Andy Nicol founded Sputnik in 2000, quickly establishing them as a leading innovation and digital engineering agency, providing strategy, UI design and build of secure, scalable and fast web and mobile applications for enterprise. Having been involved in the digital industry for over twenty years and one of our key strategic agency partners, we knew that Andy was the perfect person to speak to about this exciting topic.
What does transformation mean to you?
It
will be no surprise that my mind defaults to Digital Transformation.
Digital
Transformation involves reframing the use of IT beyond putting a monitor and
keyboard on everyones’ desk, and beginning to imagine how an ecosystem of
mobile devices, cloud hosting, the gigabytes of data you’ve accumulated over 20
years and automated process can deliver value to your customers and employees.
Taken
far enough, Digital Transformation can fundamentally change the way an
organisation operates.
The
transitions between post, fax and email took long enough that even the most
conservative organisation had time to acclimatise to change. The internet has
driven change to happen much faster, bringing threats and opportunities that
organisations need to be able to respond to.
This
ability to adapt requires both a modern mindset to seek better ways of doing
things, and the building of capability through internal, digitally focussed
teams and external partners.
Examples
include;
- Creating a mobile app to
allow remote teams to access information or submit reports from site - Connecting telephony, web
chat, social media and email to create integrated customer - Allowing customers to order
24/7, view their order history and resolve issues through a customer portal - Using Open Banking to provide
accurate, compliant and convenient KYC (Know Your Customer) or credit checking - Development of a Management
Information Dashboard to gain real time visibility of stock levels across a
global manufacturing base - Replacing paper forms
(internal or external ones) with online ones, bringing convenience, operational
efficiency, improved audit trails and real time management information. - Building new capabilities to
monitor and improve productivity, market insights, customer relationships,
sales or product development.
The
applications are limitless, and specific to every industry, and every business
within them.
The
benefits include;
- Access to real time
information - 24/7 access through cloud
based solutions - Cost savings
- Access to new markets (eg.
serving 1,000 consumers spread across the country is a lot easier when you do it
online) - Competitive advantage
- Increased conversion
RPA
(Robotic Process Automation) is the part of Digital Transformation that deals
specifically with creating software “bots” to connect separate software
systems.
The
RPA captures information from one or more systems, follows a set of rules (or
develops and continually optimises those rules using AI), manipulates the data
and triggers an action in another piece of software.
Describe your own expertise and involvement in the space of business transformation.
Our first Digital Transformation project was a
Customer Centricity programme for Agilent (part of Hewlett Packard) in 2006.
Pretty much everything we’ve done since has
involved some degree of transformation.
We even approach website projects from a
different angle to marketing agencies. Of course, we understand the brand and
messaging elements, but we are always looking for ways to take a client’s
website from being a brochure with an enquiry form, and making it an integrated
part of the business process and customer journey.
Over the years we’ve built Quote & Buy
journies for Swinton Insurance, numerous websites and RPA projects for
GoCompare, a meeting scheduling system for VisitScotland and a customer portal
for Fluent Money.
We define ourselves as an “Innovation and
Digital Engineering” agency. We keep a close eye on digital innovation wherever
it is, which allows us to bring the latest ideas to see how we can apply it in
a client’s circumstances.
We then help in the delivery of these ideas to
enterprise standards – secure, scalable and optimised.
Our experience spans across the spectrum of
industry sectors, although our brand values of expertise, integrity and
professionalism lead to us being selected to deliver business critical
projects, often projects in regulated industries such as financial services.
How and when should a transformation programme begin?
Digital Transformation takes time to plan and
requires investment to deliver.
There may be some quick wins that can be
delivered within 3-6 months for a few tens of thousands of pounds, but meaningful
transformation requires the modernisation of the underlying tech stack, an
audit of existing processes, activities and customer journeys, and a plan to
roll out change over a number of years.
Digital is already happening all around us. Many
businesses are still failing to take advantage of the opportunities made
possible in the last decade, and need to lay those foundations before they can
seriously plan for the current trends of artificial intelligence, voice and 5G.
The good news is it doesn’t all need to be done
at once. In fact, the best approach is
to have a general idea of the direction of travel, and tackling your ambitions
in a series of smaller projects that can incrementally deliver value to the
organisation.
As well as improving the component parts, they
will be designed to work together more effectively, and be easier to upgrade in
future. Over time you will be well on your way to meeting your larger goals.
The outcome is an efficient, effective and agile
organisation that is fit and prepared to deal with the ever increasing pace of
change.
What are the risks of transforming a business model?
The most obvious risk is pure financial
investment – either internal, external or both. Digital Transformation is
essentially the investment in software and third party integrations, and this
involves planning, license fees, design and development time.
Unlike buying the wrong car or computers,
there’s no trade in value for bespoke software. Choosing the wrong strategy is
money you won’t get back.
Even if you get the strategy right, you need the
right team. If you ask a designer to draw you a logo, you can see pretty
quickly whether they’ve got the skills. Set a team of developers on a task, and
it can be months of sunk costs before you get a glimpse of whether what’s
inside the black box is of the standard you expect.
It’s sometimes acceptable to cut corners, for example to meet a tight deadline,
or to try out a proof of concept. Organisations need to be mindful of the
technical debt they may be building up, and have a plan and budget to revisit
it.
The way to manage all of these risks is to embed
Digital Transformation within your organisation.
Rather than trying to plan a large, expensive
and untested transformation programme, try and break work up into small tasks
that you can deliver in weeks or months. This allows you to keep investment
manageable and benefit from returns on investment as each task is deployed.
You get feedback with each release on what’s
working and what isn’t which informs your decision for what to do next.
Of course, the goalposts will move, and move
further away as you immerse yourself in change.
There’s always a risk of underestimating the
cost of a project, or scope creep where the project continues to grow once it
has begun. Sputnik’s approach is to have honest and frank conversations about
costs and timescales up front in order to avoid a breakdown in our relationship
once everyone is invested.
Also, remember to ask Kodak, Blockbuster and
Nokia about the risks of not
transforming. Innovative competitor – coming to an industry near you.
Describe a successful business transformation you’ve been involved with?
Fluent has understood the role technology can
play in delivering a market leading customer experience, since the business’s
inception more than a decade ago. Technology has been firmly at the core of
user experience and business growth since the first day of trading.
Optimising customer experience has been an
ongoing strategic objective of the board, and has meant further investment in
digital advancements’ to support both the customer and also deliver tangible
commercial benefits.
As a strategic growth partner, Sputnik had a
clear understanding of Fluent’s requirements to further optimise the experience
it delivers to its’ customers.
The process of applying for a loan and the
anticipated outcome – whether that’s personal borrowing, securing a mortgage,
or obtaining funds through equity release – is an experience that is often
laden with emotion as outcomes for customers can be life-altering. It therefore
creates a direct requirement for strong lines of communication. Unfortunately,
within the broker industry those strong lines of communications aren’t
renowned.
A comprehensive understanding of a customers’
wants and needs during a loan process, to satisfy growing customer expectations
around information consumption and communication – whether dealing with the
digitally savvy Generation Z, or the more traditional baby boomer/Generation X
– has been key to deploying the platform.
Working with Sputnik, Fluent has been able to
deploy an application that gives a blend of digital tools as well as access to
human expertise, providing true customer choice. It allows Fluent to instil a
level of comfort through easy access and timely information.
Alongside enhancements in experience, the
technology has also had a broader commercial impact on the business, supporting
improved operational efficiencies, reducing application attrition (and
therefore business risk) while at the same time ensuring the highest levels of
compliance.
What are the key attributes of a successful transformational leader?
They are the individuals responsible for driving
innovation and business change.
They need a strong commercial acumen in order to
understand an organisation’s brand, strategy, operations, commercial needs,
opportunities and threats.
On top of this they need to be creative and
curious, constantly scanning the horizon for ways in which technology can help
organisations.
While they don’t necessarily need to have any
coding ability, they need to be fluent in conversing about digital products,
user journeys, and software tools and methodologies.
Peter Drucker famously said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. What’s your view?
If you
fail to define and nurture your culture, I have no doubt you won’t achieve your
strategy. From that perspective, Drucker is right.
But I
think the opposite is also true. An organisation full of the right people
without a plan is also going nowhere. In fact, the great culture will be short
lived without confidence that the leadership team know how to define and execute
a winning plan.
The
truth is you need both.
But as
culture is probably the harder of the two to, it is also the one that gets
ignored, and therefore the one that is the biggest risk to the business.
Everyone
with a tech requirement is aware that the demand for software engineers far
outstrips supply. It’s hard enough to find any 5 new developers, let alone ones
that share your values. To meet the demands of the organisation, there is
pressure to fill seats.
It
doesn’t take many desperation hires to significantly change the dynamic of your
team and before you know it your culture is not effective at delivering on the
strategy.
At
Sputnik, our culture absolutely has the potential to sink our strategy if we
get it wrong.
We
recognised organisations’ frustrations in delivering digital projects that were
often delivered late and full of bugs. The result is significant opportunity
cost when projects launch late, as well as stress and embarrassment for the
stakeholders.
Our strategy
is to be the go-to agency when clients need help in delivering mission
critical, enterprise digital projects.
In
order to deliver on that we need a culture based on flawless execution, pride
in our work, and recognition that if we fail, the fallout ripples across
clients, their team and their families.
We
need our team to understand that for professional software engineers,
accountability is more important than being able to bring your dog into the
office.
What role does brand play in transformation?
Brand will fundamentally influence how that
organisation pursues its Digital Transformation strategy.
From Aldi or Asda, Santander or Starling Bank,
organisations need to understand their customers and how they can serve them.
Some digital opportunities will apply across a
sector regardless of brand. They are so obvious, or commoditised, that they are
a no-brainer. Unique and compelling opportunities for Digital Transformation
often arise only when technology is considered in the context of a particular
industry or proposition.
All four of the examples above have obvious
customer-facing digital presences but the way they manifest have their own
subtle differences which can magnify into big differences in impact.
Behind the public websites and mobile apps are
networks of software systems that manage suppliers, processes and reporting.
These are what allow businesses to process orders quicker and more accurately,
comply with privacy and FCA regulations, sources cheaper
The values and propositions of each of them will
define their appetite for risk, their drive to modernise, and the attitude of
the talent they attract.
As the renowned Applied Futurist, Tom
Cheesewright, proclaims in his book “High Frequency Change”: success
is now defined by innovation, not optimisation.
They must foster a culture of innovation.
Whether internally or with external support, they must embrace change,
continuously identifying and delivering opportunities across the business to
improve their delivery.
What final advice would you offer a CEO or founder about to embark on a significant transformation project?
The good news is Digital Transformation is
really just doing what you’re already doing, but with a little more resolve.
You will already be discussing how you can improve your product, operational
efficiency or customer service every day, but perhaps undecided in which
direction to go, or how to prioritise expenditure.
It’s important that the senior team
understand, and commit to, both the capex and opex investment, and change in
working practices required.
The next step is to explore what’s possible,
and where the easy wins might be. This could be a few meetings and
conversations with an experienced consultant, or the creation of a Digital
Transformation strategy.
Whether you choose to build an internal team,
or engage an agency, you will need an experienced project lead who understands
both organisational need and technical delivery. Rushing out to hire a team of
developers or a traditional web agency without strong leadership will waste
both time and money.
The goal is a leaner, slicker, more agile
organisation.
About Sputnik
Sputnik architect & deliver online projects for clients with big ambition. They are a digital studio who work with clients to design, build and optimise their digital products and services. Being user experience led and results driven means that Sputnik take a pragmatic, data driven approach to their work.
Find out more at https://sputnik.digital/
Connect with Andy on Linked In
