How to get outcomes from technology endeavors?

While spending on technology-enabled business transformations is increasing, more than 70% of initiatives fail to deliver the expected results. Considering the time, effort, and money invested in such initiatives, from internal alignments to partner selection, execution, and post-implementation activities, it is critical to understand the challenges as well as key drivers that contribute to successful outcomes from such endeavors.

Imagine a picture made up of several pieces. In order for the overall picture to be complete, all the pieces must be in the right place. Similarly, for a technology initiative to deliver business outcomes, all the necessary elements (success drivers) must be in place. Building this perfect picture requires not just a vision, but also relentless execution, as Thomas A. Edison put it: ??

“Having a vision for what you want is not enough. Vision without execution is hallucination.”

Here is my experience on what it takes to successfully realize the business value from technology initiatives (a word about the key stakeholders who are usually involved in such initiatives. Generally, we have Line or business team who are the eventual users, digital transformation team managing the initiative from business side, IT team and implementation partner)

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1.??????Involve key business members in the decision making – It is essential that key members from the business team are actively engaged from the beginning including the POCs, business case creation, solution evaluation and partner selection. This is important not only for ownership and subsequent support from them, but also for ensuring agreement on critical business requirements and solution scope.

2.??????Business requirements are the guiding post – One of the most important success factors is well stated business requirements, which should be defined as comprehensively, granularly and accurately as possible. For example, rather than simply stating ‘ability to forecast with multiple algorithms’ in the business requirement for a forecasting system, it would be better to be more specific such as ‘ability to forecast with daily and hourly granularity through a set of traditional time series and ML based algorithms incorporating ensembling approach’. Also, thinking ahead is important and hence requirements should consider future business scenarios and complexity. ?

3.??????Choosing the right partner – A variety of factors must be considered when selecting a software partner. These may include the ability to meet business requirements (off the shelf, minor customization and major customization), product roadmap, product interface, customer references, partner ecosystem (implementation and support), financial strength and cost/value equation. Similarly, when selecting an implementation partner, a comprehensive set of criteria should be used.??

4.??????The participation of business users during implementation is vital – One of the major causes of failure is a lack of participation from business users during design, testing, and training. Often, business users are not available for key discussions due to ‘bandwidth constraints’ emanating from multiple priorities. To mitigate this, it may be necessary to drive participation from the top while balancing the workload of business users (as they also have line role responsibilities). Neglecting this will result in a poorly designed solution and low adoption rates. Hence, it is imperative to make every effort to secure full engagement from business users. ???

5.??????Design for scalability, flexibility and usability – When building a system, it is crucial to incorporate scalability, flexibility, and usability (user friendliness). For example, while designing a Transport Management System, the optimization time should not become excessively long as business scales, which may discourage users from using the system. From a flexibility perspective, the system should be able to accommodate new channels, customer types, or different service requirements. Finally, as a significant factor in system adoption, user-friendliness in terms of visualization, data accessibility, transaction steps, and overall ease of use should always be kept in mind. ??

6.??????Navigating balance between project timeline and solution completeness – In complex technology projects, there will invariably be a conflict between the completeness of the solution (as per business requirement) and project timeline. As it is difficult to envisage all possible scenarios during the requirement gathering stage, building a 100% complete system can cause delays. As a result, it may be prudent to roll out the system even if it is only partially complete, as long as critical requirements are addressed and timelines for completion of remaining requirements are established. Agile, sprint-based development and roll-out may also be possible depending on the nature of the project. Also, it should be kept in mind that additional requirements (15-20%) may arise during the design stage, hence some buffer in timeline and budget should be built in.

7.??????Anticipate and keep a track of ongoing issues – Thinking ahead and anticipating the potential issues is crucial to manage timelines. For example, while implementing a forecasting system, one of the key inputs is the creation of an event repository, which takes time. As a result, identifying such requirements well in advance is vital to manage timelines. Additionally, tracking issues during solution testing and prioritizing them based on whether they need to be addressed before or after the roll-out, helps ensure better user adoption.

8.??????Be wary of fragile links – Often, the initiative's ongoing success is dependent on a few key areas that, if not managed properly, may lead to failure. For example, accuracy of master data is one such area, which is essential for planning or optimization related initiatives and must be maintained and checked for quality regularly. Another example is the accuracy of physical stock in stores, which is a crucial input for determining replenishment quantity. Hence, assessing such vulnerable links and finding a sustainable way of ensuring their accuracy is important. ?

9.??????It is more than just training – Prior to roll out, business users are typically trained on the new solution to familiarize them with it. Aside from the necessary criteria such as full participation, training champion deployment, reinforcing sessions, and so on, it is critical to recognize that these sessions should also be used to boost confidence and energize the team for the initiative. Furthermore, readiness for roll out should be assessed by having a thorough discussion with users to ensure their comfort on multiple fronts.

10.??Adoption comes before results – User adoption is what drives results and should be pursued relentlessly. In decision support systems, users may not fully utilize the system's output due to their conviction in their own judgment, despite training and change management efforts. To ensure success, it is important to clearly define adoption metrics, such as deviation between system and user results, and institute a mechanism to track progress. At this stage, the emphasis should be on adoption metrics rather than business results. A thorough assessment of any barriers to adoption and making efforts to address them is absolutely critical.

11.??Business outcome will be a journey – It often takes time to realize the anticipated benefits and hence we should not consider an initiative ‘unsuccessful’ early as it may demotivate the team and digress them from making improvements. When I was leading a planning transformation at one of the largest automotive companies, it took 6-7 months to fully realize benefits. During that stage, we collaborated closely with business users, thoroughly reviewed results, and addressed issues impeding full benefit realization. An ongoing assessment of business KPIs and opportunity areas will help in maintaining momentum. ?

12.??Be generous in support and recognition – Driving a complex technology transformation is difficult and requires a huge effort and long hours, which may not be easily visible and hence it is so important to motivate people through regular appreciation. It is also necessary to extend support for both stated and 'unspoken' challenges. The team will be energized by an open and transparent culture and give their best. ?

The likelihood of success in technology endeavors increases significantly when there is an understanding of the complexity, focus on rigorous execution, and a mindset to learn and make course corrections.?

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