As we’ve learned in a previous article, one of the top challenges a CIO faces during an application development project is finding the right talent and expertise.
Why is this such a big challenge? Because enterprise digital transformation projects take specialized skills and knowledge to ensure that they’re done correctly from start to finish. And most enterprises simply do not have access to this level of talent in-house.
So how does your organization find the right digital transformation partner? We’ll explain how to identify strengths within your organization, how to match these strengths with outside expertise, and how to measure the success of a vendor engagement.
Identify Your Organization’s Strengths
Sometimes your organization has more internal employee expertise than you realize. Tapping into this internal expertise is the first step to understanding how to approach a long-term IT project.
So how do you pinpoint your IT talents? Work with team leads, project managers, and the developers themselves. Conduct an assessment of your employees and compile their work history, strengths, interests, project successes, and aptitudes. Be sure to highlight exactly which employees best know the systems you’re looking to transform.
Your goal with this assessment is to determine your internal champions who will be the right people to connect with a digital transformation partner. Another goal is to discover gaps in your knowledge pool where the right partner will seamlessly fit.
Find the Right Digital Transformation Partner
Once you’ve assembled your core team of system superheroes, next it’s time to locate the right partner. What should you be looking for?
Expertise
You’ll need the right combination of skills and experience to manage both legacy IT and modern infrastructures. Remember to fill out roles that are lacking within your organization including enterprise architects, software engineers, and analysts. The right strategic partner can help fill in these gaps and drive your digital transformation initiatives.
Success
You’ll want to see proof of their previous successes. Ask to see demos and case studies of similar systems, projects, or industries. You need to have confidence and trust in your partner so that you can make this long, and often expensive, journey together.
Capabilities
Make sure that your chosen partner specializes in your unique systems. They have to know best practices for how to work with and update your systems, while also performing digital transformation using modern methods. They need the right combination of services, solutions, and tools to get the job done.
Support
Communication is key. Many IT projects fail because of improper communication between internal and external teams. Good communication is at the heart of all successful process changes, and is essential to an enterprise transformation.
Measure Your Success
The only way to know if your digital transformation partner is truly right for your organization’s goals is to measure your success at each step of your project. Because you’ll be collaborating using Agile methodologies, you’ll have the opportunity to build benchmarks directly into your digital transformation strategy.
Of course, the most common success metrics are typically financial. However, McKinsey’s Digital Quotient analysis revealed that less than 15% of companies can “quantify the return on investment of their digital initiatives.”
To more appropriately measure the success of digital transformation for your unique organization, look beyond the dollar signs. You can use ROI metrics such as:
Increased Revenue Opportunities
Reduced Operational Costs
More Flexibility
Better Market Share
Lower Turnover
Increased User Engagement
Increased Collaboration or Integration
The list doesn’t stop there. Work with your leadership to identify the ROI metrics that are right for you. Then, work with your digital transformation partner to agree upon where each metric(s) will come into play and at which step.
A good partner will help you see returns throughout the project, allowing both the leadership and the internal IT and development teams see digital transformation success as it happens.
Meet our team to see how we can transform the systems that matter most to your business.
