Technology Building Blocks for Transformation

Why a business person needs these words

Digital change brings a new vocabulary. Suppliers, consultants and technical teams use it quickly and assume everyone follows. If you lead or support a change, you do not need to build these technologies. You do need to know what each one does, what it costs to run, and what can go wrong. Otherwise, decisions are made for you.

Five building blocks appear in almost every programme.

Worked example 1: the expense process

A company of 800 people handles expense claims on paper. Staff fill a form, attach receipts and post them to finance. A clerk types each claim into the accounting system. The new design uses a software as a service (SaaS) expense application. Staff photograph receipts on their phones. A manager approves on screen. An application programming interface (API) sends approved claims to the accounting system each night. Three building blocks — mobile, SaaS and API — remove the posting, the typing and most of the errors.

Worked example 2: the maintenance team

A facilities team records equipment checks on paper and keeps a spreadsheet of faults. They move to a mobile app that writes to a cloud database. A data platform combines check results with purchase records, so managers can see which equipment costs the most to keep running. The technology is not new; the value comes from connecting the pieces.