Ideation/ Scoping – UseCase WorkShop

The concrete existence of and adherence to a Digitization Strategy is one of the key factors determining the success of a digital transformation. But, many companies currently do not have a holistic and detailed enterprise-wide digitalization strategy that precisely defines the framework for new development directions. Nevertheless, customer needs, markets, and competitors continue to evolve and so the general goal of digitalization should be pursued.

The basic question at the very beginning of a Digitalization project is: Where to start? Usually there are different stakeholders with different interests, a complex technological landscape and probably regulatory issues which need to be considered. Thus, there is a variety of use cases and it is impossible to implement them all at once.

To answer this fundamental question, it is necessary to involve all relevant stakeholders. One approach to find an appropriate starting point for a first successful application is to identify the most urgent pain points and to evaluate technologies and costs to develop business cases for optimization or to develop new digital services. Companies tend to have long processes to find a starting point and to evaluate the best use cases with the most added value.

We have designed a workshop to identify those use cases which qualify as a starting point. In step 1 major pain points are identified. Second, use cases are discussed which resolve these pain points. In step 3 we evaluate which value the single use cases add and how expensive it is to realize them. By putting those to dimensions in a matrix, the best use cases to start with are identified.

• Pain Points Identification and compilation of needs with a potential optimization

• Use Cases Documentation and specification of ways to solve / reduce pain points

• Feasibility Evaluation of technological feasibility and required effort

• Added Value Estimation of added value through savings and more revenues

• Result Use cases which provide value and can so implemented in time and budget

Once the right use cases to start with have been identified at least the top management will certainly ask the question about the business case. While the business case for each project needs to be analyzed in detail, especially in the service area there are several commonalities. We have developed expertise and tools to calculate the cost factors on the one side and estimate the value in terms of savings and additional revenues on the other side. By summing these up to a total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) and estimating the return-on-invest (ROI), a basic business case is at hand.