You’ve Digitized, Now What?

This is the fourth entry in a series of articles by the CIO Advisory Team. Check out the previous one here.

Your IT department is flourishing, your employees have the necessary resources, but there is still room for growth and innovation. You have a good understanding of your IT infrastructure and have carved out valuable time within the team to do more. You’re able to push-n-pull software applications and information services at will and are successfully extending team efforts through cloud and mobile methods. You feel that you can offer a truly modern workplace that attracts and supports the best talent and you’re now well-positioned to shape your culture and build the type of company that you’ve always wanted.

Now that you’ve digitalized, it’s time to use these tools to take your products and services to the next level. Some questions you might ask to start this exciting phase are:

• Looking at the latest technologies and services available to AECO firms, what is on your business’ wish list?
• Is there a need to better track information about your client’s goals and aspirations?
• How do practice and team leaders determine how best to respond to the varied environmental, political and economic issues shaping future design decisions?
• Can you do a better job of tracking project processes and procedures, and if so, what should you track and what impact would it have on future projects?
• How can you better use information to enhance existing skillsets to deliver superior design and delivery services going forward?
• What does the future of work look like in your organization?

For example, as your workforce becomes more distributed, could you benefit by virtualizing your office in the cloud? This could offer an effective way to help insulate teams from unexpected challenges like weather events, economic shifts and other unforeseen dynamics that can affect the ability to work day-to-day from a physical office location. Having a virtual work option as an extension or a compliment to the physical workplace provides an opportunity to quickly expand your reach and target your firms’ capabilities in new ways while sidestepping the cost, lead time and geographic challenges inherent in setting up a traditional physical office.

Regardless of your digital transformation focus, think of the underlying hosting platforms and information strategy as a collaborative continuum. Create, capture and share information in a coordinated and consistent fashion. Provide rich, sustainable data architectures that improve and compound over time and allow you to execute with confidence. Your organization will be better positioned to support from behind as well as be out in front making great things happen. Digitization is not the end of workplace transformation but a fresh beginning that can ultimately help you accelerate and deliver better results while propelling your future efforts as a truly digital company.

Find out more about how Microdesk enables AECO firms to LEAD through managed IT services from the CIO Advisory team. Contact our team here.