From Vision to Reality: Partnering with an Experienced System Integrator for Digital Success
The Digital-First Revolution
Imagine you, a key stakeholder and decision maker at a complex business, who has high hopes of implementing a new digital commerce platform to "revolutionize our operations and become a digital-first juggernaut". You then went through the basic due diligence and selected a System Integrator who promised to deliver results at a fraction of the cost of a more experienced provider. Almost a deal too good to be true. When rubber meets the road, shiny objects and flighty aspirations can quickly turn to a trough of disillusionment as soon as signatures are put on paper. All Systems Integrators are not created equal but are crucial in helping with the technology side to bring your vision to a reality. Let's explore why an experienced System Integrator is an asset and ally to being an ingredient for digital success as the technology will only take you so far.
Why Experience Matters in System Integration
According to plenty of sources the failure rate of digital transformations falls somewhere in the upper percentiles of 70% to 95% and most of the time it has nothing to do with technology. But even looking at technology projects, a staggering low number are considered successful, and many are utter failures.
There are countless reasons why we keep stumbling, and one of them is due to the ever-growing $822 billion technology professional services industry. If you're reading this, surprise, we here at Luminos Labs are a part of this segment. We've seen both the buying and selling side of professional services more than a couple of times.
On the buying side it's ultimately an exercise in risk mitigation -- our core motto is "Who can help us avoid brick walls and minimize speedbumps?" Yeah, that's pessimistic, but we're not glossing over the aforementioned stats. Coming from the technology executive perspective, we know that somehow, someway, and somewhere any issue that arises will come rolling back to me when the questions start getting asked. On the selling side...well that's for another time. Out of all the variables of picking a third-party hardware/software/services company, I believe that taking a hard look at the firm's experience is a key indicator of success for your project/initiative.
That shouldn't come as a surprise, but the amount of startups and carve-outs happening in an expanding industry results in a ton of marketingese. Often times this marketing is ahead of execution capabilities. This post will provide a synopsis on why experience matters and other variables you should assess when making the determination to outsource. The focus will be on System Integrators that drive, navigate, and support your implementation of a critical Digital Commerce project or initiative.
The Core Macro Considerations for Selecting a System Integrator
Once you've made a determination to outsource the work required, a number of major considerations are always in play. However, let's first start with what we are absolutely looking to avoid. These are the speed bumps and brick walls mentioned before:
Major project delays
Cost overruns
Poor quality deliverables
Inability to communicate
A Systems Integrator who has been around the block a few times knows how to navigate, or at least minimize these to a large degree. We'd like to say they are table stakes to the dance, but the amount of times the above issues show up in the services industry is astounding.
Great, so the basics are out of the way on what to avoid, but what ARE we looking for in a Systems Integrator to execute our digital commerce project? Let's boil it down to the core macro-level functions:
Expertise
A team of seasoned individuals with both hands on and functional knowledge in digital commerce development, implementation, and support. They have worked on similar projects and can bring valuable insights to the table that are not often readily available in-house.
Risk Management
Risk is everywhere and there is certainly a correlation with increasing risk as a project goes on longer, scope shifts, and budgetary agreements become murky. An experienced System Integrator will constantly be looking to mitigate risk to the project via quality control, processes, and collaboration to ensure your business is successful in achieving what has been agreed upon.
Focus
By outsourcing specialized and complex work, you can free up your internal team to focus on other critical aspects of the business such as the end-customer or internal stakeholder groups like marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. This does not mean work will be completed in a black box, but rather the internal team will be engaged as needed for decision making, input, and consult.
Cost Allocation
An external service can often be more cost effective than hiring and/or training a team to handle the workload. A measured opportunity cost evaluation should be considered but understand that a System Integrator will also bring established relationships with other vendors, key contacts in the industry to lean on, as well as other resources that you may not need long term but have already been procured and setup by the services team. Just as Digital Commerce is comprised of a technology ecosystem, it's also an ecosystem of people.
Speed
This may be your internal team's first time tackling a project like this, but an experienced System Integrator will have dozens under their belt. The System Integrator will be able to leverage existing activities and deliverables as starting points to save time, while allowing you to make decisions as a business unique to your needs, without having to start from scratch. This does not diminish the overall complexity of the project, but rather provides options to tackle the complexity step-by-step in a digestible manner without being stuck in analysis paralysis. When you start adding all the things that have to be done correctly a vast sea of possible System Integrator options, the smaller the playing field gets with those that can actually execute.
Zooming in on Expertise and Experience
If we're talking about System Integrators, it's highly probable they are implementing and integrating a software product, or a group of products. As such, many System Integrators are partnered with technologies that have what is referred to as "metallic" levels such as Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze. Technology companies use these as levels within their partner network, particularly if the technology company does not provide professional services themselves. This does not mean Platinum is better than Gold, or Bronze is worse than Silver. Heck, Luminos Labs is Platinum partner with quite a few technologies, but not all of them! It's simply a data point and you should critically evaluate further based on your needs. So if those levels aren't pure indicators of experience, what do we mean by "Expertise"?
Let's take a look at how we view "Expertise" needed in Digital Commerce and the micro-level of detail you should consider:
Specialized Skillsets
Skillsets that go beyond being the "IT guy" and consist of both technical and practical skills that are useful in many settings but may not be available or needed long term within your organization.
This may include platform specific front-end or back-end dev, database management, UX design, business analysis, solution architecture, strategy, integration specialist, DevOps, project management, etc.
Exposure and Access to Technology
Exposure to platforms and technology required to integrate and operationalize a great commerce experience including payment gateways, shopping carts, shipping & logistics, search & navigation, product information management, ERPs, DAMs, etc.
Experienced System Integrators have seen a lot, and with so much exposure know what to avoid and evaluate the best options for both short- and long-term needs with you.
Industry Knowledge
Able to bring valuable insights and best (realistic) practices to the project along with helping identify key features and functionality tied to your business and avoid common pitfalls. The experience in a variety of verticals in both the B2B and B2C arenas helps take what may translate across the chasm, even more so as B2B2C is so common.
Execution Flexibility
Organizations are fairly dynamic; things are always changing. Having an experienced SI will understand that and be able to adapt and use agility to your mutual advantage. While an outside third party should certainly be holding you accountable regarding decision making, scope, and direction, they will also be able to bend as needed in order to pivot due to changing market conditions, customer needs, and significant changes in the business.
An experienced firm will not require every one of their roles be on your project. They will assess your current internal capabilities and bandwidth to apply the roles and skillsets that make the most use of your budget and bring value.
Scalability
As your business grows and becomes even more complex, not only should your technology be able to scale, your SI partner should be able to as well. An outside company should be able to help both the technology scalability as well as the people-support scalability to achieve your aspirations. However, this means that your SI partner should also be willing to scale back as necessary when needed so budgets are utilized appropriately.
Ongoing Support
Digital Commerce solutions, often comprised of multiple technology platforms, require ongoing maintenance, updates, and support to ensure they continue to function properly. An experienced SI will be able to help you not only "keep the lights on" as new functionality and updates come out but also incorporate new functionality to your site based on adding customer value and achieve your organization's goals.
Going live with your new digital commerce site is a brand-new beginning and a great SI partner will be there with you across the initial finish line but ready for the next race in the journey.
Your particular project and initiative, preference, and organizational culture may value each of these differently. The key is to understand what areas of expertise are going to most benefit you and your organization attributing to the success of your project. Take into consideration your current internal staff skillsets and how they would best partner with a Systems Integrator so that 1 + 1 = 3.
Actionable Steps to Evaluate a System Integrator
Utilizing an experienced System Integrator for your Digital Commerce project will help greatly reduce running into those proverbial brick walls and make the speed bumps less turbulent. Finding that balance of an organization who has the deep experience, isn't going to bring an unnecessary army of people, and won't rake you over the financial coals seems like an impossible task - but they do exist. Here are a few actionable tips prior to signing an agreement you should take:
Solicit the technology partner for advice on a few System Integrators that may be a good fit. Do NOT rely solely on this information and use it as a single data point for consideration. Do your own due diligence.
Once you have a solidified Systems Integrator shortlist, work through the courting discussions. Be mindful of what is being sold vs. understood. If they are asking more questions about you than them telling you how great they are; that's a good sign.
Check references! On large projects like this that can greatly affect your internal operations and brand exposure, you should take a "Trust but verify" approach. Ask for a few references that resemble some portion of similarities with your situation: industry, size, business model, complexity, back-office systems, technology platform, etc.
Try and avoid a lengthy RFP with an established list of 100's of requirements early in the game. Go into things with an open mind because you may be limiting yourself right out of the gate with what could be preconceived notions. Exclusions apply if you're obligated by regulatory compliance.
Talk to people at the System Integrator who are likely to be staffed on your project for execution. The Sales to Delivery chasm is VERY wide in professional services which leads to people pitching the dream and the delivery arm having to implement the nightmare. Talking to an individual or two on your project helps with bridging that gap and getting a good sense on how the "way of working" will feel.
Speculate the lowest cost provider if you are putting them in a competitive situation. Be cautious and speculate on why they may be the lowest cost. Are they a low-cost provider? Is something missing from the scope? Did they miss a digit on the proposal?
Collaborate on contingency plans early. Even an experienced System Integrator will be running over those speed bumps with you but there may be external factors in play that are out of both your control. Talk about what the plans are from a financial obligation and execution handover standpoint if things don't go as loosely written. It happens. Risk Management is all about Impact and Likelihood - the stats mentioned early in this article should tell you likelihood is a significant player here. What is your exit strategy?
The Case for an Inexperienced Systems Integrator
Hypothetically, is there a place for an inexperienced System Integrator for your project? There is and it would be irresponsible not to advocate to situations where that may apply. Here are a few circumstances where an inexperienced System Integrator may be applicable:
Technology
They may not be well versed in the technology that is chosen but they have a solid track record of figuring it out quickly and adapting as long as they've worked in the function before (CMS, OMS, ECP, etc.). We all have to start somewhere.
Industry
They may not have a deep industry experience in your particular vertical but that may not be a dealbreaker if they are heavily focused on technology and engineering aspects. Whether B2B, DTC, or B2C, many concepts are transferrable or is a catalyst for outside the box thinking.
People
They may be a newer established organization that is "young" but the core leadership and team members are veterans with deep practitioner skillsets.
Roles
They may be lacking in a competency like project management, data analysis, or conversion rate optimization but this is a team sport. You may gap fill that, or a specialized and trusted contractor/referral could be recommended.
As long as you keep a constant eye on mitigating that nasty risk, you may be able to pivot the inexperience into a leveraged commercial conversation as the buyer. This doesn't always work but it's a tool in your negotiation toolbox you should have as a decision maker. There is a time and place for an inexperienced System Integrator and it doesn't always have to come at the cost of project failure - all about perspective.
If It Seems Too Good Be True...
Selecting a System Integrator is often an overlooked part of the process of implementing and setting up a Digital Commerce initiative. With digital and technology project failure rates at an alarmingly high level, taking a hard look at the organizations experience is essential. Ultimately, choosing a System Integrator with the right level of experience that matches your needs can help ensure that your project is successful in avoiding those pesky brick walls and reduce the impact of those speed bumps that rear their ugly head.
Let us bring your vision and aspirations of Digital Commerce to a reality. At Luminos, we've helped dozens of businesses over the last 13+ years navigate the complexities of their digital commerce transformation journeys. Please reach out to us to discover together if we can be of assistance.