Technology Leaders from P&G, Zurich and Citi Talk Digital Transformation Lessons Learned
So much has changed in the past two years. Millions of workers have gone remote, digital transformations have accelerated and automation is no longer optional, just to name a few.
With this in mind, we asked 3 of our Low Code 2022 speakers to share how the pandemic has changed their organization’s approach to digital and business process automation. Here is what they had to say.
But first, when it comes to democratizing innovation, an integral component of any successful digital transformation, there are few enabling tools as powerful as low and no code automation tools. To learn more about how leading-edge companies, including the ones below are harnessing the power of citizen coders analysts, join us April 19-20th at the 2nd Annual Low Code Live event.
IAN: As far as global enterprise process is concerned, what can we learn from the past two years?
Deepak Subbarao, Digital Transformation Lead, Zurich Insurance Group:
From a process standpoint, I think what happened is much more iteration. I think previously, even though we all talked about agile and iterations, when it came to processes, we still took that time to really engage and look at the processes. Try to look at where the pain points are and then come to pretty much best in class process. And then use technology to solve the problem. But this kind of accelerated that to say that, maybe we can't go through every pain point and map out the entire process. Let's look at this sub process first. This is where we have the most pain. Let's kind of get technology involved there. Let's solve it and then move on. So those creative ways of working and creative processes became much more the norm.
The second thing which happened is some processes were out of bounds for technology. We thought that, "Technology might not work here. We have other things to solve. Let's look at these processes first." Then suddenly all of these processes also came into pretty much the scope. To say, yeah, none of them is like not touchable anymore. We can look at any process that will make us run faster or work more efficiently. So pretty much the entire field was open. In terms of processes to look at and to simplify, standardize it, and maybe even make it better in terms of technology.
See Deepak Subbarao, Digital Transformation Lead, Zurich Insurance Group present on Realizing IA Value Coming Out Of The Pandemic.
IAN: Many of us have been away from the office for close to two years. Now that people are starting to return, it can feel like you're in a different country. What’s changed for you guys since March 2020?
John Barraclough, Senior IT Director: Digital Transformation, Procter & Gamble:
I think a lot of people have, and I'm not saying people didn't beforehand, but I think we probably amplified the importance of role modeling. I think we better understand the importance of being very deliberate about it.
For us, building an HR management plan for each project has been really important. During the pandemic, everything changed week by week in terms of outbreaks and variants. Plus, every country responded differently which made managing a global workforce challenging.
Of course, yes, there was always a HR management plan and it had context in the past, but how much of it was off the shelf reuse versus actually tailored to the individual project. So now we’re taking the time to go through the HR management plan for a project or an organization or a transformation. Actually invest in an iterative approach. And it's interesting, I think a lot of people will categorize it over managing the pandemic. I'm not sure. I think we've got a new great understanding now of how we manage organizations. And I think what people have been able to deliver over the last two years in this pandemic has been fantastic.
I mean, personally in my area, we've delivered some of the biggest IT transformations in some of the domain areas in the last 20 years. And we've done it completely remotely. There is now an understanding of how we can motivate people without the default, "Hey, let's go into the office. Let's have people in these locations work this way." I think we've opened the door now to an incredibly beneficial way of working in the future and a more personable way for working in the future on a range of different projects, a range of different transformations and initiatives and structures that we have in IT.
See John Barraclough, Senior IT Director: Digital Transformation, Procter & Gamble present April 20th on Endemic: What Just Happened.
IAN: With digital transformations, there are a lot of competing priorities. How do you see that signal through the noise? How do you pick out what matters versus what doesn't?
Alex Golbin, Managing Director - Operations and Technology Transformation, Citi:
Throughout my career, I've seen that evolve and I think this is really a combination of being super data driven while also being able to apply your experience to really filter the noise and really focus on those key signals. When running large technology organizations, it can be as basic as taking a look at all the potential priorities to identify where you can get the most value and the right level of innovation. You always have to be very thorough and have a detailed framework for how you prioritize what you do.
How do you find those opportunities that's going to give you the largest value, the largest cost reductions, the largest improvement in risk appetite? At my organization, we look everywhere. Infrastructure workforce, our vendors.
You always have to follow a framework. But really, again, being data driven is really, really important.
I think the last example that really resonates with me is, in my prior role, I worked on supply chain risk. It's a big issue for the industry. Really understanding what is your supply chain? How do you look at the control environments of all the companies you deal with? And then you're looking deeper into the supply chain of their vendors, their third parties, their fourth parties and really understanding the risk. We came up with a lot of innovative approaches that look at cybersecurity, financial health, age and really trying to think through what that would mean for the industry. And this is where you really got to filter through the noise and figure out what the signals look like.
That's it. And staying there for a moment, as far as, finding those new ideas. As far as innovating in new and different ways, you have to look everywhere and take us through that. Because you've got the remit and yeah, okay, fine. Here's the supply chain. I got to go dive all the way in on the supply chain, but I also have to look everywhere for what ideas might be applied here within this supply chain, to make it different. To renew it. To transform it. To bring it into its next phase. Its next reality.
Gloss