A new report shows how operations executives struggle to move forward with digitization due to overburdened IT departments and costly off-the-shelf solutions and often resort back to manual processes to supplement their core systems.
With a myriad of digital transformation options available to businesses, such as artificial intelligence enabling the instant assessment and visualization of data, it is telling to find operations executives are still reverting to manual processes in order to manipulate, analyze, and share their data. What is keeping operation executives from embracing digital transformation technologies if the tools are readily available?
A recent reportOpens a new window from TrackVia suggests that the people responsible for implementing digital transformation (directors of operation, chief operating officers, etc.) are not supposed to revert to older technology, but they can’t move forward either. Their reality is one that is hard to navigate.
Enlisting the help of IT to aid in digitization efforts is fraught with obstacles due to an overburdened, under-resourced department. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of operations executives have wanted to work with IT but have decided against it because they know IT departments are overloaded and the request would take too long. Even further, 50 percent say it takes 6 months or longer for IT to consider their request for an application, and 58 percent say it takes another 6 months or longer for IT to develop, test, and deploy an application. Furthermore, it takes 3-4 weeks for IT to make changes to those applications.
Despite these setbacks, operations executives are eager to move ahead with digitalt transformation because their legacy systems require workarounds and inhibit progress. In fact, nearly two-thirds of executives (62%) say their core systems make it difficult to digitize processes.
Operations executives are left to continue with manual processes, forge ahead without the help of IT, or turn to off-the-shelf-solutions. However, each of these scenarios present their own set of challenges.
Error-Prone Manual Systems
With over half of operations execs (58%) saying that when they have decided against working with internal IT on digitization, they have continued with manual processes, which have inherent risks.
When processes are manual, operations execs report major risks to businesses:
- 62% say it slows down performance
- 48% say it increases costs
- 38% say it increases compliance risks
Risks of Forging Ahead Alone
When working with IT is prohibitive, almost half (46%) of operations executives cited working with external IT developers to build applications. But similar to the use of manual processes, digitizing using external sources exposes businesses to host of problems:
- 29% say it resulted in an inability to access, use, and share data across departments
- 30% say it resulted in security concerns
- 29% say it resulted in an inability to integrate with other systems
Problematic Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Another route operations executives cited was employing off-the-shelf software solutions. Over a quarter have tried this solution (26%) but this path to digitization is often fraught with roadblocks and detours.
When executives bought off-the-shelf solutions:
- 36% said it couldn’t meet their mobile requirements
- 21% said it required additional professional services
- 31% said it couldn’t deliver the customization they needed
Closing the “I Give Up Gapâ€
With orders from above, operations leaders are forced to move forward with digitization, but they don’t know how. All the available solutions such as working with IT or employing off-the-shelf software solutions create even more problems than the old way of doing things. They are left in the “I Give Up Gap.†Because they are stuck, they choose to give up on digitization efforts and trudge along using manual workarounds. How can operations executives close this gap and move forward with digitization efforts that actually solve problems instead of create more headaches?
Operations executives need a software solution that enables them to easily build and modify applications that address their unique processes and systems. Furthermore, they need to be able to do so quickly, cost effectively, and without compromise.
Organizations are using low-code application platforms to close the gap by eliminating the most common barriers — IT resource constraints and legacy systems. Operations executives don’t want to revert to manual processes. With a fully customizable solution, executives can steer clear of a technological void and focus instead on accelerating performance and, at the same time, controlling costs and quality.