Today we’re sharing insight from Ron Kraemer, Chief Information and Digital Officer at the University of Notre Dame. We hope you enjoy Ron’s wisdom and perspective.
If you are 22 years old and entering the workforce this year, you have never known the world without the Internet and mobile technology. You could have used Facebook at 8 years old, and purchased gifts for Mother’s Day on amazon.com when you were 11 or 12. And if you are nearing retirement age, you were in your early 50’s the first time you could have watched a YouTube video or used an iPhone.
We can each place ourselves somewhere on the timeline from “digital immigrant” (people who did not grow up in the digital age) to “digital native” (people who grew up with technology all around them). The challenge we face as service providers is that every person on the digital timeline could be one of our customers and they have very different needs and expectations.
As providers of goods and services, we’re trying to satisfy both the digital natives and immigrants. We find ourselves in a time when everyone is growing more dependent on technology, yet everyone’s appetite for and comfort with various levels of technology varies greatly.
Most digital natives thrive in a world that is online and mobile. I know young people who only want to interact with technology-based services. They actually avoid dealing with people unless they absolutely must. The Pew Research Center reported in May 2018 that “Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say that they are online almost constantly.” These are the people who will work in our organizations and purchase our goods and services.
Those of us who have been around a while still find ourselves transitioning from a paper-based world to a digital one, with various levels of effectiveness. A Pew Research Center report from May 2017 indicated that although more “digital immigrants” are joining the ranks of the digital savvy, many remain largely disconnected from the digital revolution. One of the primary reasons is that “many are simply not confident in their own ability to learn about and properly use electronic devices.” I also fundamentally believe many of us in our 50s and 60s just feel more comfortable dealing with other people rather than trusting computers or applications.
Regardless of individual customer appetites and aptitudes for mobile and digital services, our organizations are feeling increased pressure to deliver satisfying consumer experiences. This leaves us with a conundrum. Part of our customer base wants more interactions with technology and part wants more fulfilling human interaction. All of us seem to want efficiency and simplicity. Finding the right balance is not easy, but it may become the primary mechanism that affects how successful our organizations will be.
What’s The Risk?
Make no mistake, consumers will migrate towards the companies that meet their expectations, and those expectations will be increasingly oriented toward technology and instantaneous fulfillment. Today it has become less about the service and more about the consumer experience.
- Virtually every new thing our organizations undertake will have a significant IT component but that experience must address the needs of the digital native and the digital immigrant.
- Our organizations must become more efficient in the care and feeding of new systems that are being implemented at unprecedented rates.
- Our organizations will need to more heavily rely on all our employees to deeply understand the importance of simple-to-use technology that our customers demand.
- Creating this capacity will require ever-increasing attention to developing talent and investing in our employees so they can keep pace with accelerating demand, evolving technology platforms, and innovative approaches.
We are quickly approaching a time when the technologies we use are so interwoven with every process in our organizations, that the technology will be indistinguishable from what we provide our consumers. As we relentlessly strive to deliver value, drive innovation, and develop talent, we must take extra care to advance our skills in great communications, personalized service, creativity, speed to delivery, simplification, and technology. Those of us who can do this will have a much better chance of retaining current customers and attracting new ones.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger Ron Kraemer.
Ron leads all aspects of Notre Dame’s Office of Information Technologies, including a staff of more than 250. He oversees information technology (IT) infrastructure that supports the entire campus community, development of enterprise systems that underlie many of the University’s teaching, learning, research, engagement, and business activities, and establishment of a governance structure to plan for future IT service needs across campus.
Before coming to Notre Dame, he was a member of the leadership team of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, most recently serving as its chief information officer and vice provost for information technology.
Connect with Ron on LinkedIn.
