Digital Transformation: The Devil IS very much in the Details - Part 3

This article is building on my first two related articles; Digital Transformation – Reinventing your company? The 10 questions you need to ask to avoid risk of failure and  the second in the series, How to kickstart your digital transformation How to Kickstart your Digital Transformation  

Let’s reflect on the steps you have already taken.

1. You have decided what digital transformation means to your organization at the high level - HINT: it should be tied to the customer experience (CX) which is tied to the employee experience.
2. You have crafted it into an overall vision statement.  This vision should be something you have prepared for your internal and potentially board consumption and it needs to connect the dots to the overall corporate strategy.  It needs to tell the story of why you feel the need to transform the organization digitally.  You will be using this messaging to begin socializing the journey of change you are about to take the company on.  There should be some examples of the reason for embarking on this journey, such as meeting your customer’s changing expectations or a desire to disrupt the market.  It could be a survival play in that you need to leapfrog your competition; disrupt or be left behind.  It should offer some WIITM (what’s in it for me) for the shareholders and employees.  You could share statistics on declining web traffic or comparing benchmark statistics to illustrate the problem.  At the risk of being Captain Obvious, I am not trying to educate a savvy executive on building a communication strategy but I am trying to reinforce the importance of using this critical skill, that you already possess, to prepare the organization for the massive change you are asking them to embark on with you.
3. You have thoughtfully identified the C-Suite owner who has gathered your internal needs analysis and it has been prioritized based on your overall vision and strategy.

Now what?  The details…

As promised in my original article posted here;  Digital Transformation – Reinventing your company? The 10 questions you need to ask to avoid risk of failure  I will expand on questions 4 and 5.

4 -   What is the vision and roadmap?

5 -   How do you select the right solution?

Now that you have the overall plan and the priority project you need to document the goals and key success factors for the first project on the overall roadmap you have selected to roll out. I am not talking about the quick wins.  Those can be done in parallel with their successes communicated along the way.  This will generate goodwill for the bigger changes you are about to introduce.  For this first large project, (which I would define as several months in duration and significant cash investment), you need to document the purpose, the parameters and critical milestones. You want to explicitly define what you consider success looks like in 6 and 12 months in terms of business outcomes.  An example might be that your customer is able to do X now where they couldn’t before.  It doesn’t have to be tied to new revenue immediately.  Your measurement can be the achievement of a concrete functional capability.  Obviously, you will have some expectation of return, but it can be easier and just as impactful to define the pain point resolution as the first indication of success.  You may be tempted to dive right in and start executing but trust me, you will appreciate the value of this step, sooner than you think. The first time you will refer to this clearly articulated set of goals will be in the solution selection process but along the way it will keep your project on the right track.  These can be vast and complex in nature; often going longer than originally anticipated. People assigned to the project can leave mid-way through the roll-out and you have to find new resources to step in.  Without having clearly documented the purpose and plan the project will be at risk of losing its original intent. It can end up significantly over time and budget with a lost or murky purpose.  

You always have the ability to add or change the mission of the project should that be necessary, but documenting is a critical step. I subscribe to a crawl, walk, run approach to any transformation project.  You have to go slow at first in order to go fast later. Taking the time up front to do this will avoid painful regrets and enable speed and momentum.

I once stepped into the middle of a multi-year; multimillion-dollar project that did not have this clarity established up front.  All of the key leaders were not part of the original plan.  Without a clear understanding of the purpose and scope, we were left with a “kitchen sink” project where it was expected to solve everything.  This project went way off the rails causing us to step back and essentially start over, including hiring new implementation partners.

Now that you (the top business executive and project sponsor) have clearly identified the purpose for this project your team can begin searching for the solution.  There will be an overwhelming set of options from which to choose.

I found it useful to create a small, cross functional task force to help in the solution selection process, chaired by the C-Suite owner. Their mandate is to research and find viable solution options. In fact, you might use the original cross-functional team for this.  For the purpose of education, comparison and cost control, I would advise you to seek a solid short list of 3 options.  It is really helpful to have a template that the team can use to compare solutions. As long as you are selecting a modular architecture with the ability to add 3rd party applications or API’s then you should have the flexibility to build as you go.  The hardest part during this exercise is avoiding “shiny object” syndrome.  Your team may be tempted by these very exciting “dog and pony” shows to expand the scope.  People will be enamored with the potential of what they have seen.  It is easy to fall into the trap of killing two birds with one stone but beware, these companies are illustrating their future potential along with their current capabilities.  You will have to figure out the difference between tried and true and “coming soon”. 

Be sure to schedule in depth demonstrations for the cross functional team. For the short list you should request a customized trial / demo to really kick the tires. You will want to clearly understand how the pricing works (there are so many models) and you really need to speak with references that are of similar size and scope to your project? The C-Suite owner and the CIO should also make reference calls to their counterpart in the organization because they will ask different questions than the project lead or buyer.

In my experience, the solution delivery company needs to be a similar size and culture to yours or this can lead to problems during implementation. If your company is a passionate “find a way to get it done” type of team working with a stringent process driven shop your employees will clash with theirs when the going gets tough on the project. I learned this early on in one of my first large-scale Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects when our company was a mid-sized global organization and we chose one of the largest global solution providers, many times our size and scope.  Our cultures clashed throughout the entire project, which was extremely messy.  In the end, they were just too big and slow moving for us.   

This is the “crawl” stage where going slow initially will ultimately help you go fast. It may seem extreme but selecting your solution partner and having very clear alignment is absolutely critical to the success of the long-term project. 

Consider the contract negotiation as a critical alignment vehicle for all parties. A contract is really the definition of your expectations. It has been my observation that this industry is similar to the residential construction industry, whereby quotes are nowhere near accurate.  They are all competing with the intention of winning the deal and they will tell you that everyone goes over budget so make sure you build contingency into the plan.  To avoid this, the upfront alignment really helps, but in addition, I have always tried to negotiate some form of penalty clause or budget accountability on large projects. That being said, you really do need to include a budget contingency as well.

These projects often include multiple firms working together. This can be tricky to navigate and can result in finger pointing.  When selecting the solution, you need to investigate the vendor’s involvement vs. their implementation partner and where they each start and stop.  Some projects have a 3rd party, independent contractor involved whose role it is to be your eyes and ears as a non-biased facilitator.  This may be someone who can simply vet your contracts and give you advice.  I can’t stress enough that it is important to inspect what you expect because the old adage is true; the devil really is in the details when it comes to technology rollouts.

Lastly, be sure to set a realistic timeline and return on investment (ROI) expectations I mentioned earlier. These should be mutually agreed upon, meaning among your team as well as your partners. With this you can build accountability into those assumptions for everyone involved.  

Now you can assign your internal core team and hit the ground running.

Watch for the next article in the series that will expand further on how to  Digital Transformation – Reinventing your company? The 10 questions you need to ask to avoid risk of failure