Digital transformation (DX) continues to remain a priority for businesses today. Digital transformation (DX) continues to remain a priority for businesses today. Forecasts from IDC say that global spending on DX will accelerate in 2022, to reach $2.8 trillion by 2025. And, data from PwC shows 60% of executives say DX is “their most critical growth driver in 2022.” It’s no surprise then, that half of surveyed UK business leaders say they will be experimenting with new technologies and launching new digital projects in 2022.

But how can businesses be sure their DX projects and investments are having the desired impact? When it comes to measuring success, many businesses struggle. For instance, assessing whether new tools and software have been adopted, if lasting change to processes has been brought about, and whether the digital employee experience (DEX) has improved. Typically, these elements are hard to quantify. Which is where workplace analytics comes in. Read on for or an example of how a large retailer can take a sophisticated and accurate approach to measuring DX success by using Scalable Software’s workplace analytics platform, Acumen.

Seeing the before and after

The large retailer is considering a new digital initiative that would see it change its primary productivity platform from Microsoft to Google Workspace. One reason for the move is the cost benefit, and another is the pure-cloud nature of Google, which better suits the retailer’s mobile workforce.

However, the company is also keen to give employees choice over the platforms they use, and it wanted to see if some employees are actually best served by staying on Microsoft. If that is the case, the company will only move specific users or groups to Google. It’s important that this kind of digital transformation project isn’t just about rolling out a new solution to the company without making sure it is going to be useful and engaging for employees.

What the retailer really needs is an accurate way of comparing the “before” and “after” scenarios. This kind of analysis allows it to evaluate the migration in detail – making sure that no employee’s experience will be harmed by moving to another platform or their productivity reduced. Acumen delivers this visibility.

Building a baseline for success

Firstly, Acumen is used to assess how existing tools and software are used. This gives the retailer knowledge of which employees are using which features of Microsoft, and how often. But importantly, it also lets them know which features are never used and by whom. This data gives the retailer an accurate baseline to plan and measure any potential migration and identify those employees that are good candidates for a move.

With these insights, the company can select this initial subgroup of employees where there is a clear business case for migration. This subgroup is the highly mobile sales team, who are fairly light users of productivity tools in the first place. By selecting this team, it’s also a good opportunity for the retailer to try out the general migration approach before it is applied to all employees. Those that are the heaviest users of Microsoft will be the last to migrate, and in some cases, certain employees will have access to both Microsoft and Google.

The key takeaway here is how workplace analytics arms a company with data that lets it make the best decisions for individual employees and protect their experience, while ensuring the transformation is successful.

Ensuring continued ROI

The company can now continue using Acumen to maintain success and ROI. Acumen’s dashboard view gives IT and business leaders detailed metrics at a glance, without technicalities obscuring the true findings. This lets it compare the two platforms easily by team, location, and role, and confirm they are still performing as planned for employees. With Acumen, the retailer can keep a close eye on the migration schedule and make sure each group or employee is being moved over as planned. Moreover, once an employee has moved, continual monitoring with Acumen reassures the IT team that users are experiencing like-for-like functionality and have a good digital experience.

We know that digital programs are an important undertaking for any business. We also know how important it is to make sure that projects engage employees, deliver ROI, and contribute to an organization’s strategic goals. Acumen gives IT teams and business leaders the data and insights to be confident of success.

Find out how Acumen can support your digital transformation projects.