Seek solutions aligned to business goals in transformation projects

Despite allocating a healthy budget and resources to transformation projects, companies still often struggle to meet their objectives. While leadership and business functions may have specific priorities for the project, this vision is often poorly communicated to relevant stakeholders. As a result, a solution designed or procured may fail to be fully adopted, due to a lack of problem-solution fit and poor buy-in from teams.  

A lack of communication between business functions and IT, for instance, who are responsible for designing and procuring solutions, can result in a ripple of misaligned decisions throughout the project.  

For example, IT might be working on developing a mobile app for a financial services institution to digitise its banking operations. Business functions need to clearly communicate to IT not just their requirements, but their goals and priorities. Likewise, IT can raise issues or ask questions to better understand these requirements. Without these opportunities for IT’s early input, the result is an app that may function adequately but is still not tailored to solve the specific problems of the business.  

Additionally, when it comes time to train end users on how to use a system or solution, IT may not be able to provide the guidance needed on how to apply the system to solve their everyday challenges. Instead, training is conducted in a way that focuses on the features of the system and its benefits – benefits that may not necessarily be useful to end users in their daily work routines. 

Address communication gaps by creating early opportunities for input 

Communication between business functions and IT or vendors must be clear from the early stages of a transformation initiative and throughout the project. When key stakeholders, such as IT, are engaged early, solutions developed are much more likely to stay aligned to transformation goals. 

A systematic process of ideation and then analysis that involves relevant stakeholders and SMEs is critical before proceeding to planning, execution and implementation stages. These early stages should be focused on the as-is state of the organisation and identifying the most pressing gaps that need solving.  

During an analysis, where the functional and technical requirements of the initiative are ironed out, IT and other relevant stakeholders can be involved to provide their input. Here, questions or potential issues can be raised, and the process of developing solutions can be made more inclusive, with recommendations and feedback made before investments are made or vendors are engaged.  

Getting fixated on one particular solution or system, rather than selecting or customizing solutions to meet business goals is a trap many companies fall into in transformation projects. As a result, investments made start to be perceived as a cost center, as ill-fitting solutions fail to create the desired impact within the organisation. 

At Renoir, our goal with each transformation initiative is to facilitate a comprehensive ideation and analysis process, assessing an organisation’s as-is state before proceeding to the implementation of solutions. This is where valuable input and feedback from key stakeholders is collated to identify and eventually implement the best-fit solutions for a successful transformation.