Why companies fail or succeed in getting technology value

Kishore Natvarlal, Nexio's Managing Executive of Enterprise Digital Strategy.

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Businesses must digitise. Doing so is both necessary and advantageous, comparable to past industries swapping steam for electricity and horses for trucks. But those transitions were relatively straightforward in their progress compared to the complications of digital technology. Businesses invest handsomely in digital transformations, yet often fail to see the anticipated value.

Digitising a business is complicated and failure is always a risk. Yet many companies don't gain expected value because they unwittingly invite fundamental mistakes. They often rush into digitisation, sometimes driven by a fear of missing out. Their intentions might be in the right place, but they often run before they can crawl. Sometimes companies don't plan the journey properly. But the most common reason is that their technology partners let them down.

Nexio recognises this value shortfall as a major concern for many forward-thinking businesses, hence we develop our engagements specifically to ensure that our customers see the value they expect.

There are still organisations that think they can delay digitisation. Yet the majority know they need to invest in new software and hardware for the services that meet modern market expectations.

"We see it in our customers, we see it in our daily lives," says Kishore Natvarlal, Nexio's Managing Executive of Enterprise Digital Strategy. "I want the best experience from anything that I'm paying a service fee for. I'm not willing to accept downtime. I must be able to do what I have to do, at any given time, with the utmost accuracy in terms of data that's provided to me."

Natvarlal lists five common errors that companies make, which cause the value shortfall:

1. They rush into it. They make rash investment decisions and discover that what looks good on paper doesn't always lead to the anticipated outcomes.
2. They feel they have to invest to get started. Urgency is a good motivator, but they pursue digital transformation in a panic without the necessary vision and corporate alignment.
3. They don’t plan enough. Digital transformation has many moving parts, ranging from platform choices to staff reskilling. Insufficient planning can fail to highlight such key areas.
4. They run before they crawl. Similar to a lack of planning, companies underestimate how much work goes into transformation fundamentals and instead try to get results fast.
5. Their technology partners let them down. Most companies are not technology businesses and depend on the guidance of technology partners that often care more about the sale than the journey.

Whether by their own hand, or the failure of their partners, companies don't see enough technology value because they don’t put in the effort. This isn't a sign of laziness or ineptitude. It instead shows the dangers of underestimating or not fully grasping a digital transformation investment. More so, it hints at using partners that don't ask the right questions.

"What exactly are your immediate needs? What are the medium-term needs? What are the long-term needs?" asks Natvarlal. "You must do a lot of work to clarify where you're going to get the best bang for your money. If you go with a technology provider that cares more about the transaction than the long-term outcomes, you'll never really have those conversations and be able to see them through."

Nexio's mission is to focus on the road its customers travel towards a digital future. It accomplishes this through clear customer engagement principles.

Nexio is not transactional, instead emphasising the complete cycle of digital value delivery. The business takes pride in its certifications and vendor statuses but knows that engagement and mutual strategy are the keys to success. “At Nexio, we prioritise understanding our customers' strategies and goals. When we align our technical capabilities to those requirements, our customers experience the value they anticipate.

"As a company, we have the skills and technologies that customers consume for their digital transformation journey," says Natvarlal. "We don't drive the investment. Our customer does that for their own future and to set them apart in terms of competitiveness and attract a bigger and wider consumer base. Our job is to unpack this with them, plan accordingly and deliver in a way that they can adapt and adjust as they see that value surface.”