Fail to plan, plan to fail

Seventy percent of organisations stall in the execution of their digital transformation programme* and the main reasons are resourcing issues and a lack of clarity about the strategy. To put it simply, when the strategy isn’t clear it won’t be understood and what isn’t understood won’t get done.  

Webinar takeaways: 

Understand the common barriers to activating transformation  

The business strategy is supreme – align IT to the business goals with VMOST 

Get comfortable with uncertainty – build a roadmap with best estimates 

In this webinar we talk with Whitby Seafoods MD Daniel Whittle who discusses the challenges they've faced as a fast-growing SME business. Over the last 10 years, they’ve more than doubled their turnover, reaching £60m in 2019. 

As the business outgrew its IT systems and support service, Daniel recognised there was a gap in strategic IT leadership and a need for hands on project delivery. FluidIT brought their tools and people in to help. 

Daniel Whittle: “We’re getting all sorts of benefits. The finance part of our ERP was delivered in three months, and this is a project we started eight years ago. We’ve been able to divisionalise Kilkeel and that’s freed up £500,000 of raw material funding.” 

Understand the barriers  

Lots of SME businesses have a small IT team that’s overseen by a busy finance director with no time to investigate new technology or manage a transformation programme. Products, services and back office functions are reliant on manual or paper-based processes and spreadsheets. Frustration is building as business growth is increasingly held back by IT.  

Watch the webinar to see the common challenges facing SME businesses and how IT works in the absence of a plan. 

The business strategy is supreme 

FluidIT Director Gareth Murphy explains the four-step approach to building a VMOST and demonstrates how one SME used it to establish their business goals,  brainstorm tactics, drive out estimates of cost and effort and then prioritise projects based on overall business benefits. 

Whittle: “The VMOST delivered huge enthusiasm from the team. It drew us out of departmental perspectives or silos. It really helped us with communication.” 

Download the webinar slides to see what VMOST is and how it works in practice for one SME.

Embrace the uncertainty - tips to build a roadmap 

Louise Pipe, FluidIT Operations Director, explains how to identify logical workstreams, create a timeline and sequence activities in priority order. This is complex because it involves dealing with a lot of ambiguity around timescales, capacity and resources. Louise shows how to get comfortable with the uncertainty. She demonstrates a four-step approach to building a roadmap.  

Download the webinar slides for top tips on building an IT and digital roadmap. 

*According to Mckinsey https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-to-restart-your-stalled-digital-transformation

https://blog.fluiditconsulting.co.uk/en-gb/blog/igniting-digital-transformation

Webinar programme: 

00.00 Welcome 

00.51 Agenda 

02.02 Meet the speakers 

02.23 Who are FluidIT? 

03.02 Introduction to aligning a business and IT strategy and building an IT roadmap 

06.16  How IT works in the absence of a plan​  

08.25 Driving growth through IT and digital –with Daniel Whittle, MD  Whitby Seafoods​ 

24.35 The methodology, a lightweight visual approach to digital and IT planning 

24.58 The tools we use – VMOST 

26.15 The four step approach 

31.59 How the VMOST works in practice – one client example 

35.15 Barriers that stop businesses from digital and IT planning 

36.16 What Marco Polo’s journey has in common with IT roadmaps 

38.48 Deliverability – how to execute your strategy and build a roadmap 

44.22 Managing the roadmap 

46.05 Summary 

48.19 Q&A