Joris Palmans joined Cubigo as the new Chief Operating Officer

Joris Palmans joined Cubigo as the new Chief Operating Officer

As the Cubigo enterprise platform has grown steadily over the past 10 years it was time to strengthen the management team with additional technology operations expertise.  After a successful career at Deloitte, with his latest role being Chief Technology Officer Risk Advisory, Joris Palmans has joined Cubigo as the new Chief Operating Officer. His experience will help Cubigo's clients to accelerate their digital transformation.

Joris will use his considerable experience of technology in different industries to provide insights to innovate Cubigo's digital transformation process in Senior Living.

What similarities do you see between digital transformation programs within the senior living industry and other industries you worked in the past?

Generally speaking, companies across all industries today are reimagining technology in order to harness digital disruption, improve business outcomes and drive transformation; Technology is like the nervous system of current businesses where it is providing all the necessary building blocks to run your business more efficiently and to be more flexible but also to ensure that you can keep up with the changing customer behavior and be ahead of the competition. More than ever before, it will be key to closely engage with customers and provide them with a unique experience. Having the right digital foundations in place will be a must in order to (re-)act quickly and cope with the speed that business models need to be able to change. 

Covid-19 but also other crises in the past have shown that companies can be very innovative and agile when needed. Looking back at the past year, you can clearly see that major steps have been taken by key players in the senior living industry. This pandemic has in my view certainly accelerated technology-related initiatives, not only to be able to deal with the Covid-19 restrictions like social distancing and others but also to be in a stronger position post-Covid-19.

Similar to other industries, the senior living industry is mainly looking into re-imagining how they engage with residents and employees by using an integrated digital platform to have a competitive advantage in their industry and to build a closer engagement with their customers. 

Are other industries making use of an ‘integrated platform’ as well? why is this the right approach for them? 

To enable and drive better decision-making, it is imperative that data and applied intelligence is not dispersed across the whole company. It will be of utmost importance to create a convergence between your digital transformation programs and your data analytics projects; making sure that data can be utilized in a centralized but secure manner to serve your current business initiatives but more important to unlock future business models. This will not come overnight and that’s why it is important that the choices you make in technology, support the integrated platform thinking which will allow you to interconnect in a modular way and to easily exchange data between different systems.

Did the Covid pandemic accelerate the digital transformation roadmap across different industries and if so, why? How does this compare with the senior living industry?           

The pandemic has literally turned our personal lives but also the world economy upside down. All industries, including the senior living industry, needed to adapt to be able to deal with a new reality, a reality that created more uncertainty and one that has severely impacted how businesses can operate. Companies needed to be more adaptive, flexible, creative, and responsive to internal and external challenges which resulted in an increased pace for digital transformation projects. New technologies were introduced to facilitate remote/hybrid working; to increase customer response/engagement and employee productivity; but also, to follow-up on the new regulations to monitor Covid-19 for example.

In order to stay ahead of the change, leveraging technology and transforming data into actionable insights will be a must for companies going forward to spot the right trends and make informed decisions.

What are key success factors in rolling out new platforms in large enterprises? 

As with many things, preparation is key and that’s no different with the roll-out of a new platform. Start with an enterprise-wide current state assessment to fully understand the current level of maturity of your internal and external processes, interfacing systems, people… When you have a good view of the current state, define the target operating model and document the roadmap to achieve the objectives you set. Make sure to install the proper governance and to apply project management with executive buy-in. Change management and adoption are often overlooked but crucial for success. Drive the change management early enough in the process and make sure you have some appointed champions who deal with change delivery, business readiness, communication/engagement, and training.   

What would be your last recommendation for C-level executives in the senior living industry?

First of all, keep safe and make sure you are ready for the new normal. The needed change will start at the top, having a tech-savvy leadership will be important to make the right decisions and to have the needed alignment between your digital transformation and business strategy. Also, when selecting a new technology (provider) to help you drive your transformation, make a thorough analysis to understand if you are making the right choice. For me, the following three criteria are the basics when selecting a technology (provider): ease of integration, domain expertise, and future-proof.