Digital transformation is a natural progression and inevitability for all industries as technological innovation consistently dominates society, and the pandemic era has accelerated this trend even more. The need for digital transformation is particularly evident outside the four walls of the business, in the factory floor, at the workshop and for assets in the field – as scarce resources are now complicated by both skilled labor shortages and clogged supply chains.
So, who benefits the most from Digital Transformation?
There are two categories of users who could best utilize digital transformation in their processes:
- The hands-on technicians, mechanics, linemen and skilled trades who have too many work orders to enter, wait too long for parts and aren’t IT-savvy; they work under tight deadlines, with loaded work queues and have little time to waste
- The leaders, supervisors and managers who don’t have time to chase data, and need to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) on a real-time basis, especially to allocate scarce resources or, worse, if they are responding to an audit
Whether it is asset maintenance, work management or inventory management, industries are being weighed down by manual processes and an overreliance on paper. Digital transformation can directly reduce downtime, instantly improving efficiencies, giving companies a competitive edge in the marketplace while ensuring safety and compliance. Furthermore, the Increased use of technology ups the pace of daily operations, optimizing the use of scarce skills and parts. Here’s why there is great value in digital transformation.
Digital Transformation is a Business Value Driver
Digital transformation makes companies more value- and data-driven
Using cloud-mobile technology to increase digital transformation directly addresses the pain points caused by manual processes, paper and extended wait times. You can use mobile apps to digitize every aspect of your operations including:
- Inspections
- Maintenance
- Inventory
- Facilities & infrastructure
- Construction / Capital projects
Furthermore, the use of digital technology like iMarq™ gives businesses much-needed flexibility, where processes can be instantly reconfigured for greater efficiencies and new processes can be introduced based on evolving compliance needs. Plus, the no-code deployment, where prototypes are available within days and go-live happens in weeks further accelerates ROI.
Digital transformation adds further value because it reduces asset downtime and eliminates inefficiencies from manual processes, freeing up more time to complete higher value-add tasks. Mobile apps, for example, allow supervisors to track their resources, allocate work dynamically, and most important of all from a compliance standpoint, keep all documentation in one place. This includes forms, checklists, incident reports and work orders.
There is no question of whether digitization will work, but when and to what extent. The true question is how can people correctly implement digitization methods like mobile apps to simplify their respective industries.
Why You Need to Be a Leader for Digital Transformation
At the office and field level, companies benefit greatly from digital transformation
Being a leader for digital transformation shows that you’re on top of trends and willing to do whatever it takes to ease operational flow so people from the field to the office can quickly access useful information. Many digital transformation trends are developing such as predictive maintenance and remote access to transparent data. To make digital transformation work, more leaders must emerge to move their organizations forward and make them technologically-efficient organizations. By being a bystander, you’re simply struggling to keep up with the times.
As a leader of digital transformation, you successfully realign your value chains and create more opportunities to add value to your operations. With mobile apps, field workers receive work orders on queue with attached forms, instructions and processes. Plus, they can get automated corrective and repair work orders. And back at the office, you get real-time views of work assignments and their respective statuses. Mobile apps also create automated reporting, tracking a review of KPIs and analytics. And, they create alerts and exception management.
Major entities can speak to the outstanding benefits from digital initiatives – like Los Angeles Metro who saves 20% in labor hours by consistently digitizing and automating their services including inspections, maintenance and SGR.
Industry leaders can improve their return on investment (ROI) by becoming more data-driven, collecting real-time data from the field, which will aid analytics and decision-making.
Digital Transformation Cutting Out the Last-Mile Disconnect
Industries that rely on distributed, on-the-road assets, as well as field crews, struggle with inefficiencies because they suffer from last-mile disconnect. There is a disconnect from manufacturers who make and sell the assets, plus the crew who services the assets and the customers who use the assets. The disconnect leads to reactive scheduling and crew management, manual sign-offs and other inefficiencies. The use of mobile, cloud-based technology reduces the chance for last-mile disconnect, increasing reliability, improving time management and automating work orders.
The available technology at Connixt will show all these benefits of digital transformation and more. Request a demo with us today.
