The current economic downturn and global disruption from the pandemic created a “digital awakening.” Boards and C-level executives are accelerating digital transformation initiatives to drive efficiency, growth, business resiliency, and remain relevant and competitive in the new digital normal. N ow, to make effective decisions these executives need data. To make effective decisions in a timely manner these executives also need to automate the manner they capture, process, analyze and draw insights.

So, if we all agree that timely access to rich insights from data is the holy grail then the obvious question we’re left with is: “what do I need to reach this state of digital nirvana?”

In this piece, I’ll take a hypothesis-based approach to focused outcomes, then back into the type of technology that can help executives achieve the value badly needed to navigate the current crisis while positioning for the rebound.

Most of us likely agree that insights from data is extremely beneficial, in the immediate and long term. Then why do so many organizations still struggle to capture, visualize, understand, and optimize business-critical information from the moment it flows in?

What’s actually going on?

It’s not that industries don’t understand the value of data, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented analytics have gained traction globally. 60% of CIOs say that data and analytics will affect their businesses in the next three years , and 73% of companies are planning to invest in DataOps initiatives to support AI and machine learning initiatives .

But to leverage any of these advanced analytics technologies, organizations first need to capture the data. This includes structured data, including websites, business and desktop applications, and databases. But even more important is unstructured data, since these accounts require more overall data than structured. Unstructured data is the content found in documents and emails, for instance.

Once we’ve ingested 100% of the available structured and unstructured data, the data must be orchestrated into appropriate workflows to feed downstream systems.

The typical organization will use several disparate applications to process a single transaction. And in many organizations humans serve as the ‘connective tissue’ among these disparate applications. This is expensive, takes time and is prone to error.

Let’s look at a typical customer onboarding process. This likely requires an initial digital channel feeding a CRM triggering credit checks, bounces off a decision-engine to initiate Know-Your-Customer (KYC) actions, sending notifications to the customer providing updates and requesting documentation while another application’s partitioning the user account.

To make this happen seamlessly, an automated end-to-end digital customer workflow can be designed to orchestrate the flow of data, eliminate errors, reduce cycle times and increase compliance.

Automation can also accelerate the generation of data insights by rapidly aggregating different types of data — comprising business data, and data from different channels and sources, including operational and processing data, customer data, customer or stakeholder feedback, etc. The result is a more accurate and faster way to visualize business intelligence.

Finally, every organization wants to maximize the value of their data. A great approach is to “open it up” a bit through data democratization using the right tools — empowering employees to spend more time engaging with and exploring the data to gain insights they can use in their roles.

Data analytics can change the game

Banks, insurance companies, transportation and logistics firms, healthcare companies, government agencies and more — every day, an avalanche of data pours into organizations across every industry. This data comprises a variety of formats and originates from multiple sources.

A number of organizations still struggle with information silos, inefficient legacy infrastructure, and uncaptured and/or unstructured data. But increasing numbers are now successfully automating data capture and transformation into the right format.

Lingering headaches that are common are high error rates from the merging of information entering the organization, poor documentation and different rules requirements. All of this can contribute to production or service delays and, ultimately, frustrated users.

This is where analytics capabilities part of a larger, integrated intelligent automation solution can be game-changing. Automation and workflow create a new ‘digital frontier’ removing friction resulting in higher efficiency levels, but when analytics are added we ultimately enhance decision-making.

The business value of integrated intelligent automation and analytics is enhanced oversight of key business processes, streamlining workflows, pinpointing the likelihood of bottlenecks or service interruptions before they happen and speeding the delivery of critical business data and decisions.

Automation helps you make the most of your data

The most elementary application of automation to your data can provide answers to questions including: is the data we’re capturing showing increased errors, and if so, why? Can we isolate user productivity by department and determine where extra training could be beneficial? Are our workflows processing data outside of our SLAs? If so, what’s the surplus?

Analytics is about uncovering patterns, particularly unanticipated ones, and helping organizations use those real-time insights to act upon that information quickly and proactively — and predict future potential issues.

Unfortunately, according to IDC, only 10% of usable data is used for analysis . It’s true organizations have become quite adept at data collection, even very large amounts. But many struggle with transforming the massive amounts of information acquired through intelligent automation into something understandable and actionable so they can make better business decisions.

This brings us to essential tools every user tasked with maximizing the value of organizational data should have. It starts with self-service, interactive, web-based dashboards and visualizations that don’t require IT to build new reports, modify queries, or perform coding, syntax or scripting.

Below is a list of the most important key dashboard configuration capabilities. Users should be able to:

Uncover real-time process trends through data visualization and manipulation to improve performance

Drill down to identify low-confidence fields and set the right actions to improve process quality

Filter batch and document numbers by class and pinpoint bottlenecks

Evaluate productivity statistics teams — number of batches, documents and pages processed per time variable, team or process

Use predefined operations metrics to quickly view and accurately measure and improve performance

G et objective performance monitoring of human operators, business processes, and software performance

Use a mobile or desktop view from any device

Protect data on-the-fly and apply security roles to protect data

Drill down to the lowest level of process data to account for, track and trace processes

Final thoughts

Many organizations are leaving a great deal of insights on the table when it comes to their data. There’s never been a better time to move beyond the boundaries of traditional systems and redefine what analytics means as digital transformation accelerates in the ‘new normal’.

Integrated intelligent automation connecting systems, data, and people to achieve outcomes combined with powerful business intelligence is the key. The ability of organizations to garner real-time insights from this activity is the path toward realizing the agility and resiliency successful organizations need to thrive today and in the long term.

Why banks’ digital transformation strategies fail — and what to do about it

While digital transformation has been on the agenda for legacy institutions for over a decade, tech adoption has now become a do or die situation for traditional banks. The fintech revolution has brought about worthy adversaries in the form of neobanks and fintech apps that address the needs of a younger, digitally savvy generation. This coupled with the pandemic, which put the transition to digital banking services into warp-speed, has meant banks need to offer something new today or risk losing customers.

And it’s not for lack of trying. In 2018, banks globally invested $9.7 billion in digital transformation initiatives. Yet, today only 36% believe they’re at least halfway there . This isn’t entirely surprising as a whopping 78% of enterprises fail on their digital transformation initiatives.

So just what is still holding banks back?

We spoke with the team from Rangle.io, a tech company that helps banks up their game with mobile and web solutions, to find out what barriers banks are facing and how they can be overcome.

Legacy issues

Banks were late to the digital transformation party because most were concerned about the security issues that came with digitalization. This risk-averse attitude which earned banks a loyal consumer base 20-30 years ago, has carried on into the inherent culture of many banks today.

While the security risks that come with digitalization are real, the customer perspective has shifted since the pandemic. Before the pandemic, banking customers were more tolerant about banks being slow to adopt digital because they understood that the banks were not willing to compromise on security. However, with the pandemic bringing all services online, customers now expect a frictionless experience no matter where they are on the internet.

Suddenly, the challenges executives faced in the past are dramatically different to today’s landscape . However, current executives were still raised in that previous environment, where more conservative bets and a risk-averse approach were rewarded. At a strategic level, while it might seem prudent to steer a course towards that tried-and-true path, this bias in thinking can lead to stagnation in the bank’s value creation.

Nick Van Weerdenburg, CEO of Rangle.io, illustrates this with an analogy of cucumbers (agile leaders) getting pickled in brine (company culture). He says,

Tightly coupled technical systems

Banks still run on antiquated technical backend systems which makes any technological innovation a challenge. Since these legacy systems are not designed for constant change, every change is complicated, has the potential to break other parts of the system and needs developer support to implement. In practice, this means that any change to a bank’s frontend experience takes a lot of time, people and effort, when it should really be as simple as updating your social media profile.

In a system where the frontend and backend systems are tightly coupled, the developers are in charge and create a bottleneck when multiple frontend systems need updating. One of the main reasons a bank can’t provide a frictionless experience for the customer is because the data clients need are housed in legacy platforms that are not designed to communicate with the new frontend systems. Any change to the website will also have to wait until the developers are free to implement the change.

To solve these issues, Rangle.io suggests decoupling the ability to change the frontend, e.g. website or app, from the antiquated backend system. This involves implementing a modern intermediary technical layer which houses data that can talk to both the front and backend system, speeding up data transmission between the two. The result is that simple changes to the frontend would not be subjected to limitations imposed by an antiquated backend system.

With a decoupled system, the bank’s marketing department can create pages on their website in a self-serve manner via a no-code or low code frontend system. Most of the time, the bank’s technological systems are not as optimized as the staff perceives them to be, so there will likely be room for improvement. Accenture claims that 87% of banking executives believe their bank must train their people to think like technologists, using and customizing technology solutions at the individual level, but without highly technical skills.

Failure of innovation labs

Innovation mandates within banks and other large financial institutions are usually siloed into one arm of the organization rather than being made a priority for the whole business to tackle. A lot of banks have started a ‘digital factory’ or ‘innovation lab’ or something similar five years ago, but the reality is that these expensive investments haven’t yielded results. According to a study by Capgemini, innovation labs have not increased revenue or improved the customer experience, resulting in an 80-90% failure rate .

This is because innovation units are usually treated as a separate entity with goals and objectives that don’t connect to the rest of the company. Furthermore, ideas generated from these units did not fundamentally change how the bank was delivering their services.

Rangle.io’s team believes that if you want to do digital transformation the right way, you need to make sure it’s a priority for the whole organization, and that the innovation lab has some connection to other aspects of the company, rather than being treated as a completely separate unit.

Lack of proper incentives for being risk-savvy

If employees in the bank are not incentivized by the leadership team, then nothing changes. Without the right environment where taking risks is rewarded, digital transformation is not going to happen. Therefore, companies must establish the proper means of measuring success in order to ensure their digital transformation is prioritized appropriately.

PWC found that more than four in five (83%) of risk-savvy executives report they are, “ahead or on track with their digital roadmaps,” versus 57% of their more nervous counterparts. In addition, 72% of the risk-savvy enterprises are also, “meeting or exceeding their expectations of improved customer experience,” versus only 45% of those less able to handle risks.

Bertrand Karerangabo, Chief Strategy Officer at Rangle.io claims that:

For example , when Nordstrom’s was stuck in their digital transformation journey, the executive team decided to integrate digital transformation goals into their bonus structures in 2016. To receive bonuses for that year, the IT and business leaders were tasked with creating a customer-facing improvement, and demonstrating potential for reducing lead time by 20%. This concrete, measurable goal is a digital transformation-centered goal which functions as an executive level incentive for taking risks.

Underestimating the scope of change needed

A lot of banks have invested in digital transformation initiatives while massively underestimating the scope. Usually, the investments are made in the silo of a department, innovation lab, digital factory, personnel hire, etc. A popular approach is hiring expensive superstar developers who then subsequently leave because of the reluctance to change bad processes and the underinvestment in technology.

This is reflective of banks implementing incremental change tactics when they need a disruptive change strategy. Apple started out as a disruptor when they first came out with the iPhone and the iPad. However, for the last decade they have only been making incremental changes, while other industry incumbents chip away at their market share

On the other hand, Nike heavily invested in digital transformation in 2017 which allowed the brand to overhaul their distribution strategy, resulting in a 33% lift in direct-to-consumer sales in two years. When the pandemic hit in 2020, their direct-to-consumer sales helped them thrive as a brand even when high street retail distribution channels were closed due to lockdown.

Banks need to understand what makes their brand salient with their audience and realize that digital transformation has become a must-have rather than a nice-to-have.

What can banks do to succeed in their digital transformation?

Since the market is too far ahead to put digital transformation off, or to put innovation in a silo like one of those innovation lab projects. It’s important for banks to take small but effective steps in starting their transformation now.

Usually, the scale and complexity often leads to far more questions like Where do we start? How much planning is appropriate? How will we allocate funds and resources? What are the key measures of success? While these are reasonable questions to ask, they are the wrong questions to begin with.

Instead, it’s better to first decide on the destination by defining a future state that is radically different from today. Rangle’s free ebook on transformation principles can be a good place to start.

7 simple tips to keep cool if you’re working from home during a heatwave

Is your home office currently as hot as the Sahara?

Are you feeling hot and bothered and struggling to concentrate?

Is it all getting a little too much?

If so, fear not, because here are a few tips and tricks to help you cool down if you’re working from ho me during a heatwave.

Start earlier

If you’re lucky enough to have flexible working hours , let your colleagues and team lead know that you’ll be starting work earlier.

By doing so, you should be able to avoid the hottest time of the day .

The other bit of good news is that you’ll finish earlier, which means you’ll have more time to enjoy the heatwave during the afternoon and evening.

Draw the blinds

You need to shut out the sun from your workspace.

It may seem totally counterintuitive but by keeping your blinds or curtains drawn during the day you’ll prevent the sun from warming up your office .

If that’s not an option, set up in your coolest part of your home . If you live in a house , you might want to work downstairs. Seek the shade!

Only open the window when its cooler outside than it is inside. If not, you’ll run the risk of letting the warm outside air mess with your temperature indoors.

Dress appropriately

I shouldn’t really need to tell you this but it’s important that you dress weather-appropriate — especially during a heatwave.

Pay close attention to the materials your clothes are made off. Avoid all man-made fibers such as polyester and opt for natural materials such as linen or cotton.

Wear loose clothing, opt for light-colored fabrics, and wear as little clothing as you find comfortable.

You’ll stay cooler for longer, sweat less, and you’ll thank me for it.

No to socks and shoes

There’s absolutely no need for you to wear shoes and socks if you’re working from home — so lose them.

Opt for flip flops or sandals and remember that comfort trumps style. If you want to, walk around barefoot.

You need to ensure your extremities — such as your hands and feet — are cool as they’ll help regulate your core body temperature.

Water is your best friend

Stay hydrated and make sure you’ve got ice on hand to cool your water down further.

You could even freeze a bottle of water the night before to ensure it’s ready for you in the morning.

If you get extremely hot, use the frozen water bottle to lean your feet against — you’ll cool down immediately and it may also help to reduce swollen feet.

You could also fill a bucket with cool water and dunk your feet several times a day.

Get a fan

If you don’t have air conditioning, get yourself a fan and place a glass of iced water in front of it.

This way the cold water will help mimic air conditioning, as it’ll cool down the air as the fan blows it out.

Just be careful not to knock the glass over!

Forget your laptop

If you have a desktop computer, use this instead of your laptop .

If you have to make do with a laptop , rest it on a table or desk.

You don’t want to a hot laptop on your lap, trust me. It’s gross.

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