TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
Why it’s time to move to a digital mindset
Adam Reynolds, chief executive officer of webexpenses, explains that digital offers a smarter and simpler way to get things done
I t’s easy to forget how many things we once took for granted were swept away by the arrival of digital technology. How, not so long ago, our offices were still mostly analogue worlds full of fax machines, filofaxes and paper filing systems. But the shift from analogue to digital has affected much more than the tools we use to work – it has fundamentally changed the way we interact with each other. From chatting to friends via social media to getting the latest financial news, we now have the ability to access and share information in ways never previously possible. It means that our move to digital has brought with it a wider shift in our attitudes and expectations. To see this, you only have to look at how our views towards deliveries have changed over the past decade. In the pre-digital world, a customer ordering an item for delivery would expect to be given a rough estimate of when it may arrive – usually some time within ten working days – and then they would simply wait. Compare this to the present day and our expectations when ordering something online. We expect an exact delivery time and date, as well as the ability to track the order throughout the process – even down to the name of a delivery van driver. It’s thanks to technology that companies are now able to provide this level of service, with companies switching over to digital systems which use the global positioning system to track deliveries.
companies that are unable to meet them; that are still reliant on old analogue and paper-based ways of working. While, in the past, we would accept a certain level of analogue ‘fuzziness’ in the way organisations were run, in a digital environment we expect better.
slow and cumbersome, expenses data is now available in real-time – transforming the way expenses are able to be managed and monitored. With these kinds of benefits available to businesses, why do so many companies continue to rely on old analogue ways of working? In the past, the main reason has been the prohibitive cost of digital systems, meaning they were a realistic option only for larger organisations. Before the arrival of cloud services, businesses faced the costs of purchasing, managing and maintaining their own IT set-up. But as costs have dropped and cloud technology has improved, access to digital management systems is now possible for organisations of all shapes and sizes. It means the barrier facing businesses is now more about attitude than access. The challenge of change is greatest for those organisations that have been formed in an analogue business world of manual and paper-based processes. For these companies, the danger is that digital technology is viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity. They will find that analogue ways are become increasingly anachronistic; an increasing obstacle when trying to compete against businesses that have adopted a digital mindset. There really is no going back to the analogue age. The simple reason for the powerful influence of digital technology is that it offers a smarter and simpler way to get things done. Whether it’s sharing photos with our friends or managing company finances, there’s only going to be one winner when it comes to digital versus analogue. n
...removes the analogue ‘fuzziness’ from expenses,
providing managers
with clear and accurate data
The way we manage employee expenses is a good example. In a pre- digital world, businesses had no option but to handle expenses by hand. We relied on employees submitting crumpled paper receipts and providing finger-in-the-air travel mileage estimates. These paper-based processes made effective expenses management virtually impossible, meaning that a certain amount of ‘wiggle’ room had to be allowed. And it was in this space that exaggerated and falsified claims could thrive. But we now have digital tools which provide a much smarter way to manage, replacing old paper-based methods with fast and automated systems. It removes the analogue ‘fuzziness’ from expenses, providing managers with clear and accurate data. Whereas processing claims used to be
But our rising expectations pose a considerable challenge to those
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | September 2016 | Issue 23 54
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