A leading provider of supply chain data and analytics had spent significant resources on previous digital innovation efforts. Despite the investments, they had not seen the ‘promise of advanced analytics’ materialize. Our client brought us in to identify artificial intelligence projects that would create value, and to define the product development pipeline.
Assessing Digital Readiness
As the first step, we assessed our client’s digital readiness and uncovered significant shortcomings. Despite organizational strengths in technology and data management, executives and business units were misaligned on their vision for advanced analytics. They also misunderstood the plan to develop an internal capability in analytics. In addition, the organization struggled to define related roles. And, business units didn’t know when and how to use their internal advanced analytics group.
We helped executive leadership prioritize the core challenges, and established a shared language for digital innovation. Using a design-thinking approach, we customized our project portfolio tool to the specific characteristics of our client’s organization. This enabled the client to screen and prioritize advanced analytics projects.
We provided a process that defined the criterion for success and aligned key internal stakeholders’ needs against each opportunity. This resulted in improved project prioritization, and greater organizational alignment and project buy-in.
At the conclusion of our collaboration, we had clarified the benefits of a digital strategy and used our project portfolio tool to plan and manage digital innovation efforts. We developed customized internal education and a communication plan and increased the organization’s awareness of the value of advanced analytics. Finally, we helped the organization promote their expertise and position itself as a leader in the sector.
