5 strategies we use to help clients succeed in implementing new tech
Here’s a scenario I’ve seen time and time again: a well established company decides its tools require an update after double-digit growth. So they choose one system to tackle first, perhaps their customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Things go pretty smoothly, so they proceed to another system.
But then they make a common error: they decide to duplicate the process they used with their CRM upgrade. And that’s when things start to unravel.
Plagued by a lack of concrete goals, communication issues or misaligned expectations, suddenly the nine-month roll-out period stretches to 12, and the company realizes that the technology they’re implementing doesn’t actually meet their needs. After a full year’s work and investment, the company is faced with a zero-sum return. And worst of all, their team members are strained without the new system they were counting on.
Unfortunately, examples of failed tech implementations like these are familiar to small and medium-sized business owners. Yet in the current landscape of digital transformation, ignoring the perils of such projects and the necessary rewiring of your organization’s operations is not an option.
An estimated 90 per cent of all organizations are in the midst of undertaking sweeping digital changes. But as many as three quarters fail to meet the most common measures of success: staying on budget, delivering on time and meeting expected outcomes.
As many as three quarters of companies fail to meet the most common measures of digital transformation success: staying on budget, delivering on time and meeting expected outcomes.
When done right, digital transformation can help increase customer loyalty, attract top talent, increase business value and even give companies a leg up against their competition. As a technology and consulting firm focused on sectors ranging from architecture and construction to automotive, mining and consumer products, we’ve helped hundreds of clients successfully navigate their digital transformation journey with careful planning in five key areas. Here’s how we ensure they avoid failure — and help them achieve incredible results.
There’s a well-known business adage that says ‘you can't manage what you can't measure’ and in digital transformation, it’s never been more pertinent.
Good data is table stakes for success.
Data should play a leading role throughout the entire digital transformation process—from helping your organization set goals in the early phases, to quantifying progress later on. You simply can’t know if your investment is paying off without data.
Importantly, the data you’re working with should be accessible and accurate. It’s an expensive mistake to neglect how you manage and store your data, because good data is essential to making informed decisions and communicating with staff, clients and suppliers.
Keep your data clean, organized and ensure it’s validated. You can’t begin to consider improvements without an understanding of your company’s baseline performance.
Succeeding where others fail at digital transformation begins with having a clear vision and alignment across all teams involved.
From the outset, it’s critical to clearly outline the benefits you expect to gain and how they’ll be measured. Digital transformation fails without specific, defined, achievable goals.
Once you’ve harnessed data to set the key business outcomes of your project, develop a detailed plan for every step of the journey to ensure your executive leadership has the opportunity to fully buy in to the agenda.
The C-suite can be a North Star, providing a rallying cry for employees, helping connect the team to the project’s data-led goals and clarifying the vision to keep everyone on track. When leadership is bought in, the rest of the company is much more likely to follow suit.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. The companies that are most successful in their digital transformation efforts recognize this and prepare for a phased roll out.
Any new technology you introduce should integrate with existing tools and systems, and changes should be broken down into smaller phases. With a gradual introduction, companies have the opportunity to validate the progress they’re seeing and identify new discoveries that could have impacts down the road.
Instead of waiting for the finished project, your team can celebrate micro wins along the way and adjust the project scope wherever necessary with the continuous feedback of an agile methodology.
Few things can derail a digital transformation plan as severely as resistance to change. That’s why it’s critical to ensure your employee engagement focuses on two major categories: support and communication.
Double down on the support you provide your team. Not only are comprehensive training programs beneficial in equipping employees with the skills required to adapt to new systems and workflows, but it’s also a good idea to train internal champions who can serve as ambassadors in easing the transition.
Next, prioritize communication, not just from senior leadership, but across the board. Organizations encounter resistance when they haven’t properly explained how changes will align with customer-centric outcomes. Employees need to understand the “why” behind digital transformation to get behind it.
When planning your communication, just enough is not enough — updates should be relayed frequently and effectively. Checking in can help you understand whether employees’ needs are being met and confirm that they’re supported with what they need to overcome barriers.
Even companies with the best of intentions can see their digital transformation projects go wrong. There are some common red flags to watch out for.
A spectacular reveal: Too many businesses expect the magic will happen at the very end, and tackle the project in one behemoth phase. Oftentimes, the reveal proves disappointing. The most successful projects do the opposite — they build in check-in gates to assess whether they’ve met the expectations of the previous phase. What kind of success are early adopters seeing? What’s working? What isn’t? Which elements need to be pushed to a later phase for best results? Measuring progress allows organizations to answer these questions.
A ballooning budget: If you arrive at the first gate and notice the project hasn’t gone as expected and you’ve already spent double your budget, this is another warning sign that you’re in danger of running over time, going even further over budget and failing to meet expectations. Rather than falling prey to the sunk cost fallacy and strapping in for more investment with half the results, there’s an opportunity to reevaluate your course and consider bringing different people onboard to get back on track.
When digital transformation goes right, the results can be transformative. Here’s another story I like to share about digital transformation that may be less familiar. An organization’s VP of Finance was exploring the steps required to take the company public. They realized their revenues needed to grow significantly, and to do that, they would need a brand new product. The problem: all their best engineers were occupied with existing technology issues. The VP of Engineering identified an area that was inhibiting productivity, and that’s where our team at SolidCAD came in.
We worked with the company to remove time consuming and duplicate processes. We implemented technology that improved efficiency. And with the time we saved them, the company created a new product, launched it and went public.
Where did it all go right? Senior leadership was clear about its goals and expectations, was able to identify where improvements could be made, and brought in a trusted consultancy with which they could clearly communicate to see their project through.
Once an organization has identified which gaps it needs to address, consultants come with the benefit of an external perspective and experience. Even better, we can identify ways to permanently improve the business. For example, we’ve made data more accessible across internal systems, we’ve introduced automation, we’ve even created dashboards that allow executives to see project statuses they didn’t have access to previously.
The term “digital transformation” implies technology will take precedence, but in reality, it’s so much bigger than adopting new tools. When done successfully, digital transformation can fundamentally change the way an organization operates and delivers value to its customers.
It’s all about rethinking processes, improving efficiencies, fostering a culture that embraces innovation and, ultimately, enhancing customer experiences. It’s not a digital version of business as usual — at its core, it’s about doing things differently to stay resilient and responsive to change. Tackling all of these areas is the only way to avoid the common traps of failure.