Much has been written about the need for organizations to embrace digital transformation. But here's the question: What do you do after you've taken steps to go digital? How can you ensure that you get the most from your transformation journey and make it, not a destination in itself, but a roadway that leads to something even better?
Today we've outline the top three ways that organizations adopting a digital content management system (CMS) can get the most out of their new system.
Businesses that have decided to switch from paper to digital are likely enthusiastic about the change, and they should be. But when embarking on this digital journey, resist the urge to throw everything you have at your content management system at once.
Perhaps the HR department wants all employee complaints archived, finance wants all invoices made searchable, and administration wants all call center calls going back a decade added to the new database. Rather than attempting to meet all of these demands at the same time to please everybody, however, determine which department will be most affected by the digitization and start there. In other words, management should prioritize which department is likely to benefit most significantly from digitization.
Don't just spring a new system on your employees. The workers are the ones who are going to be living and breathing the CMS once it's up, so they should be just as involved as management in the implementation planning. Leadership at an organization undertaking a move to a CMS should make a plan with the CMS provider for the training of staff members who will be using the new system. Be sure to keep the trainees apprised of the schedule.
Keep the lines of communication about the new data management system open. Let your people know that management and/or leadership, as well as the CMS provider, are open to and welcome both questions and suggestions about the move. Otherwise, employees may feel like they don't have a say in their own work environment and that their opinions don't matter. As a result, employees could miss the point of the change entirely.
“Employees need to understand why [the new technology] is an improvement from what they had before,” Didier Bonnet, an expert in business transformation and digital customer experience for Capgemini Consulting told Harvard Business Review. “The job of a manager is to help people cross the bridge — to get them comfortable with the technology, to get them using it, and to help them understand how it makes their lives better.”
Working with your team as the project moves forward will help ensure buy-in, which will keep the momentum going in the future and keep the CMS in use. That, ultimately, is what will save time and money for the organization in the long run.
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