In a world where digital transformation is omnipotent (I prefer: “on all agendas”), few of our decision-makers know the difference between the concepts (or terminologies) “IT”, “digital” and “information systems”. How are these concepts distinct and how much does it cost the company? In these phases of uninterrupted transition, have we asked ourselves the question of the added value of these changes within organizations?
Digital transformation: what costs for what benefits?
Let’s take the IT budget: although it is rather well controlled in the majority of our public and private organizations, it represents on average only one tenth of the digital challenges and only one twentieth of the information systems challenges! It is therefore more than surprising that our management controllers and other wise financial directors do not immediately take up the subject. It is as if the costs of industrial production stopped at the simple cost of the machine, independently of the work of the workers.
Astonishing, isn’t it? To confirm this “digital blindness”, many companies audit their IT and telecommunication costs to ensure that their expenses are in line with the market. Yet, research has long shown that there is no correlation between IT spending and business performance.
We are touching here the famous Solow Paradox, Nobel Prize in Economics, stated in 1987, and still relevant today. This paradox confirms that computer and telecommunication investments are far from creating the expected benefits.
Has office automation really been synonymous with increased user productivity? Have enterprise software packages such as ERP or CRM really increased the performance of our organizations? Do big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, the internet of things, etc., all promising technologies, systematically bring benefits? Not sure… Scientific studies indicate that only 5 to 10% of these projects are able to demonstrate real benefits after the solution has been implemented.
At the same time, digital or information systems budgets represent much higher amounts, up to 20% to 60% of our companies’ overall budget. And yet, few companies are aware of them and try to measure them. And yet, not measuring means not controlling them. Contrary to an image well anchored in the managerial unconscious: digital is not necessarily synonymous with value creation. Especially if organizations do not rethink the way they work.
The era of “Numeracy”: the new scourge of organizations
In the pre-computerization world, one term summed up the plight of a worthless bureaucracy: “Paperwork. It was defined as a ” a collection of written or printed papers, of little interest and considered cumbersome “. But isn’t today’s so-called modern world facing the same phenomenon? A digital bureaucracy without added value: has the “Numeracy” intruded into our organizations? Our noble institution, would be inspired to introduce this new, widespread concept in its next edition. Its definition could be: ” a set of computer files, of little interest and considered cumbersome “.
By way of illustration, our computers and servers are filled with useless electronic files including the vast majority of which are no longer used after 2 years. We could also mention the fact of spending one to two hours a day managing emails, most of them useless. This is also a form of “numeracy” directly impacting user productivity.
We could even extend the “numeracy” phenomenon to all tasks impacting the efficiency of our collaborators such as having to write our own reports, prepare our own presentations, organize our own travel, enter our expenses in the accounting application, etc. These tasks, whether digital or not, actually take us away from our real job, the one we love and for which we have been trained and are paid! The definition of numeracy would then become: ” a set of electronic files or digital activities, of little interest and deemed useless or of little added value. Numeracy is a widespread form of unproductivity among organizations that have adopted IT tools without prior reflection “.
Various studies indicate that the “numeracy” would have a direct and negative impact on white collar productivity This is a major performance issue. Moreover, the level of “numeracy” in an organization is also correlated with increasing employee dissatisfaction. How can we not think of our venerable nurses who, due to the introduction of IT solutions, spend more time behind their computers than in front of their patients! Something to think about…
It is not a question here of denigrating these new digital tools but of alerting us to the potential abuses. There are methods, full of common sense, which would allow to take advantage of these new uses to raise the level of performance of teams and create more satisfaction and commitment among employees.
If the costs of these transformations must be controlled and audited regularly, the same applies to the deployment of these new solutions and their uses. Starting with the “numeracy” that has insidiously spread within our organizations. In conclusion, paperwork and numeracy: the same battle…