Digital Transformation

A digital transformation that starts with how you sell and how you buy

We approach digital transformation in a focused, practical way: changing how an order comes in, how each customer's price list is applied, how a purchase from a supplier is approved and how the customer is told where their shipment is. These are the processes where you can see every day whether the company runs on reliable data or on spreadsheets passed around by email.

That's why we don't propose programmes that tackle everything at once. We pick the sales and purchasing flows that take the most time or cause the most errors, connect them to the ERP and move them to the right digital channel (online store, B2B portal or internal tool) before moving on to the next one.

This approach deliberately leaves out grand speeches about digital culture. Culture changes when a sales rep stops spending the afternoon copying orders and a buyer knows at any moment what is still due to arrive; that is what we try to achieve first.

The phases of a digital transformation programme

The first phase sets the baseline and the priorities: how orders, catalogue, price lists and supplier relationships work today, and which systems are involved at each step. The second designs the future process: which system owns each piece of data, which tools are missing and what integrates with what.

The third phase rolls out in waves, and each wave delivers something the team uses from day one: for example, first catalogue and customer-specific prices in the store, then orders integrated with the ERP, and later self-service invoices and delivery notes. The fourth consolidates: adoption by the teams, measurement and adjustments.

Each phase ends with an explicit decision to continue, adjust or stop. That way the budget is committed in tranches rather than all at once.

The phases are not watertight: while one wave is being rolled out, the next is already being designed, so the in-house team doesn't have to take on everything at once and the programme doesn't stall between waves.

Governance of the digital transformation project

A programme like this cuts across sales, purchasing, logistics, finance and IT. Without clear governance, each department defends its own priority and the project stalls. We propose a steering committee that meets on a fixed schedule to decide scope and priorities, a business-side owner with real decision-making authority, and a project manager on our side who coordinates every provider involved.

Between committee meetings, the team works from a log of decisions, risks and scope changes that everyone can see. When a new requirement appears, such as a customer type with special terms or a supplier that demands a different order format, its impact on timeline and cost is assessed before it is accepted.

We also define from the start how decisions are communicated to the rest of the organisation, so that teams not represented on the committee know what is going to change in their work and when.

How progress in digital transformation is measured

With operational metrics, not statements of intent: the weight of the digital channel in total orders compared with phone or email, how many orders need manual correction before reaching the ERP, how long it takes from receiving an order to invoicing it, and how many shipment-status enquiries reach customer service.

We measure these values during the first phase so we can later compare against your own data rather than industry averages. If a metric doesn't move, the programme is reviewed: sometimes the problem is not the tool but a step in the process that nobody has changed.

The metrics are presented to the committee at every meeting and always in the same format, so the conversation is about facts rather than impressions.