Industry
Public Services
Forward-thinking government for citizen-first services
Highlights
- Successful government digital transformation requires more than technology.
- Strong executive support, change management, and a robust training plan will be the three keys to a successful transformation.
- Leaders must galvanize their workforce, so they have the mindset and procedures for sustained change and adoption.
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Three keys to success
Successful government digital transformation requires more than technology.
Digital transformation and demand for better government services is driving governments to reconsider their technology strategy, including moving beyond legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Organizations have turned to cloud-enabled ERP systems because of flexibility, agility, and cost-effectiveness of ERP on the cloud. Cloud-based systems are easy to configure, constantly updated, and quick to implement and use.
Implementing cloud computing technology in public sector organizations involves combining strategy and change management. It can help to reduce costs, optimize human capital, consolidate facilities, improve efficiency, increase agility, and increase capacity.
Strong executive support, change management, and a training plan will be the three keys to successful transformation.
An analysis of more than 600 global ERP cloud implementations by TCS revealed the importance of the administrative organization adequately resourcing and staffing the organization, providing top management support, continuously communicating to clarify motivations for implementations, gaining concurrence, and maintaining a change management plan.
Though cloud ERP systems are easy to implement, the bigger challenge lies in getting employees to realize the benefits. The entire business needs to understand the benefits of the system and new processes to see the value of the change.
Any digital transformation journey can be challenging. Successful transformation requires cultural change in the organization, changes to business practices, new strategies, and operational changes. It is crucial that leaders instill in the workforce a mindset and procedures for sustained change and adoption.
Strong executive support
Ownership of digital transformation must start with the executive, not the chief information officer.
When planning for digital transformation, government leaders default to IT leadership to deliver. If IT cannot make it happen, they often bring in a chief digital officer or chief citizen experience officer. And therein lies the problem. Yes, digital transformation requires technology—however technology is only an enabler. The real driver of transformation, or even optimization, begins with solid planning and strategy to change business policies, processes, and rules across organizational silos.
Leaders play a crucial role in steering an organization toward digital transformation. They act as an intermediary between the employees, management, and implementation vendor, create new goals, delegate responsibilities, and tackle challenges. The executive’s responsibility is to serve as the heartbeat of the organization, driving culture from the top down, owning and meeting key business objectives, and influencing internal and external stakeholders to achieve results. The executive is the glue that holds the organization together and will be a key player in digital transformation.
The executive needs to focus on three key things: culture, people, and innovation.
Culture: The executive must foster a culture that values agility, change, and a data-driven approach to working. It is the responsibility of the leading executive to create a culture of curiosity, where everyone across the organization is inspired to look at technology as an enabler and driver of their specific business goals.
People: The executive needs to put the right leaders in place who recognize and tie digital transformation to the vision, purpose, and mission of the organization’s work. The executive needs to ensure the C-suite and other leaders are motivated and capable of executing the vision. It is critically important for the leadership team to support the transformation vision, have a positive attitude, and be willing to transform. This process might entail replacing key individuals who are not ready to contribute.
Innovation: Digital transformation involves integrating technology into every facet and function of an organization to collect and utilize data to propel the organization forward.
Organizational change management (OCM)
Organizational change happens when a company transforms significant components such as culture, technology, or internal processes.
Managing organizational change centers around three core traits that guide adoption of new technology.
Impact-led: OCM captures, documents, and analyzes detailed business impacts during the design process. This disciplined approach identifies key impacted businesses and functions and allows for rapid, role-specific content to be developed for communication, engagement, learning, and training activities.
Persona-based: OCM develops personas that are consistent with the agile methodology and are representative of key groups of end users and other key stakeholders. This approach helps users to quickly understand their roles, align their expectations, and comprehend the changes that will occur due to implementing the new ERP system.
Digitally enabled: OCM is committed to using digital technology methods to execute OCM activities whenever possible.
Mastering the ERP system with robust training
Lack of training or insufficient training are the main reasons for failure of an ERP implementation or modernization.
Organizations need trained users who can resolve problems and answer questions, without diverting resources from other teams to get the most value out of an ERP system.
After investing a great deal of time and money in implementing an ERP solution, employees must understand how to use it best to make the most of that investment. Training employees in the ERP system will set up the organization for success and better position people to do their jobs.
A correctly integrated ERP system, with adequately trained users, can have a significant impact on an organization’s success in several ways:
Improved productivity and time savings: When employees understand how to use the system properly, it will empower them to become more efficient. Employees who have received online or classroom-based ERP training will know how to interact with the system to accomplish their tasks, increasing productivity.
Better risk management: When everyone in your organization is adequately trained, it ensures consistency in completing tasks, aligns everyone on the same page, and reduces the chances of human errors. A thorough understanding of the system equips employees to input data accurately, resulting in better-quality data.
Enhanced performance: Training and development help staff acquire new skills and amplify their strengths. Spot shortcomings or weaknesses within the team, and you can find the gaps where your employees will benefit from training.
Increased employee satisfaction: An organization that invests in employees’ professional development tends to have more satisfied, and empowered, employees. Nonetheless, the training given to them must be relevant to their field.
Employees are increasingly seeking industry-specific and functional training on tools such as ERP systems. To achieve successful training development, an organization should plan to meet objectives such as user competence, learning goals, measuring effectiveness, and identifying FAQs. A comprehensive training plan should be developed that includes audience analysis, development tools, delivery schedule, metrics, support plan, material refresh, and maintenance.
Conduct a thorough training needs assessment to address training needs based on roles, operational changes, and process changes. Deliver training in a train-the-trainers approach onsite. Continue supporting these trainings in preparing end users through each phase of the roll-out. It is imperative that staff, stakeholders, and users understand the new system and can operate within the new environment seamlessly, to continue to meet the organizational needs.
The power of partnership
Digital transformation is a team initiative.
It is a complex process that involves a wide range of stakeholders within an organization. Organizations that have successfully undergone digital transformation find that partnering with technology outsourcers and customers increases success.
Digital transformation also results in more agile processes, technology ecosystems, and organizational philosophies. Technology and systems integrator partners can help to bridge internal culture, skill, technology, and data gaps that become stumbling blocks to digital adoption. Training helps to overcome the modern solution technology gap (consumption gap) that client end-users experience.
Ultimately, the success of digital transformation can be measured by the satisfaction of customers who are fully utilizing the solution.
