Today is the slowest rate of change we will experience, warned Rob Easton, head of cloud platform, UK & Ireland, Google, and those that fall behind risk being overtaken by competitors and start-ups.
At the Google Atmosphere Dublin event, Easton said that the pace of change in business is only increasing and will continue to do so, driven by technology enabling new ways of doing business. However, he also warned that while change is inevitable, progress is optional.
The event focused heavily on bringing people on the journey of change, enabling them to find new ways to leverage the technology at their disposal, from smart connected devices (SCD) to cloud based productivity applications, such as Google Apps, and new services such as real time business intelligence and visualisation tools.
The pace of change was also highlighted by Thomas Davies, director, Northern, Central, Eastern Europe, Google. Davies said that the expectation is for the magnitude of change that was seen in business in the last 20 years, will be seen again in the next four years.
Quoting research by MIT Sloan, Davies said that companies must succeed in creating transformation through new technology or face destruction at the hands of competitors that do.
Disruption
A lot of companies have used new technologies to disrupt the business models of other companies, said Davies, citing the likes of Nest, Uber and AirBnB.
“Once a business has been disrupted, it is almost impossible for an incumbent to regain market share,” warned Davies.
However, the befits are clear, with a CapGemini and MIT Sloane 2014 study showing that the digital advantage means those companies that successfully implement digital technologies, such as cloud computing, business analytics, SCDs and modern personal productivity tools, have higher revenues (+9%), better profitability (+26%), and higher market valuations (+12%).
Focusing on the transformational element, Kim Wylie, global lead, enterprise change management, Google, cited a Towers Watson study 2013 which found that companies that manage internal change effectively are up to three and half times more likely to outperform their competitors financially.
Google spends roughly $2 billion per quarter on infrastructure and is the third largest manufacturer of servers in the world. To deal with this level of development and internal change it has developed a methodology which is based heavily on its internal processes and experience. Wylie said that this methodology is used to roll out Goole Apps for clients, as well as for business transformation.
There is a distinct focus on people and education as part of this process, to ensure that people are brought on board.
People and education
“We have a very detailed methodology for deployment, and the largest part within that is change management. Part of that is training too,” said Tonia Luykx, country manager, Google Enterprise, Ireland.
Speaking to TechPro, Luykx said “It is all about communicating the benefits, why people’s jobs are going to be easier and better.”
“We believe that if you do a very good change programme alongside the deployment, and you deliver the training, there are very few issues.”
“Training has got to be a key focus, it can’t be something that is squeezed,” she argues.
“Those organisations that treat this [moving to Google Apps] as just a technical project, will fail. It’s as much a hearts and minds project.”
Wylie echoed and developed this point, adding that the critic of transformation is your second best asset in achieving acceptance. Once critics are shown the benefits of new tools and processes, they are empowered by them and can often become evangelists.
Luykx said that in their experience, people are far more willing to experiment with new technology in their personal lives, with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and other such services. But when it comes to work, attitudes are different and people can become conservative.
Intuitive use
Survey people, said Luykx, ask how many people use Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail. Ask how many use Facebook or Twitter or other social media. Ask how many people were trained to use them. “None!” she argues.
Therefore, Luykx says employees need to be given more freedom to work the way they live. By giving them the freedom to work the way they want to, but also by providing “people-centric” tools, people will embrace the change and take advantage of the new ways of working.
These points were confirmed by Jen Rubio, global director of Innovation for global fashion retailer AllSaints.
Businesses need simple, people-centric tools to enable them, said Rubio, “don’t focus on the tech”.
It’s not innovation if people don’t use it, argued Rubio, and education is key.
Uptake
Rubio said that AllSaints deployment of Google Apps, with Nexus 7 tablets, allowed retail outlet managers and staff to spend more time on the floor where they could be effective and immersed in day to day operations, seeing how people interacted and bought, gathering feedback and correlating this with wider information gathered across the organisation. But the key point was that initial uptake was voluntary and enthusiastic, with the users asking for further training to allow them to fully leverage the new services.
Here in Ireland, Luykx said that for the last two years or so, she has spearheaded a push for on Google Apps, but with a slightly different approach to other territories.
Whereas in the UK, Luykx said that there was a strategy to target certain verticals, here, she said it was more about finding organisations that were struggling to implement change, or where the pace of change was proving problematic.
Luykx said that Google was looking for organisation’s that were asking that vital question: “What can I do to assure the long term relevancy of my company?”
Initially, it was a hard sell, she said, but within the last 12 months or so, with the rising economy, conversations have opened up and opportunities developed.
Google Enterprise is now partnering with Rentokil, Smyths Toys and Paddy Power, but has also done significant work with RTE Digital and others.
“The starting point is typically using the Google Apps platform internally to transform how they work. And then, they start looking at other products,” said Luykx.
The focus in Ireland is on developing those core partnerships, she said, but also to focus on the cloud platform.
“We have a platform that is built on an infrastructure like no other,” she asserts.
As well as building its own servers, Google owns its entire network, so rather than renting, said Luykx, it controls its own network and so can determine speed and quality itself.
“The experience, the speed and the latency that we can offer customers is world class.”
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