Digital ROI and the Worker
Twelve Trends that are Changing the Way We Think About Work — Part 10.
So how do we measure the return on investment (ROI) from a digital transformation initiative? Apart from obvious metrics, such as turnover versus automation investment, customer acquisition versus churn, customer satisfaction, engagement, digital adoption, uptime, resolution on the first contact, response times, and so on, we must also look at the impact of more radical transformation efforts that promise far-reaching effects on the workforce.
The notion of having a digital colleague who deals with mundane or routine work and frees up a human counterpart to focus on innovative and emotionally fulfilling tasks is one that is rapidly coming to fruition in this second wave of the 4IR. We can expect these digital colleagues to become much more pervasive and to have a profound effect on workers’ experiences and overall productivity in the near future.
Digital colleagues are not necessarily anthropomorphic, but they are capable of fulfilling traditional human tasks with far greater accuracy and efficiency. This could mean eliminating communications that typically take up to 10% of their human counterpart’s working day. Likewise, disseminating useful knowledge to human workers on a just-in-time basis would be imperative.
Digital colleagues are particularly effective in improving productivity. It is estimated that workers spend up to a fifth of their entire working day searching for information that enables them to fulfill assignments. Other areas of focus ripe for digital work include new hire onboarding, social networking, and customer satisfaction.
To define key performance indicators, a business must first decide the level to which it wants digital colleagues to assist the human workforce and in which particular areas of day-to-day operations. For example, is an initiative targeted towards optimizing contact center operations by proactively searching for relevant information based on the classification of the customer contact? This approach is particularly effective when it is used to assist customers in the queue by rapidly answering routine questions without the need for human intervention, thus expediting hold times and freeing up agents to handle more complex issues.
To realize a comprehensive and measurable ROI, tools like digital colleagues must not only handle repetitive work at scale and machine pace but also be capable of learning by “observing” human counterparts. For example, by facilitating routine, yet time-consuming requests that might involve searching for a particular web address and recalling login details, the digital colleague can save workers otherwise non-productive time by seamlessly integrating with any enterprise process or system. As such, the impact on ROI can be particularly effective.
Logical Design Solutions (LDS) is a digital strategy and design consultancy for global enterprises. We create experiences that transform business and help people work successfully in the new digital organization. Clients come to LDS because of our reputation for intellectual rigor, our foundation in visionary experience strategy, and our commitment to enabling digital transformation inside the enterprise. Learn More about how LDS has dramatically improved the way that some of the largest corporations in the world do business.
