The Cloud Continuum offers enterprises a step change in compute power, data storage, insight generation and information accessibility. The challenge? Finding a way to bring all this together in a way that works for employees in their day-to-day activities.
Automation for the people. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to give more levers of control to individuals. For example, there is now a range of low-code/no-code platforms that democratize the digital enterprise, enabling workers to augment their own decision-making, automate their own processes or solve their own business problems with data. This puts the power of automation and data insight in the hands of the people who can ultimately make best use of it, at the moment they most need it.
Process improvement as a service. Another option is to consider “process improvement as a service.” In this model, the enterprise uses a centralized hub of process improvement talent—either internally or from an external provider—to help teams and individuals solve their unique business challenges. A good example is a productivity studio concept. Here, a cadre of specialized process improvement experts help the business create new solutions to specific problems, which can then be spun off and reused elsewhere in the organization.
The integrated digital workplace. Workers frequently have to deal with a fragmented environment, with dozens of siloed applications used for different daily activities. Therefore, every enterprise should consider workplaces integration. Instead of having to go to 20 different applications to do their job, workers should have access to the necessary tools through their primary environment. That could be a central work hub for email, Microsoft Teams or any other enterprise workplaces.
Even baby steps matter. Interventions don’t have to be radical to be effective. Accenture worked with executive leaders in one healthcare company to help it maximize the value of its Microsoft Teams platform. From simple actions like recording meeting notes and assigning action items to more extensive real-time collaboration, it’s helped the organization’s people make better use of the cloud technology they already had while breaking down traditional barriers between organizational silos.