Business transformation involves so much more than a digital program of work; strategic collaboration between business and technical minds lies at the heart of the process. At Unipro, we often encounter businesses racing ahead with transformation plans driven by trends or a purely technical approach. These broad-brush strategies, like moving to the cloud or adopting Agile, can lead to overkill solutions and wasted resources.
Common board-level decisions include investing in all-encompassing platforms like Salesforce or Microsoft or integrating AI in customer service. At the same time, these may become valuable strategies. In nearly every situation, a company needs more than your standard end-to-end digital transformation offering; they really need business transformation; it's more foundational, as Simon Sinek advises, "Start with Why."
Identifying the heart of the business problem is crucial. Pause, reflect, and ask important questions to save significant costs. Capture details of both the 'Why' and the 'What' through business analysis or service design. We have seen an increase in the number of companies that have wasted money due to poorly considered transformation programs.
The research role within a business can implement processes such as:
- Stakeholder Analysis: Gather insights from those directly involved in the work.
- Gap Analysis Workshops: Assess the current state versus the desired future state, involving all stakeholders.
- Evaluate Macro-environmental Factors: Consider factors like legislation, economic climate, and technology trends.
- Model the Future Vision: Envision your company's state in 3-5 years, identifying challenges and strengths.
- Understand Data: Analyse existing data, determine data needs for change, and improve data processing and management.
- Run focus groups - find out what people really think of your existing service
- Model new processes, model what it would look like first; this might be a user journey, a workflow or a new AI model - modelling leads to considering everything you need to get the outcome your business requires
- Use-case analysis is essential when considering any new system or service to identify the actors involved and understand how they might interact with the service.
- Run a design sprint - a fast way to solve problems is to get everyone in a room, discover or outline the issues and solve them together in just five days; time invested here can save so much money and time.
- Prototype ideas first, gain real validation from real users
- Create a POC; often, you want to know if a new technology or business process works first, build the bit that matters, prove it, and move on from there.
With 25 years of experience, Unipro provides solutions using our 6-Step Digital Blueprint framework. This starts with a consultative approach to understanding pains, needs, strategy, and vision, guiding the solution approach for various markets such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, or industrial.
6-Step Digital Blueprint framework.
- Strategic Consulting: We take time to understand your business needs and translate them into cutting-edge digital visions with a roadmap that brings them into reach.
- Design Excellence: Crafting user experiences that set industry benchmarks for engagement and satisfaction.
- Prototype Development: Bringing visions to life with functional prototypes for clear validation.
- Proof of Concept (PoC): Testing technology solutions to ensure real-world compatibility.
- Rapid Development: MVP productisation, focusing on seamless data integration and visualising the single truth of information.
- Built to Scale: Creating high-performance, secure platforms and nurturing teams for sustainable growth.
The resulting applications leverage data, optimise and automate operations, drive digital growth, and enhance digital experiences while modernising core technology and embracing new technologies.
In summary, for effective business transformation and growth, take your time, ask the right questions, delve into the details upfront, and start with a clear understanding of "Why." Identify the specifics of the challenge before determining the best-fit solution. This approach makes it easier to justify, gain approval, and implement without encountering many common obstacles in transformative programs. If you prefer a step-by-step approach, consider our 6-step digital framework.
Resulting in happy stakeholders and a better version of your company because of a transformative program that started with one simple question.
Unsure of where to start with your Digital Transformation plans? Get in touch here.
