journey mapping - Innovative Service Management Consulting and Training: Tedder Consulting

The often-ignored aspects of rapid technology implementation

When an organization prioritizes speed of implementing technology, it usually results in some significant issues being ignored. Issues such as:

Changes to the organizational operating model. Technology changes the enterprise operating model by reshaping how the whole business creates, delivers, and captures value across structure, processes, people, and governance—not just how IT runs.

Impact of change on people. Organizations often underestimate, if not ignore, the impact of technology implementation on the people the technology was intended to help.

The weight of technical debt. Unless governance keeps pace with technology introduction, rapid introductions of technology can introduce new technical debt in system architectures, data, and model lifecycle. At the same time, many organizations ignore the impact of existing technical debt from legacy systems, customizations, and integrations.

Experience enablement ensures successful technology implementations

Think about it – in the digital economy, all companies have some level of technology enablement. But this ever-increasing rush to implement technology out of the fear of being left behind will have negative consequences – unless the fundamental challenges noted above are addressed.

But I believe that success with technology implementation depends on a single critical factor – the people that use that technology. This highlights the need for a good human experience, both between organizations and their external stakeholders as well as the stakeholders within those organizations.

I am convinced that the experience – the total end‑to‑end journey and feelings of a person interacting with a company or product – is the differentiating factor for organizations in the digital economy. But if technology implementations do not enable that differentiating experience, those organizations will not realize their full potential in the digital economy.

Can an organization achieve its strategy, the demand for speed and agility in the marketspace, and address the need for a good experience for those that interact with technology? The answer is yes – but organizations first must slow down to go fast.

Four Steps to Slow Down and Accelerate Success

How can an organization meet the demands for speed and agility in the market space, yet ensure that technology implementations enable the right experience? It can be done – if organizations first slow down to go fast. Here are the four steps organizations must take to slow down to accelerate success.

Digital business strategy – A well-defined digital business strategy is a critical first step for organizations wanting to leverage technology to deliver business outcomes and value. A digital business strategy ensures that the appropriate technologies are identified for achieving those business results.

Mapping value streams – A value stream map shows how value flows through an organization – and the systems and technology that enables the flow of value. When organizations understand their value streams, they can identify and address any areas of friction resulting from the use of technology.

Define proto personas – Proto personas help organizations understand the goals, needs, and behaviors of the consumers that will be using their products and services.

Journey mapping – Whether it’s a customer or an employee, it’s critical to understand the experience of people’s interactions with an organization. Use those proto personas to produce journey maps. Journey maps depict the touchpoints and experiences – and the impact of technology (good or bad) – humans have while interacting with an organization.

Technology without delivering the right experience is a recipe for failure

As I’ve written before, if technology implementations do not enable that differentiating experience, those organizations will be left behind in the digital economy. But admittedly, organizations taking a “tools first” approach to business challenges is nothing new.

But, delivering that right experience should not be left to chance. A “tools first” approach may address one area of concern but typically will miss other areas of concerns. Different consumers have different expectations of the experience they have with organizations. Implementation of technology without a well thought and integrated business strategy results in wasted time, money, and resources. Such an approach usually results in needless complexity. The different value streams within an organization have different requirements for velocity. Technology solutions must accommodate those requirements.

These are leadership issues, not technology issues. And it takes courage to stand in the face of well-intentioned but misguided demands for rapid technology implementations.

The best way to ensure success in the digital future is to plan for that future. Defining the digital business strategy, mapping value streams, understanding who will be interacting with your organization using proto personas, and journey mapping provides a clear path to success in the digital age.

In this recent CIO.com article, Mike Blandina, the CIO at Snowflake, made some predictions regarding the CIO role. As one would expect, AI adoption is a significant part of Blandina’s predictions, but there are a few details within his predictions that I found interesting:

The need for governance frameworks – As organizations adopt AI-enabled capabilities, they must also adopt responsible AI practices. CIOs will be held accountable to implement governance frameworks that span the entire AI lifecycle, with clear ownership, regular audits, and documented risk assessments.
Enterprise-wide innovation – The CIO role will shift from ‘IT’ to ‘ET’ – enterprise technology The traditional IT metrics will still matter, but CIOs will increasingly focus on business outcomes. The IT function becomes less about infrastructure and more about delivering intelligence.
Technology must move from only support to business-critical – Blandina concludes his article by stating that “successful CIOs will be those who elevate technology from a support function to the central nervous system of the business.”

Admittedly, these are all topics that have been long discussed. What is different now?

At the risk of stating the obvious, the difference now is the business demand to adopt AI-enabled capabilities. This demand represents a significant opportunity for CIOs to transform the role and reputation of IT. Now is the time to act.

Are you ready for the new (renewed?) expectations of the CIO role? Can your IT organization elevate its thinking from just developing and implementing technology solutions to delivering business outcomes?

If not, enterprise service management (ESM) may be the solution.

Why ESM is the solution

ESM is a way to meet the new expectations that organizations will have of CIOs. While ESM leverages the principles of IT Service Management (ITSM), true ESM is not just extending IT workflows into other departments within an organization. ESM is an organizational capability for holistically delivering business value and outcomes, based upon shared processes, appropriate technology, increased organizational collaboration, and better communication across the organization.

As I’ve said before, when done well, ESM drives greater operational efficiency, fosters cross-department collaboration, reduces costs, enhances customer satisfaction, and increases an organization’s ability to adapt quickly to changing business needs. It also strengthens governance and compliance, while the improved service delivery resulting from effective ESM enables a truly differentiated customer experience.

Don’t fall for “imposter ESM”

Unfortunately, many organizations have adopted what I would call “imposter ESM”. For example, many organizations have fallen into the trap of trying to extend IT-oriented workflows into other parts of the organization. Other organizations have used the guise of an ESM initiative to spread the costs of an expensive ITSM tool across the organization. Still others take a technology-first approach and install department-specific modules intended to manage workflows within those departments.

None of these approaches deliver the benefits of real ESM adoption. The CIO can avoid imposter ESM by following these tips:

ESM is best considered as a business strategy designed to deliver value and improve both the employee and customer experience across the enterprise.
ESM requires that organizations break down silos and focus on end-to-end value streams, which involves collaboration across departments.
ESM establishes the foundation for compliance to governance policies to ensure consistent and measurable business outcomes and value.

Good ESM positions organizations to take advantage of AI-enabled capabilities. But it’s more than that – good ESM positions the CIO to establish IT as a business-critical capability, driving appropriately-governed technology to deliver business outcomes.

Elevate Enterprise Value through Strategic ESM Foundations

These critical success factors for ESM also provide a great foundation for effective ESM.

Understanding how value is perceived within the organization – Talk to other business leaders to understand how they perceive value – and how to measure and report on that value.
Understanding and mapping organizational value streams – Value stream mapping provides visualization of how value flows through the organization. A value stream map also depicts where collaboration is required for the customer to realize value.
Understanding the journeys of customers and employees – Journey mapping provides insights into the experience of individuals as they interact with the organization. Journey mapping provides the foundation for delivering differentiated human experiences, both within and external to the organization.
Committing to continual improvement – Formally build continual improvement capabilities to ensure that the organization can react to changes in the business environment in a timely fashion to ensure on-going value to its stakeholders.

AI adoption can be transformational with an organization. But, as with any transformational and impactful solution, there is no “magic wand.” Technology – like AI – only amplifies the current state of workflows and behaviors – right or wrong. Outcomes come from the interactions of people, systems, and tools – not just tools alone. Good business results come from an effective strategy for achieving objectives – not from chasing technology without clear business goals and defined success measures.

Good ESM is no different. But the benefits of good ESM are more than establishing a holistic and collaborative approach for delivering business value and results. Good ESM provides the foundation for governance, fuels innovation by understanding how work gets done, and shifts the role of IT from technology support to business enabler.

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Technology is Easy. Experience is Hard. Here’s How to Get it Right.