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Digital transformation brought forward by three to five years

“Companies need to review what technology they have and what they need and to look at what the right technology is to optimise the process”

Valued at €9000, the Enterprise Ireland Digitalisation Voucher helps companies prepare a plan for the adoption of digital tools and techniques across the business. The voucher provides funding for businesses to hire a consultant to carry out an assessment of their digital maturity and develop a digitalisation roadmap for the future. The aim is to assist businesses move along their digitalisation journey and become more efficient and competitive in the process.

“One of the big things that we have found, particularly during Covid-19, is that digital adoption is accelerating rapidly,” says Enterprise Ireland senior digital transformation specialist John Durcan. “It brought digital transformation forward by between three and five years. It really accelerated it. It opens companies up to new business and allows them to scale more rapidly and reach new markets.”

Digitalisation brings new efficiencies, Durcan adds. “If businesses had to do a lot of things manually, they were limited in what they could do within a certain time period,” he adds. “If they bring in digital and automation technologies, they can carry out larger volumes of work and staff can move on to do higher value work such as customer engagement. That’s more interesting work and helps with staff retention.”

Enterprise Ireland views digitalisation under four key headings: purpose, process, people, and technology. “Purpose means companies need to know where they want to go,” Durcan explains. “Under process they have to ask how ready they are for digitalisation and look at adopting Lean principles to streamline processes and prepare them for digitalisation. With people, they have to look at the skills within the organisation and the level of buy-in for the digitalisation project. Companies need to review what technology they have and what they need, and look at what the right technology is to optimise the process. What is the best technology to enhance their skills, process, and purpose?”

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Taking it in that order is far better than doing it from a technology first approach, according to Durcan. “It leads to a better, more successful digital transformation process. A lot of companies just did a digital version of a poor process. If it is bad in the first place you will likely just make it worse. You need to take a holistic view of it. Mindset change is also very important. The leadership team must be on board for any change. Without that it’s very hard to be successful.”

Digitalisation can benefit companies across every sector, he adds. “It applies to service companies, for example. Online accounting services can use the technology to streamline interactions with customers, cut waste, and reduce duplication of effort. A small business might use it for customer relationship management. It might be as simple as moving from paper to Excel spreadsheet for managing customers.”

The voucher helps companies develop digital roadmaps or action plans for the next 12 to 24 months

He points to relatively simple but significant improvements in customer experience. “We sometimes see examples of clients where a junior staff member has dealt with a key customer and the outcome wasn’t good. They realised they needed to have a better process and system to direct calls to the right people. There is real value add in technology to help customer relations and win new business. That applies to every area of business and helps to deliver better and more timely service to customers. At a more advanced level we see the pharma industry using advanced AI in the drug discovery and development process. It goes back to purpose. Companies have to make sure the technology is the right fit for what they want to do. A pharma company looking at complex small molecules might look at AI. A small service business might look at customer relationship management. A manufacturing firm might look at an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.”

One company which has recently completed the installation of an ERP system is Limerick based Kirby Group. The mechanical and electrical engineering contractor serves clients in the industrial, life sciences, pharma, data centre, renewable and commercial property sectors.

“We are  delivering projects in seven countries at the moment,” says chief financial officer Derry McMahon. “We have expanded considerably in recent years and have grown from €165 million turnover in 2018 to over €360 million this year. This is very much due to overseas expansion. Enterprise Ireland was very supportive as we expanded into Europe.”

The ERP installation has been a key element of the company’s digitalisation journey. “That was a very large and challenging project, but it was successfully implemented,” says McMahon. “The requirement was to get more accurate information on a timely basis to support decision making, and to have a single source of truth for that information. That will help us drive efficiencies across the business. It will also help with reporting which can be very complex with operations in different locations across Europe. Using the ERP system makes it easier.”

The company is now about to carry out digital transformation assessment with the aim of promoting a digital-first culture, building digital capability, and optimising internal business processes.

“It’s really about becoming more efficient in order to meet the needs of our customers,” says McMahon.

The company has been approved for an Enterprise Ireland Digitalisation Voucher to fund the assessment which will begin in the new year with ActionPoint carrying out the assessment.

“We have a long standing relationship with them. They have been good business partners for us during our digitalisation journey. Digitalisation is business critical at this stage and the Enterprise Ireland voucher is very timely for us as it will help to cover the cost of the assessment.”

Kirby is by no means the only company to embark on a digitalisation journey, according to ActionPoint chief executive David Jeffreys. “We provide a range of technology services focused on helping companies to grow and scale. We have delivered digital transformation projects to more than 500 organisations at all levels of digital capability over the past 16 years. We have seen a very significant increase in enquiries over the past 18 months. Prior to the pandemic a lot of businesses didn’t fully understand what technology could do for them. Then they were forced to adopt communications and collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams. They saw the possibilities and were curious about what else could be achieved.”

Another factor is the information deficit created by the shift to remote working. “You can’t walk down the corridor and pop your head around the door to ask what’s going on,” Jeffreys points out. “There is a thirst for more data and visibility and a greater emphasis on providing information to the business. We are working across a range of industries including insurance, financial services, credit unions, manufacturing, and aviation to help them with that.”

Knowing where to begin the journey is important. “Companies can spend money on the latest shiny things but that can result in trapped capital. Or invest in technology they are not ready for. It’s all about rightsizing. What problem are you trying to solve and how are you going to solve it? The Enterprise Ireland Digitalisation Voucher can help companies start to understand their own digital maturity and begin their journey.”

The voucher helps companies develop digital roadmaps or action plans for the next 12 to 24 months, adds John Durcan. “The consultant comes in to help map out where digitalisation can help the business. The voucher helps them to become data-driven businesses ... and other supports follow on from that. We help companies form research and innovation partnerships with third-level institutions and the technology centres and gateways around the country. That will help them to move further on their digitalisation journey and reap its full rewards.”

Find out more about the Enterprise Ireland Digitalisation Voucher.

Register now for the Enterprise Ireland webinar on Digital Strategy-the Impact and How to Start, on Tuesday, December 7th