Digital solutions - the driving engine for a successful business transformation

Modern IT solutions bring many advantages to a business. Competent process automation increases work efficiency, optimizes costs and makes the business more appealing to its customers. However, the use of modern applications does not always lead to success. Why?  

Our CEO, Eugen Lupusor, shares great insight on things to keep in mind when you start working on your digital strategy.

A good start  

The history of our company goes back to 2004 when the Romanian company Soft Tehnica was founded. Now the company is one of the fastest-growing on the Romanian market, offering IT solutions for HORECA, Business Process Management and Public Administration. In 2012, the company set up a development center in Chisinau and implemented many interesting projects for private business and Government agencies. The company managed to achieve exponential growth, and in 2019, we decided to focus exclusively on developing specialized and comprehensive customer-focused software solutions. As a result, Soft Tehnica (Chisinau) rebranded and changed its name to Indrivo. The name articulates the company’s drive to be at the forefront of digital innovation and it expresses our commitment to deliver well designed, custom IT solutions with an operational excellence in mind.  

Seizing the opportunities  

We work with customers from Moldova as well as with foreign customers. Regionally we were the first to develop an online admission, as well as training and certification program for the judicial branch in Moldova. We also successfully carried out a pilot e-learning project in Alba County, Romania. Now we are developing a platform for the Romanian National Commission for the Financial Market. A major success was the development and implementation of a modern and innovative system - the State Automated Information System "Elections" (SAISE) developed for the Central Election Commission with the support of UNDP. This system was recently used at the 2019 local elections in the Republic of Moldova and has helped to consolidate democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections. 

We believe there is still a long way to go in the process of the digitalization of public services in Moldova, as well as in the private sector. Moldovan entrepreneurs are still not sufficiently aware of the opportunities that modern digital solutions can bring about. Those who have a long-term vision and plan a conscious and sustainable growth need to look differently at digital technologies. Globally, more and more companies are moving to another level. For example, the likes of UBER and AIRBNB are fundamentally new concepts that bring together people who need each other. These are platforms that do not have a physical location, the owners do not need to have their own hotel chain or car fleet, but these platforms allow a huge number of customers to have access to the selection of necessary services. Today, success is achieved by those who are able to assess the capabilities of modern technologies and bring value to as many people as possible. 

The path to digital is through the transformation of business models and traditional management schemes and one of the transformation attributes will be digital platforms that combine many useful business solutions: websites, portals, applications, online trading platforms, etc., and they need to be integrated to achieve a synergistic effect.  

The effective strategy for success  

High business performance depends on efficiency. The mobile phone and the computer are tools that connect us with partners, with our bank, coworkers, etc. Building business processes in the digital world, using enterprise applications and automation is what more and more people are talking about in the world. Always looking to transform and innovate in our digital age, we must change how we work inside in order to diversify our services and bring even more value to our customers. In order to serve our customers even better, we first must re-imagine our own business and adopt a digital mindset ourselves to more efficiently and effectively utilize the available people, tools, and technology to design better, to integrate and implement automated processes that can operate seamlessly. 

The more businesses ignore these opportunities, the more "invisible" they will become to the rest of the world. In many industries, the ability to adopt digital thinking becomes a prerequisite for growth and even survival. Many entrepreneurs complain that the introduction of a certain IT solution did not live up to its expectations. We must remember: the piece of software is just a tool. The actual key to success is always based on how adequately the entrepreneur perceives his business, on how he sets his goals, positions himself and reaches the target audience. If the client wants to use IT solutions but does not clearly see the measurable goal, the probability of failure is very high. However, if he has a clear vision, if he correctly selects a niche and focuses on the target audience, then the IT solution he implemented will stimulate growth. It is not the software that needs to be developed, it’s the strategy. The second mistake entrepreneurs usually make is hoping that an unqualified developer will provide an excellent solution. Yes, miracles do happen, but more often, turning to a developer with insufficient expertise, the business owner throws money away because their applications or website will not perform to their full potential. The third mistake is to implement IT solutions without continuously supporting them. It is necessary to deal with the management of those applications and technologies, the optimization of the system and the extension of functionalities.  

Choosing the right partner 

A different situation unfolds if the business owner knows what he wants, finds a reliable partner and together they develop and implement an effective IT strategy and move towards common goals, effectively using digital capabilities. At first, not all of our customers clearly understand all aspects of future work, so we explain the importance of all the components of success and, if we reach an agreement, we proceed. If we see that a potential customer insists on implementing unsupported decisions, we might step away from such a collaboration because our success depends on our customers’ success. Only successful projects are used in our portfolio as they allow us to create a working atmosphere where everyone knows that their work matters. We are not just IT service providers, we act as partners in our customers’ journey to digital transformation and we often find ways to bring value that can help them grow more efficiently.