Money, Focus, and Culture Are Key to True Digital Transformation

Money, Focus, and Culture – Not Just Technology – Are Key to True Digital Transformation

One would think that the rapid pace of changing technology is the primary struggle for organizations on their journey to transforming into a truly digital organization. However, based on AIIM’s recent state of the intelligent information management industry research, that is simply not the case. At the top of the list of obstacles that organizations face is money – “lack of budget and resources” (26%). This is followed by “lack of a true strategy for managing information assets” (24%), and “an immature culture” (18%).

Moving beyond “business as usual” remains a challenge.

AIIM has long talked about the trifecta of “People, Processes, and Technology” that is critical to the success of any information management initiative. If pressed, most organizations will affirm that the relative attention they should pay to each of these elements is 80%/15%/5% (people/process/technology), but also confess that the reality is something more akin to 5%/15%/80%). As organizations think about their broader transformation dreams, are the challenges in realizing their dreams more tied to the rapid pace of technology or to “something else?”

AIIM maps these major steps in any information management implementation process:

• Developing the information management strategy.
• Making the business case for information management.
• Identifying and prioritizing the business requirements for the solution.
• Designing and implementing the system.
• Engaging the change management required to ensure uptake of the system.

The survey respondents believe that getting the basics right at the start and the end of a project are the most important factors in a successful implementation. This means clear, consistent, and prioritized business requirements before you start talking to vendors and buying any technology (30%). But THE most important factor in the eyes of those with the most experience in implementing IIM projects is getting change management right (32%), which ironically tends to be THE most neglected factor in an implementation.

According to the AIIM Certified Information Professionals (CIP) Study Guide:

“Regardless of the kind of change, whether technological, cultural, procedural, role-based, or any other, it must first be decided if an organization is ready to face the change and adjust to it. Change may be coming whether it’s welcome or not. Determining readiness is a big factor in the potential success of your information management project. Organizational change is always going to appear threatening to people as it is often linked to job security. Some enterprises freely disseminate information regarding strategy changes. Other firms are very secretive and feel that this is for senior management only. Practitioners should be as open and honest with staff about change as they possibly can. Typically, people will more readily embrace the change process if clear information is available.”

Real-Life Perspectives (from survey participants)

• Senior executives seem uninterested in information management. Most of the time they are not interested in any information management agendas.
• We suffer from a lack of user engagement. COVID forced users to become more digital but it’s still hard. Some users have issues with saving information to systems.
• Those who say “we’ve always done it this way” are not forward thinking and hold back progress. Openmindedness is necessary to make sure we are moving forward and we must rise to the challenge, not shrink back from it.
• We still have some information silos and, mainly, budget and security constraints.
• Each department is doing their own thing, creating multiple duplicates of the same content, and also inconsistent practices within each department on what and how information is captured.
• Lots of tech capabilities = good. Risk/compliance oversight = good. Fractured governance = bad.

What Should You Do About It?
–Recommendations (from CIP Expert Panel)

1. Recognize that change management isn’t just for frontline workers. You can have some great, fantastic ideas about what you want to do with information, but you need to be able to educate everyone up and down the stack about what you are planning. You need to be able to go to that frontline worker and explain what’s in it for them, but you also need to be able to explain to the C-Suite what’s in it for them.

2. Establish a dedicated Change Management Unit. Assign a project management office (PMO) for migrations and upgrades to make sure that content is both transferred and available to customer specifications. This PMO should meet with the customer, develop business requirements and success criteria, and shepherd the process with customer input through to completion.

3. Be clear on both the “why” and the “how.” Educate potentially stressed individuals on why changes need to occur. Especially when automating, it is important for the individuals to understand how the information management solution will improve their work environment by eliminating tedious tasks in order to gain their support. But don’t stop there. Once you have established the reason for change, be very clear on how and when it will evolve.

4. Be explicit about the C-Suite support you need. Bring enterprise-wide initiatives to senior executives before investing any time in implementation. Give them a countdown of activities that are expected so there are no surprises. State explicitly: “This is what we need from you.” Do not assume they will know what you expect them to do.

5. Invest in “story-telling” and the mechanisms to tell those stories. It is not enough to talk about the technical reasons why a particular change is being made or why a new system is being implemented. Think like a marketer; actively market what you are doing. We didn’t launch an awareness campaign on records and information governance until just a few years ago. Looking back, I wish I would have done that sooner; I had an opportunity, so I ran with it. And now we’re in our third year of that program. It’s really been amazing how many people are paying attention now; I wish I had done this earlier.

6. Do change management by the drink, not through a firehose. Communicate the change early, and provide training opportunities and time for feedback. Introduce change in small increments and be inclusive with the business users who will be impacted by the change. Break down the issue into steps/pieces and align each piece with a complete understanding of the technology.

Download  AIIM’s state of the intelligent information management industry research.

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