Everything In sight with the Digital Transformation Cockpit | BOLDLY GO INDUSTRIES

Manoeuvrable in turbulent times of transformation

Everything In Sight With The Digital Transformation Cockpit

Digital Transformation Cockpit von BOLDLY GO
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With digital technologies – mobile terminal devices, social media, cloud technology, Big Data and cognitive analytics to name but a few – the market environment of companies is changing from the ground up. Sooner or later, companies are finding themselves forced to question their status quo, at strategic and operational levels, in order to remain relevant in the new network economy. The expectations of digital users are demanding a complete rethinking of the way in which customers, partners and employees are communicated to and integrated.

Digital transformation is providing courageous and innovative companies with great opportunities while simultaneously representing an extreme challenge for the majority of companies as long established structures, processes and best practices have not been consistent with the new success paradigms of Industry 4.0.

In cases where, until now, forecasts, planning and development was thought to take years, the market now demands iterative and fast time-to-market cycles which are oriented towards maximum customer value and innovation across the whole business and which must be as efficient as possible at the same time. For organisations, this means having a clear vision as well as transparent and agile best practices across departments with active participation by employees.

Companies need to adapt quickly to the changing environment in order to be able to help proactively shape it. In practice, however, the state of companies in Germany is a patchwork. Few have an overall digital strategy for their business model and many are only conducting scattered digitalisation projects.

According to a study by the market research firm, Lünendonk, only two per cent of companies in 2016 are seen as very well equipped when it comes to tangible implementation of a digitalisation strategy across the company as a whole and the breaking down of sub-areas. Half of the interviewed companies appear very poorly positioned in this regard.

Old established structures and missing know-how are action-inhibiting in the face of the complexity of this transformation. Uncertainties due to a lack of experience or best practices and therefore uncertain investment profitability often lead to digitalisation efforts not leaving the board room and, in practice, rarely making their way to fast and purposeful implementation.

So how do changes and ideas eventually make it to the streets? In order to make digital transformation effectively successful and to make innovation projects a repeatable and quantifiable organisational process, a structured framework for process and methodology procedures must be rolled out across the whole company.

BOLDLY GO INDUSTRIES is developing a digital application solution for just that: A “Cockpit” that digitally models information, findings, ideas and job progress from strategic decision sets as well as digital transformation (pilot-) projects and provides a tool set for agile and iterative processing. The specialised ‘cockpit’ is added on top of the generic collaboration platform from SAP, SAP Jam, thus offering a central and fully integrated solution.

Collaboration tools alone are insufficient as virtual working environments for digital transformation

The traditional “create and push” approach to information can no longer satisfy the necessities for digital transformation of efficient, informed and innovation-centric ways of working. Transparency and collaboration alongside joint strategic goal orientation is the foundation of digital transformation and an essential factor for getting employees to share in the responsibility and to actively encourage proactive contribution.

Collaboration technologies such as SAP Jam are already available in a generic format in order to enable central communication, transparency and cooperation in digital working environments. However, in order to achieve real added value, there must be a seamless transition to business application scenarios that is able to be integrated into existing systems and processes.

The existing collaboration tools alone are insufficient to be able to model and handle process and method specific requirements for the implementation of digital transformation in this way. There are currently no specific applications that bring all relevant stakeholders and related projects together on a single platform and that would enable transformation progress.

BOLDLY GO INDUSTRIES is working on filling this gap by using the basic set of functionalities for collaboration and communication from the central SAP Jam platform as the underlying technology to develop a cockpit for digital transformation. In this digital application, a specialised tool set of methodology, procedures and professional best practices follows the principles of agility and Industry 4.0 which enable practical progress alongside digital transformation. 

The “Digital Transformation Cockpit”

The application enables the digital modelling of the digital transformation of strategic topics via idea generation and, for example, the development of prototype projects. Best practices and innovation-methodological approaches can thus be structured and repeatedly used alongside digitalised work flows in a central, transparent and collaborative platform in conjunction with all stakeholders, hence making the implementation progress of the digitalisation tangible and visible for all involved.

The cockpit provides structured process support alongside the digitalisation projects and need-based networking and cooperation with internal and external stakeholders such as customers and partners. This enables continuous transparency as well as the sustainable establishment of agile methods for innovation and project procedures in the company network.

Potential areas for digital transformation within the application are already apparent from the strategic target definition. Best practice templates such as the business model canvas, for example, enable the methodical conception of proposals and ideas for business model innovations and optimisations as well as instigating discussions and decision making about partial aspects and different variants within the network. Transparency and simple opportunities for active participation, beyond classical hierarchies and silo mentalities, provide improved employee commitment to joint goal setting, thus meeting the demands of Industry 4.0. Content and results can be easily, arbitrarily and broadly divided and linked to additional procedures.

External customer opinions can be collected and evaluated for the development of new value propositions. Specific projects resulting from this for minimum viable product (MVP) developments in order to test out hypothesised value practically and quickly in the market, can be arranged directly and strengthened with data from the ERP.

Project participants are thus kept up-to-date in real time, are able to interchange centrally and agilely and iteratively process tasks in an efficient manner with the help of supporting functionalities based on the principles of self-organisation and agility such as Scrum and Kanban boards for example. Feedback loops can initiate at every project stage and thus be directly involved in the process right from the start.  

Additionally, change-management activities and performance evaluation become simpler and tangible alongside the transformation into this social network-like digital working environment with the help of monitoring and analysis functionalities.

The Digital Transformation Cockpit is a holistic solution in that it enables the formation, communication and joint pursuit of goals alongside digital transformation easily and in real time from a central platform.

Digital transformation: From buzzword to integral and systematic organisational process

Companies continue to struggle to implement abstract and strategic developments in practice. Particularly because digital transformation affects many parts of the organisation as well as established procedures. It is therefore imperative to change the manner of new work processes such as innovation processes, development processes, decision making processes and methods, for example, in a structured and sustainable manner.

Analogous processes in the silo, individual agreements, vague freestyle procedures and hierarchical control mechanisms, all of which focus on risk aversion based on old, habitual business perspectives, no longer function in the rapidly changing market environment of digitalisation. Anybody looking to improve their competitive standing in the new network economy through innovation and agility rather than remaining in a paralysis of uncertainty waiting for their company to become less and less relevant faster than ever, must practically implement systematic procedures for digital transformation now and embed them in the entire organisational structure. All stakeholders should be actively involved in a common pursuit of the same goal.

As a platform based application solution, the Digital Transformation Cockpit from BOLDLY GO INDUSTRIES, provides a digital tool set which enables the relevant stakeholder groups to network across the entire company and enables the implementation of simple and quantifiable results based on structured and methodological approaches.

A complete digital framework is provided for digital transformation based on the principles of Industry 4.0 – transparency, collaboration and agile and iterative innovation cycles on a platform networked across no less than the entire company.

Thus, turning digital transformation from a too often used, abstract buzzword into a tangible advancement for all employees and an effective source of added value for the customers of tomorrow. BOLDLY GO INDUSTRIES advises and supports companies on digital transformation. The Digital Transformation Cockpit is the result of many years of experience providing advice on transformation processes.

 

Next Steps

Andreas Jamm
Managing Director
T +49 69-244 5002-0
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