Marching Orders 2017: Digital Maturity Isn't Generational
What should you do to make the most of technology business opportunities in 2017? For this "Marching Orders" series, we put that question to a number of channel luminaries, including top Microsoft channel executives, consultants, Microsoft partners and other regular RCP contributors. This entry comes from Jeff Hilton, founder of Alliance for Channel Success.
There is a big drive for organizations to achieve greater digital maturity.
When organizations use technology-led initiatives and digitally managed processes to drive performance, they gain strategic assets and distinct competitive and effectiveness advantages. They gain new ways of finding, engaging and working with clients and co-workers.
Forward-looking business leaders are aware that at some point, digital immaturity becomes a distinct disadvantage.
This is a perfect practice area for partners. Partners can leverage their technical expertise to help organizations find new ways of working with the technology in place and guiding them with implementing new technologies.
Partners can develop this practice by learning from their own internal use of technology. How do you use the technologies you sell? How do you make your organization effective and efficient? How can you take these insights out to your clients?
Don't make the mistake of thinking an organization's ability to achieve this kind of change may vary with the age of their workforce.
There are about six generations living in the United States today with baby boomers, Generation Xers and millennials making up the majority of the population and the workforce. All three of these generations are very familiar with the current stew of technologies. We're already experiencing a digital transformation, along the way to digital maturity.
Being born into a digital world or being a high-volume user of digital technologies doesn't confer technical expertise or digital maturity. It's much more than using technology; it's the ability to innovate with it. And this ability is readily found among all the generations in the workforce.
Your role as a partner is to integrate new technologies and processes that enhance your clients' ways of working across all generations. Get this right and you have a killer practice in the making.
Posted on December 19, 2016