Adapting to a New Digital Normal: Reimagining the Role of IT

Emerging technologies continue to propel business opportunities and advance IT capabilities far beyond what we could imagine just a few years ago. My organization, Employer Advantage, has embraced these changes in the last year and a half, leading to growth in both our physical space (onboarding new employees, moving to a new building, and taking on an acquisition) and operational maturity (looking at IT and services in new ways and implementing change as needed).

Here’s how we did it and what we’ve learned along the way.

Embracing Change in IT

Employer Advantage offers HR-as-a-Service that includes payroll, risk assessment, and other services. One major shift we’ve made in the last year or so is our approach to IT — getting away from the monolithic, traditional perspective we were accustomed to. Siloed IT applications and infrastructure no longer make sense for businesses growing in the digital age, including ours. Our IT progression has happened both externally and internally, shifting the way we navigate client contracts, as well as how our own employees and departments operate and interact.

The Mind Shift

As a company, we understand that the future is technology-driven — but we also realize that it is just as important to adopt a client success model that serves as a buffer for fast-moving IT services that may be overwhelming to users and organizations. In terms of HR services, we realize that moving away from traditional services like in-person onboarding, paper checks, etc., can require a bit of a mental shift. That’s why we have embraced employing client success managers both internally and externally, to ensure we can support our teams and our customers as they navigate the influx of digital services available to us all, now and into the future.

Supporting the Midmarket

Along the way, we’ve identified ways vendors can better serve midmarket clients while also taking advantage of the vast opportunities there. Here’s my take on what works and what we can change:

• The old-school approach to the sales process no longer serves the midmarket. Time is of the essence: Clients need to know what services entail, how much they cost, and a timeline for project completion. Unfortunately, time spent on the golf course or on lengthy client dinners don’t quite serve the digital age.
• Internal communication needs improvement — and a client success model can be the difference between a great customer experience and a client that won’t renew their contract next quarter. Repeated inquiries, requests, or complaints can stack up, leading to confusion, delayed projects, missed goals, and customer dissatisfaction.
• More technical training for all employees and users can drastically improve how clients approach and embrace services. Anyone involved in a project should have some basic technical knowledge to help move things along or escalate requests to the proper department — and it goes without saying that a tech-savvy sales engineer is an invaluable resource.
• Increased monitoring and knowledge of network components is key. Security is at the forefront of everything we do now, and IT professionals need to be ever vigilant, using monitoring and management services to better serve clients and keep networks safe. Risk management is the most important component of IT today.

IT has taken on a new face: It is no longer the solo act it used to be, but now touches on every aspect of business, both internally and with our clients. As the world becomes even more data-obsessed, with analytics taking on a massive role, organizations must truly reimagine IT as we know it.