Digital transformation is being addressed by companies and organizations across virtually all segments of the economy today. Given the lack of internal IT staff and their experience, cooperation with an external supplier is a common choice for digital transformation projects.
How to choose such a partner, what to focus on and what to watch out for?
The importance of an external supplier can be illustrated by the model example of a medium-sized company that sells products and services. It has marketing, sales and service departments, as well as a small call center. The company is doing well, from time to time a dissatisfied customer appears and leaves for a competitor, but new customers are also gaining. A standard company and a standard situation…
The newly appointed CEO decides not to wait for the gambling data philippine competition to come up with something new and begins to think progressively about what to do so that the company not only stays on the market, but also constantly builds a competitive advantage and becomes more attractive to customers.
This approach requires thinking in two dimensions. It is important not only to have a great product (“What to sell?”), but also to approach the customer (“How to sell?”). Inventing a product or service requires first and foremost your own know-how, but modern technologies can help with the question “How to sell?”
Streamlining, optimizing, and digitizing processes can lead to more effective outreach to potential customers, lower product prices, higher customer satisfaction, etc. Therefore, the new CEO decides, in addition to making the portfolio more attractive, to streamline processes in the company and eliminate the causes of customer dissatisfaction. After a while, the newly appointed CEO also falls into old habits and, together with the company, waits for what will go wrong so that he can solve it ad hoc.
Efforts at internal activities related to trying to save money in this company, as in most cases, end in failure.
So when is it appropriate to approach an external partner and why?
Just as this company is an expert in its products and services, there why have a website for digital marketing to work? are also companies on the market that are experts in services related to streamlining, optimizing and digitizing processes and introducing new technologies. They have established methodologies that they follow, can recognize potential, excite the customer’s internal employees and significantly increase the chances of success. Therefore, it is advisable to seek external help as soon as possible and set the right direction from the very beginning. And the most successful companies use a combination of both.
Who to have in your own ranks
But first of all, I recommend sweeping your own doorstep. The basic prerequisite for a successful digital transformation is people who are not afraid of change and have a positive view of innovation. And if we embark on real projects based on a digital transformation plan, it is important, as with any project, to minimize the differences between the supplier and customer teams, especially in the area of project management.
So when an external partner and why?
As for specific expertise, the customer will never be at the level thailand data of the supplier (otherwise they would not need it), but it is important that at least the basic principles are mastered and that there is at least a basic knowledge of the proposed technologies. The ideal solution is to hire a so-called Chief Innovation Officer, who can make a digitalization plan and manage the entire project, including recruiting people to their own team and selecting an external supplier. Such a person is a great asset when assessing and comparing individual offers from external suppliers, when he can help to detect, for example, a significantly undervalued offer, which is unfortunately a very common problem.
I would especially warn against suspiciously low manday rates (price per man-day), which may indicate the inexperience of the supplier. Also beware of (intentional) underestimation of the required complexity of the project. Often, the offer from such a supplier contains, for example, 100 mandays, which in the end become 200 or even more.