How KanBo is Helping Large Organizations in Business Transformation

Five years ago, a business transformation would have mostly alluded to the digitization of infrastructure and processes.

Today, it means going all in to find faster, more productive, and financially efficient approaches to how your organization works. When we talk about modern business transformation, it isn’t just about boosting productivity across different teams and departments but encouraging and rewarding transparency, accountability, the pace of high-quality decision making, and effective execution of tailored processes.

Having said that, ‘all in’ agile transformation and business development are easier said than done. Often, these initiatives come with a multitude of financial, operational, and technical challenges where most organizations, especially those trying to scale up their operations, run into a hard wall. One of the major issues such businesses face is identifying where the real value comes from and developing and implementing business processes around it.

It is an uphill battle because there are a number of moving parts and inter-dependability which make the process of business transformation riskier than most organizations are willing to accept. That’s where a comprehensive and versatile business process management tool like KanBo can help companies to overcome such challenges. It allows them to develop agile processes and approaches and streamline and optimize them gradually to find the point of optimal productivity and efficiency.

Major Business Transformation Challenges Faced By Large Organizations

When we talk about business transformation, it is often portrayed to be a crucial catalyst for positive change. And while that’s true, the fact cannot be overlooked that such transformations come with a multitude of challenges that can have a negative impact on the business, employees, and overall productivity. Some of the key agile transformation issues that organizations face include the following.

1. Active & Passive Resistance against Change

Business transformation is all about not only accepting but embracing change so you can deliver more in terms of performance and productivity. However, when organizations attempt to bring about any such changes, they are almost always met with resistance by team leaders, middle-management, employees, and other stakeholders. People often want to continue to work in ways they are familiar with and the idea of change can be intimidating.

On the other hand, if a business wants to compete in a modern business environment, they have no choice but to continue to adapt and learn. That’s why it becomes a major problem for many organizations to enforce business transformation.

2. Continual Transformation Fatigue

One factor that often gets neglected by many organizations is how transformation isn’t just an event but a process. It’s continuous and always moving. In a high-paced competitive business environment, the next big breakthrough is always around the corner and if you desire to be a leader in your industry, you have to make those necessary adjustments to be successful in the long run. This can lead to haphazard and ad-hoc transformation initiatives which can result in fatigue.

The point is that nobody wants to start from scratch and build processes and approaches all over again to accommodate business transformation. This is why organizations need to be extremely wary of implementing sudden and frequent changes.

3. Inefficient Business Management Processes and Operations

They say ideas are dime a dozen, what really counts is execution. C-level executives and middle management work tirelessly and strategically to visualize, develop, deploy, and then optimize business management processes along with operational approaches. These processes and systems are time-tested and take practical considerations into account. Agile transformation can really throw the entire infrastructure off which can lead to operational inefficiency and frustration.

While business transformation is welcome, it needs to be deployed in a way that doesn’t have a negative impact on already developed and established business processes. Otherwise, such transformation only leads to inefficiency.

4. Absence of Strategy, Leadership, and Attention to Detail

We have to keep in mind that business transformation is a project in itself and that’s exactly why it requires strategic planning, continued leadership, and meticulous attention to detail. Many large organizations tend to ignore one or more of these aspects of implementing a transformational plan which ultimately leads to poor results. Without dedicated strategy and leadership, business transformation initiatives may end up being damaging for the organization.

It is crucial that organizations come up with a robust, realistic, and reliable strategy which can be easily communicated along with the end goals of the transformation. Only this way transformation can be advantageous for the business.

5. No-Risk and Reward Assessment

Every major business move has its upsides and downsides. A transformation strategy that worked wonders for an organization may not be the right fit for your company. That’s why it is essential for businesses to weigh the risks and rewards of implementing a certain transformational strategy so they can identify any weaknesses, downsides, and bottlenecks that it may create. To achieve this, it is crucial to involve every stakeholder in the process so the business can learn about the practical repercussions of each step.

If the decision is made by the higher-ups and enforced on the entire organization without taking team leaders and employees into confidence, that won’t only lead to resistance against change but may break down business-critical processes.

Overcoming Key Business Transformation Challenges with KanBo

KanBo software is a multi-faceted digital tool especially created for agile project management and business process supervision. It doesn’t aim to provide a one-size-fits-all type of management solution that forces organizations to work in a certain way or rely on multiple tools to get the job done.

Instead, it delivers the basic building blocks to an organization in the form of Board Collections, Groups, Boards, Cards, and Lists which can be used in diverse ways to design and deploy business processes, conduct efficient work management, encourage inter and intra-departmental communication and collaboration, monitor progress, and provide feedback. This unique nature of KanBo gives organizational stakeholders at every level the flexibility they need to work according to their unique goals and requirements.

That’s why KanBo also proves to be an exceptional digital tool for implementing business transformation across different teams and departments. Here’s how it helps everyone – from C-level executives and middle management to project managers and team members.

• C-Level Executives or Upper Management

KanBo Delivers Clarity for Informed Decision Making

Business transformation involves taking dozens, if not hundreds, of factors, parameters, and variables into consideration for informed decision making. Without having access to data and information related to how different business processes work, C-level executives are basically in the dark and cannot afford to make huge changes. Deployment of KanBo provides them with a way to implement an agile work management solution in a seamless and streamlined manner.

Apart from that, KanBo prides itself on its information visibility and transparency which provides a unique look into the inner workings of every department. This information becomes critical for creating and implementing agile transformation and KanBo delivers the clarity that C-level executives and upper management personnel are looking for.

In the absence of a tool like KanBo, C-level executives either have to conduct a number of meetings, interviews, and discussion sessions to wrap their head around all the business processes and infrastructural intricacies or have to delegate the task to the middle management. Moreover, they will also need to collect a large volume of data and information from the employees to ensure the entire transformation process can be carried out seamlessly.

• Middle Management or Team Leaders

KanBo Brings Unprecedented Project Visibility & Transparency

When a major venture such as business transformation is underway, it becomes essential, in fact critical, to keep an eye on the progress at all times. Without continued supervision and monitoring by the middle management of the organization, the entire project can go sideways at any time leading to further delays and unnecessary loss of financial and human resources. A few unaddressed bottlenecks or dependencies can have a major impact on the final deadline.

With KanBo software, you can basically create a dedicated board or a board group for the transformation process where every task and to-do is specified along with start and due dates. This makes the job for middle management much easier as they can supervise and monitor the progress in real-time without having to communicate through conventional means of coordination such as meetings or emails which can be both frustrating and time-consuming.

Since the progress updates they need are right in front of them, project managers and team leaders can continue to motivate their team and reduce transformation fatigue. In fact, using KanBo means large organizations can optimize the process of agile transformation to a point where it fundamentally becomes a part of your business approach. It doesn’t appear or feels like a separate project which often results in resistance against change.

• Employees or Team Members

KanBo provides a Single Point of Truth for Relevant Information

Team members or organization’s employees may have the last place in terms of hierarchy, but they are the ones who transform ideas, plans, and strategies into action. They are the executors. In order to perform their job in an effective and efficient manner, they require a deep sense of focus and concentration so they don’t get sidetracked or distracted by work that’s actually not ‘work’ – tasks like participating in endless meetings, conducting video calls, writing and following up on emails, and more.

Moreover, they also need to have quick and easy access to all the relevant information they require to complete their part of the job. That’s where KanBo plays a huge role in terms of ensuring real-time communication and coordination by eliminating silos that scatter information across different channels. KanBo acts as a single point of truth – one central hub of information where every employee can come to get what they are looking for.

This doesn’t only ensure seamless progress for your business transformation but also reduces any apprehension or resentment team members may have for the project. When they are aware of every aspect of the project and know what they need to do to get the job done, they are more likely to participate and contribute to the transformation process which is critical for its success.

Building an Integrated Platform with KanBo for Future Transformations

As discussed earlier, business transformation is no longer just a once-in-a-while passion project for most organizations. In fact, it has become an essential strategy to stay ahead of the competition and gain every bit of advantage in your industry to achieve sustainable success.

KanBo enables all types of organizations, especially those looking to scale their operations to develop and deploy a well-streamlined and integrated project and business process management platform. This allows businesses to quickly create and implement agile transformation plans without starting from scratch. Here are some of the leading benefits of using KanBo for effective business transformation.

• Connect Organization Growth Strategy with Operational Excellence

While many organizations focus on revenues, profits, and other numbers and crunch big data to identify their growth strategy, operational excellence is where everything begins. If your organization’s project management and business processes are well-defined, organized, and seamless, it automatically translates into operational efficiency which leads to sustainable growth.

With KanBo, all the relevant information and work-related data are in one central place which can be accessed by both managers and team members. Apart from that, the building blocks of KanBo can be used in numerous ways to develop business processes that work best for your organization.

• Ensure Business Continuity

When enforcing a major shift in terms of how you conduct business or perform essential operations, it is crucial to ensure that your regular tasks and projects aren’t negatively impacted. That’s one of the major challenges of implementing business transformation as it often turns into a huge project on its own taking away both financial and human resources from the organization.

Using KanBo software as your primary project and business process management tool means that you can analyze and evaluate all the factors beforehand and deploy a step-by-step strategy to implement transformation ensuring business continuity and little to no loss of company revenue.

• Ensure Faster Digital and Business Transformation

Every time you decide to go for a digital or business transformation within an organization, you have no choice but to take everyone on board, accumulate as much data and information as possible, and discuss the practical implications of such a massive project on daily business activities. This isn’t only tedious but consumes a lot of time and financial resources for an organization.

Deploying one of the most exceptional agile tools like KanBo means you already have informational visibility and transparency in place. This doesn’t only allow you to collect all the relevant information for better decision making but you are also well-positioned to communicate goals, requirements, and objectives across an entire organization.

• Establish an Exceptional Collaborative Work Environment

It doesn’t need to be said that business transformation can neither be effectively implemented nor can be followed through if your workforce isn’t willingly invested in it. For such a major change to work, it is crucial that your organization convinces the employees that the adjustments you intend to make won’t only be beneficial for the business but managers and team members as well. They will be able to get more done in less time.

This can only happen when there’s a central work management catalyst that encourages information flow and nurtures a collaborative work environment. With KanBo, your organization has an opportunity to develop such an environment where every team member is invested and remains in the loop.

• Enable Execution of Business Processes across Entire Organization

When you deploy KanBo for project and business process management, it creates a single point of truth for every stakeholder within the organization. It means the information that everyone needs to get the job done is right in front of them and they don’t need to rely on traditional ways for collaboration that can be repetitive and time-consuming. Once a certain business process is approved and implemented, it can be executed across the entire organization.

If there are any questions or concerns, they can be raised through KanBo and adjustments, if required, can be made. It also provides the company with the opportunity to continue to improve and optimize its business processes since collaboration allows team members to identify weaknesses and how to fix them.

• Drive Data-Driven Decision Making

With KanBo, organizations always have access to the relevant information and data which fuels informed and data-driven decision making. This is advantageous for both upper and middle management as they don’t have to conduct meetings and gather data through conventional time-consuming approaches to ensure they are making the right decision.

Conclusion

Business transformation is a significant undertaking, particularly for large enterprises and organizations that are looking to scale their operations. On one hand, they have the crucial need to stay competitive in their industry, on the other, they don’t want to make too many sudden changes to how they conduct their business and manage projects.

The transformation is also met with resistance and fatigue along with other challenges of ensuring seamless communication, project supervision, and informational visibility. KanBo software is one of the most comprehensive and versatile project and business process management tools that enable organizations dealing with such challenges to enforcing agile transformation seamlessly.