
It’s people, not technology

People are the agents of digital transformation
People are the agents of digital transformation. Without their input, nothing will change. When this digital change does happen, it will have a ripple effect throughout your organisation. Some people will, to continue with this same metaphorical theme, take to it like a duck to water, while others will feel like they’re sinking. With foresight, nobody will drown.
The positive culture of change
Whenever digitisation occurs within an organisation, it requires an understanding of the necessary culture changes and employee readiness that are critical for the new processes to be embraced early on in the process. Incentivising people to do this, or even better to drive change, relies on people reassessing their attitudes and ways of working and developing a level of comfort with the ambiguity of ‘new’. There will often be a need to empower an ageing, potentially less tech-savvy, section of the workforce. The effects of the change to the culture, external to an organisation, can be equally important. It can impact on, or require support from, trade unions, end users and governments.
Bridging the digital skills gap
To bridge the inevitable digital knowledge and skills gap, it’s essential to train people so they can understand the new processes, systems, tools and, in particular, the software. When clients implement new digital processes or strategies, their people need to be educated on the benefits of the digital changes.
Setting digital standards
There was a desire for a digital common language, particularly in the infrastructure industry. The ability to communicate easily across all industries, technology platforms, states and countries was important, especially to those clients with a global footprint. The standardisation of quality control in digital models was key for clients in their internal information management and, particularly at the point, when they share with stakeholders. However, there was a concern about who is or can be responsible for the development of these necessary standards.