Digital Transformation: The last mile

Under the misleading concept of Digital Transformation, in which it is believed that it is simply a matter of incorporating information technologies in a compulsive and disorderly manner, we must point out that this is the furthest thing from what we must understand, since it is not only about technology, but rather strategy, processes and people, involving the organization as a whole.

Next comes an aspect that is not much addressed and is usually left in the background, as if Digital Transformation magically solved everything or as if its implementation were free of additional challenges or complexities to address.

Choosing appropriate technologies and suppliers

Within some of these complexities we can find the choice of the most appropriate technologies; the selection of the correct supplier along with the contracting and service modality; the implementation in scope, cost and time of the projects; the integration between diverse systems and processes that are part of the Digital Transformation strategy; as well as some complementary soft components such as promoting the adoption of solutions through adequate change management, training, monitoring and measurement of results, without leaving aside an eventual review of the organizational structure.

Within the selection of solutions, depending on how specific it may be, we may find that the solution (hardware and/or software and/or equipment) is closely linked to a particular supplier (proprietary solution), so that When choosing one, basically both are chosen at the same time, turning out to be a critical decision that can carry the company for many years. In this circumstance, external advice from a consulting firm that assists in this process could help reduce the risk, provide transparency, good practices in generating a purchasing process including bidding bases, required Service Levels (SLA), fines. associated, operating conditions, commercial conditions (price, term, payments, modality, guarantee note if applicable) and safeguards for the parties.

Advice on Digital Transformation and long-term risk mitigation

Part of the most relevant elements in a complex purchasing process are the search for solutions (combinations of equipment, hardware and software), the validation of the Solution-bidder duo and determination of the estimated budget through what we know as RFI (Request for Information) which can be open or by invitation to prequalified bidders. Subsequently, with the result of the RFI (Request for Information), the information is analyzed and the bases of the purchasing process itself are built where the administrative bases, technical and economic bases must be considered. This formal purchasing process is called RFP (Request for Proposal), which includes the deadlines and milestones of the process in a transparent manner for all participants, thus helping to reduce the risk of fraud.