Small & Medium Business Trends report<\/a>, which was compiled in the early days of the pandemic, showed that 46% of respondents believed technology influenced their organisation\u2019s ability to stay open and in business. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if that figure has changed when the next report is published \u2013 I\u2019d imagine it\u2019s safe to say it will have. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile no-one could have precisely predicted what 2020 held, businesses can predict some form of disruption will come along at some point, and a proactive approach to preempting the impact of whatever may come along is a key quality for a resilient business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, however, there are signs that you need to get ahead of the game. For Yvonne Timson, Chief Operating Officer at Community Vision \u2013 an organisation that provides disability and community care services in Perth \u2013 changes in funding, in addition to the scrutiny that came with the Royal Commissions, provided those prompts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe needed to look at the business through what would be a normal business commercial lens to generate efficiencies,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur systems and our technology was a logical place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changing of the guard \u2013 the importance of change management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Community Vision began a significant digital transformation project, and a visible day-to-day impact was changing from rostering its 180-plus staff on paper to iPad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was met with some resistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve gone from being confident and organising their own day to suddenly being directed to the work and the information,\u201d says Yvvone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was fear. You get the conspiracy theories from the staff that we\u2019re only doing it to check up on them, while some customers were wondering why we were using this technology to provide a personal care service \u2013 in some people\u2019s minds, it doesn\u2019t automatically connect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne thing I knew from previous change management, however, was the need for internal training \u2013 that training was how we built trust with the workforce. We trained them, took in their feedback and, once they saw the benefit to how they were working, the aptitude to change increased dramatically.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investment in training \u2013 from both financial and time perspectives \u2013 is critically important when planning a digital transformation project, and it can\u2019t be underestimated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n