Zoom In: Logicalis flags rise in quick and easy digital transformation projects

“Rather than a big bang, multi-zero project, we’re starting to see more sensible, realistic, quicker-to-influence, quicker-to-adopt projects,” UK MD Alex Louth says

COVID has prompted end users to ditch a big bang approach to digital transformation in favour of "more sensible, realistic, and quicker to adopt" projects.

That's according to the UK managing director of Logicalis, which this week unveiled Transform-Now, a technology and financial services framework designed to aid digital transformation efforts among its customers.

Talking to CRN, Alex Louth said that COVID had prompted a mindshift that has seen customers eschewing big, risky DX projects in favour of more piecemeal endeavours - a trend Transform-Now is looking to capitalise on.

"Rather than a big bang, multi-zero project, we're starting to see more sensible, realistic, quicker-to-influence, quicker-to-adopt projects," he said.

"We call it a minimal viable platform. Rather than customers saying ‘right, let's look at doing this everywhere at scale' and it being a huge project with all the risks and challenges that come with that, it's actually ‘right, what can we get done in a very short period of time that we can show works in our business, that we can then extend'."

It is tough to pull off the latter approach in a world where the reseller or SI does a deal and then disappears, Louth said.

This ties in with Transform-Now, which Louth characterised as a partnership with the customer.

Comprising the four pillars of Simplify, Financial, Business Outcomes and Value, Transform-Now aims to tap into the fleet-footed antics end users performed during lockdown within a more formal framework, Louth explained.

"Throughout lockdown we were getting things done really quickly. Suddenly there were no roadblocks. We asked the customer, ‘what's changed - how are we suddenly able to drop something down and get it working'? And it was all about using the customers' knowledge and our knowledge. How are we going to build a budget - we weren't involved in that, but maybe we should have been. How do we deliver and manage the change?

"Stop looking at customers to do this bit, and customers: stop looking at us just to do this little bit. There's so much more advisory beforehand and so much more work and change after a deployment that we can work on."