My Digital Transformation Beginnings

My Digital Transformation Beginnings...

6/30/2021

By: Kathy Kent Toney, President of Kent Business Solutions

When I started my career as a budget analyst years ago, little did I know that I would be involved in digital transformation implementations. That term was not even in existence at the time!

Here’s a brief overview of my beginnings:

I landed my first well-paying job at Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, CA. The department I first started working in was starting to use computers. I'm going to be dating myself here, but I fell into the role of creating and producing fourth-generation flat-file reports for cost reporting purposes. From that moment on, I was hooked on digital technologies!

About eight years later, I ran my first process improvement team, which also hooked me. My next big project involved the implementation of a digital scheduling system on the F/A-18 C/D program. In both instances, it was invigorating to take a process that wasn’t working well and streamline it to the extent that it made employees’ jobs easier and saved the company money. What fun it was to make a difference!

After I moved to Missouri, I landed a job at Honeywell. It was there that I cut my teeth on combining process improvement team leadership with digital transformation initiatives, such as a Tailorable Quality Plan and a CRM implementation. Finally, I helped spearhead the implementation of Primavera P6 for their Program Management department.

All this experience led to even better things. After leaving Honeywell, I started my own business. My first job out of the chute involved developing a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand customer feedback strategy process (Voice of the Customer). At the time, I researched process automation technologies to implement, but they were too cost-prohibitive. I left that engagement feeling like my job wasn't complete. There had to be something cost-effective and easy to implement to make following a process a no-brainer!

That’s when everything changed in 2019. I met Michael Cantu’, the founder and CEO of Accelerate, a no-code workflow automation platform. FINALLY! I found was I was looking for! I was now able to combine my Six Sigma Black Belt certification with a workflow automation tool.

My journey has now come full circle—from creating flat-file reports to helping companies streamline their operations and then automating them. And automation is a smart move. Companies can gain even more significant benefits. Accelerate is quick to implement, is cost-effective, and has a track record of increasing productivity up to 300%! It makes my job easier and my clients so much happier!

If you'd like to learn more about how digital transformation can help you, contact me! Michael and I would love to talk through your challenges and help you brainstorm solutions. Just click the button below to get something on our calendars!