An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Today, data are gold and invaluable for business decisions. One way that organizations can use digital transformation to “take it to the next level” is to use data to inform your business model. Take jet engines: They are now sold based on the miles they have the capacity to fly. Usage data are collected to predict engine lifespans and maintenance schedules. Those data are used by human experts who can provide better pricing models, better business strategies and better overall service. In the end, they’re providing a better experience to employees, customers and the pilots and passengers of the jets.

As part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karl Chan.

As a business leader and technologist, Chan sets Laserfiche’s strategic vision for innovation and growth. With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, he has played a significant role in the development of Laserfiche business process automation and forms, as well as the company’s focus on Laserfiche Cloud. Chan is passionate about providing solutions that address business challenges and enrich the world. He has a master’s degree in computer science and bachelor’s degree in engineering. In 2015, Chan received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I really got into technology through computer games when I was a kid. I could never beat my brother, so I hacked into the games’ software and found loopholes, which became a new interest for me entirely.

I ended up following this passion to Harvey Mudd College, where I got my B.S. in engineering before getting my M.S. in computer science from California State University, Long Beach. I’ve worked in a variety of technology focused roles, but I think I’ve always held onto that notion that technology has great potential to make things easier for us. It used to help me beat my brother at computer games, but today at Laserfiche, we’re solving some of our customers’ biggest problems — whether that’s helping their workforce be more productive or bringing more value to their employees’ everyday lives by eliminating boring, repetitive tasks.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

I’ve been at Laserfiche for more than 30 years now, but when I first started at the company I was working as a programmer. Back then, when everyone would go out to lunch, I would stay in the office since I brought mine to work. I’d be the only technical person in the office and ended up doing tech support during lunch. It was at this time I clearly was made aware of the difference between how we intended the software to be used and how it was actually used in the field. These were the real-world problems that we were solving, and our users were pushing the boundaries of our software’s capabilities. It gave me a better understanding of the impact that Laserfiche had on the world.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

Laserfiche founder Nien-Ling Wacker started the company as a consulting firm. She identified a need to help organizations work smarter — at the time, every business ran on paper, which created issues with storing, finding and managing information. She transitioned the company to focus on developing software, and Laserfiche technology has evolved from there. We’re now a cloud-first technology company that focuses heavily on process automation rather than simply helping businesses go paperless. But our purpose remains the same: Empower people everywhere to work smarter, so that together, we can create innovative solutions that enrich our world.

Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

Laserfiche recently introduced the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, an initiative that I’m very excited about because it really embodies our business purpose and has the potential to have a huge impact on organizations’ digital transformations. The Solution Marketplace is a collection of solution templates to help jumpstart process automation and digital initiatives such as integrations — we’re aiming to help organizations address digital transformation needs and accelerate innovation enterprise-wide by taking a low-code approach to solution development.

Users can build and deploy their own automated workflows or connect Laserfiche to other applications faster using pre-built solutions, which are vetted by experts and follow industry best practices. There are hundreds of solutions available in the Solution Marketplace today, which represent common business processes as well as individual industry or organization needs, from new hire onboarding and accounts payable to public records requests and patient information authorization for healthcare organizations.

We are constantly adding solutions to the marketplace, and I’m excited about being able to provide these innovative templates to our customers so that they don’t have to automate or integrate from scratch.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is the use of technology to fundamentally change an organization’s operations to deliver more value. Digital transformation is also the cultural change necessary to adopt new technology and processes, and constantly try new things to solve problems or challenge the status quo. On a practical level, this means breaking down existing processes and asking how you can change them to better serve your customers. Once you begin answering that question and envisioning different outcomes, you can apply solutions that have the potential to be transformative. Many organizations will take on initiatives like creating a new website, updating a legacy ERP or CRM system or simply moving digital assets to the cloud and call them “digital transformation.” This is digital optimization — it may be an improvement, but if you are not transforming the human experience, it’s not transformation.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

I believe all companies can benefit from digital transformation, particularly because digital transformation is never “complete.” Organizations’ needs are constantly fluctuating; employee and customer expectations change — and the technology evolves. There’s no finish line. There’s always room for innovation.

We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.

Digital transformation has the potential to reinvent the way things have always been done. I’ve seen startups build faster, more innovative ways of working using digital transformation, but I’ve also seen 100-year-old institutions reimagine core parts of their business to increase revenue. One story that recently stood out to me: Bergen Community College is a Laserfiche customer that start out wanting to replace a legacy document management system that was approaching end-of-life. They embraced digital transformation, however, when they assessed the student experience at their student center. They made the choice to digitize and automate many routine student services, only requiring students to come into the student center for high-touch student support services, such as advising and counseling. The result was reducing about 50% of the foot traffic to the student center, making the center more responsive to student needs and enabling staff to focus time on providing quality service. The college’s team estimates that the time and resources saved from their ongoing transformation are approaching $1 million.

Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?

Digital transformation isn’t a product you can buy and install — for that reason one of the biggest challenges I see when organizations are attempting to digitally transform is that they forget about the people part of the equation. How are your employees going to react to change? What can you do to accelerate adoption? What is the real impact on your customers? There are a lot of questions that organizations need to address before undertaking digital transformation, and many of them have to do with people, company culture, and employee and customer experience. Any digital transformation that does not keep people at the center of the initiative is bound to fail.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”?

There are countless ways that digital transformation can produce extraordinary results for organizations:

1. Today, data are gold and invaluable for business decisions. One way that organizations can use digital transformation to “take it to the next level” is to use data to inform your business model. Take jet engines: They are now sold based on the miles they have the capacity to fly. Usage data are collected to predict engine lifespans and maintenance schedules. Those data are used by human experts who can provide better pricing models, better business strategies and better overall service. In the end, they’re providing a better experience to employees, customers and the pilots and passengers of the jets.
2. For some companies, ensuring that the correct people have access to information and insights at their fingertips can be transformative. One Laserfiche customer rethought the way that parents of children on the autism spectrum communicated with the organization’s behavioral therapists by creating online forms that enabled a more collaborative approach to care. Enabling real-time updates also accelerated the administrative tasks associated with care, and at times even sped up the progress families were able to see with their children.
3. In today’s hiring climate, many companies go to great lengths to bring on and retain top talent. As identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), however, 50% of hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months, and half of senior outside hires within 18 months, citing poor onboarding processes as a key contributor. Gallup also found that just 12% of employees report receiving a good onboarding experience. This is where digital transformation can have a positive impact: Automating processes like new hire onboarding can help to get employees onboarded seamlessly, and get them engaged with their teams and projects as quickly and efficiently as possible. By creating a streamlined experience, you’re making a great first impression on your new employee, and more likely to retain them.
4. Digital transformation can also help remove friction from government processes, which are historically known for being frustrating and marred in bureaucratic red tape. Many local governments are now implementing technology to automate processes like applications for financial assistance, giving citizens more visibility into the process. One local government in North Carolina even integrated a chatbot with their online form for financial assistance, which helped guide citizens through the application. Initiatives like these are transformative not only because they help governments to provide better service to citizens, but they ultimately help to build trust in the institutions — something that is severely needed today.
5. Finally, I’ve seen organizations use technology in transformative ways by empowering even their non-technical employees to build digital solutions. This can be done using low-code or no-code solutions with drag-and-drop interfaces — tools that are easy to use and don’t require any technical heavy lifting. This democratization of IT helps to build a culture of problem solving and innovation. One Laserfiche user who was not in the IT department used Laserfiche to build a Secret Santa form and process, for their office’s holiday festivities. This isn’t something they would want to ask IT to do for them, but because the platform was so easy to use, they were able to do it themselves.

In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?

As I mentioned previously, give your people the tools they need to innovate, whether that is a low-code/no-code automation platform or access to a digital repository from which they can pull insights and make better business decisions. Additionally, business leaders need to set clear visions for their organizations — ensure that every single employee knows your company purpose and values. Innovation without purpose isn’t innovation at all.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I am on Linkedin, and Laserfiche is on all social channels.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

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Karl Chan Of Laserfiche On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.