In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have been forced to rethink their long-term business strategy now more than ever. We are transitioning from a reality where businesses were conducted on premise, and are slowly establishing the long term possibility of remote working. Organizations are rethinking traditional models of working and are helping clients recover through simpler methods of conducting business.They are also utilizing new age technologies such as workflow systems coupled with Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is further being facilitated by virtual collaboration tools such as chat bots and other digital collaboration tools like video calling platforms, cloud storage etc. As organizations make their way towards digital transformation, they must build a long term framework that encapsulates changes required within the organizational processes and prescribes methods to implement them effectively.
How can Enterprise Operations Transformation (EOT) Practice help businesses be future ready?
EOT is a practice that orchestrates the transformation initiatives of clients through a structured framework with a strong focus on technology led transformation of operations across the business value chain. It helps customers re-imagine their end-to-end processes from a holistic and long-term perspective. In the COVID-19 era, organizations must gear up to setup Digital Labs in order to cater to the changes in needs of the business. These labs help envision and implement not only short-term transformation requirements, but also build a roadmap for organizations to be future-ready.
The first step towards digital transformation is analyzing the processes within an organization. This reveals inefficiencies due to factors like unorganized data, absence or asymmetric information on business processes etc. EOT uses essential levers for transformation i.e. Lean Six Sigma, Process Mining, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI and Analytics to eliminate/reduce inefficiencies, so that the organization can realize tangible and sustainable benefits.
The success of a transformation approach also requires the presence of an enterprise-grade methodology. This is where the rigor of the EOT Framework is principally useful to help organizations navigate through the transformation deployment process.
A typical digital transformation is envisioned through the 4 levers of the EOT framework – Simplification, Automation, Intelligence and Immersive Experience. Thus, it is important to understand the process that is being transformed, apply the right lever to the right step, and reap the optimum benefits. The levers are applied in such a way that they not only confer benefits independently, but also bestow benefits in the form of a multiplier effectively.
Dealing with uncertainties in the business landscape
There is a significant rise in the usage of remote working tools in the past few weeks and organizations have started investing in building this particular infrastructure to be future ready. EOT can help organizations choose the right set of tools, internal or external, for a particular process or a function. It can also significantly improve the entire process by using process engineering and analysis techniques to either create efficiencies within processes or create new processes altogether.
It is impossible for a single organization to be equipped with all the necessary platforms, tools and capabilities to deal with such unprecedented transformation. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to be part of a larger ecosystem that drives collaboration via Integrated Automation, through a 360-degree approach involving Technology, People and Processes. The 360 degree approach refers to various tools and platforms that can be used to either enhance or create new processes while having the right set of talent to utilize these resources effectively.
The potential impact of EOT
COVID-19 has already fast tracked the way organizations are investing in Digital Transformation technologies. EOT can help clients transform numerous processes, especially the ones which have been presented with the greatest challenges, e.g. Order Processing or Claims Processing, which have seen significant increase in volume in the past one month as it has become difficult to maintain collaboration amongst teams. EOT facilitates increased inter-organization connectedness and also strengthens the inter-process efficiency by unifying all the process on a single platform.
While COVID-19 has presented organizations with various challenges, it has also provided them an opportunity to completely change the way they function. Organizations are slowly coping with the current situation and are considering solutions from a long-term perspective. This accounts for the very basic metrics that might be used for measuring the efficiency of running business, and also takes into account a more rounded perspective to be future proof