Welcome to another episode of unraveling you. I'm your host, the Lexi Burra Stunkett. And whether you know it or not, you've probably been a part of some sort of digital transformation initiative, and regardless of your track record, with digital transformation. One thing is for certain. Legacy organizations need to change. They they have to you know, change their the way that they process their data. They have to change the way that they digitize their systems or risk being left behind. The benefits of a successful digital transformation are way too big to leave on the table, and the risk of doing nothing is way too severe. But the thing that is most important is that they do it right. Seventy percent of digital transformations fail according to, Mackenzie and Company, and that leaves some companies a little gun shy. So today, West Deconik is joining us today. He is the director of digital transformation at Forsytha Technologies, and he's gonna be talking to us about what goes wrong in digital transformation. So this episode is titled, who broke my digital transformation. Wes. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Happy to meet her. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about background and how you got into digital transformation? Yeah. Actually, it's a very long history. I've got over twenty years of sales and marketing experience designed product management. Pretty much anything I need to do with technology I've been part of for over twenty years. I've worked for lots of businesses. I own businesses. So I have a lot of perspective on how to craft real solutions to real problems, and kind of a trial by fire manner. So I've been through a lot over the last twenty years, seen a lot of things learn a lot of ways to not go about doing something. So, a lot of that comes to bear here for our clients, and I bring that experience to the table to to craft good solutions Gotcha. And since you are so well versed in, you know, what goes right and goes wrong, what are some of the most painful digital transformation, projects that you've experienced and what made them so painful? Yeah. I would say my first projects were my most painful for sure. As of any career, when you first get started, you make a lot of mistakes, and you hope to learn quickly from them. But digital transformation is no different. You know, I've written entire apps that didn't need to exist That's not a good feeling. They're all solutions for problems that are even really problems or a totally wrong problem. In in a common thread, I would say that throughout does is that I let our stakeholders drive the solutions too much. So that would be the biggest problem I would say early on in my career, and for most of my digital transformation projects is just building the things that people ask you to build without asking why enough and not diving in far enough. So, that's led to a lot of friction, a lot of pain, and for me, at least that's that's a top one for wireless projects. Gotcha. And if you could change one thing about those projects, what would it be? Yep. I would say it's just making sure that you fully understand the problem you're solving before you try to solve it. And what I mean by that is don't be quick jump to implementation. A lot of people get excited about, oh, I know how to build something that hopefully needs sleep, they jump in, they iterate and then they throw it out there, but they didn't understand the problem well enough to actually address it. And that's, you know, that sets a lot of things over failure. You wanna get as far upstream as possible in your problem to say, you know, how how did this come to be? What are the the key players that are in this. What possible solutions exist and analyze all that before you try to determine what technology could be used to do this, you know, or to solve this and how do we go about solving it? It doesn't really matter how complex the problem is. It just matters that you fully understand it before you try to solve it. Yeah. And what do companies do typically set themselves up for failure. A lot of things. That definitely is one of them is not understanding their project or problems that it's, not asking questions not involving the right people not having the right context. There's a lot that they can do. I would say one of the top ones that, at least for me, is trying to change too much too fast. Many, many organizations fall prey to this, whether they're working with some kind of a consultant or they're trying to do it themselves in, in, in house with their own teams and resources. But they just try to change everything in one fell swoop. They take a big bag approach and said, let's just digitize all the things. That's not a really good approach because there's too much exposure and risk in doing that. And the, you know, the the likelihood of failure is much higher than, than it could be. So you wanna look for ways to break problems down into smaller problems. You can solve, and then prioritize into normal man against those. So making sure that you say, hey, here's our full list of problems. What are the the heavy hitters? What we tackle first, and then put all those pieces together for a larger overarching solution. Gotcha. And speaking of, you know, making things part. You know, of course, it does specialize in small businesses. And, what are the advantages that, you know, smaller companies have over enterprises when it comes to digital transformation. I love working with smaller companies, and there's nothing against enterprise, but smaller companies are which more nimble. You know, they definitely have advantages over the enterprise for I see three reasons, most likely. And that's they have fewer people, fewer systems, and they can pit it easier. So with fewer people, it's a lighter burden in terms of cultural change, training, adoption, So we roll out a new piece of software or a new process or way of doing things. There's fewer people involved, so it's easier to get out there and get use. There's also fewer systems, so that makes it easier to come, you know, to, to implement your project, to tie data together, to integrate things, and there's not as many things that you have to figure out how to put the piece in that puzzle so to speak. And then again, if something goes wrong, which is can, and that's the subject of today's episode is it's a lot goes wrong. How do we avoid it, but when things go wrong, as a smaller organization, easier to pivot, which means you didn't get it right, you can roll it back, you can head in a different direction, and it's much easier to do when it's not that big of an organization. The allergy I use typically to wrap this kind of thing up is it's like in a rowboat, you turn the rudder, you can turn around quickly in a small boat. Right? Mhmm. If you're on the Titanic, you can the rider as hard as you want, instead of gonna take a really long time for that boat to turn around. So that that's kind of the analogy that you could use for digital transformation in these enterprises and the small It's just more nimble. It's easier, you know, and then you have a lot more success with that. But Enterprise, we have a lot of success too because the mindset that we take you know, breaking things down, making it easier to digest and not tackling it all at once. Yeah. So, I know part of digital transformation is custom software. And I know custom software can get a company into trouble. It's one thing to build a beautiful in house solution, but long term supporting it can critical the IT department. Any advice on how to approach digital transformation, in a future proof of way? Yeah. Whether you're building it internally or if you're hiring, you know, an outside firm, like, course or somebody to to come in and help you with that digital transformation initiative, it's being intentional about how you're gonna support it from day one that will set you up for success. Most people, they they have their eye on building the thing, especially with custom software, you build it, you implement it, you roll it out. Hooray, it's the end of the road, everything hunky doors and then all out. But technology changes daily. Things do need to update and processes change, and you need to have a plan that. And if you don't, it will be very painful. So I would say just being intentional about how you're gonna support the solution implementing, whether you're doing it internally or, again, working with an outside vendor, ask what the plan is. How are we gonna support this thing? What are the costs involved and what are the risk areas for us going forward after we roll out this initiative. Gotcha. And, can you give us a few examples of digital transformation projects that you've completed recently and the impact that they had on the organization? Yeah. Absolutely. And I I love this question. I mean, I love using what I know how to do to work with businesses every day, solve the robinson technology. It's exciting. And technology is always changing. A couple of examples that come to mind, would be a first one was a custom web that we built for a client. And they had recording needs to report data for treatment for, probation, individuals for those on probation. And they needed to report data to the state for funding for various other reasons. They relied on their internal staff and some external team members to record data about treatment for these individuals. And then they would manually file that, send it to a clerk or a reporter, and they would have to then take all that and sanitize that data and put it in the right format to send off to the state. It took a lot of time for that individual to get the data and then to put it in the proper format, a lot of manual steps. Now, there's pieces of technology in there, but there's still a lot of manual labor. We built in custom application that allowed for direct data entry by the people providing the treatment. So whether that was internally or external to their business, they had one application that data was into, and the reports were automatically generated. So that person was taking several days of effort a month to do reporting, and it was kinda cut down to less than, I think, fifteen minutes. So it took several days down to fifteen minutes. And the funny story there is that individual when I delivered it and showed her what it does. She got out of her chair. It did herbills. I heard about her. I heard about her. It was exciting. It was exciting for us too, knowing that, you know, we used what we learned how to do to build something and had that added to that. So I that that's one that always sticks out for me as having a green impact, but it just saved her so much time in quality of life, you know, was much improved from that one. Another one, another custom web app that we did, was one that was embedded in Microsoft Teams for a financial client. So most companies deal with expenses, and things like that, and they all have different ways of going about doing it. For them, it was there was an email chain that had some pdfs that download and fill out for your expenses or they had a spreadsheet that they would mail to the CFO. She would have to compile that, realize that everyone missed all their attachments and didn't put receipt and had to chase people down, and it just took her so much time to do expenses every month, and she had a better room to do. So, they came to us to build an application to put right into their collaborative suite in the Microsoft Teams environment. Basically, it allowed every individual to record their expenses quickly and easily. It required all the needed they needed to input, so they couldn't submit it without adding the proper documentation, and automatically generated all the reports for it. So it was just done She still rests to review things and mark things, but saved her a ton of time. And she was very, very happy about that implementation. And that's just a small application. Obviously, we're expand that feature for them, but that's another good one I like too. That a small application in the fabric of everyday collaborative tooling can just save so much time and improve of their data. Yeah. Yeah. And so what do you think that, you know, people are afraid of, essentially, when they're thinking about digital transformation? Is it, like, I don't know what digital transformation is that. That's usually a big one. And then, or do you think that it's something else? Yeah. I think that the a couple of big fears that that I see. One, just not understanding technology and how it can be used. There's they just say, there's just so much. I don't know where I began. I don't know what could be used for what. I don't understand it. So not having, you know, a good understanding of it can be kind of scary. And that's why it's important to get a good partner, like either you a good partner internally with your team that understands this or partner with someone like Corsica or other digital transformation agencies that can come in and analyze what you're wanting to do and provide you with that plan, which demystifies a lot and helps you understand and ground, you know, your project for you. Another thing too is cost. A lot of people think, oh, I have to spend two million dollars this year to the digital transformation all the things, but realistically, when you get a good partner and you can get a plan together and prioritize it, you buy it into smaller chunks costs are not astronomical. And another way to think about it that a lot of people don't is in terms of what are you getting from this product. So, you know, we talked about time and some of these examples. If you think in terms of if I have an employee or a team that spends x amount of time doing this thing that I can either automate or integrate with another and cut out all that time over the next two to five years. How much money am I saving? Then that can help justify the cost of the project itself. So you know, looking at it from a different way and thinking in terms of that ROI for this product that you're building or the solution that you're gonna put in place can really help you understand whether the costs are in or out of line for your use case as a company too, but I think cost is another big one that's prohibitive, and it's not as bad as people think it is. Yeah. I know Ross was saying that, you know, a lot of the return on investment was, you know, simply having the time to focus on your business, you know. Having the flexibility because I was wondering, like, how do you even grow if you, you know, if you invest in these things, and we're the return on investment, and he was saying that a lot of it. It's just I don't have to worry about that, so I can focus on this. And then, you know, it just gets better and better and better. Yeah. And another way you can think about that too, I guess, with another example is you can also use the tools you're already paying for. So many of our clients and so many businesses use Microsoft three sixty five use the Microsoft suite of projects for products, but they're using it for email to teams and collaboration. There's so much more. And there's so much more in that platform that they're already paying for. So having someone come in and say, what is your problem? Let's take a look at this thing. Let's solve this. And using technology they're already paying for is another way to cut costs down. And more ways than one, you're not expending more for the product, and then you're also saving through the efficiency gained and utilizing Yeah. So what is something that, excites you, about digital transformation, you know, as enter twenty twenty four. Just the rapid rate of change of technology. Like, today, we have so many things that we can use at our disposal, you know, as this ocean engineers as people trying to solve problems to solve them economically and efficiently. And also empowering the people who by the solutions board to help iterate on themselves. Like, when we had to to build custom software ten, fifteen years ago, we were wizards, we were the magicians, Right? And clients are like, oh, that's behind the locked door. I don't know what they're doing, but it does the thing. So if it breaks, I don't know how we're gonna fix it. Right. But now we're engineering solutions alongside of our clients and educating them and giving them the keys to success. And also through Microsoft and other collaborative suite, there's so many tools that are self-service that they get excited about transforming things. They come up with their own ways to solve their own problems. Used to. So, I mean, the rate of change of technology and the rapid adoption of it heading into next year, so many people having their eyes up and look, wow, can build my own tools. I can do the things. I can make myself more efficient so I can focus on things I'm not focusing on today. That excites me. It's an exciting time for companies. It's an exciting time for us. Having more tools that we can use to help people solve these problems and open your eyes. It's Yeah. But they at the end of the day, they do need somebody like us because you were saying they need to think like a digital transformation expert. Yeah. Actually, it's one of the things that and I heard some podcasters from there that liked it. It's just everyone should think like a consultant. Even if you're internal, think like a consultant. Ask the right questions, get upstream on your problem. Look at the tools that you're disposal and look at, like, the objectives or the success criteria for the outcomes and set to that. Don't just say, oh, could we do a thing that does a thing? Yeah. We could do that. Get outside of that box, ask why a lot more, get to the root of your problem, and find the right way to solve it. And I think, that, yeah, that's, that's, I don't know. That that excites me. I just, I love it. But having a plan is important whether you work with a consultant or not. And the important thing is to know that we're out here. You know, if if you're like, yeah, that's all well in Great West, but I don't know where to start. Right. We'll bring the plan. Right. All I need to do is say, what's your problem? What's your pain? What's the friction you're having? What do you need to do? You can't do today? And we can come in and help you figure that and maybe the solution is you already have the tools, let us show you how to use it, or it's, let us build you something and show you how to use it, you know. So We don't just engage in. We're not only brought in when we have to build something for someone. We're brought in to do the consulting as well. Here are your options, you know, what's gonna work best for you for what you need out of it? Yeah. It it's good to have somebody that can think of all the things, all the questions you you're mind, the way that it works is it's constantly thinking of what can possibly go wrong. It's a blessing and a curse. Yeah. Well, you know, it it comes in handy when it comes to your job. You have a big imagination for how things can be different. But I wanna thank you so much for being here with me today and talking about digital transformation and how expansive it is. You know, this is just a small part of a big conversation. Very big conversation. And I hope to have you back on the clock that we can do this all over again. And there you have it. We've unraveled digital transformation, what you need to be doing correctly, and what mistakes you can avoid. Thank you so much for tuning in to unraveling IT. I'm your host, Lexi Boris Duncan, and we'll see you next time.
