The world is on the verge of a technological revolution and almost every company is facing the most extreme disruption of its history with digital transformation. Today's customer experience and security requirements are more complex than ever and the role of automation is at the heart of the solutions that technology is offering to drive competitive differentiation, innovation and market leadership.
The success of a company in this digital era is often dictated by the ability to adapt to the changing needs of its customers and deliver effective solutions. The recent migration towards digital offerings has placed pressure on IT departments to get their systems up-to-speed with their competitors, meet the needs of regulators and meet the fast changing consumer demands. However, updating legacy systems or acquiring new software can pose lead to potential issues of quality, security and data integrity. The failure to consider a comprehensive quality assurance strategy that underpins digital transformation can expose vulnerabilities whilst directly affecting the bottom line of a business.
With the recent explosion in data protection, especially personal data from customers and employees, ensuring the security and accessibility of IT systems is now business critical and therefore quality assurance has emerged as one of the cornerstones of digital transformation success. Imagine loading sensitive data onto an application of questionable security or performance: to most people this would ring alarm bells but it is exactly what a large proportion of businesses are doing when they fail to consider the importance of testing the robustness of their technology architecture.
We are approaching the age of the automated economy, which will free-up the human mind from monotonous and administrative tasks by employing robotics to perform these duties and leave more time for employees to engage in more creative, strategic work. The implementation of these new technologies will place a huge demand on the software in terms of training AI to adapt to the needs and compliances of the business concerned. As each individual employee requires on-boarding and training attention, each new software, AI or technology should be integrated using specific development methods to ensure compliance, functionality and safety thresholds are met.
The importance of investing in end-to-end process quality assurance is of supreme importance for consumer confidence during any digital change initiatives. We have recently seen numerous examples of businesses who fail to address the flaws in their processes and robustness of their IT systems in turn seriously damaging their brand reputation.
Businesses must accept that planning for change and digital transformation must be central to their strategy in order to successfully make the shift to automation. Any financial gain and operational efficiencies may however be negated should they fail to prioritise quality and engage a strategic quality partner.