Show them how it works

By: Rik Hoogenberg, chief executive officer

Change programs don’t often meet with a favourable atmosphere. Why? Because all too often, change programs haven’t worked. I am convinced that the vast majority of professionals within organizations are motivated and willing to deliver their best performance. But if IT support falls short, they get frustrated. And if even change programs to improve IT support fail, they lose interest.

That is why it is essential to demonstrate as soon as possible, that change works. Usually it is enough to show what others have done with Be Informed - it's amazing how similar problems businesses and government institutions face. Sometimes more is needed. At Be Informed, we are able to tackle the toughest and most intractable problem and within a few days up to several weeks we show how the solution works in practice. Not as a demo, but as an actual working system.

To do this, we work with dedicated specialists of the organization to understand the basics of the organization and it’s processes, in order to find the best possible solution. Shifting from a “no, it is very complex, it hardly can be done” towards a “we will solve it” state of mind. Once the core solution is up and running, the promise of change that works has been proven and other professionals can be involved for optimization. It is our experience that people don’t need to be convinced to contribute to it. Once they see the core solution at work, they will get inspired to be a part of it. Success sells itself.

Several Be Informed implementations have taught us that the key inspiration of a running application within such a short period of time was that the Be Informed business process platform restores the role of professionals within knowledge intensive administrative organizations. No longer will they be forced to adjust inadequate process results, Be Informed empowers them to add value to effective and efficient business processes. And this perspective initiates their collective dedication to the change program. This way, not only the Be Informed powered solutions add to the success of administrative organizations, but also the way in which they are implemented contributes to a mind shift within the organization.

Change you can believe in

By: Rik Hoogenberg, chief executive officer

Be Informed’s case based approach in administrative processes, that are becoming more knowledge-intensive, allows organizations to boost efficiency, agility and customer intimacy. Organizations that do not postpone the inevitable and carefully plan an overhaul of their business processes with Be Informed profit most from these benefits. Yet many IT projects in large organizations fail. How to succeed in changing the way your organization works? It’s simpler than you might think.

First of all, working with Be Informed allows you to change the way you work. Considering that many administrative organizations have organized their work in overcomplicated systems, procedures and applications, this would seem a logical step, right? Then, make sure your transformation is done by people with a ‘can do’, solution oriented approach. This requires critical minds, looking for the simplest solutions. To give you an example; an administrative organization required an ID from citizens to perform certain actions. Many hours of discussions were spent on which type of ID would suffice: passport, drivers licence, or ID card. ID regulations as described in national law proved these discussions to be pointless; use what is needed, instead of what is currently implemented.

An important reason why many IT-projects in large organizations fail, is that traditionally all requirements, functionalities and so forth need to be exhaustively predescribed and, consequently, built. These projects take years, increasing the risk that the eventual outcome will be outdated upon implementation. Simply because too many changes will have taken place: in business, technology, society, et cetera. Also, many organizations fail to benefit from innovative technology by upholding the complicatedness of their systems and processes in new environments. With Be Informed, organizations don’t need to build systems or applications, we model our solutions based on a central business model, using a pragmatic approach that allows business users to see what they get, and reuse what is there already. Working with Be Informed means successful innovation by simplifying systems and processes.

We don’t ask the business users what they want, we interact with them on what they need to do their job. As car manufacturer Henry Ford once said: “If I had asked them what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”.

Within one or two months we present the first application showing the new way of working, discussing functional requirements with business users. This way, enthusiasm for new solutions is gained from the start of the project, which will prove helpful along the way in which an integrated approach, supported by a solution oriented project team consisting of experts from all corners of the organization will guarantee the organizations ability to embrace complexity for years to come.