The digital transformation of organisations can be incredibly powerful and there are plenty of examples of transformation projects within forward-thinking organisations disrupting established business sectors, bringing new products and services to market, building better engagements with customers, and increasing profits. Businesses invest huge sums of money refining their customer experiences. However, what if this was turned around? What if more of that investment was focused internally – applying the same user centred design and technology to improve business performance?Andy Franks, Business Director at Box UK, discusses the benefits that this approach might bring and how it could improve bottom line business results. Organisations of all sizes and from all sectors can use technology to improve how they do business by building systems and processes that genuinely empower their employees. Done well it can motivate individuals, inspire management teams, and even provide a better experience for customers.

Employee engagement

From the start of a digital transformation project, employee engagement should be a core activity. A company’s employees are integral to a user centred design process and in the same way companies invest in external customer research and user testing; so the same attention should be paid to the behaviours, requirements and the unique insights retained by members of their own team. At Box UK we facilitate a range of discovery activities designed to engage employees at all levels. The outputs from this discovery form the foundation for digital transformation. The benefits of employee participation include more rapid adoption of new tools and systems shaped in part by an engaged workforce.

Crafting experiences

In the main, an internal digital transformation process is focused on productivity and performance. Technology impacts every person and every job role within an organisation and in the majority of cases productivity and performanceare limited by old business processes and legacy technology. The current generation of cloud products and services enable forward thinking organisations to craft experiences that not only make it easier for individuals to work, but also make it more enjoyable, and more productive. Employees can work from multiple locations, and can access and manage content and data at any time and from any device. In our experience employees’ tasks are increasingly connected to those of customers, members or supply chain interactions too, which in itself provides opportunities. As new products and systems also drive productivity and performance, the bonus for forward thinking organisations is a motivated workforce leading to a higher retention of staff.

Shared data

Data is at the heart of digital transformation projects, as organisations strive to become insight-led. As platforms, tools and services become ever more consolidated and connected, technology provides the ability to monitor and measure at a micro-level every interaction, purchase and employee, user, member or customer engagement. Big data certainly helps the C-suite to make decisions to gain the advantage. But critically the same big data provides the tools for employees to self-measure and to drive individual performance, often enabling creativity and innovation within their role. Smart organisations are going one step further, linking data, rewards and incentives into their work remuneration culture.

When employees from the top to the bottom of an organisation help create the digital transformation journey, the rate of success is substantially increased. New technology has fundamentally changed the way organisations do business, reaching into every part of the enterprise. It makes sense then that digital transformation starts from within and at every level. By crafting the experience around your employees we enable individuals to focus on key aspects of their job, empowering and encouraging performance, measuring quality and driving innovation. The long term effect makes for an enhanced customer experience that in turn increases loyalty and conversion.