Is advanced technology the turning point for successful digital innovation?

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Sagive Greenspan, IT market expert and tech industry veteran. CEO of Priority, a leading provider of business management solutions globally.

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My path in the world of information systems started when I was a developer. By virtue of my role and a diehard technology and innovation enthusiast, I have been exposed to multiple technological innovations, some more exciting than others. Over the years, many of the innovative technologies, from procedures to products and services, have come and gone, with only a few remaining long-term and even fewer serving us on a daily basis.

Today, as the CEO of one of the most exciting technology solution providers, I understand why and how some of the most innovative technologies we’ve developed over time haven’t always stood the test of real-world supply and demand.

In today’s digital age, any technologically advanced application, product or function excites us before it’s even available for purchase. Often without thinking, we say: “I must have it!” But sometimes we forget that technology itself is irrelevant and isn’t always the cornerstone of digital innovation.

I’ll end this first section with an unpopular statement: technology itself has no meaning.

Before you take your swords out of their scabbards, think about this: a common theme when it comes to technology that promised us a “whole new world” but then spiraled down is that it died of a thousand cuts. One of the most recent and perhaps most extreme examples is Google Glass. He has promised to revolutionize the way we live and work, making headlines around the world. Despite the initial buzz, issues like limited applications, a high price tag, or the possibility of people being registered in public without their knowledge have raised a lot of concerns and made Google’s innovative mainstream tech dream rather unwanted and useless.

Perhaps here it is right to recall the words of Thomas Edison: “The value of an idea lies in the use of it”.

Put the wow before the how

The perspective where innovation is the goal and not the means is quite immature, bolstered by the effort to be different and exciting, but many of the world’s problems can be solved by transforming existing processes to promote efficiency and greater experience. of the user. New ideas are not imperative, action is.

Technology is nothing more than a means to an end: to generate value along the way. Any new feature, however fantastic and innovative it may be, won’t make us swipe left or right on a touch screen if it doesn’t help us do a task better, easier, or faster. Experience is the name of the game. Ultimately, innovation is the process by which an idea translates into a service that people are first of all willing to use and for which, secondly, they pay for.

We live in an era where we are driven by time – and the apparent lack of it – trying to get everything done in the shortest time possible and always looking for the next available minute. It makes sense that any new software, gadget or gizmo that will enable us to achieve our goals in record time will quickly become an integral part of our lives.

An endless process of change and improvement

On the other hand, innovation is often pursued to solve a clearly defined problem that requires state-of-the-art technology to build a solution from scratch. Take Uber, for example, the largest mobility service provider in the world with operations in over 900 metropolitan areas around the world. Yet he doesn’t own a single vehicle. Instead, it has simply created a good enough technological infrastructure that meets a critical daily need. In the digital world, technology is an enabling factor for innovation. It wraps the product with value and experience that ultimately constitute the most important variable in moving the dial, creating brand loyalty.

IT innovation – it’s personal

The same powerful technological ingredients are being channeled into the development, adoption and implementation of advanced functionality in today’s business management systems, whether it be an ERP, CRM or any other software solution that drives the daily operations of hundreds of industries. .

Business management software is at the heart of the IT landscape of most businesses; however, once in place, many systems remain stagnant, barely leaving room for diversity. To drive innovation, automation and digital transformation in the business management system, companies using or planning to implement a business management platform must decide what their future role will be.

The first milestone for digital innovation in business management software is identifying the need for research designed for visionary and future-proof models for technological transformation. This in no way implies that disruptive new technologies are not a market driving force. Rather, it means that digital innovation should be fueled by a thorough assessment of an organization’s current processes and future business strategy, together with the organization’s decision makers and stakeholders, in line with their specific needs and level of technological literacy.

The success of adopting new and advanced technologies in business applications largely depends on how an organization thinks its ERP system should evolve. Integration, automation, and customer experience capabilities, supported by system flexibility and scalability that are durable enough to serve future business growth and withstand industry and market transformations, are critical starting points.

Along with the goal of providing employees with intuitive, user-centric tools that support collaboration, companies also need to define whether they want to simply implement a standard enterprise platform implementation or step outside the norm and drive technology innovation. When it comes to better understanding which features or functionality should be accessible to each system user, if you have to choose between existing or potential, start with the existing first. Immerse yourself in real user needs through in-depth data analysis and work to improve and refine your presented value proposition.

So what is my opinion on the basis of digital innovation today? It is not technology, but rather an endless process of change, validation and continuous improvement. Or, as it used to be called, listen.

The Forbes Technology Council is an invite-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives. Do I qualify?

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