When it comes to a digital transformation project, having an experienced consultant on your side to help you navigate the journey is certainly advantageous. But what exactly can a digital transformation consultant do to make sure your project exceeds expectations?
1. Take an enterprise-wide approach
Success in a digital transformation project comes from a deep understanding of an enterprise’s challenges, successes and future vision. Despite that, frequently our consultants meet with a client in the early stage of a transformation project and discover the scope of the initial plan is unintentionally narrow. (We all know how siloed an organisation becomes, even where a company’s culture takes the greatest efforts to avoid it.)
By taking care to follow an organisation-wide approach, with a deep understanding of business challenges and goals, we are able to develop workplace technology solutions that benefit all aspects of a business. We help clients avoid the common pitfall of excitedly choosing a tech solution that suits one department… but falls short for others.
Framing an upcoming digital transformation project through an investigative process is the first key step to success. Our consultants know that having a thorough picture of all components contributing to the current state – and why it’s falling short – is the way to plan a transformation project that will provide improved outcomes for staff and customers alike.
2. Bring a variety of experience
While it can be tempting to manage a digital transformation project entirely in-house – perhaps even hiring to fill the role of a consultant – this deprives you of the past depth and variety of experience that a consultant can bring to the table. At 9Yards, we work across a wide range of projects and industries, and while commercial confidence is naturally honoured, it’s hard to replicate the benefit of constant exposure to different approaches and results. In our experience, we find many transferable insights across the banking and superannuation sectors, as well as federal and state government departments.
Knowing what has worked well in the past and what can be transposed to another organisation’s challenges saves time and costs – and headaches. While there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution, there’s certainly much to be gleaned by someone who spends every day continually learning from digital transformation projects.
3. Find the perfect partners and technology solutions
In the same vein, finding the right partnerships – whether tech platforms or service providers – can make or break project schedules and successes. It’s important to remember that a tech company’s sales associate is not an impartial consultant. Often we see organisations that have been sold – sometimes years past, sometimes recently – a platform licence that is not the ideal workplace technology to suit the whole of their business. This usually occurs where the sales associate was able to speak to the pain points of one department (the one signing the contract), while not being briefed on the greater business picture.
A digital transformation consultant will take the measure of the entire organisation and find the right solution – or combination of solutions – to meet and exceed the organisational goals.
Balancing and managing all the moving parts of tech and service providers can be an immense challenge, so assembling a team that works well together is a major asset.
4. Integrate into your team and collaborate
It is a consultant’s business to be as knowledgeable about the greater transformation landscape and viable approaches as possible. And it’s our business to gain every last bit of information about your organisation as we can… But you still know your business best. Like a parent’s intuition, we expect there may be times where you step in and say “I think this might work better…”
The role of a digital transformation consultant is never to apply a one-size-fits-all “solution” (which doesn’t fully solve your challenges), or to steamroll their own agenda. We expect to gain feedback from management and team members alike, take it on board, and be ready to pivot as necessary. A successful digital transformation project makes life easier for your team and customers – so it’s important that we collaborate with them to make sure we’re suiting their needs.
5. Avoid hidden crises
Perhaps one of the most important roles of the digital transformation consultant is one you ideally shouldn’t even notice. The experience, foresight and agility of a consultant will help to avoid the crises an organisation may not even think of.
9Yards consultants will ensure there are no missed opportunities through the process. What might be a small addition in the “during” phase of your transformation project could be a major hassle to retrofit (or put off for too long, as sometimes happens following a major project!).
Ready to update your digital systems and processes?
Start a conversation with our team to see how 9Yards can help roll out a successful transformation project in your organisation.
