In the two years since COVID-19 has disrupted industries all over the world, there’s been an urgent need for digital transformation.
Businesses have had to ensure that their customer-facing channels can keep up with the evolving and increasingly digital demands of their customers. However, many midmarket enterprises have failed to implement the same digital standard from the inside, still using outdated business systems for their operations.
As we enter the post-pandemic business landscape, it’s time to seize the opportunity to choose technologies for the next frontier – integrated, future-proof solutions that address current challenges and anticipate future needs.
MYOB recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a survey that analyzes the positive impact of unified cloud-based businesses and people management systems. The online survey was conducted among 420 respondents from midmarket businesses.
The era of digital disruption is just getting started and midmarket businesses must decide between overhauling their core business solutions to stay ahead of the curb or staying reactive at the risk of lagging behind.
Here’s what we found out from the “Seizing Advantage: The Technology ANZ Businesses Must Make” by MYOB and Forrester Consulting.
What are the challenges that businesses must overcome?
Midmarket businesses’ core internal business systems are not fit for modern digital commerce. Oftentimes businesses use different solutions for specific purposes. For example, one might have an eCommerce system and a separate CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.
Because of this disconnected approach, they fail to take advantage of the flexibility of cloud-based delivery and set back productivity with poor user experiences.
Outdated solutions cost time, money, and customers. According to the survey, midmarket firms spent 28% extra costs because of inefficient and ineffective technologies.
Decision-makers struggle to build the case for change. It’s not simple to invest in a unified business and people management solution even with all the benefits that come with it. Here are some of the barriers that decision-makers face:
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A lack of leadership support
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Changing management effort
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A short-sighted focus on initial technology costs
Success in the post-pandemic digital era requires a modern solution. This refers to business and people management platforms that provide cloud-enabled flexibility, end-to-end visibility, and accessibility across the entire workforce.
The survey also revealed that early adopters of these solutions have seen significant advantages in productivity and cost efficiencies that have primed their business for growth.
Moving forward, making the pivot
While there may be obstacles along the way, there are also solutions that can help transform businesses to be future-ready.
In the paper, it was stated that “To seize advantage beyond the pandemic, midmarket businesses need to go beyond basic digitisation with business and people management solutions that deliver on agility and innovation, while also driving cost efficiency and supporting growth ambitions.”
Seize the advantage of a unified approach. Involving the whole organisation for a unified approach to change is key. By clearly communicating the disadvantages of older systems and highlighting the positive impact of new solutions on productivity, collaboration, and growth, you and the whole team can seize the advantage together.
Build a case for change that highlights the tangible impact on productivity and growth. Numbers don’t lie. If you must make a case for change, it has to show conclusive and measurable results. As Forrester Consulting writes in their thought-leadership paper, it must be based on economics, not emotions.
“Develop a case that focuses on the value of business agility, operational excellence, and employee productivity.”
Select a solution that addresses the demands of modern digital commerce. Because of the pandemic, businesses have realized the importance of adaptability and the need for interconnectivity between decision-making and operations.
This is why many have started investing in contemporary, unified systems with cloud-first agility and security – platforms that connect and close the loop on the business and IT operations while providing dynamic upgrades and consolidated reporting capabilities.
Embrace an employee-centric solution strategy. When the entire workforce is engaged and dedicated to digital change, businesses will be able to see great results. This is why it’s critical to find intuitive and useful solutions that employees will really stand behind. By providing the right technologies, businesses empower their employees to make timely, informed, and effective decisions that will save them costs in the long run.
The time to act is now. Don’t miss this window of opportunity to be ahead of the pack when it comes to digital disruption.
Lead with a competitive advantage with future-proof solutions like MYOB Advanced and MYOB Exo, just reach out to the AlphaBiz team at www.alphabiz.com.au/contact/ and we’ll help you get started. You can also download the Forrester paper here.
