The Digital Future

Jo Kitney, Managing Director - Kitney Occupational Health & Safety

The McKinsey Global Institute recognise that an investment in digitalisation is cumulative, can boost growth, and a force for change if the business can adapt. There are a range of factors that influence digitalisation, as it is both a disruptor and an innovator. To maintain competitiveness in business, digitalisation must be used to improve services, systems, and processes, rather than simply accompanying them.

There are three key issues for business owners when it comes to digital adoption: the business’ viewpoint of technology; recognising the importance of moving online as an enabler for businesses management; and the business’ opportunity to influence an organisation’s IT strategy, road map and budget. Jo Kitney, managing director of specialist consulting firm Kitney said “digitalisation is changing the world of work, and in the process bringing challenges, innovative solutions, and tangible benefits.”. “With the uptake of digital solutions in business, we have found different levels of digitalisation in organisations”.

At Kitney, we see the digitalisation of health and safety (H&S) and other business compliance and management systems as a force for change, and a tool for how these important areas can be managed. Kitney Toolkit’s 365 systems, solutions, and training are the personification of digitalising. Kitney highlights that as long as the business is ready to accept and can adapt to embrace the change that digitalisation brings, the benefits are significant. Gaps and challenges lie across a number of areas, not least the organisation’s IT strategy and road map, budget, ease of access to apps, digital tools and systems, individual adoption, and of course cyber security, and moving information between applications and digital systems (Kitney, 2023).

In their desire to challenge the status quo and get health and safety out of the ‘too hard basket’, Kitney have partnered with Mapien to understand challenges for digital adoption through industry surveys and Technology Readiness Assessment Tool (TRAT). Based around Venkatesh’s (2003) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the work of Kitney and Mapien is coupled with industry experience and practical insights. TRAT will enable early identification and tracking of factors most likely to help or hinder digital adoption.  

From work in industry, Kitney has identified that time, resources, budget, and autonomy of decision making are key barriers for establishing and implementing effective health and safety and other compliance management systems. After five years of exploring, researching, and developing solutions using SharePoint and Microsoft 365, Kitney continues to be excited at the outcomes being achieved from resources within an organisation's Microsoft 365 business licence. Kitney recognises the challenges and opportunities for moving to the digital future, and the role business owners and executives have in critical thinking and decision making to identify opportunities and use these to the advantage of the business.