The six success factors of a business transformation roadmap

However, the implementation of the software is not a detached IT project for companies. Rather, it also means alignment with the corporate strategy and a comprehensive transformation process.

This is an exciting journey that requires structured route planning in the form of a business transformation roadmap. The key success factors of this roadmap are summarized below.

Business Alignment

The first important stop is to become aware as a company that alignment with strategic business goals is the basic prerequisite for sustainable transformation.

This is because the necessary processes and required functionalities of a supporting technology result from this. This is the only way to ensure that an ERP system effectively and intelligently supports the corporate vision in general and the specialist departments in particular.

Onboarding

However, this business alignment can only be and remain successful if all relevant departments of the company - from the C-level to the productive forces - are part of the mission.

To do this, it is necessary to pick up all the employees concerned according to their positions and previous knowledge and to present them with the possibilities for new technologies. Only then can the transformation of business processes succeed in the course of a software implementation or migration.
Competence

Consequently, the bridge between IT and business can only be built with internal acceptance and the necessary competencies. A competent consulting and system partner is in a position to play a significant role in shaping and controlling this process.

This requires a jointly developed, structured transformation plan that the company, supported by its partner, can later implement smoothly and step by step.
Reflection

A key position point of the roadmap is the consistent review of all business processes. This is the only way to determine which processes are actually business-critical and which are "only" supportive, and where efficiency improvements and optimization are possible and sensible.

After all, retrofitting to the standard provided can also contribute to a higher degree of automation or optimization of process throughput times.

Holistic

For a complete review, it is essential to look at the entire process landscape. Departments such as finance, purchasing, sales, and marketing need a holistic analysis of their processes in order to be able to improve them through technology and with regard to corporate goals.
Prototyping

However, before an implementation can actively take place, a kind of test run should take place. After all, when a company embarks on business transformation, the necessary adjustments must be supported by everyone affected by the implementation.

A prototype enables the transformation to be tracked and makes changes understandable at the process, technological and organizational levels.

In addition, prototyping allows initial findings to be gained and taken into account directly for the subsequent project. This minimizes potential risks during implementation and business transformation.

The Business Transformation Roadmap closes the gap between the current situation in the company and its vision - with optimal use of software solutions.

Companies can find more in-depth information on this in the whitepaper "From vision to reality - the S/4 business transformation roadmap" from Arvato Systems, which is available at arva.to/s4-btr is available for download free of charge.