If you find yourself somewhere in indecision with your choice of the right digital transformation partner for your business, this article is for you. I’m sure you already have a torrent of questions in your mind like, can they actually deliver the expected? Digital transformation is much more than an app. Would the vendor help cover the change management part? Should I hire an android app developer for a start and see how things proceed? Do I even need this exercise and what not.
The answer lies in the approach. Try to create an informed approach, a workable plan as per your understanding before going into the discussion room with the vendor. The more specific you are with the requirement, the clearer the deal you score.
Before starting with the checklist of attributes you need to check to shortlist within the vendor firms, here is a quick summary of the information you need handy before heading into the process.
The prerequisites: Create detailed process blueprints that help identify the additional capabilities required to reach the target benchmark. Understanding the ground flow of operational value would help you identify the processes that need rework/upgrade. Try for possible solution patches in limited capacity controlled environments. The above steps would give you a clear understanding of the list of processes that need to be revamped and a set of tested probable solutions that fit. This combined together would create the scope of work needed to digitally revitalize your business.
Finding a fitting vendor:
Scope of work analysis by vendor: Discuss the scope of work document with the vendor team and try to get a business assessment based on their expertise. With the refined inputs of these two documents you can reach a final plan of development, deployment, change management and maintenance. By this exercise, you would also unearth any hidden/unseen expenses or resource requirements.
Moreover, this would also help you decide the mode of execution i.e. if you need to outsource the task in entirety or augment your in-house team with the specific skill.
Technology: Having an idea of the suitable development technologies, deployment platforms and their relevance with your business case helps a lot. With the expertise of the vendor, you can zero down on the one that is functionally feasible and matches all the constraints. For example, if you find that a majority of work is focussed around a particular technology, let’s say, angular js. Wouldn’t it be sensible for you to hire a dedicated angular js developer and make a start?
Proven expertise/ Specialization: the next step is to verify the capability of the team you plan to work with. Do they have the necessary resources and expertise to deliver what you want? Have they delivered any similar requirements in the past? How do their earlier customers speak of them? Do they connect with your perspective and vision?
Tracking and Transparency: this often underestimated aspect of any web development proves vital in the final delivery. You need to ensure that a real time update of the progress by the vendor team is available at your disposal. This will help eliminate any possible deviations from the expected outcome. It is better to have an expert analyst in-house for the client side to ensure smooth flow of information and updates, to both parties.
Your discussions around the above pointers with the vendor teams would give you a crisp idea of what is needed, how it is to be done and how much it would cost. Once you have proposals from the shortlisted vendors, you stand better-off finding the one that connects with your vision and is capable enough to do so.
