Understanding The "Value Void” - And How To Avoid It

Technology is exciting. It’s also essential — it propels organizations, people, and whole economies. And it’s a prerequisite for unlocking greater productivity.

So it’s no surprise that across industries, the race to expand technology is on, with one in every five organizations investing in digital transformation. And it’s clear why: bold digital strategies, more than incremental approaches, can boost KPIs like customer satisfaction and profit margins, according to McKinsey.

But choosing the right technology to invest in is crucial. Too often, shiny new tools (like Gen AI and bolt-on software) don’t live up to the hype. What results is what we at Infor call the "value void": the gap between expectation and reality that results from investing in technology that doesn’t drive value for your organization.

To better understand how the most successful organizations across industries actually succeed in driving value (and avoiding the "value void"), we asked leaders at 3,600 organizations across 7 industries – fashion, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, food and beverage, distribution, and automotive – “How Possible Happens” for them.

 

How Possible Happens

The results were fascinating: across all 7 industries, and organizations with distinct processes, needs, KPIs, and value markers, the most successful organizations shared four key attributes, or vectors to value:

• Processes and Systems: Winning organizations identify the unique processes that drive the most value for them, and then use technology to fortify and optimize those processes, giving them a competitive advantage.
• Agility and future-readiness: They expect the unexpected – and are agile enough to adapt accordingly. Successful organizations use technology to anticipate and overcome new challenges, keeping speed bumps from becoming roadblocks.
• Culture of data: Knowledge is power, and hyperproductive organizations use data to their advantage. Teams that embrace data and use it to guide decision-making excel across verticals.
• Customer focus: They are obsessed with customer outcomes, using technology to completely understand and know their customers so they can give them the outcomes they want and need.

 

The Best Technology Isn’t Enough

While third-party generative AI plug-ins might be the flavor of the week in the tech world, no technology alone can guarantee value. Organizations need to pair the right processes and mindset – in other words, the “vectors to value” listed above – to maximize their investments in technology.

By investing in a core ERP that strengthens your processes, enables you to see around corners, helps you leverage data for optimal results, and empowers you to prioritize your customers, success – and closing the "value void" – is possible.

In fact, that’s our goal at Infor. As the Industry Cloud Complete Company, we provide our customers with complete and industry-specific support in all of these areas, focused on the specific value drivers that can have the biggest impact on your organization.

 

To learn more about overcoming the "value void", and how successful organizations are maximizing their digital transformation, download our full How Possible Happens report today.