Peace of mind
Before the money starts to flow, you know what you want and how you will recognise success.
Internal workshops where we work out what the organisation genuinely needs. I often surface it with simple questions: what is the definition of success? When will this project be judged a success? Companies and public offices very often skip this, either because they think they already know everything or because they simply have no time for deeper questions. It is one of the most common causes of problems in projects.
Questions worth knowing the answer to.
If the answer to any of them is “we don’t know”, that is exactly where I can help. I put these questions to boards, secretaries, county heads and company presidents before decisions are taken and money starts to flow.
- What exactly should change in people’s work for us to call this project a success?
- What does it cost us today in time, errors or frayed nerves, and how do we know?
- Is what we are asking the vendor for the goal, or only a first idea for a solution?
- Who in the organisation knows this process best, and was that person at the table?
What you get out of it.
Better results
You buy a solution to your problem, not whichever system happens to turn up with an offer.
Fewer reefs and mistakes
Sometimes it turns out that a change of procedure is enough, and you save the entire purchase.
The cost of a mistake at this stage. Buying a solution to the wrong problem costs an entire rollout and months of people’s work. An advisor usually costs less than a single badly chosen technology, a single wrong vendor or a single trap in a contract.
Before you choose a system, establish what you really need.
A request for a specific system is often a first idea, not a goal. At the workshops I ask about the goal and the definition of success, and only then about the solution. Sometimes the conclusion is that no new system is needed and a change of procedure will do.
What you get.
- Workshops with the board and the people who work in the process day to day: goals, expectations, constraints.
- A definition of success and the criteria that will tell you the project worked.
- A description of what isn’t working today and of what the future should look like.
- Input for the requirements or a market scan, or a decision that no new system is needed.
How I work at this stage.
- Conversations before the workshopWith the board and the people who work in the process day to day. I learn the goals, the constraints and what isn’t working today.
- The workshopWith simple questions I draw out the definition of success and the criteria for completion. Along the way I get a feel for the organisation’s culture and the specifics of its users.
- ConclusionsA description of the current state and the desired future, the success criteria and a decision: requirements, a market scan, or dropping the new system.
The kinds of solutions we consider.
Before any product is named, we check what kind of solution suits the process. Sometimes a change of procedure is enough.
The questions I start with
- How do you picture the ideal future?
- What isn’t working for you today?
- Why are we doing this?
- What will be the definition of done?
- On the basis of what criteria will we judge this project a success?
Few organisations ask themselves these questions. They usually go straight to looking for a company that seems to have a system “for that”. It is a short road to wasting time and money. An external advisor with broad knowledge of the market navigates, asks the right questions and leads the organisation along the route that is best for it, not for the vendor. That way you avoid mistakes and limit risk before you buy anything, because do we know exactly what the differences are between EZD, ECM, case management, DMS, workflow and BPM?
- Case and document workflowworkflow, when the approval path and the trail of decisions matter
- No-code, low-code, pro-codewhen the process is specific and will keep changing
- RPAwhen integration is needed and the usual interfaces are not available
- AIfrom analytical, through generative, to agent-based systems with orchestration
- Document management systemDMS, when sometimes that is simply enough
- ECM and case managemententerprise systems for managing every kind of content and cases
- CRM / SRMprocess-driven, multichannel management of relationships with customers, suppliers and stakeholders
- A change of procedurewhen the goal does not need a new system
My expertise at this stage.
Over 20 years I have learned to ask the questions that reveal the real goal, and to tell an organisation’s need from its first idea for a system.
Digital transformation and change management.
This is the key competence that ties all the stages together: over 20 years of work in many organisations, on the client’s side.
Frequently asked questions about this stage.
Do we have to buy a new system after the workshops?
No. One of the possible conclusions is that no new system is needed and the goal can be reached by changing a procedure.
Who takes part in the workshops?
The board and the people who work in the given process day to day. We set the board’s goals and expectations against the users’ experience.
Let’s talk about this stage.
The first conversation takes 30 minutes and costs nothing. I reply within 2 working days.