By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Digital transformation is a buzz word you hear a lot today, and its importance grows with the passage of time. The savviest CIOs and business leaders recognize this and are taking action. A recent Gallup survey discovered that 60% of executives have line items in their budgets for purchasing virtual tools. With each passing day, the importance of digital transformation grows, and And yet, many companies have been slow to embrace digital technologies, even though their use is trending upward. Just take a look at Blockbuster—their refusal to do so obviously didn’t end well! Their demise proves that embracing digital transformation is essential for businesses—not only to survive but thrive and grow. You certainly don’t want to miss the digital transformation boat! So, what sparks companies to start their digital technology journeys? Let’s see if you fall into one of these two categories: 1. A Company Wants to Solve a Problem The way they’re doing things may be archaic, costing them money or customers. Employees may be complaining about the course of doing business as well. Unfortunately, some are often overwhelmed by these problems so that innovation becomes just a pipe dream. Many of these companies have lots of innovative ideas, but being mired in these problems has often outweighed the ability to implement their ideas. When issues are taken care of first, employees are more often able to start implementing these ideas. 2. A Company Doesn't Necessarily Have a Problem—They Want to Get Better They may be unsure how to proceed or search for outside help within a price point they can afford. It may be a complicated conversation for many of them to start with consultants—it may not come easy admitting they don’t have the answers to their challenges. In the end, there are great opportunities for both the business and the consultant to achieve great results together. Here are some additional insights: Business Stakeholders In our quickly changing world, it’s impossible to know everything; however, when business stakeholders can accept this fact, this is key in helping organizations ensure significant growth. By seeking help or insight through consultants who are experts in their field, organizations can gain exponential understanding and value. Also, many companies may stop innovating due to uncertainty because it's human nature to relish solid parameters. However, it’s essential to keep an open mind amid unknowns to keep innovating. Consultants For the consultant, it’s an opportunity to have honest conversations with prospective and current clients while outlining what’s possible. Organizations benefit from having another set of eyes from outside the business to look at their operations. The consultant’s diverse experience allows them to diagnose, suggest, and open opportunities for firms quickly. Doing so can cause a positive trickle-down effect with their customers and, ultimately, the bottom line. What organization wouldn’t want that? **** We're excited! It's inching closer—the launch of Michael Cantu’s and my paperback, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. We plan to launch mid-August. Needless to say, we are pumped! If you would like to learn more, click the button below.
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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions As you may have heard, Michael Cantu and I are launching the paperback version of our book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation, next month. Our ebook debuted as the #1 New Release Book in IT and #2 Best Selling Book in IT on Amazon on its first available day last year in November. We hope to snag the #1 Best Seller ranking this time! I thought it would be appropriate to share the story of my digital transformation journey leading up to the launch. Sometimes, it's nice to hear the story of where people come from, so here's mine! When I started my career as a budget analyst years ago, little did I know that I would be involved in digital transformation implementations. That term was not even in existence at the time! Here’s a brief overview of my beginnings: I landed my first well-paying job at Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, CA. The department I first started working in was starting to use computers. I will be dating myself here, but I fell into the role of creating and producing fourth-generation flat-file reports for cost reporting purposes. From that moment on, I was hooked on digital technologies! About eight years later, I ran my first process improvement team, which also hooked me. My next big project involved implementing a digital scheduling system for the F/A-18 C/D program. In both instances, it was invigorating to take a process that wasn’t working well and streamline it to the extent that it made employees’ jobs easier and saved the company money. What fun it was to make a difference! After I moved to Missouri, I landed a job at Honeywell. There, I cut my teeth on combining process improvement team leadership with digital transformation initiatives, such as a Tailorable Quality Plan and a CRM implementation. Finally, I helped spearhead the implementation of Primavera P6 for their Program Management department. All this experience led to even better things. After leaving Honeywell, I started my own business. My first job out of the chute involved developing a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand customer feedback strategy process (Voice of the Customer). At the time, I researched process automation technologies to implement, but they were too cost-prohibitive. I left that engagement feeling like my job wasn't complete. There had to be something cost-effective and easy to implement to make following a process a no-brainer! That’s when everything changed in 2019. I met Michael Cantu’, the founder and CEO of Accelerate, a no-code workflow automation platform. FINALLY! I found was I was looking for! I could now combine my Six Sigma Black Belt certification with a workflow automation tool. My journey has come full circle—from creating flat-file reports to helping companies streamline their operations and automating them. And automation is a smart move. Companies can gain even more significant benefits. Accelerate is quick to implement, cost-effective, and has a track record of increasing productivity up to 300%! It makes my job easier and my clients so much happier! # # # If you would like to learn more, click the button below! 'til next time, Kathy
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Business leaders these days feel stymied on how to save time and money in their business. With runaway inflation and stock market declines, many are uncertain how to find relief. There are many options, but one stands heads and shoulders above the others: Digital Transformation (DX). And what's surprising is that it's more affordable than you would think if you use the right platform. For instance, my strategic partner, Michael Cantu, once digitally transformed a claims process for a transportation business for $20K using his Accelerate platform. This company had previously received a quote to do the same work for $1M. That's a cost saving of 98%! This company also achieved a 30-40% yearly savings over the previous process. I don't know about you, but I call that a smashing success for the company! So what is DX? It is adopting digital processes and technology to replace manual, non-connected processes. One subset of DX is workflow automation. Let’s define that: It connects disparate systems, people, data, content, and workloads to accelerate your workforce. It streamlines your work, enabling you to have at your fingertips what you need to do your job more effectively and efficiently. DX's power to help companies achieve time and cost savings through streamlined, automated processes is significant. I’ve written several blogs before about DX’s advantages. Here’s one I wrote for CEOWorld Magazine. And there are many other benefits as well. For now, let’s focus on the following four areas. 1. Improved Business Models The power of DX allows organizations to develop new business models. Consider what Amazon has done to revolutionize customer experience, product selection, and delivery, among other benefits. They are a perfect example of how new business models can skyrocket profitability! 2. Improved Competitiveness Companies digitizing their businesses are riding the technology wave to differentiate themselves from their competitors highly. DX removes manual tasks that can tremendously increase productivity, reduce costs, improve customer experience, and elevate employee engagement. These improvements can help keep customers coming back for more. 3. Faster Time to Market The power of DX can accelerate product speed-to-market timelines. When product development processes are automated, employees have fewer administrative tasks to take up more time. Doing so will give them more time to develop innovative products faster. 4. Improved Analytics The right platform allows business leaders to configure high-level dashboards for their most sought-after metrics quickly. Doing so can enable them to drill down to the task level to understand better metrics that are not trending in the right direction. For all these reasons, companies that implement workflow automation tools can save time and money in their organizations, and who doesn’t want that? # # # We're excited! It's inching closer—the launch of Michael Cantu’s and my paperback, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. I'll receive the first proof copy soon, so we hope to go live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets in early August. If you would like to learn more, click the button below!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions How many of you are in sales roles and are wondering how to sell in today's challenging economic conditions? If that's you, Breandan Filbert, Managing Partner of SalezWorks, has some great tips. A healthy Sales function has never been more critical than now to a sustainable and thriving business. Paying attention to this skill set and realigning your efforts as needed will provide you safe passage through the shifting winds of change we face daily. Here are a few creative ways to accomplish this in your sales process: 1. Market Research is Vital to Your Business Development Effort Understand and serve their needs. Most likely, something has significantly changed in how they do business to keep their customers safe and continue business operations. Find out what those necessary changes are and serve them during those changes. 2. Uncover the Right Niche to Recession-Proof Your Business Expand product offerings or services to current clients and add value to new prospects. Ensure your chosen market is recession-proof and will weather the upcoming storms of inflation and other economic challenges. 3. Recognize Everything is a Campaign Buyers are overwhelmed and scared right now. They don’t want to make the wrong decision. Media messages have them fearing Everything from global war to $7 per gallon of gasoline. While these may come to reality at some point, today, they are not. As entrepreneurs, we must provide solutions to compelling problems inhibiting growth and sustainability. Removing friction from your sales process is the best place to begin serving today's buyers. Create a compelling, accessible entry point into your solution to help your prospects discover the value you bring and enable them to make a low-risk decision that leads to more opportunities unfolding. I hope these tips helped you with some pointers on better selling your ideas or your organization's products or services. If you'd like more sales insights, you can email Breandan at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn. # # # I've been talking about it for a while. The manuscript is reaching its final stages of approval for the release of Michael Cantu's and my paperback, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. Whew! Putting this all together has taken a lot longer than I anticipated. There is so much involved in self-publishing a paperback! We hope to go live with it by the end of the month or early August. If you'd like to learn more, click the button below!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions With the 4th of July holiday happening this week, I thought I'd give myself a break and share with you one of the most popular blogs I've written. I hope you enjoy it! # # # Have you ever had those moments that were so embarrassing that you wanted to crawl in a hole and hide? One such instance happened many years ago when I was offered a paying gig as a wedding singer. I had previously sung at several friends’ weddings for free, so I jumped on the chance to get paid for it. Little did I know this would be a BIG lesson in perseverance! Murphy’s Law was at play from the very beginning. I came down with bronchitis two days before the wedding rehearsal. Then once I got there, I discovered I had left my music for one of the songs at home, which was a two-hour drive away. So, the pianist and I decided we’d practice that one song on the the wedding day, which certainly is not ideal! The day of the wedding came, and I was able to sing, but I still wasn't in the greatest shape. Unfortunately, my unpreparedness and not feeling well got the best of me. Let me explain…. During the wedding, I, unfortunately, forgot to change keys during one section of the song and I kept singing that same key throughout the rest of the song. Ugh! Needless to say, it sounded horrible! But I kept forging ahead, acting as if nothing were wrong at all, but inside I was mortified. Eventually, the pianist caught up with me and thankfully I nailed the next song. Then the funniest thing happened during the reception. The groom said to me, “you sounded great, Kathy, but the pianist sure screwed up!” I almost burst out laughing, but instead, I thanked him and didn’t say a word about what actually happened. However, the bride refused to talk to me. And then she refused to pay me! Although this experience wasn’t fun at the time, I can laugh now. Also, I learned several lessons on how to persevere during difficult situations, especially when you’re in the spotlight. Let's dive into what those are! 1. Fake It Until You Make It When I made that mistake, I consciously decided to stay committed to my direction, knowing that doing anything else would only make it worse. I pretended I knew exactly what I was doing, even if it was wrong. Life Lesson: We all make bad decisions, but sometimes the best course of action is to stick to your guns, IF the fall-out would be worse if you suddenly change course. This may be especially true if you’re in a new role and need to inspire those around you to follow your direction. Be confident in whatever choice you make. 2. Have a “Don’t Give Up Attitude” I committed to singing at this wedding, and I wasn't going to let anything stop me from doing that. I also didn't let the mistake I made limit me from nailing the next song. Life Lesson: Make a firm decision that when you say you’re going to do something, you do it, even if the going is tough. 3. Be Tenacious at Getting the Results You Want My perseverance in bugging the bride to pay me paid of. I got a check in the mail six months later. Even more important, the lessons I learned in perseverance with this gig were worth all the time, effort, and even embarrassment I experienced. Life Lesson: Tenaciously pursue your goals. Then take stock of what you learned, knowing that you can overcome certain challenges can help build a deeper ability to persevere under fire in the future. This builds even greater tenacity. Speaking of challenges, are you in the midst of some that you’re not sure how to overcome? Could you use an outside perspective on how to tackle them? If that's the case, I’d love to have a conversation with you! If it’s not something I can solve, I have a whole network of alliance partners that I’d love to connect you with. Sound good? Then click the button below to schedule a chat.
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