" Digigrow have played a pivotal role in transforming and growing our business. They were able to bring an unprecedented level of quantitative analysis to our business operations which added a whole new dimension to our system and they used this knowledge and understanding to help us forge a new strategic roadmap and to help us implement it. What impressed me most about Digigrow however was the time which they spent getting to know our business, our market, our goals and our visions, and how they incorporated these insights in to every suggestion which was made and every conversation which was had. They understood us and where we wanted to go. I cannot recommend them highly enough to any company looking to grow, transform or simply improve their business or strategic operations. "
Colin Chapman, Commercial Director Microsoft Ireland
Definition of the strategic roadmap
The purpose of our engagement with Microsoft was to work together with the internal team to clarify, redefine and reinvent the strategic plan for Microsoft Ireland. As part of this process we facilitated brainstorming meetings with key stakeholders in the organisation, group meetings and one-on-one conversations, focussing all of the time on solidifying and quantifying the core underlying values which were to act as the foundation for Microsoft's business in the short, medium and long-term future.
This allowed us to begin working with the CDS team to formulate, a strategic roadmap outlining the current position of the organisation, where it would like to be one, two, and three years from now, what the organisational priorities are and how it is going to achieve these on a day to day level. By adopting an all-inclusive approach, we ensured that we achieved an aligned vision, created, and believed in by all members of the Microsoft team.
Brainstorming
Our first priority was to work with Microsoft's key stakeholders to discuss and verbalise all of the different strategic options available to the organisation moving forward.
Risk Analysis
The next step was to quantify both the positive and negative risks associated with various possibilities and to developing a framework enabling unbiased comparisons between these.
Strategy Formulation
Using the strategic comparison framework developed during the risk analysis stage, we began to work with the CDS team leadership to dissect possibilities, adjust concepts, fuse different options and organically develop the organisation's optimum strategic roadmap.
Strategy Implementation
With the strategic roadmap in place, focus turned to the developing of realistic, achievable and effective implementation systems and methodologies involving personnel planning, workflow analysis, deliverable definition and timeline mapping.
Streamlining business networks and partnerships
As the Microsoft strategic plan began to crystallise, we focussed in conjunction with the CDS team lead upon shaping the optimum business partner and customers network which would enable Microsoft to achieve and exceed its strategic goals. Collectively, our primary objective was to ensure that we not only saw short term alignment with current and potential partners, but that we identified symbiotic partners with similar long-term visions and strategic focuses.
This allowed us to advise upon changes to existing relationships within the network of partners and customers, to propose and help forge new relationships, to prioritise appropriate relationships, and to develop a sustainable long term methodology for maintaining and strengthening this relationship network.
Investigation and analysis of business opportunities
One of the key issues which arose for Microsoft during our analysis of its partner and customer network was the traditional difficulty which the organisation has experienced quantifying potential business opportunities. Therefore we worked together with the team in Microsoft to review how each potential opportunity was being researched and how process and analytical models were being utilised to quantify these opportunities.
We were then able to propose several new methodologies and subsequently assist Microsoft with their deployment in order to enhance these operations. As part of this process we actively engaged with Microsoft to conduct detailed analyses of their profit & loss accounts and to use this obtained information to feed back in to the strategic roadmap which was being simultaneously formulated.
Opportunity Investigation
To really understand and compare opportunities available to the business, we needed to spend time quantifying each individual element relating to, and potentially influencing, historical or future performance.
Quantification & Comparison
The quantification and interpretation of information enables and informs evidence based decision making. We focussed upon converting the myriad of available data into sets of clean, easy to understand, comparable outputs allowing clear and impartial opportunity comparison.
Development of lean, empowered workflows
It was widely accepted that all of the strategic work carried out with Microsoft would not realise potential organisational performance improvements without the correct internal team structures and workflows. It was clear that to achieve the short, medium and long-term goals set out in the devised strategic plan, CDS team members would need to have clear ownership of processes, to have clear process visibility, to empower decision making, to streamline delegation and to have a transparent metric system which can be used to measure project success and to suggest future improvements. To achieve these objectives, we worked closely with the CDS lead and the rest of the Microsoft team devising clear workflows, ensuring that everyone was aligned with the devised plan and that the team were in agreement that this workflow would lead to improved operational performance.