From fear to transformation – why communication is the key to successful disruption

“Is disruption exciting?,” asked Mike Stewart. “By embracing rather than fearing disruption, successful companies will grow.”

Stewart is the intelligent automation practice lead at Arvato CRM Solutions, which partners with private and public sector organisations to deliver customer relationship management, business process outsourcing (BPO), and public sector and citizen services.

For him, that means working across a range of sectors including retail, manufacturing, travel and logistics – any organisation that has a repetitive process that can be automated to create the time to enable individuals to add value by providing a human touch.

It means working with a local authority to automate invoice processing – four months in, it has handled more than 15,000 invoices – and with Wales Air Ambulance to use Robotic Process Automation to help run its charity lottery. After overcoming initial nervousness, the digital worker has become such a part of the team that it was given a name, Gary.

“We start small, but we think big,” he said.

“We tend to go down the proof of concept route. We’ll put in a process – we may automate it, we may use OCR, whatever technology is going to solve their problem – but we go in on a small basis.

“We get that process up and running and we communicate that from top down, all the way through. Then we show people how this is going to benefit them in the long run.”

Stewart is adamant that communication is the most important factor in any digital transformation project because often there is a fear factor from the teams whose routines are being reimagined.

He said: “The key to introducing new technology is communication – identify the goals, create a communication strategy, then communicate the reason, plan and outcomes to all employees.

“Ultimately, you describe how employees will be affected by the change, what support they will receive, and allow them to ask questions and express their concerns. Once you’ve got those key elements in, what you see then is a successful plan.”

Stewart identified four key challenges when delivering digital transformation – a lack of understanding, conflicting definitions, managing change, and a lack of resources.

“There’s too much focus on the shiny stuff, and not how you deliver it,” he said.

“The only way you’re going to make a digital transformation a success is to have change management in there.”

There can be a tendency to start with the technology, for example ChatGPT, and seek a way to apply it, rather than start with the problem and seek the right tool to solve it.

He said: “Before you begin any type of digital transformation, for any project, make sure you gather all the key stakeholders and then go through the design experience to get their desires, the goals, the fears and frustrations.

“It’s difficult to begin a digital transformation journey and convince others in that business that it’s the right approach when there’s so much confusion around it.

“It’s very, very important to explain exactly what digital transformation is – and what it’s not – before you actually bring it into the business.”

Stewart says that it is typically the CEO rather than the CIO who will lead on the need for digital transformation.

“Often it’s not a technology problem that needs to be solved but it’s a business one,” he said.

But then problems can arise when the business leader steps back to focus on the core business, unless the plan and reasoning is clearly understood.

He added: “It’s not just a case of putting a tool in. We need to make sure that what they are getting is going to match their strategy and, ultimately, that it is going to help them deliver – whether that’s hours back to the business, whether that’s growth within the business.

“We’ve got to understand what the business’s strategy is to build solutions which match their objectives.”

Mike Stewart is speaking at Disruptors, the Northern technology conference designed for forward-thinking businesses and SMEs ready to embrace digital transformation.

In today’s ever-evolving world, technology has become the driving force behind disruptive change. It’s reshaping industries, redefining markets, and revolutionising the way we do business. At Disruptors, we recognise that this rapid pace of innovation is only gaining momentum, and we invite you to be at the forefront of this change.

Join us in in Leeds on November 30 – click here to find out more and register your free place.