Digital transformation framework: start, build and expand

Author: Roald Kruit, co-founder of Mendix

In order to ride the waves in the digital wave and forge ahead, enterprises need a "hard work" capable of rapid transformation. A recent McKinsey survey found that 65% of enterprises are increasing their investment in digital and technology to keep up with the changing market environment. In fact, the process of integrating these technical measures is digital transformation. To ensure success, enterprises need to develop their own digital strategic framework. This article will introduce the three stages of digital transformation: startup, construction and expansion, hoping to enlighten you.

What is the digital transformation framework?

If digital transformation is a process of digital technology integration that helps enterprises achieve success, then the digital transformation framework is the road map to success. EWeek will Digital transformation framework It is defined as "a step-by-step plan to successfully implement the digital transformation strategy". The framework is divided into three stages: startup, construction and expansion.

Section one Phase: Start

In the start-up phase, enterprises can start from a small point and win broader support for digital implementation plans by demonstrating the value of new methods. At this stage, it is necessary to ensure that the first initiatives can be successfully implemented and generate public relations effects internally. The first project needs to be able to generate Business Value This can become a "catalyst" for other projects and attract support and attention throughout the company. As Plautus said, "One witness is better than ten rumors, and the world believes that seeing is believing." Therefore, it is very important to correctly select the first batch of projects. In addition, enterprises also need to have some necessary preconditions, including:

infrastructure

Business Case

Appropriate partners and teams

Section two Phase: Build

When entering the construction phase, enterprises should start to focus on building teams and formulating strategies to accelerate the implementation of digital transformation plans. The main goal of this stage is to set up a special team, determine training needs and develop procurement strategies. Another important goal is to refine the successful practices of the first batch of projects and use them as reference templates for future projects.

With the increase of the number of applications, other topics will become important, such as achieving rapid and continuous delivery through development, operation and maintenance, governance and framework etc. 。

Section three Phase: Expansion

The main work of the expansion phase is to achieve the efficiency required for delivering and managing hundreds of applications through greater automation, so that the enterprise can transform into a real digital enterprise. These include:

Support a large product portfolio by automating deployment and maintenance

Join the quality inspection process and actively monitor the maintainability of the project

Improve reusability by establishing a dedicated app store

With these functions, enterprises can build distributed innovation capabilities within the organization, enabling multiple teams to develop collaboratively, and ultimately maximize value and productivity.

Examples of digital transformation

Netherlands Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Company ASML Fully utilize the extended concept 。 The company's revenue is 11.9 billion pounds, and its goal is to double revenue by 2025. In the time-consuming process of building custom applications, ASML realized that if you want to achieve revenue goals, you must accelerate development. In order to rapidly expand their scale, they need not only to recruit employees, but also to find a process optimization method to improve team productivity.

ASML uses Siemens low code App Factory The framework enables large-scale development of applications, thereby gaining business opportunities. The framework is not only a successful digital transformation tool, but also provides a detailed reference for the steps ASML needs to take. Roy Coenders, manager of ASML shared services department, said: "In the cooperation with Siemens low code, we learned to handle tasks according to the correct priority."

Finally, the ASML team quickly developed five applications, one of which only took two and a half weeks to develop.

Challenges of digital transformation

When developing a digital transformation framework, if enterprises are eager to achieve results and immediately invest in scale expansion, they are likely to fail for these two reasons:

"One bite does not make a fat man": enterprise institutions simply cannot manage such a large-scale change at one time. If they can not afford to carry out drastic innovation, they will stagnate the enterprise.

Unproved innovation can be very disruptive: enterprises cannot innovate on a large scale based on assumptions, but need to build on best practices.

It is for these reasons that we created Digital transformation roadmap 。 According to the cooperation experience of Siemens low code and hundreds of customers, this digital transformation framework will help enterprises do the right thing at the right time, and guide them to complete the three key transformation stages of startup, construction and expansion.

The key to digital transformation is timing: neither do everything at once, nor spend too much time on some things. For example, if the enterprise development team forgets to solve the governance problem in the construction phase, it will cause chaos in the future, which will not only produce high restructuring costs, but also hinder further development. Siemens low code has guided hundreds of customers to embark on the road of digital transformation through low code application development, and the best practices summarized based on experience can help enterprises focus on the right things at the right time.

For key ways to become a digital enterprise, please visit Siemens low code , or further explore Digital transformation resources 。

key word: Three stages Maintainability be anxious for success Larger Capital investment