Digital Transformation: What it means and why it’s important

It is well-known that any kind of change is difficult at first. More so, when it involves a whole company and its employees. With the rising needs and challenges, it becomes a necessity to adapt to the swiftly changing world around us. The process of Order to Cash is also beginning to change and moving towards digitization. Digitally transforming the O2C process could propel long-term growth and provide better management. So how could this change be implemented? Here are some checkpoints to keep in mind during the O2C transformation project.

Pit stops for the digitization journey

1. Defining the need for change

In order to move towards a process of change, it is essential to understand why that change is needed and how it would impact the business. Putting forth a clear vision and target helps in gaining internal cooperation and makes it simpler to understand. Breaking the vision down into achievable goals and objectives provides better internal collaboration. Once the plan becomes clear, many processes like devising a strategy, allocating resources, assigning a budget, and stakeholder alignment could be done at a faster pace.

2. Promoting skill upgrades

The skills required to match the evolving market requirements also change from time to time, which makes it essential to cultivate a culture of learning. Updating business and technical skills according to the oncoming changes in digital practices could help in improving the quality of the services provided. Transforming the O2C process becomes more comfortable when teams are aligned and well-equipped for change.

3. Convincing the C-Suite

Before initializing any project, approval from the senior executives is essential. It is of utmost importance to tailor information in a manner that captures the C-Suite’s attention. Being consistent with the efforts in gaining the C-Suite’s confidence goes a long way. Providing ROI analysis to the higher officials to highlight the importance of the digital transformation of the O2C processes could easily convey the expected impact of the project. The analysis should define the outline cost of the project and suggest the payback time for the investment. Using a business case to walk them through the proposal and following the RFP Process provides a better assurance and makes the decision-making process smoother and faster.

4. Using Internal Customer Approache

A team inside the organization is required to provide input and pose as an internal customer who collaborates in the digitization process. The internal customer approach could help in understanding the business requirements and in defining the project specifications. For example, while building a self-service center, the internal team could suggest the required features for the portal.

5. Identifying the right vendor

The digital transformation of O2C functions is quite an effortful task, and having the right partner to assist could make it faster and more efficient. So how can the right vendor for this task be found? By having a thorough vendor analysis. The selection of the vendor must start with defining the requirements, such as the consolidation of ERP systems into a single repository. To gain a better understanding of the digital practices that could be implemented, walking through an analyst’s day would prove beneficial. Making a wishlist of requirements and using the GAP Analysis approach to cross-check with vendors could help in finding the right match for the digitization project.

Obstacles that vanish after transforming O2C

1. Time Consuming manual tasks

The time spent in logging into separate portals for collecting remittances and manually having to enter data into spreadsheets could be minimized using automation. The 50% time consumed in manual tasks that have a less bottom-line impact could be allotted for higher-value activities.

2. Internal Expenditure for digitization

The costs incurred by an organization to maintain employees is quite an amount. Proceeding with the digitization process in an in-house approach requires hiring in large numbers and adds up to the cost of the project. Doing an analysis would prove that the assistance of automation could reduce the high internal costs.

Conclusion

Adopting any change does not come easy. The shift from manual to digital practices has become a must for the evolution of business processes. Leveraging automation for digitally transforming O2C provides proper progress tracking of the project and gives a straightforward representation of the roadblocks that occur. Updating the O2C functions could eventually drive long term growth for an organization.