There’s a reason the saying “people, processes and technology” has lasted so long at a time when catchphrases quickly come and go.  It has endured precisely because it is correct – you really do need all three in place for your business to be successful today, none of them can be entirely replaced and none of them entirely works without the others.

But I’d add that there’s a fourth element that should be included in the statement.  And it should come first.  That element is “strategy”.

When you have a seamless connection between Strategy, People, Processes and Technology, you have a recipe for success.  Lose just one of them and you’re perhaps leaving more to luck than you should.

This is the reason, I believe, that many organizations are left disappointed with the results after engaging with consulting firms: the firm is so focused on one or two of these elements that it ignores the crucial role of the others.  A common scenario is to become so focused on strategy or technology that the other elements are overlooked and end up becoming the weak links.

I saw this firsthand when a Japanese bank with operations in America wanted to move to the cloud.  The consulting firm’s cloud strategy looked impressive on paper (or in PowerPoint), but the end result was an expensive disaster.  Why? Because the project had failed to establish the right connection points between the strategic initiatives and the technical execution required to support them.

And I wasn’t alone in seeing this same failure time and time again.

SHI President and CEO, Thai Lee, recognized that SHI was in a unique position to help clients create and execute on truly joined-up initiatives, working with organizations at every step of their journey – from identifying the underlying business pains and opportunities, to presenting tailored technology solutions, to finally helping the organization implement and adopt the chosen solutions.

But to provide this complete service would require a new approach.  SHI had the foundations, but it needed to be able to better partner with the C-Level and provide consulting that seamlessly interconnected with SHI’s core competencies around software and hardware sales, license advisory, technical implementation, training, IT asset management and managed services.

Enter Stratascale.

And specifically, my team, Transformative Services.  In partnership with our colleagues at SHI, Stratascale and the Transformative Services team bring the ability to join Strategy, People, Processes and Technology into a single cohesive experience for customers.  At Stratascale, we work with the C-Suite to assess organizational health, provide insight on industry trends and disruptive technologies, and then provide the consulting and technological resources to see the project through to delivery seamlessly.

One of the real points of differentiation between the unique combination of Stratascale and SHI versus other consulting firms and technology solutions providers you might have interacted with in the past is the concept of using Transformative Services as a constant throughout the four core phases of any project or initiative.

Here’s how we do it:

Phase 1: Discovery

At Stratascale, we believe to do technology right, enterprise leaders first need to identify and validate their business objectives.  When this is done, the focus then moves to the technologies that will get them there.

This is where Transformative Services first comes in. We are an elite group of experienced management consultants focused on defining your business priorities. For every client engagement, we validate your current business state, evaluate critical priorities, conduct a gaps analysis, and propose areas for strategic business alignment.

Through our initial engagement, we uncover your competitive strengths and deficiencies from a customer, employee, and partner perspective by:

• Capturing and providing insight into how your current processes and decisions are made with areas for improvement
• Identifying financial challenges you need to address in order to fund future transformation initiatives
• Laying the groundwork for further quantification and rationalization of decisions, metrics, and targets that meet your business strategy

All of this is actionable information you can carry forward.

Phase 2: Assess

Now that you have line of sight on where your business needs to go, Stratascale and Transformative Services helps you identify the right technologies to make your transformation possible.

Transformative Services is tightly connected with Stratascale Innovation Labs, the company’s research and technical advisory arm focused on assessing and validating your technology innovation. Through Innovation Labs, our research team classifies technology ideas, products, and vendors in your business environment and with the support of Stratascale and SHI’s engineering teams, maps your business objectives to technical requirements, highlights gaps with design principles, and identifies accountability for your technical outcomes.

Innovation Labs also provides direct support through in-depth research projects and executive level Horizon Briefings. Our Innovation Labs technical advisors and Customer Innovation Center teams then test and validate any proposed technology solutions, making sure they are feasible within your organization and provide you with a proposed roadmap for implementation.

Phase 3: Architect

With business and technology strategies in hand, now Stratascale helps you put everything into action, with the Transformative Services team retaining their key role as partner to your senior stakeholders.  We work directly with our technology teams creating technical architectures that align to your defined requirements and map your key business objectives and design principles.

Our experienced field CTOs and CISOs are brought in as appropriate to act as trusted IT advisors and help bring your technology roadmaps to life.  We also leverage our parent company SHI, tapping into their extensive partner ecosystem for procurement, technology implementation planning and delivery, and managed services capabilities.

Phase 4: Transform

So your technology implementation is going great, but how do you ensure it is understood and accepted by your stakeholders and properly aligns to your desired business outcomes.  This is a make-or-break time for your transformation to be successful and interestingly enough, it is also an area where traditional management consulting firms come up short.

Because Stratascale is focused on rapidly adapting your organization in response to change and challenges through technology innovation--we call this digital agility, we purposely position our Transformative Services team to assist during that “last mile” of your implementation, providing consulting support that connects your new technology innovation to affiliated business functions and desired outcomes.

For example, take an implementation of end-user computing services from AWS, which enables you to easily provision virtual, cloud-based Microsoft Windows desktops for internal users, providing them access to the documents, applications, and resources needed from anywhere, anytime, and from any supported device.

In this scenario, as our technology teams are implementing the AWS offerings, Transformative Services focuses on your communications, training, and consulting support including the interplay of technological components, effects on governance structure, lifecycle management, and change management with regard to your corporate culture.

How It Will All Work to Your Advantage 

At Stratascale, our relentless focus on Digital Agility means we interlock our different teams to ensure the seamless sharing of information and wisdom between our business consultants and technologists. As a company with a consulting and research mindset, we are always thinking about your business objectives and end user experience.

“In every Stratascale engagement, Transformative Services is there to help make sure your business is going in the right direction.  We identify your business needs and help you achieve the required results through technology innovation.  This is done by road mapping not just your destination, but also the potholes beyond the headlights, while executing on your business vision.

Having worked in this industry for over 20 years and experienced what it’s like to engage with a vast array of consulting firms, technology solutions providers and resellers, I feel that Transformative Services is a differentiator that drives real customer value.  It de-risks the normally fragmented nature of solution design, deliver and support and it brings a consistency of experience to the entire engagement from start to finish.

Contact us and learn more how to benefit from the experience of our Transformative Services leaders.