Latest / Technology Now / Can data end bureaucracy?
Transcript
- Michael (00:09): Well, hello and a very warm welcome to Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise where we take what's happening in the world around us and explore how it's changing the way organizations are using technology. We're your hosts, Michael Bird Aubrey (00:25): And Aubrey Level, and reunited at last. Michael (00:28): Yes. Aubrey (00:28): So good to have you back, Michael. Michael (00:30): Thank you. Aubrey (00:31): And in this episode we're looking at the world of digital transformation and how to reach the goal of connecting every corner of your business edge to cloud. This includes taking a closer look at the fine art of moving away from paper to digital, and acting on your data wherever it lives. Michael (00:46): We'll also be looking at the human end user experience when it comes to digital transformation. Aubrey (00:51): And of course, we'll be taking questions and book suggestions from you, our delightful audience, and some of our previous guests. Michael (00:57): So if you're the kind of person who needs to know why what's going on in the world matters to your organization, then this podcast is certainly for you. Aubrey (01:06): And if you're enjoying it, subscribe to your podcast app of choice so you don't miss out. All right, Michael, let's go. Michael (01:13): Okay, then. Well, let's start with something really basic. What is digital transformation? Of course, it's transforming digitally. Only joking. In a nutshell, it's making the non-digital, digital. That could mean converting and organization's, products, services, or operations. And it sounds pretty simple. Move the paperwork online and jobs a goodun. In reality though, it's anything but. (01:41): Digital transformation means fundamentally changing the way an organization operates and does business. It means every data and privacy policy you have needs to be at the very minimum reviewed, and often completely changed. Everyone needs to be trained on the multitude of new processes, policies, and technologies. Oh, and of course you need to make sure everything actually works. So yeah, easier said than done. Aubrey (02:03): It really is hard work. And in a previous episode of our sister podcast, Technology Untangled, we actually did a two-part special just on cloud storage and whether it was right for all businesses. And that's just one small aspect of digital transformation. So what can we do to make sure it's done right, and what can the impact be? This week we're joined by Naveen Awad from Boston Consulting Group. She focuses on how digital data and technology can be used to enable organizations, and is an expert in large scale technology transformations. Welcome Naveen. Naveen Awad (02:35): Thank you for having me. Michael (02:37): So Naveen, can you just tell us a little bit about some of the projects you've been involved in so far? Naveen Awad (02:41): So we do a lot of work across lots of entities, whether it be consumer products, where you buy your goods online, to states where you need to go get a driver's license from the Department of Motor Vehicles. And I think sometimes we think about states and local governments as maybe the least digitally enabled places, but they are so incredibly wonderful opportunities to do a full digital transformation. Because there's a lot of transactions that occur, they're often ones that involve wait times, queues, they require a fair amount of structured paperwork that's almost the same structured paperwork every time. (03:24): So we've worked with a lot of states and they come with questions that start very simple. Like, "Does it make sense for us to take appointments for someone that needs to get a real ID or renew their driver's license, or should we just have it first come, first served, and you get in a queue?" On the face of it, that seems like a very obvious question, but then you think about it and you say, okay, well a lot of people don't show up. (03:48): So if that's the case, appointments make it seem like you would manage the queue much better. But then if a bunch of people aren't showing up, then you have all these people that have had to wait three weeks and they could have just come that day and gotten in. What we did is say, let's look at the full process. Let's look at all the pain points that people have, starting from, it takes a long time to get an appointment to, I get there and I have to wait a long time before my number is called, to, I get my numbers called and I go up to the person and then I'm missing a piece of paperwork, or I didn't realize you couldn't pay with a credit card and I don't have a check. (04:27): So all of those types of things, we said, these are beautiful places to create almost entirely digital process for going through and getting your renewed driver's license, your real ID. And we just said, what does it take? What are all the steps, and which of those can be digitized? And it's incredible. Almost everything could be, because you need to run through a process of checking your IDs, and you can scan all that and have it checked. And so basically everything except for an eye test and a driver's test could be done online. (05:04): And then you could come in having scanned and approved all your documents and just have to go through the physical process of the eye test or the driver's test, and then move forward on getting your license. So it takes a lot of the steps out of the in-person and puts it online. Aubrey (05:23): Love that. I mean, it's actually kind of cool to see how you're able to take something that's pretty complex or manual and completely transform that to kind of a seamless, almost predictable experience and really see that efficiency end to end. And I'm sure the people going to those DMVs appreciate that as well, right? Naveen Awad (05:40): Oh yeah, absolutely. And it's funny because now everyone's reading and talking about generative AI, and if you think about it, generative AI just takes us one step further. A lot of times people really find it hard to even just find out, how do I get a new driver's license? Where do I go? And you do one search that takes you to one website, to another, and et cetera. (06:01): So part of what we've been trying to do is also just make the navigation for questions really easy. And generative AI takes that to a whole new level because you literally could just type like you were talking to a friend. So how do I see if I have a real ID or how do I see if I need to get a new real ID? And then you get a response back that's like a person talking to you that explains that process. Aubrey (06:26): I mean, obviously we see that technology and we're getting all of these advancements with AI and making things easier, but is there something that constantly pops up that becomes a challenge in this type of space? Naveen Awad (06:37): Honestly, the first thing that happens is just people being... I always say to my kids on the first day of school, change is strange. So people feeling uneasy about moving more and more things digitally. So it's the change management around it, and the concern of you're taking away jobs from me or from other people. But actually, if you really look at what happens, you're taking away the most mundane part of the job and you're enabling people to engage in the more meaningful places where they actually have to problem solve and apply their brain in a more insightful way. (07:18): And so a lot of time work becomes more fun, more meaningful, and also people get a chance to get trained in new skills. So part of it is just the perception of one, how much of a change it's going to feel like, and two, the hardship it's going to put on the workers. But both of those are actually, I think, more perceptions than they are reality a lot of times. Michael (07:44): I know that you also do a lot of work in healthcare, and I think one would expect that everything in healthcare would already basically be digitized because the industry is at the cutting edge of technology. Is that true? Naveen Awad (07:56): Healthcare is an interesting place where probably there's more potential for it to be digital than we embrace, and part of it is just the sensitivity around our health and wanting to talk about it with a person, which I feel too. But there is a lot, some of the less complex cases of a lot of things, reading more routine radiology scans, or tracking people's medications so that you make sure that things don't interact. (08:24): You can just think of a lot of use cases where the digitization of it could be an improvement because you may not realize another doctor prescribed a medication, and therefore if you are treating a knee and someone else was treating allergies or something, that's something that could be much more digitally managed than actually in person. So you can think of a lot of cases where actually the digital enablement is very important, and then you can think of some cases where it's nuanced enough that at least, probably you could do it digitally, but we're not as a society ready to go there yet. Aubrey (09:01): So Naveen, I guess that flows very neatly onto privacy concerns, right? Because there must be a few, particularly in healthcare. How do you manage those while still enjoying a level of service improvement? Naveen Awad (09:12): It's a great question. I mean, I think there's privacy concerns in all of it, right? It's funny because years ago we did this study on how much is your privacy worth? And if you ask people how important is it to you that your data stays private? 90 plus percent will say it's very important. And then if you offer people a free Big Mac if they give you a blood sample, 70% plus take you up on that opportunity. And a blood sample reveals a lot of data. (09:43): So I think sometimes we don't make the connection, but what's very important is that... So there's this tension in healthcare of sharing your data with other providers or people that are trying to put together a view on your overall medical care is quite important. And so you want people to have a holistic view of you, although people have to agree every time it gets shared, of course. But you don't want people outside of those providing you care to have a view. (10:15): So thinking about those different access rights, different places where actually sharing data is valuable, versus feeling like it is a conflict. So my broader point being, there's this concept now of software as a medical device, and any time data gets shared from a person to a provider and the provider interacts in any way and shares information back, it's considered software as a medical device. And there are some very, very strict regulations around the privacy, around how the data is handled, around it having to go through a clinical trial and basically be treated like any sort of other drug or medical device. (10:58): And I think that's a really excellent evolution because it's basically saying we need to test an app that helps a person manage their pain if they have a chronic condition, just as regimented in a way as we need to test a new type of material that's being used to do a fake hip. Because it is just as, if you mismanage your pain with a chronic condition, it can have dire consequences. And so we have to think about it in the same way that we think about something that's going into the body. Michael (11:30): I would love to just ask a final question if that's okay? Naveen, what is your key piece of advice for successful digital transformation? Naveen Awad (11:39): Oh, that's a great question. We always use this concept of the iceberg picture, where the iceberg is actually much bigger underwater than what you see above water, meaning there's so many more pieces that go into a digital transformation than what you see. A lot of people think, let me just buy an app or develop an app and we're done. But there's so many pieces that enable that, and that's thinking through the processes, thinking through the people, thinking through the talent, thinking through how the organization needs to be set up to operate differently. How do you want to modernize the technical architecture that enables your organization moving forward so it's easier to change? (12:21): Because part of what digital transformation enables is just like much more flexibility and speed to try new things. If you take on a digital transformation, take on all the pieces you're going to need to change and have a plan for it all together, the people, the process, the technology, and the organization structure and operating model that enables it all. Aubrey (12:40): All right. Thank you so much Naveen. Really, really great insight and conversation. All right, we'll be back with audience questions for Naveen in a moment, but next up it's down to you, our audience. We open the floor for you to give your recommendations on books which have changed the way you look at the world, life and business in the last 12 months. They can be technology based, have changed the way you work, or they could just have made you look at the world in a totally different way. And if you want to share your recommendations, there's a link in our podcast description. Just record a voice note on your phone and send it over. Andrew Ganem (13:25): My name is Andrew Danum. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a book that changed my year, it's called, What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon. And the book's all about the misconceptions that we have about fatness and health and wellness, and looking at what's really a unexamined bias that still exists in our society. And it's really affected how I think about things and how I move about the world, how I treat people, how I treat myself. Yeah, I'd say that's a book that's really changed my year. Michael (14:01): That was a really good book recommendation. Thank you for that. So it is now time for questions from the audience. You, our audience have been sending in your questions to Naveen on digital transformation, and we have pulled out a couple. So I'm going to go first, if that's all right? Adrian from Hong Kong wants to know whether digital transformation needs to happen in one go, or can it sort of be spread out and iterated over the years depending on budget and will? Naveen Awad (14:26): Oh, it's an excellent question. And actually we recommend you start small. So you start with one or two use cases that you really want to change. So to the point of the DMV where we were talking about earlier, in one state we just started with, can you digitize the experience to get a handicapped placard? That was one small part of a much bigger set of asks that go through a DMV, but the point was, let's test this out. Let's see the value, let's see things that we didn't think about. (14:55): Where do most people that look for handicapped placards come in at a certain time of day, and therefore even if you digitize the majority of the experience are you still dealing with a queue issue because they all come in at the same time? Or something like that. So it's good to start with a use case, get the value, start the process, and then expand, then do another use case and take on a little bit more of the foundation, a little bit more of the technical architecture, a little bit more of the operating model, a little bit more of the processes. (15:24): And that way it's not like, oh, okay, I take a year and a half to three years and I don't see any value until it's done. You're getting value the entire time and you're learning as you go. Aubrey (15:34): So Naveen, we have a second question here. Tim from London would like to know whether you think legislation around privacy is properly set up for the ways technology such as AI is being integrated into data storage and digital transformation? Naveen Awad (15:49): Oh, it's a good question. I mean, to be honest with, I don't think the legislation is keeping up. I mean, the explosion of gen AI over the last, I think especially couple of months has just made it so we're thinking about data and privacy and storage in new and different ways. Because actually like... And why do I say that? Because the value of generative AI is having access to more and more data so the responses can be more and more accurate. So where do you draw the lines are not is a really interesting question in terms of societal value. Aubrey (16:26): Perfect. Thanks Naveen. And again, we'll drop a couple of links in the podcast description for more on these topics. Michael (16:35): Right then, we are getting towards the end of the show, which means it is time for this week in history. Aubrey (16:44): This week in history. Michael (16:46): Naveen, I'm so sorry you had to sit through that. Naveen Awad (16:48): It's so funny. Michael (16:51): Anyway, it's a look at the monumental events in the world of business and technology which has changed our lives. What do we have this week? Aubrey (16:58): All right, so last week's was, it's 1999 and we're listening to Islands in the streaming. It is of course the launch of Napster on June 1st of that year, making it the first successful P2P file sharing platform. It was designed as a simple way to copy and distribute MP3s, and became such an overnight hit that within six months the Recording Industry Association of America sued, trying and eventually succeeding in getting Napster shut down in September of 2002. The cat was out of the bag though, and the internet hasn't been the same since. Michael (17:32): It certainly hasn't. Now, for next week, the year is 1984, and the clue is, you'll want to block some time out for this game. I have to say, it's not the hardest one we've ever done, is it? Anyway, that brings us to the end of Technology Now for this week. Next week we'll be discussing how applying AI to your voice could reveal the secrets of your health. So do come back for that one, and in the meantime, do keep those suggestions for life-changing books coming in using the link in the podcast description. Aubrey (18:02): Until then, thank you so much to our guest, Naveen Awad from Boston Consulting Group, and to our listeners, thank you all so much for joining us. Technology Now is hosted by Michael Byrd and myself, Aubrey Level. This episode was produced by Sam [inaudible 00:18:15] and Zoe Anderson with production support from Harry Morton, Alicia Kempson, Allison Paisley, Alex Podmore, and Ed Everson. Technology Now is a Lower Street production for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. We'll see you next week.