A Digital Transformation discussion with Cypher IQ Digital’s Director Cameron Lawes in this Q&A series.
Q: The world is moving so fast, especially with the changes to our lives with COVID 19. Do you see the future workspace being remote, mobile and digital?
A: There is no doubt COVID has accelerated the need for business to conduct themselves digitally. The future is definitely focussed on business requiring to be agile, digital, remote and mobile. This requirement will see business needing a stack of technology to assist, improve and secure their information.
Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunity for Business to Digitally Transform?
A: To use industry jargon. “Business Process Automation” is where the greatest opportunity from an ROI, business improvement and customer satisfaction lies. It’s so important for business to have a framework that connects all the dots in terms of technology used. Finance systems, ERP’s, CRM’s Websites are all applications that are essential for any business. On their own they can all be powerful systems. However too often they aren’t linked. That’s where Cypher IQ Digital steps in. We have the ability to connect workflows and data to these systems which will Hyper Automate the business workflows as well as ensure integrity, security of information as well as compliance of the process. To put it really simply the greatest opportunity lies in connecting their People and Processes with their applications.
Q: What was your goal in creating the Cypher IQ Digital Workflow Platform?
A: Through my experience, the technology for SME’s to Automate and Digitise their processes was either:
1/ Too siloed in their specialty (eg: document capture, workflows, integrations, electronic forms, web forms, mobile forms were all held in separate software applications – this creates massive expense, integration problems, user problems)
2/ The shear expense of the applications ruled out the ability for SME’s to access the technology (most process automation software are sold by “resellers” looking to move licences) OR
3/ You needed a tech background in order to administer, implement and manage the software. Cypher IQ Digital is a low code / no code platform that enables us to digitise and automate any business process. We have in house expertise to integrate data and information as well as local support and project management which will continually evolve and support the needs of our clients. We really do try to live by our mantra “Digital Transformations Made Easy”.
Q: If I was a CEO of an SME business why would I want to implement Cypher IQ Digital Workflow Platform?
A: Let’s use COVID as an example. For most business the issue they had with Business Continuity wasn’t with emails, Finance systems or CRM’s. By enlarge these systems were already cloud based or could be accessed via RDP. Adopting conferencing systems to communicate face to face was easy (and had been around for years). The problem they had was the lack of visibility, control and reporting of all the business processes and tasks that their staff rock up to the office day in and day out to perform. Essentially with the Cypher IQ Digital Platform you can review information on any web enabled device. This means you can essentially run your office processes on your mobile phone anywhere at any time. For our customers COVID (from a workflow perspective) wasn’t an impact to their day to day business. And of course CEO’s want to know how they can save money and improve their business functions. These are givens!!!!!
Q: What are some of the things you see the most which are counter productive to Digital Transformation?
A: There are a few which always come up:
1/ Digital Transformation is individual to your business. Find a partner who can assist you through the experience.
2/ People often only look at their part of the process or their departments part of the process. Digital Transformation should be focussed on the entire process. that’s start to finish. You will get more bang for your buck and be able to integrate systems more effectively if this is done.
3/ Email is not a workflow! If you have mobile, multiple locations and / or multiple departments. You cannot effectively use mobile to manage information workflows. Email will be used in notifications but not workflow management.
4/ Excel shouldn’t be used to cut and paste data to manage reporting. You should be able to use a BI tool that integrates love data to manage this.
5/ Beware user licence resellers. Too often Business Process Automation software is pushed by resellers who are looking at monthly targets or don’t have the flexibility to manipulate the software to suit the needs of the client.
Q: Where to Next for Cypher IQ Digital?
A: We are constantly evolving our Digital Workflow Platform and Services. We have some really cool features we have recently released such as e signature, SMS notifications, workflow data reporting, and some ERP integrations with MYOB Exo, Microsoft Great Plains as well as Microsoft Business Central / WIISE. It’s a really exciting time to be involved with Technology that automates business processes. And its really important to be agile. The world is moving fast. We want to move fast with it!
