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Technology in the mid-market Embracing disruption August 2018From May 16 to June 4, 2018, a Deloitte survey of mid-market companies was conducted by OnResearch, a market research firm. The survey examined technology trends taking place in this market segment to determine the role that technology plays and how it influences business decisions. The 500 survey respondents represented mid-market companies with annual revenues ranging from $100 million to a little more than $1 billion. Half of the respondents were C -suite executives, while the remaining executives held other management roles. Eighty percent of the respondents represented companies that are privately held, while the remainder were publicly traded firms. Thirty-three percent of the respondents were from consumer and industrial products companies; 24 percent represented technology, media and telecommunications companies; the remainder were divided among energy and resources, financial services, life sciences and health care, and other industries. The full survey results are included in a separate appendix; some percentages in the charts throughout this report may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding, or for questions where survey participants had the option to choose multiple responses. About the surveyExecutive summary 4 Restyling the workforce 6 Regrouping for growth 12 Overlooking IT oversight 20 Leading beyond the horizon 27 Contents 3Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 4 Man versus machine its one of the oldest storylines in Hollywood. And for good reasontheres a natural tension in the relationship between humans and technology. If the robots can replace us, what are we left to do? Plenty, it turns out. For the first time, this years Deloitte Private mid-market technology survey tackles the talent dimensions of IT investments. What we found is that in many cases, technology is augmenting workers rather than rendering them obsolete. The nature of work is shifting from low-value, routine tasks to higher-order analysis and invention. And through this process, private companies are enjoying myriad benefits, from increased productivity to better customer engagement to forming whole new business lines. Executive summary Rather than being left out, employees are sharing in technologys bounty in a number of ways: New jobs: Nearly half of the survey companies report plans to hire more than they did before implementing new technologies, and only a quarter think they will require fewer people. New skills: The private companies say reskilling employees has the greatest impact on their efforts to technologically augment their workforce. New flexibility: Companies plan to increasingly rely on “gig workers” contract-based or non-full-time, flex employeesto help meet their strategic goals for technology. Roger Nanney Doug BeaudoinTechnology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 5 Technology is touching just about every area of operations, necessitating a new level of collaboration and sharing of responsibility between C -suite technology leaders and those running individual business lines. Information security concerns are bringing private company leaders together in new ways. Theyre also aligning around IT solutions involving the cloud, the Internet of Things, machine intelligence, and cognitive computing. Despite all the teamwork, though, our survey shows some companies have a way to go in setting formal policies and procedures to help balance technologys opportunities and risks. These are exciting times to be running a private enterprise, and technology is a big part of that story. In the pages that follow, you will see through data and anecdotes how private companies are investing across the spectrum of digital solutions, and where theyre having the greatest impact in their organizations. While the companies interviewed for this report did not participate in the survey, their technology- related strategies reinforce many of the survey findings and highlight issues and trends. As always, it is our hope that the insights contained within may help inform your investments in technology and bring the future forward. Roger Nanney National Managing Partner Deloitte Private Deloitte LLP Doug Beaudoin Deloitte Private Consulting Leader Deloitte Consulting LLPTechnology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 6 It seems every day were treated to news stories of machines doing work once performed by humans. In addition to taking over assembly lines, robots can now operate massive tractors to help farmers produce more crops, analyze magnetic resonance images, run online chat groups, and even give massages and flip hamburgers. In our survey, half of the respondents expect automated systems to engage with people or acquire humanlike expertise in the next one to two years. And, yet, companies continue to need workers and cite skills shortages as a major impediment to growth. For many, technology is upping the stakes when it comes to finding and holding on to talent. Consider that in this years survey, 46 percent of the private company leaders say they plan to hire more people than they did before implementing new technologies, while only 26 percent say theyll require fewer people. Some call it the “new collar” economy. 1In this bustling segment of the labor market, app developers, data technicians, and project managers are in hot demand. In practice, though, talent remains hard to come by in an extremely tight labor market. For the first time on record, there are more job openings than people to fill them. 2The shortage of working-age candidates is so severe that that some cities and states have resorted to paying cash incentives to attract potential workers. 3 Executives say the increasing focus on knowledge workers is driving the trend. “For every person we add to our team, we get much more productivity than we would in a pre-cloud, pre-automation, pre-machine learning world,” says Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy, a Washington, DC -based renewable energy company. “Its easier to justify additional personnel.” Restyling the workforce Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 7 “For every person we add to our team, we get much more productivity than we would in a pre-cloud, pre-automation, pre-machine learning world.” Tom MatzzieCEO, CleanChoice Energy Will you be hiring more people than you did before implementing new technologies, or fewer? 46% hiring more people hiring fewer people 26%Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 8 In what areas is digital disruption most likely to impact private companies? operations customer service marketing product development sales 46% 41% 41% 39% 54%Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 9 The executives point to reskilling and redesigning jobs as their top two talent- related priorities as they seek to augment the workforce through technology. The cycle has come full circle, from mandates for vocational education in the 1960s to downturns in manufacturing in the 1980s, to the modern workplace, where machines and people work in sync. If companies can reorient their teams to realize the greatest benefit from emerging technologies, and if companies can redesign jobs to make it easier for people and machines to work together, business leaders assert they can achieve a stronger position in the marketplace. product development Reskilling As technology transforms nearly every task, position, and organization in the marketplace, private companies recognize that theres an urgent need to prepare their existing workers for this shift. Our survey found digital disruption is likely to have a broad-based impact across private companies, led by operations (chosen by 54 percent of the respondents). Customer service (46 percent), marketing (41 percent), product development (41 percent), and sales (39 percent) also rate highly.Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 10 Private company CHRO: Leading digitally focused learning The role of HR leaders has evolved from administrative tasks such as compensation and benefits to a broader portfolio led by the chief human resources officer (CHRO), including attracting and retaining talent, learning and development, managing people analytics, and executing high-level strategy aligned to business goals. 7 Within the CHRO portfolio, employee learning and development is in need of a refresh. A 2017 employer survey by Bersin by Deloitte found that more than half of the respondents did not have learning programs to build the skills of the future. 8 Talent leaders can bring digitally-focused learning to their organizations in a few critical ways: Assessing how individuals, teams, and organizations figure out how people and machines can work together, and designing learning programs so people can navigate the changing roles. Taking advantage of online networks and knowledge sharing through massive online open courses (MOOCs) that can be customized for learners and organizations of any size. Building digital learning into leadership succession practices to build a pipeline of future-ready executives. Recruiting Jobs designed for people with highly specialized capabilities are clearly increasing, but the supply of qualified workers isnt keeping pace and business leaders insist workforce preparation simply hasnt kept up with the modern nature of jobs. 4 Some organizations are therefore focused on the talent of the future. For the first time in our survey, respondents provided insight into how they plan to harness the best of future talent in Gen Z, the generation born after 1995 and comprising the latest generation to enter the workforce. A majority of respondents64 percentsay they are working to develop new talent strategies to attract, recruit, and retain an inclusive workforce. But a majority of the executives cite other approaches to improve the experience of Gen Z employees: using experiential learning methods such as gamification (58 percent), increasing their focus on flexibility and well-being programs (55 percent), and driving a culture of open and transparent communication with leadership (52 percent). The respondents also are addressing talent shortages and other challenges through new relationships with contract workers in the so-called gig economy. New evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the share of workers employed as independent contractors may be smaller than once believed. 5But this may well be a short-term phenomenon. The companies in our survey are finding a lot of use for gig workers and they have big plans for them in the future. 6Most critically, private company leaders say gig workers have allowed their firms to become more agile in product development and customer service delivery. Contract workers have also allowed firms to be more flexible in engaging with a more diverse pool of workers, and they have even helped accelerate the development of new lines of business.Technology in the mid-marketEmbracing disruption 11 Tom Matzzie, founder and CEO of CleanChoice Energy, says the utility sector is ripe for technological disruption. A patchwork of rules from states that have either partially or completely regulated electricity markets continues to define the pace of innovation, he says. But as consumers demand new options to power their homes through renewable energy, Matzzie believes that momentum will benefit his customers and the environment. “Were seeing developments in renewable energy and clean tech, as well as the acceleration of cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence,” Matzzie says. “Whether its low-cost energy storage, smart home devices, or electric vehicles, there will be opportunities for consumers as we rebuild the electric system to be clean and sustainable over the next 30 years.” Those ambitions echo the companys mission to switch as many American homes and businesses to clean, renewable energy as possible. With a B Corp designation for its commitment to social and environmental performance, CleanChoice does business in eight states and the District of Columbia. Founded in 2010, the company also operates “community solar” farms from which customers can subscribe to get the benefits of solar energy as if the panels were on their roofs. Its technologies such as cloud computing where Matzzie sees the company as a differentiator, however. He points to the triple effects of price, speed, and quality: “The low cost, ubiquitous availability of cloud computing, and how you can get really big computing power very inexpensively, very fast now through web servicesthat did not exist 10 years ago, and certainly not at the scale were talking about today,” Matzzie says. “Things that 15 years ago would take us weeks to complete in terms of computations now take us a few minutes. Computing power in the cloud has now enabled machine learning tools to help do classifications and build models for us for customer behaviors, and probabilities and predictions, to help us run the business in a very sophisticated way.” A CLOSER LOOK CleanChoice Energy: Harnessing emerging tech for renewable power Matzzie also says machine learning technologies have transformed the business from manual to automated processes. “We use machine learning to predict probability that a lead will enroll for our service, and to predict their likelihood to leave us as a customer, so we can intervene and make them a better offer or provide some incentive to them,” Matzzie says. “It used to be you did it twice or three times a year. Now we do it every day.” Automation has been a part of CleanChoices strategy since its origins. In this years survey, two-thirds of respondents said they are focusing on robotic process automation to handle high-volume, labor intensive document processing tasks. Matzzie offers the example of enrolling and onboarding new customers. Using automation, they are able to carry out the process on unique schedules for thousands of customers at once, and following up in the days and weeks after they enroll for service. “Ten or 15 years ago, we would just have everyone be on the same schedule, and thered be someone whod create the newsletter or the communication for the customer base,” Matzzie says. “There werent sufficient tools out there to be able to create that business process automation. Now we can hyper-personalize the customer experience because of automation, and the automation of that customer journey and that experience is critical to being able to scale.” Getting to scale requires new skills, and that means recruiting talent who are “technology natives,” according to Matzzie. “Its not business
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