You may ask yourself what is a Digital Boardroom? We believe that this is the information in electronic format delivered to management to make quick and clear business decisions without any manual intervention using high quality and reliable data. If that is the company’s desired end-state for the Information Delivery, the following topics need your clear attention:
- Process Optimization
- Governance (processes, policies & IT)
- Willingness (people behavior)
All the relevant data end up in the Digital Boardroom which enables companies a total real-time overview of business performance across the different processes throughout the organization.
Systems and processes must be made ready, not only the structured data (ERP, CRM, SRM, and LIMS) but also the non-structured data like Document-, Training- or Issue Management if you like to include comprehensive company data.
To obtain the reports in a logical and meaningful way, the processes must run flawlessly. Expectations must be clearly defined at all levels which include Management to have clarity on what to deliver and with what frequency.
To get there, complete first your KPI dashboards in your Dashboarding Tool including your underlying systems. It should run smoothly both from a technical perspective as from a business process perspective. A proper functioning KPI Dashboard is anyway a prerequisite for a Digital Boardroom.
To get further ready, it is highly recommended to have the relevant data available in one single repository. More than one repository will work as well but it will complicate the case. Take the current Management Reporting as a given and have this populated in the Digital Boardroom.
Focus not immediately on all items, take a logical subset, and scale up thereafter. Have governance in place for continuous process optimization so that detected flaws can be addressed efficiently and effectively. Flaws are inevitable but is possible to learn and improve swiftly!
Carefully select the audience of the pilot group. It is very helpful if the audience is convinced of the desired end-state and can look beyond the digital tools. Apply the approach of the Deming cycle: Plan, Do, Monitor, and Act:
- Establish Governance
- Define and run Data, Systems, and Processes
- Check/Monitor, report (KPIs)
- Optimize/Improve
Digital lifestyle was a dream 5-10 years ago but now it is becoming a reality. With so many technological advances that constantly keep evolving at hand, the way business is steered also changes. Organizations that have worked on digital integration will have an advantage over organizations that continue working with scattered Excel files. Are you a laggard or an early adopter? The Digital Boardroom is just around the corner, but is your organization ready to embrace it?