Is Technology still a support function?
Every step matters… figuratively and literally, until the pedometer (the little device that counts steps) was invented, most people enjoyed a walk but now there is a purpose of good health attached to the enjoyable walk… we want to know the steps taken against our goals and their corresponding benefits. With intelligence and real-time updates on progress made, tying back to peta-bytes of data available on Nutritional content of what we consume, there is no dearth of technology to improve our health quotient.
Technology is expensive upfront but the known fact of the irreversible investment can’t be ignored. The BPO industry is fast moving towards this point of no return… for all good reasons, we’ve adopted technology in the version it was available in 1990 and early 2000, be it simple programming or macros, depending on which age you consider, was it tough for them, at that time, to accept this change?
Today we are programming computers to do things that were conventionally considered as ‘MANUAL TRANSACTIONAL’ processes; soon this term will be extinct. But are all of us as leaders of the future able to (a) understand technology and (b) embrace it? Are we still thinking, what is in it for ME or have we been able to think about the bigger picture?
The number of initiatives that support financial stability are disproportionately higher than those supporting technological stability.
In our personal lives most people save up and go out of their way to acquire, use and talk about the most recent gadget available (any gadget, a phone, a kitchen appliance, a car accessory), but that enthusiasm is still missing from the corporate citizen.
Now is the time to invest $s, may be a lot more that what seemed to be affordable, but now is the time so that our technology is at par with our competitors.
Doesn’t it make more sense to put the money down now, wait for the 3 to 5 year ROI and thrive later and leave a legacy of success than “catch up” in the next 5 years?
Hence concluding, Is Technology still a support function? Please share your point of view.
Easier said that done. Technology is complex and the biggest challenge it faces is the rapid evolution . Almost all aspects of technology ( Hardware, code, GUI even process frameworks) are evolving at a very rapid speed. Things getting outdated very soon. Every change you make to technology brings with it a risk. Risk that it might not work . As a strategic leader, will you be willing to own that risk with your business. More-soever the primary objective of technology is to Aid, Assist , increase efficiency, automate mundane stuff. The task nevertheless remains the same. With unstable technology, incompetency to adopt and adapt, functions which are not able to integrate, processes which don't add value, end -product / services will not yield value to business.
Fully agree on this. Organization should align their digital / automation road map with business strategy… invest in technology and elevate employee technical adoption to reap the benefit of these in time.