FLIPPING THE IT & DIGITAL PROPOSITION

The post-COVID world sees, as surveyed, now 79% of Small to Medium Business owners accelerating moves to embed digital as a vital component of business strategy. However, and despite all the seemingly miraculous digital “work-arounds” during COVID, mixed bag digital experiences (and underpinning IT environments) have been found to be wholly incompatible real and effective digital business models. Indeed, even the dark arts of break/fix and managed support IT, that made all the miracles happen, are now seen to be missing the mark where just 3% of firms are said to be geared for transformation.

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Where firms have invested in digital optimisation or renewal, global project success statistics reveal even digital project success is highly problematic; only 6% of 50,000 research projects were said to realise the anticipated value; just 13% having a coherent strategic purpose and objectives.

As a result, and as other countries open and accelerate with Post-Covid regeneration, New Zealand remains in a peculiar place of puzzlingly pointless restriction, regressive policy-settings amid a further weakening education-tech footing.

In fact, where ideas for digital regeneration are needed, urgently, 48% of firms feel their “IT” exists in a perpetual “struggle” to ‘keep the lights’ let alone being part of an emergent, broad and connected eco-system. Speaking to this, with NZ slumping to from 9th to 26th in world innovation rankings [2021], reflecting weak business and tech adoption, remarkably, the data only reports on the precursor impacts of the labourious 2021 COVID “response” implications. Further data is anticipated. This will likely reveal the real implications upon digital adoption of a now approaching 3 year health “response” that has lacked any economic and digital-renewal aspects in all international-connection, industrial, technology and talent-development domains. The country, consequently, faces being left behind in the international idea economy.

Thus – at the coal face and amid these challenges - businesses, seeking digital direction and renewal, are finally voicing the oft-buried truth that the IT value proposition is elusive and has, as a result and for too many years, become a high-cost barrier (and a disconnected department in the business).

As such, when firms scour the market for digital-propositions - the credibility of the often technically or product-geared, IT, “cloud” or “digital” transformation proposition is being questioned as firms struggle to locate a proposition that resonates or responds to;

why-digital, what outcomes and ‘how’ can they be assured of realising them.

So, where do issues lie with the Digital & IT value proposition?

Well – first, the real danger facing New Zealand is to further entrench business digital adoption barriers by persisting with contemporary IT ‘’strategy” propositions and IT-support models devoid of any genuine capacity to equip businesses, practitioners, and workforce with the means to leverage digital for the generation of ideas that help businesses (and regions) to thrive in a disruptive world

Second, when we consider a or the client-centred definition of a proposition, part of the main issues are that most IT firms professionals and service providers still go to market with lousy value propositions.

"A value proposition is a clear statement of the commercial relevancy, added value and mechanisms for how a customer attains tangible business outcomes or results from engaging in a journey with you, or using your products, or your services".

When seen with the client-lens, the common IT proposition, in reality, is actually weak. Thus, in an industry awash with standards, the situation is paralysing. Indeed, having shelled out thousands at the “creative agency” (to promote the IT proposition), remarkably, unsuspecting IT firms succumb to a creative marketing ruse that turns out blurb which resembles a firms alleged capabilities and is often sandwiched between a cool technology led thematic-area or two. Sprinkled on top, there is the usual garnishing of a fear-based tag line to round off a distasteful serving of a few technically geared themes &or specifications – none of which mean too much to the client seeking outcomes and transformation.

..&\or – through in brand name or two, a few industry-awards, and suddenly the ‘proposition’ is soured with so much self-aggrandizing puffery meaning is hard to spot. As a result, customers are often left utterly bamboozled and are unable to translate the jargon into any relevant or meaningful business terms. The proposition headlines a rush to solutions, describes scaleability and often talks of flexibility, but without knowing client nor their problem.

Examples include:

1. “It's the most technologically advanced and robust system on the market”.

2. We offer scalable, flexible, managed IT?

3. “We offer device or asset management”.

4. “We are a gold partner of...cloud, software, hardware....widgets”.

5. We benchmark x IT theme, to sell you y IT solution”

6. “You should be worried about x theme; you should consider, y prescription”

7. “My product was rated the best-in-class by leading authorities.”

8. “These are the services we already provide you, please sign here”

In reality - from a client’s perspective, investment and promotion in and of these types of propositions is wasteful. Digital adoption then falters, engagement opportunities meander, and for those that do sign up; customers seldom see any genuine transformation or substance in or from such a proposition. Such propositions are rarely substantiated with proven market war or client-success stories as the focus is on the IT firm, product or service, less on the client. This translates into class-level and broader international implications with a lack of broad digital transformation, human-capability development and or generates it's ‘brain’ drain and talent-retention implications (in firms).

Often, these it-led propositions are very easy to spot as they are delivered with a “tell” or task-centred mentality. “Let me tell you about my a, b, c, it can do x, y and Z” or “you should look at x, y, z theme” or “this is a huge problem elsewhere, therefore…”….

The customer will more than likely respond saying: "So what?!"! “Maybe later”. “Look, so and so might be interested…go and talk to…”.

Without evidence of success, customers simply don't believe the pitch one little bit or simply have lost patience before the engagement has begun. Brush offs and put offs happen as fast as confusion increases and as credibility fades. Such propositions simply fail to hit the mark. For the provider, performance goals and objectives are rarely attained.

Thus – in order morph to an effective Digital IT value proposition, with today's tight economy and overburdened decision makers, client-businesses often need help devising their own strong digital-business value proposition in order to break through the clutter and to get attention to their business. Defining this is often the start point.

That means, to unleash and flip the Digital change proposition, which need(s) to be defined as a people-based journeys, not technical solutions or projects, and to support their (the customer’s) own proposition transformation, Digital IT firms succeed with a results-oriented value proposition. These propositions speak to the business critical issues &or opportunities the client has available (from Digital, workforce change and business-re-design)– and this and of itself helps firms(re) define their own proposition and set off both parties, the client and digital-IT firm, on a journey.

Thus - for Digital IT firms - that means defining two propositions; the firms and the clients - as a function of yours (the Digital IT firms) – success occurs with an IT firm/professionals ability to articulate both propositions as a symbiotic function of each other. Mastering this interplay, not just from the proposition design and promotion stage, but through an experience over time - is crucial to success.

Accordingly - when it comes to quality digital engagements, to activate change, client-engagement/participation, solutions and workforce enablement - built upon consultative and change focused outcomes – over the type of time required to define, deliver and provide/prove a customer’s results - that means a method that extrapolates, defines and includes real, specific tangible outcomes, variables; where doing so means you get the decision maker's attention even faster.

Strong value propositions, therefore, include mechanisms to find, elicit, define, curate, orchestrate, deliver, and cultivate, continuously, improved tangible results, as both a partner, sherpa and problem-solver/opportunity creator, to and like (examples):

1. Increased revenues, growth, diversification, agility

2. Faster time to market

3. Decreased costs

4. Improved operational efficiency

5. Increased strategic alignment or agility

6. Decreased employee turnover, increased retention; digital strategy measurability, success from here to here %

7. Improved customer retention levels

8. Improved decision making

9. Heightened responsiveness

Technology speak, for unleashing strong digital is limited or not even required (or helpful) at all. Indeed – resorting to technology speak over, above or to, even, quieten customer language is a sure sign that something has gone very badly wrong with a client engagement (or will go very wrong).

As such, charting business trajectory and measuring performance in digital environments is different to traditional business and different to the traditional product/service centred IT proposition. Strong value propositions, with this lens, unleash business potential by embedding the reasons why, what, how customers will obtain and self-service their own value, results and methods (from working with you through a digital transformation experience) - into the client experience of the journey and and tools delivered along the journey. This means methods that translate the intentionality into actuality through the empowerment of the customer offering documented (able), front and centre, success stories written in client language.

These express client paints, outcomes, results, transformation and user-stores – makes the digital proposition believable to prospective customers (in that sector and other sectors). The application of methods that support this show authenticity, care and attention to getting genuinely involved in a client(s) business. Solutions then carry the same currency as the developed expertise in that client circumstance for future circumstances. It shows your ability to ‘place yourself in the moccasins’ of the client. Your proposition is the client’s proposition.

In avoiding gobbledygook, a true proposition unleashes a SMEs ability to leapfrog IT, investment, change and technical hurdles. An effective proposition enables SMe and major enterprise to adopt digital in a staged, evolutionary and empowering manner that means ‘business’ and is realised in user-friendly terms.

This includes engaging methods, tools and services that help clients to design, measure and orchestrate digital services that:

1. Strengthens business strategy & brand relevance

2. Empowered ideation, workforce engagement & development

3. Improve competitiveness and differentiate

4. Understand and drive loyalty in customers

5. Tap into new markets; deliver x, y, z services by standing up a, b, z teams..

6. Increase quality and productivity with streamlined (and transformed) processes

7. Deliver cost savings, growth & profitability

8. Shift investment posture off balance sheet

Coupled with ‘race-to-the-top’ human-centred journey and outcomes, as well as the same for hardware and software principles, client-centred propositions, therefore, are about assisting organisations to map their current environment, as a business, in order to depict growth, cost savings and optimal digital effectiveness.

With a highly accessible engagement model, rather than the barriers of time + materials nostalgic approaches, quality propositions are ‘as-a-service’ and support customers transition to digitally-geared operations that enables them to grow, thrive and adjust trajectory in the competitive and constantly changing digital world.

Summarily, the new-game Digital IT proposition relies upon a systems thinking approach to determining the environment a client exists, design-thinking approaches to engagement-to-delivery and critical-teleological systems to measure/orchestrate success; to partner firms to, whether in small steps or large leaps, to design journeys that develop (and gain) confidence with customised approaches.

This helps businesses go on a journey towards a truly connected, truly empowering and fully supported small, medium or major-enterprise experience without the need to invest capital sums, time &\or effort having to fathom digital, jargon and risk becoming entangled in often high risk, often meaningless, technical propositions.

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