All digital journeys hinge on end users accepting end results. So if your enterprise is looking to transform itself into a digital business, you must involve end users in evaluating, selecting, testing, and deploying the technology and services that will make your digital transformation possible.
Internal employees, customers, business partners — anyone who will experience the results of your transformation firsthand should be part of your digital strategy. To do otherwise is to court failure.
“End users are the closest to the source of knowledge,” says Carlos Sanchez, CIO at Suez Water Technologies and Solutions, a company that provides water processing tech. “They are the ones that understand the challenge. They know the true needs of the operation. If you don’t include them, if you add too many layers to building out the digital tools, you run the risk of something being lost in translation — which ultimately impacts speed and adaptability.”
Suez WTSCarlos Sanchez, CIO, Suez WTS
Consulting firm The Hackett Group in its 2021 Key Issues Study found that companies have “a less-than-optimal record for meeting expectations when it comes to things like automation, smart data capture, cognitive computing, and so forth,” says Chris Key, senior director and global IT advisory practice leader at the firm.
