Digital transformations need to be live within three months, or face losing out on automation benefits, warns POPX CTO at London event

Speaking at a conference on customer experience and IT service operations in London, Andy Venables, CTO at POPX, has warned businesses that digital transformation implementations that do not go live within the first three months risk losing out on multiple benefits, such as automation.

The ServiceNow Summit, which took place at The Mermaid in London’s Puddle Dock, saw a number of digital transformation experts, with representatives from Experian, Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) and ServiceNow joining POPX’s Venables, lead discussions on how intelligent automation can be used to drive greater business productivity.

“It’s no secret that businesses are increasingly looking at technology solutions to automate everyday processes so that they can become more productive, but too many risk losing out to the competition by dragging their feet in the early phases of a project,” said Venables. “In a competitive marketplace, you need to be delivering value in line with your business case within three months to start demonstrating results to business stakeholders.”

“Of course, the next three months can be spent bedding in and extending the value to include other techniques, like machine learning and performance analytics, but it’s far better to be under-configured and live, than customised and awaiting a slow sign off or extended testing period. For too many organisations, trying to be ‘perfect’ is the enemy of good,” he said.

The message on the need to accelerate digital transformation comes at a time when a study by Amazon Web Services revealed a 31% increase in AI adoption among UK businesses from 2022 to 2023, highlighting the need for organisations to get it right or risk falling behind the competition. Adoption of generative AI and the automation of business processes represent the next phase in driving growth and productivity. The key, according to Venables, is to lean on established methodologies for accelerating the onboarding process.

“For most of the processes that you want to automate, your business will not be unique, so you will not need extensive customisation. Don’t try to build a perfect and bespoke solution that you’ll regret later. Your best approach is to work with a partner that has a tried and tested method of getting digital transformations to value quickly.”

A past certified ServiceNow Master Architect, Venables has vast experience leading large and complex software solution implementations across multiple sectors. Having worked with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and software houses, he then spent six years as a senior architect at ServiceNow before co-founding digital transformation specialist POPX.

Venables concluded: “We live in a digital era, and forward-thinking organisations that embrace accelerated digital transformation and automation will have an advantage over the competition.”