Jade is open for business – and for innovation

By Karan Yaramada, President & CEO, Jade Global

During the last couple of decades, open innovation has become a way of life at world-class companies. More than three-fourths of firms practice open innovation¹, with most increasing their investment. An analysis by consulting firm Deloitte on innovation models in business found that large enterprises pursuing an OI model were three times more likely to achieve late-stage success in product development compared to those relying on a traditional, or closed, innovation model.

But how does one build a culture of innovation in an IT services company?

Well, there are several sources of innovation: ideas from employees, partners and customers – and indeed, from much of the consulting and systems integration work we do for our clients.

I think it's more about culture than anything else. At Jade, our flat organization allows us to actively foster a sense of openness and collaboration among our employees. And yes, we do have a formal structure for open innovation that invites ideas, builds on them, invests and develops them into solutions, and rewards contributors.

In the last two years alone, we have received over a hundred fantastic ideas from our employees around the world. No idea is a bad idea, and the sense of reward starts with the act of sharing an idea. In many cases, idea generators at Jade go on to lead the development of the solution and go to market with it. Whether it’s a VP, Director, project manager or an intern, employee ideas are heard, appreciated and put to use.

One of the byproducts of open innovation at Jade: a sense of ownership and commitment. In fact, this is our main product as far as I’m concerned.

I love Oktoberfest, and for the last few years at Jade, we’ve held our own version of this fun seasonal celebration. We call it IdeaFest, an open innovation “cultural festival” where we gather to celebrate our ideas, present highlights from a year of open innovation, and recognize contributors.

How do you practice open innovation in your organizations? I’d welcome your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

I can't wait to share with you the story of an idea that came through this open innovation pipeline, made it to the market, and is seeing early success. Stay tuned...

¹https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263595822_A_Fad_or_a_Phenomenon_The_Adoption_of_Open_Innovation_Practices_in_Large_Firms

Top 5 Reasons Technology Adoption Stalls in Healthcare

By Doug Arthur, Vice President Adoption Services Mainstay

Investing in new technology in healthcare has been proven to improve patient care, lower costs, and increase staff retention. But that’s true only when you ensure that the new technology is actually used.

This begs the question: What’s the key to technology adoption in healthcare?

The first step is to view the investment not only as a technology transformation but as a transformation of people and processes. You need to make sure the technology works, but you also need to inspire and delight all the different users – nurses, doctors, administrators, and patients – with a balanced and effective implementation plan.

Start by avoiding the common pitfalls that often stall technology adoption in Healthcare:

1.     Poor user experience

2.     User desire not identified

3.     Users not engaged early

4.     Sponsors not actively participating

5.     IT infrastructure does not adequately support the application

First impressions are everything

Technology deployments usually fail because of poor user experience. When users are not impressed the first time they use the solution, they rarely give it a second try. In a recent engagement with a large hospital in Texas, for example, we found that staff were reluctant to use the new solution because of a disappointing first experience. Sure, the technology worked as designed, but IT failed to anticipate the special needs of their non-technical user communities.

That’s why it's important to take the time to understand how users view new technology and communicate with them from the end-user perspective. As one CIO told us, we had to “go meet our users where they’re at.” Above all, make sure users are delighted the very first time they interact with the new solution.

User change barriers typically outweigh new tech excitement

Don’t leave it up to employees to figure out the new technology on their own. Staff are usually too busy – and frankly not tech-curious enough – to change their own behavior. IT must help them along. Be sure to spend time showing users how they benefit directly from the new technology.

Be sure to engage employees in the process. With a recent client, for example, hospital executives and training staffs helped identify the use cases for a new tech initiative, becoming invested in the process and how it helps them solve pressing business needs.

Communicate early and often

No one likes change happening at them. They want to be part of the change. That’s why you should involve those affected by new technology early in the process and communicate regularly. The messaging can be as simple as letting the users know what is happening and when – and identifying power users and soliciting their opinions.

Building champions early helps ensure a successful deployment. It also helps bridge the demographic gap. For example, at a recent conference, a hospital executive said their biggest technology adoption challenge was the friction between older and younger nurses. Bringing the two groups together for open discussions helped put everybody on a common path.

Leadership is critical to adoption

Executives always like to back winning ideas, so getting widespread support on an unproven technology project can be difficult. That’s why it’s important to develop a plan to activate executive sponsorship as the deployment gains traction.

At a large healthcare provider in California, for example, the IT team strategized how to engage the CEO’s staff. At the end of the implementation, not only did the executives support the project, but they participated in activities where they could actively demonstrate their support. Ultimately the CEO claimed the whole project was their idea!

Application experiences are only as good as the underlying infrastructure enables

Finally, make sure the IT infrastructure is engineered to support all uses of the application. Too often we see clients scale back on their technology deployment just because of limited network or infrastructure capabilities. Issues such as latency, spotty access, and poor security architecture can seriously impact users and their ability to see value from the solution.

You can help ensure the success of the project through systematic testing, phased deployment, and robust communication planning to make that first encounter of your solution a truly rewarding experience. One other thing: don’t sacrifice key solution features and functionality just to speed your rollout or meet budget constraints. This can significantly hurt the adoption of your technology solution.

Learn more about how Mainstay can help you adopt healthcare technology solutions at https://www.mainstaycompany.com/adoption-services/.