Testing times

Each year advisory firm KPMG Australia surveys C-level executives across Australia to better understand the key issues being faced by business leaders, with the results released in the Keeping us up at night report.

The 2019 issue demonstrated that – for the third year running – digital transformation remains the number one concern for Australian business leaders. According to KPMG “this indicates that Australian leaders are acutely aware of the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the transformative change that technologies like big data, the internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence will bring”.

While many organisations are quick to embrace and adopt new technologies, the State of Enterprise Software report from leading research firm IBRS suggests that the property industry lags well behind other sectors when it comes to committing investment and devising plans for digital transformation.

According to UDIA Queensland CEO Kirsty Chessher-Brown, while change comes easier for some organisations than others, awareness levels around new business methods and approaches may also contribute to a slower uptake.

“As with any industry, we have members at the coalface embracing technological change and those who are slower to transform. The Institute is grappling with technology and making a massive investment in our own digital future currently so that we can better serve our members for years to come. We are also doing our part to expose members to new ideas and ways of doing business through events like our annual Developers Conference,” she said.

While this research and analysis occurred before COVID-19, the global pandemic has turbocharged some sub-trends and will force radical changes in human behaviour, government regulation, corporate strategy and stakeholder expectations.

Operationally, it has greatly accelerated the adoption of new business and work models, and will force organisations to be more digital, data-driven, accessible and in the cloud; to have stronger, autonomous work cultures; to have variable cost structures, operational agility and automation embedded into everyday business; all while creating stronger capabilities in online service delivery, eCommerce and security.

In the not too distant past, ‘gut feel’ may have been enough to go on when it came to business decisions, but the world has changed. Availability of – and reliable access to – vast amounts of real time data is the very thing that underpins business success in the 21st century, especially in complex environments like property. As we move into the ‘data decade’, Chessher-Brown sees access to accurate and up-to-date information as imperative for every business.

“I believe that real-time business information is critical for all companies. That being said, you need to be able to decipher the data inputs you are receiving. With so much data at our fingertips it becomes more of an issue understanding what is important and what can be ignored. I think there also needs to be an emphasis on the quality of data being collected,” she said.

From feasibility modelling through to cash flow forecasting, the entire development process demands visibility of accurate information in real time. While each business unit owns its inherent function, typical industry undertakings – like provision of accurate costing, estimation and project scheduling – require data drawn from multiple sources.

Integration between disparate business-led solutions can be onerous and, if the resulting extracted information lacks integrity and currency, it leads to poor business decisions that threaten every stage in the development cycle.

Digital transformation is an evolutionary process, and an inevitable one for businesses hoping to realise the potential improvements offered by today’s technology trends.

For example, some businesses look for a quick fix and employ proprietary business intelligence add-on solutions designed to extract and collate data from siloed applications. This may serve in short-to medium-term, but for organisations with serious digital transformation aspirations, there is no substitute for the solid foundation that an enterprise solution delivers.

If manual processes, disparate systems and gut feel decision-making are still the norm in your organisation, it may be time to investigate better options.

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