Which digital technologies are suitable for us and how do we approach company-wide digitization? How do I get from the variety of possibilities to concrete projects with „Digital Roadmapping“? These questions are of great importance for many companies.
Planning company-wide digitization
A multinational company, active in the raw materials industry and in industrial manufacturing, observed a trend towards digitization in various areas in the industry. In their own company, some business units had implemented one or the other small digitization project, but there was no comprehensive digitization strategy.
The company management was completely aware of the company-wide digitization’s complexity. After other business units had proposed local digitization projects, decisions were made to tackle an overall project with the help of an interim manager. The duration of the assignment was set at six months, during which a strategy for comprehensive digitization was to be worked out.
Step by step to the digital roadmap
As a first step, the interim manager we provided organized a digital initiative workshop with all of the company's key stakeholders. After a keynote speech on trends and general developments, there was an insight into the specific digital developments in their own industry. The workshop participants then worked on questions about digital readiness in the various departments in smaller groups and discussed and prioritized these as well as core technologies and specific areas of application in the plenary meeting.
From the workshop’s results, the interim manager and the company management derived the actual “digital roadmapping” project. The project was divided into the four phases of “mobilization”, “digital hypotheses”, “potential digital projects” and “summarized digital group strategy”. Next to further workshops, the participants of which were now developing specific digitization projects, the existing IT was examined.
For the subsequent comparison of the projects and their prioritization, among other things, the assessment of costs and benefits including information on the specific types of costs and EBITDA influencing factors was decisive. The management then decided on the concrete further procedure and defined framework conditions in order to promote, coordinate and support future digital projects. Two months after the conclusion of the mandate, the board decided to start the first digitization projects.
Decisive success factors for a large project
After the “Initiative Workshop” and the subsequent “Digital Roadmapping” project, a coordinated, prioritized sequence of digital projects, the digital roadmap including an initial cost and EBITDA estimate for each project, had been worked out. At the same time, the definition of specific framework measures was ready for implementation.
The inclusion of all stakeholders is essential for the success of a company-wide digitization strategy. This procedure also lays the foundation for the willingness of employees to change. Culture and change management must remain important beyond the project. But also the screening of the existing IT and fathoming out the possibilities in the company is decisive for success.
The bigger a company is, the more demanding are digitization projects. For this reason, support by an experienced project manager is of great importance when working out a company-wide digitization strategy. We quickly and easily provide you with experts who are familiar with your industry and who are tried and tested as project managers. Contact us at office@top50interim.com or +41 (0)41 412 02 02.
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