There are times in your digital transformation journey that you may find your company dealing with people who don’t want to innovate. The practices of businesses you work with might force you to revert to less efficient practices to accommodate them. If companies you work with don’t want to adopt technology, sometimes you get stuck doing things the “old” way, even though you’ve found the “new” way works better.
One of your challenges may be to convince other stakeholders to transition when they really don’t care about technology. The incidence of this has gradually been declining, but pockets of resistance remain.
Fortunately there are software providers aware of this situation and building technology solutions that can work with both worlds: the technology empowered companies plus those that have not transitioned to digital workflows. This may more prevalent in the financial realm than in technical fields. And eventually, the holdouts will be phased out of the industry.
Construction is, after all, changing over time. As companies move from paper-based to digital processes, new technology allows adopters to increase accuracy and transparency in many ways. However, there are some pitfalls we might experience on our tech adoption journey. Whether large or small, challenges are almost a given during a digital workflow adoption. No one involved should be surprised if everything doesn’t fall into place effortlessly.
Because it is such a people-focused industry, construction is highly relationship-based. It is always helpful to seek input from like-minded people throughout the industry when looking into digital solutions and determining the benefits of implementing them. Many are willing to share their experiences, warnings and successes.
The personalized relationships built among peers can result in trust. Peers are a good source for learning about concerns over the advent of new technologies.
Implementing any technology can be a balancing act. There are key considerations for construction companies when looking at digital solutions:
- Be aware of fees for using the application.
- Look for something vertical-specific.
- Learn about the supplier’s after-the-sale support policy.
- Know what the customer success process is like and if you will have a dedicated representative.
- Find out if the technology provider welcomes feedback.
When you decide to implement technology, you should go into your digital transition with tempered expectations. There is research and work you can do up front that will take away some of the unknowns. Any transition can be challenging at first until everyone gets used to new processes.
In whatever situation it is used in construction, real time data gives you the ability to make adjustments to ease your transition. Real time information is delivered immediately after it is collected, without a delay in its timeliness. If you make it a point to monitor workflows and performance during your digital transformation, you will have an opportunity to fine-tune things before the implementation can take a downturn. Find out the metrics being used by your peers in the industry to determine successful implementation to see if they apply to your company’s situation.
Tune in to Bridging the Gap Podcast episode 212 to hear about financial technology and the benefits of digital finance solutions.
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