Digital Transformation – The How’s - Part 4

This is part 4 of an 8 series thought bytes on the "how's" of digital transformation.

Previous Parts:

Part 1: https://lnkd.in/g22fQRZ

Part 2: https://lnkd.in/gkMMsZN

Part 3: https://lnkd.in/dhe3Csh

?#5 Benchmark and do better to beat it 

When we talk about transformation, we need to be crystal clear that the result & impact of any transformation should be at least better than “as-is” status at our organization and more importantly, it should get us closer to the best-in-class benchmark. Ideally, get better than the benchmark.

Benchmark your performance against your best competitors. Think about how you can beat them.

We were tasked to reduce the cost incurred by the company on Accounts Reconciliation processes. It was up to the core project team to come up with options (not limited to just tech) on how to achieve this.

This benchmarking exercise will take time and effort. Ensure you allocate the required time and right resources (internal & external). Follow the below rules in running your benchmarking exercise:

• Drive it based on data
• Involve external parties to truly capture best-in-class standards
• Forget your project scope, “to-be” state, or any other limitations for this exercise
• Focus on process, structure, & skills

First, we went about by identifying gaps across:

1. As-is status
2. Best-in-class benchmark
3. Alignment to the project vision

 And then prioritizing our gaps based on:

1. Business impact
2. Cost of change
3. Challenges to change

This immensely helped us to narrow down on our scope while having a clear picture of the expected/promised outcomes. This also enabled us to put the road map or what I prefer calling as the journey map together on what it will take to truly get better than the industry standard.

We then presented our analysis to the project sponsors and ensured we won their buy-in on not just the current scope but the overall journey. The journey we need to embark on to truly beat the best-in-class benchmark.

Having won our Executive sponsors' support and the journey map ready, we communicated the expectations to the various stakeholders & departments, got their buy-in via budget and resource allocations before setting out on our journey.

We successfully delivered a process, structure, & solution that met the expectations & set the framework for further continuous improvements. We also managed to beat the best-in-class benchmark in 18 months with six 3-month sprints.

Next week, I shall talk about #4 Monetize Everything

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