Is digital transformation right for my consulting business?
Published by
Mindset team
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Digital transformation is commonly discussed as the next frontier for business, but not many people know how to make it happen. There are plenty of organisations out there promoting the idea of technology innovation, underpinned by an agenda to sell you their SaaS platform. But few can give you the tools to successfully implement their solutions in a way that achieves embedded transformation.
For this reason, the majority of software projects either fail, or become a siloed process.
Naturally, this leaves many firms wary of initiating their own digital transformation journey. It raises many questions and concerns; is digital transformation right for my management consultancy firm? Will I get any return on my investment? Will this move improve my business model?
In this article, we look at the biggest challenges we’ve seen firms struggle with, but also explore how, when done right, digital transformation can support management consultancies to evolve their business model.
Common digital transformation worries
“My digital tools make my life harder”
Many of our customers tell us how having various disconnected digital solutions makes their job more difficult. Jumping from PowerPoint for training presentations, to communicating on Slack, to using Miro boards to collect ideas (while also finding the time to create content for social media) makes managing their digital world more of a hassle than it’s worth.
Mindset integrates a majority of business solutions, including communication, social media, and CMS, into a single connected platform. It directly connects you and your consulting material with your customers, without the hassle.
“Implementing and integrating platforms is challenging”
The task of adopting many different solutions and then creating a cohesive architecture is, no doubt, daunting. It takes a lot of forethought and planning if it’s to be done correctly.
Choosing solutions that are widely compatible, or that solve multiple problems, is a good way to alleviate this fear. For example, Mindset can act as a one stop shop for all your customer-facing tools and content management needs – minimising any complex integrations.
“We don’t have enough time or staff to make it work”
One of the main drivers for digital transformation is to streamline operations, so it’s no surprise that firms thinking about the transition are already time poor.
This can lead to firms not implementing solutions properly, or not investing the time into training their staff and poor adoption. Either way, these difficulties can significantly reduce your ROI on digital transformation.
This is helped by onboarding fewer solutions. It’s also important to choose a provider who can go on this journey with you. Mindset is not only easy to customise and use, with configurable modules and streamlined automation tools, but our team works with yours to create and implement the solution.
“What if we lose our personal touch?”
Digital transformation can seem synonymous with dehumanisation; which for a consulting firm would completely undercut the purpose of the service. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Firms can use technology to empower their customer relationships, improve engagement, and enhance their personalisation. Mindset’s AI/ML capabilities ensure every interaction is unique and customised to each individual.
“I don’t know where to start”
This is understandably a concern, considering, as the word transformation suggests, there’s a lot of change to come. How do you know whether to prioritise getting an LMS vs CRM vs video conferencing tool?
Mindset takes away this pain, delivering all your most essential tools in a single platform, already working in harmony. Our team is also there to guide you through best practice transformation, leading you through every stage.
How can digital solutions support management consultancy firms?
Proposition differentiation
A digital infrastructure for your business, and therefore your consulting services, is a key selling point. You can deliver your services uniquely, more engagingly, and more flexibly, to name just a few benefits. Plus, as many of your customers are likely going through their own digital transformations, you can identify with and accommodate their journey.
Reinvent your business model
Digital transformation has the power to completely evolve your business model and service delivery. Management consultancies can become digital businesses, with;
- Repeatable processes
- Automated tasks and workflows
- Improved learning, development, and engagement
- Increased margins on each customer
They can even productise repeatable elements of their services for a more future-proofed and scalable business model.
New business opportunities
Digitisation gives you more opportunity to upsell with existing customers and create new products or solutions. This can all be done based on customer data and insight, which can be captured, amalgamated, and analysed with a digital solution.
Increase in revenue
Feeding off the two points above, digitisation helps firms open up new avenues for revenue. Plus, existing streams of revenue are optimised as digitisation reduces resource, time, and money spent per customer.
Efficient and integrated operations
Speeding up and automating essential, but manual, tasks leaves time for consultants to add value to the important and in-person moments. The right solutions should focus on the elements that machines do best, such as data analysis, micro content delivery, or journey tracking, while you focus on building relationships.
The potential for business success
Harvard Business Review shows that firms who embrace digital transformation, ‘leaders’, are outperforming those who don’t, ‘laggards’, in both revenue and CAGR. So how are these so-called leaders doing it?
Ultimately, it’s not about getting a few disparate solutions to make certain processes better. If you're taking this approach, you’re not taking advantage of digital transformation’s full potential.
Digital transformation is an approach to evolving your entire business model – especially for consultancies whose service-based model can hold them back in terms of revenue, growth, and impact.
RELATED: It’s time for consultancies to shift from a service model mindset
Just as consulting work has the most positive impact when all employees and departments are involved, digital transformation is only truly successful when it saturates an organisation; from digital architecture to operational processes, and workforce culture to skills and mindset.
“Digital transformation requires that executives, managers, and frontline employees work together to rethink how every aspect of the business should operate” - Marco Iansiti and Satya Nadella, HBR
In short, the leaders are defined as digital natives. This is a characterisation of their processes, culture, and organisational structure that has set them up to succeed. It looks a little like this:
- Democratised data-driven innovation
- AI expertise and ML technology
- Agile culture
- End-to-end solution ownership
- Customised and self-maintained tools/platforms
- Automation and optimisation
Why Mindset
Mindset is designed to make your life easier, not harder. The connected platform is easy to use, implement, and maintain – plus it supports your services and success. With Mindset, you can make digital transformation work for your business.