Changes occur in businesses in two
distinct ways: External (Merger & Acquisitions, regulatory compliance etc.)
& Internal (organizational restructuring, new leadership, adopting new
technology etc.). An enterprise level change has always been difficult and
innumerable researches show that they continue to fail. In the case of adoption
of intelligent automation, the change involves so much stress (jobs uncertainty
for employees) & risks (ROIs) that it becomes very important to focus upon
stakeholders & the change management processes.
To
adopt intelligent automation in their IT estate, business leaders have to agree
upon the direction and the end objectives to be achieved. My opinion is that
it’s a four way process to adopt intelligent automation:
Building
consensus among stakeholders
Digital,
intelligent automation, analytics and the changing nature of workforce have created
myriad opportunities and challenges for the stakeholders. For the same set of
data, various stakeholders may draw parallel, non-concurrent conclusions which
can indefinitely pause the implementation plan of intelligent automation into
their environment. To illustrate, the business managers, looking at their
current inflow of password resets tickets, may go for some intelligent
automation solution. But then, the end users, who are going to use the system
may not align with the intelligent automation and may continue to use the
earlier way of getting password resets done (tapping the shoulders of agents or
sending emails etc.). So, even though there is intelligent automation in place,
there is no reduction in the volume of tickets and hence no ROI for business to
justify investment in further intelligent automation.
So,
considering our case of adopting intelligent automation, building consensus
among the various stakeholders becomes the first & the foremost step
towards ensuring smooth adaptation and transition for intelligent automation.
There
are many frameworks & processes on stakeholder management, but I personally
go with Segmenting & Positioning (no Targeting, as everyone is a target for
IT); segmenting the stakeholders and passing on the customized message which
intelligent automation is going to deliver it to them.
To
do this, it becomes important that you prioritize the segments which are going
to be the early touch points for intelligent automation & narrate them the
ease factor (“hard” & “soft” benefits) which it will bring in their way of
doing jobs. Probably for the CIO: cost effectiveness, IT managers &
business managers: reduced TAT & improved efficiencies & the end users:
simpler processes are some e.g. RACI matrix, too, can come handy in this
process.
Involvement
of IT community
Believe
it or not, a lot of risk is mitigated if the IT community is engaged from the
beginning. Specifically, the innovators and early adopters. This group can
speed-up the adoption rate of intelligent automation in at least two ways:
a. Help
with the beta test of intelligent automation use-cases
b. Act
as word of mouth for intelligent automation benefits
These
are the people who require least effort to understand that intelligent
automation is really valuable to them and to the enterprise as whole. In my
opinion, if this group is convinced, a lot of push-backs from this complete
group gets controlled.
Communication
is the key: Counter Culture push-backs
Now,
you have the go-ahead from the business & IT leaders, innovators &
early adapters, but then the major chunk of people who will be using the
intelligent automation have still not entered the picture: end-users &
agents. They may still be skeptic about intelligent automation and the way in
which it can make lives easier for them.
To
roll-out intelligent automation into the enterprise effectively, we should
communicate the “soft” changes that needs to accompany the “hard” changes in
the IT estate to both these group. For e.g. proper communication explaining the
rationale to go for intelligent automation in first place can bring a lot of
acceptance without spending much efforts. In addition, training, workshops etc.
can be used to make them understand the benefits to-be derived from intelligent
automation.
Tessa
Basford & Bill Schaninger from Mckinsey have captured the complete mindset
& behavior change management here.
Support
from the governance
Intelligent
automation may take some time to show benefits or the people using it may find
it a bit challenging to turn over a new leaf. Many processes may be
re-engineered for intelligent automation, which can emit a lot of distress
signal in the organization; such testing water situations demands patience from
management and a sturdy focus on the woods & not the trees.
For
many big enterprises, hiring an external consultant may be a good option as
stakeholders within these enterprises have been used to doing things in a
certain way. A third party angle to look at the current processes can help in
re-designing it so that the implementation steps becomes easier & faster
Involvement,
communication, change management and ultimately alignment amongst all the
stakeholders to adopt intelligent automation is what is going to keep the
health check of enterprises in place in the future. Adopt it today to reap
benefits tomorrow.
