalization idea should be evaluated based on these criteria.

At the level of the business goals of the enterprise, the calculation is more complex.

For example, how to assess the potential losses of the enterprise from losing attractiveness to the “digital generation” compared to competitors in your market?

Or how much marketing budget will an “image” application for customers save from the overall marketing and sales costs?