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Big Data, SAP, and Digital Transformation: Technical Innovation or Business Transformation?
When people join a project, it is quite common to onboard them with explanations on the general
context and the upcoming tasks. Clarity on the real driver of the project is often left out given that
most attention goes to the other project fundamentals - work, timing and budget.
For the success of the project, however, it is essential to fully understand and integrate the projects
raison de vivre the driver of change - in the management of the project. This is a fortiori so in
todays reality where business transformation and technical evolution are strongly intertwined, and
where companies try to gear up with new technologies. A critical review.
Project failures: some figures
Research indicates repeatedly that the majority of IT related projects fail for non-technical reasons
(Young, 2003; Gulla, 2012; Van der Meulen & Rivera, 2013). A major cause is the leaderships failure
to recognize and manage the magnitude of the change and its effects on those who must adapt, as
well as failing to deliver the benefits that are agreed upon at the start of the project.
Paying attention to change on the human level and opening the mind to a new way of thinking are
therefore factors that play a fundamental role in paving the road to success. To be able to do this,
the change driver needs to be embraced throughout the project lifecycle.
There is indeed limited added value in providing a hyper-advanced tool to people that only want to
continue to execute the very same daily professional routine, and use the tools they have been using
for years. If they dont grasp the goal and its potential advantages, and if they are not gradually
prepared for this change, the project outcome will not be used. There is even a risk that people will
blame the project outcome for service disruption or a loss in efficiency.
Starting with the very essence
When joining a project that is ongoing, it is key to look at the basics from different angles.
Firstly, one needs to understand what the project is going to support. This can be the
Standardization of processes, the Leanification of the organizational way of working, the
Harmonisation of heterogeneous solutions, Service Improvement... In this, a clear distinction needs
to be made between the means to attaining the goal and the goal itself. A project can, for example,
be focused on the delivery of a revamped ERP system, while the core of the change is reaching a
lean organization with integrated standard processes across the different organizational units.
Generally, it is extremely valuable to consult the Project Charter, Project Plan and Business Case. If
complete and available, they are supposed to provide most of the answers.
In addition, it is useful to know whether the project will be a Big Bang or not, and what Change
Context the project is facing. Different tools and techniques exist to do the change diagnostics (HBR,
2011). Some will be discussed in our next newsletter. In essence, we can already say that most of
them evaluate three drivers: the Climate for Change, the Mindset of the Stakeholders, and the
Project Impact. This is traditionally evaluated through interviews or questionnaires.

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All this information combined will offer a more shaded picture of the project reality, and will
definitely help to manage the project in line with the change driver.
This is also true when building the project from the very beginning. Guiding the organizational
project backbone and diving in technical freewheeling can only result in a concrete and valuable
outcome if the driver for change is structurally embedded, and if the efforts are framed, planned
and guided around a clear final goal.
Big Data, HANA, Digital Transformation
The distinction between Technical Innovation and Business Transformation as real driver will seem
straightforward in the majority of cases. Ambiguously enough, contexts involving hot technologies
like Big Data, HANA or Digital Transformation, do require a critical reading and understanding.
In the implementation of Big Data, for instance, the Big goal is rarely the data as such. The real driver
is opening the way to a novel way of thinking, which will, in turn, open new possibilities through
previously unthinkable insights. It is therefore essential to be explicit on a projects final purpose.
In the public context, for example, the city of Helsinki is planning to create a 2.0. transportation
system through its Traffic Lab project (Heikkil, 2014). The essence of the project is to have all types
of public and private traffic synchronized by 2025 through the combination of transport sharing,
streamlined payment technology and ambitious localization programs.
But when going to the core, Helsinki does not only want to have lots of big and small data, neither
only a better traffic management. Its blunt goal is to vectorise all means of transport towards a new
way of living for Helsinki. And with this conviction, it is shaping and driving Traffic Lab.
The same objective understanding is necessary for ERP articulated environments. The last couple of
years, for instance, the SAP world has been swarmed by HANA advocates. Does this reinforced
pressure mean that all HANA projects are purely technology transformations? Obviously not.
From a purely technical point of view, some will opt for HANA because of the compression rate
possibilities, others for the speed of data retrieval, or for the fact that it can process queries via
Hadoop like tools. From a non-technical point of view, the project may be driven by risk & roadmap
management reasons (anticipating SAPs 2020 deadline), or simply using a future-focused
technology as justification for a long awaited streamlining of organizational processes.
As the reasons to do the HANA project may differ, the expectations and success factors may differ
as well. Consequently, a clear view on the technical and/or organizational goal(s) needs to be
integrated in the overall project approach from the very beginning, despite the temptation to go
generic in case of a purely technical transformation.
Those who believe that the Digital Transformation sphere and its futuristic 3.0. aura are an
exception, should pay attention: it is bound to follow a similar logic.
The very essence of Digital Transformation goes namely beyond the generation of leads on social
media, developing Apps, or generating leads through mobile sales. It is first of all about anticipating
the future by thinking in a totally different way, with totally different frames of
references.
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Digital experts emphasize the fact that focusing on new mindsets and understanding the value of
customer experience is a prerequisite for the technological side of digital disruption. Organisations
need to define first the new types of customer experiences and market dynamics they will be
impacted by, develop detailed scenarios on the most critical ones, and invest in tackling these
scenarios. (Viaene, 2014; Caudron & Van Peteghem, 2014).
The projects coming out of these digital reflections might be focused on the delivery of a specific (set
of) product(s). But the integration of the game changing spirit will truly influence the way the project
will be staffed (eg. choosing for the proverbial geeks or a quirky team combination), managed (eg.
leaving more room for experimental iterations), or evaluated (eg. gaining experience and developing
new ideas might be as valuable as the outcome itself).
Once the driver is clear, the rest will follow
In essence, it is the clear view on what is really at stake for the organization that will shape the
project fundamentals, and bring, throughout the entire project lifecycle, a synchronized, contextual
and functional coherence to otherwise loose pieces and people. As we have seen, this is not only the
case in classical Business Transformation projects, but also for those involving Technical Innovation
be it newest ERP evolutions or others.
Once the basics are defined and the driver of change clear, the rest will follow naturally. The
Business Case will fit. The entire portfolio of activities, projects and data tools will be assessed,
prepared and aligned. Change Management actions will be put in motion and, last but not least, the
project journey kicked off.

References & Further reading

Caudron, J. , Van Peteghem, D. , (2014). Digital Transformation. Tielt, Belgium: LannooCampus
Gulla, J., (2012, February). Sevens Reasons IT Projects Fail. IBM Systems Magazine. Retrieved May 13, 2014, from
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/
HBR, Kotter, J.P., Kim, W.C., & Mauborgne, R., (2011). HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management, Boston, MA: Harvard
Business Review Press.
Heikkil, S., (2014). Mobility as a Service A Proposal for Action for the Public Administration (Masters thesis), Retrieved
from Aaltodoc, August 23, 2014, from http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201405221895.
Plattner, H., & Zeier, A., (2012). In-Memory Data Management. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Van der Meulen, R., & Rivera, J., (2013). Gartner Predicts Business Intelligence and Analytics Will Remain Top Focus for CIOs
Through 2017. Press Release, Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2637615
Viaene, S., (2014). Zorg ervoor dat je technologie mee kan. Business Bytes. Retrieved May 15, 2015, from
http://business.telenet.be/nl/artikel/zorg-ervoor-dat-je-technologie-mee-kan
Young, C.M., (2003). Driving Organizational Change: Key Issues. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from
https://www.gartner.com/doc/383466

Information about the Author: https://be.linkedin.com/in/janssensjurgen |

Information about TETRADE Consulting: http://www.tetrade.be/

JRGEN JANSSENS