The most expensive mistakes organisations can make

When an organisation identifies a technology problem that is hampering its operations in some significant way, the natural response is to invest in a solution. And yes, from one perspective that sounds like a great idea. From another, it’s dangerous – because it smacks of knee-jerk reactivity.

We often see organisation wasting significant amounts of money as they attempt to fix one problem but then create others through the implementation of short sighted solutions. We’ve seen it happen with organisations that are in the early days of their relationship with us, who were either making the best decisions they could by themselves, or perhaps working with an alternate provider. Either way, decisions were made that didn’t take a broader organisational view into account. Those mistakes, which are excusable, can also happen in another context – when an organisation continues to invest in a particular area of the business that is already going well. After all, it’s an attractive option to foster the part of the business that’s running the most profitably.

But however well either of those strategies may appear in the short term, be it that a problem is solved, or the part of the business that’s running well runs even better for a while, ultimately, it’s a flawed approach. Because the investments aren’t viewed across the full four quadrants of the maturity model, they won’t ultimately deliver the outcome the organisation needs, or worse still, it causes the organisation to step backward.

David Blumenthal’s quote highlights the role of technology as the facilitator for delivering health information. The healthcare or NFP organisation that fails to take their process needs into account invariably winds up with a completely inferior ‘information circulatory system’.

The beginning of 2020 saw a sudden wave of organisations moving to remote work as the first of the COVID lockdowns hit. Employers and employees alike scrambled to setup the necessary infrastructure and procedures that would support operational continuity while they were without access to their offices.

Just over 18 months down the track, here in Australia we’re tentatively hoping that those lockdowns are a thing of the past. But one element of those lockdowns is here to stay – and that’s the remote workforce. Employees at all levels across many industries are showing an immense reluctance to return to the office on a full- time basis, with many relishing the increased satisfaction, flexibility and savings in both time and travel that the ability to work remotely has brought them. As such, we’re also seeing workplace flexibility being used more than ever before as a drawcard to attract talented staff.

For many organisations, remote working has become an integral part of the organisation’s culture. However, the rapid nature of the way the infrastructure and processes around it were setup has, in many cases, led to a less-than-ideal operational maturity in this area. If your organisation hasn’t developed a robust strategic approach to remote working, from both a technical and procedural perspective, then that should be a high operational priority coming into 2022.

A Case Study: The Peninsula Home Hospice

The Peninsula Home Hospice engaged Majestic Computer Technology in 2019. During the early days of that engagement, an analysis was done and the organisation’s maturity determined. A number of high priority issues including cyber security, business continuity, and support were identified. With Majestic’s help, Peninsula Home Hospice went on to implement a number of changes, including moving many of their operations to the cloud, adding a document management system, equipping the team with secure, remotely monitored laptops and replacing ageing network infrastructure.

When the COVID pandemic hit, PHH’s CEO reported that the measures put in place helped the team to cope more easily than they might otherwise have been able to.