As we face down an unstable economic climate and recession, businesses worldwide need to act quickly to weather the storm. In particular, enterprises need to prevent their key players from being held back by standard challenges that will only be exacerbated by these financial pressures. 

In this series, we’re taking a look, department by department, at those pain points and challenges, and see how the CloudSense solution can help.

Operations and Transformation

This department is the glue that holds a company together, managing general operations across all business units, overseeing transformation programs and ensuring compliance with the latest regulatory requirements. 

Given the extent of their role, operating efficiently during times of uncertainty is of vital importance. Some common challenges cited by senior operations professionals include:

• Managing multiple programs while remaining on track for business outcomes 
• Coordinating with multiple stakeholders to demonstrate business value
• Delivering programs on time and to scope
• Visibility of vendor roadmaps, and incorporating them into planning 
• Upskilling and training staff in new software and applications
• Monitoring how changes to processes and functionalities impact the business 

Stakeholders are difficult to satisfy regardless of the industry. Employees, consumers and board members all have different priorities and have different representations of business value, making juggling conflicting priorities a balancing act. Coordinating with multiple stakeholders can lead to confusion, delayed transformations, impacting the effective management and support of legacy systems. 

Visibility across all stages of project roadmaps is extremely important, and something any Operations Director needs access to to improve an organization’s bottom line. While difficult to achieve, having visibility into all processes can help them make data-driven decisions, saving them from decision fatigue. Additionally, they can ensure that business commitments are being made, targets are being met and changes are being implemented.

Designing, planning and managing various systems presents its own set of challenges. Prioritization and communication is key. With stakeholders gaining a better understanding of IT operations, software and governance, creating transparent decision making processes that involve stakeholders goes a long way. The overall management of multiple programs ensures a business will be on track to meet business goals.

The biggest challenge for many organizations, and a challenge that impacts Operations, is human talent. According to PWC, 74% of CEOs are concerned about the skills gap. With reports showing that by 2030 more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled because of the lack of skilled employees, Operations Directors have no choice but to upskill and train their current employees. 

Unfortunately, research shows that most organizations fail to dedicate the time, resources and leadership support into upskilling their employees. There is a constant battle between impending deadlines and the need to enhance skill sets. Operations Directors do not have the time to research the skills needed to enhance productivity.

Having the ability to provision services quickly and efficiently brings value to businesses. As such, providing the right training allows employees to feel more driven and productive.  Salesforce found that 72% of workers claim they’d be more engaged with their work if their company increased investment in training, and 69% believe that this would lead to greater happiness. Engaged employees lead to better results, helping any Operations Director maintain a strong company culture.

Not only do employees lack certain skills, they are also overwhelmed and held back by managing manual legacy systems. Drowned with mundane and repetitive tasks, employees can end up wasting up to 40% of their time. Prone to human errors, repetitive manual tasks are a high cost for organizations.  

With the use of the right technology, productivity is enhanced and errors are avoided. Companies can add custom validations to problematic or repetitive processes. Combined with automation, employees are given more room to focus on value-adding activities, leading to efficiency gains, and ensuring that programs are on time and delivered to scope.