How to start your digital transformation journey

What is the most important part of starting a digital transformation journey? Do you know what role an ISV should play in implementation and adoption?
Laura Reininger
Laura Reininger
Laura is the Content Specialist at ClickLearn, operating at the intersection of Marketing and Experience Design, helping to increase awareness of concepts, companies, problems and ideas.

If digital transformation is looming large in your organization, these essential tips for starting the journey can help you get the start you need. Rachel Profitt outlines the three most important factors, and gives us a peek behind the curtains at Microsoft.

In this article you will learn:

  • The importance of getting back to the basics of business processes
  • Why software selection should be (at least) the second thing on your list
  • What ISV’s need to do to aid digital transformation
  • What Microsoft is doing to increase focus on change management

Listen to the podcast here or read the full transcript in the bottom here.

More on Rachel...

Rachel Profitt rests on an over 20-year journey with Microsoft, starting in accounting and finance, then moving to the partner channel and beyond. Along the way, she has racked up an array of illustrious accomplishments including:

  • Ted Talks Speaker
  • Microsoft D365 Unboxed Host
  • Microsoft Fast Track Solutions Architect
  • Founder, Dynamics365Lady.com 
  • Digital Adoption Talks podcast speaker
Don’t miss a chance to stop by Profitt’s Microsoft D365 Unboxed YouTube channel. You’ll get user tips, information on releases, Q&A sessions, and much more. Get a chuckle on the channel and listen to one of Rachel’s own humorous self-penned, Microsoft-themed tunes based on popular songs.  

Below, Profitt shares her expertise and advice by outlining three essential tips for digital transformation in D365 F&O. Stick around for her inside update on change management at Microsoft.

So... what are the essential tips to start a digital transformation?

Now, Profitt is sharing her expertise and advice. She outlines the fundamentals for us, starting with three keys to digital transformation. Stick around for her inside update on change management at Microsoft.

1. Get back to the basics of internal business processes

The most critical foundation for the digital transformation journey is for customers to make connections between technology and ISV solutions. Then they need to tie them to business goals. Successful digital adoption depends on it.

Remember to consider the basics of internal business processes before getting in a rush to consider software.

Fast Track Solutions Architect Rachel Profitt explains:

Take the software out of this. As a company, when you listen to your CEO, what is your company’s vision? What are your company’s goals? That has to be your starting point. If your goals are to increase sales or increase customer satisfaction, that has to be the driver. And so everything you do from a technology standpoint should stem from that.

Rachel Profitt, Founder, Dynamics365Lady.com 

It may seem simple, but in practice, it is not always so easy.

2. Remember that software selection comes second

Profitt advises companies to think about basics and objectives and consider what they hope to get out of the Dynamics 365 adoption, taking company vision and goals as the starting point.

Then, software and technology should be chosen that helps further these goals.

Decisions regarding choosing ISV’s or out-of-the-box solutions should relate back to the basic goal of the organization.

For example, if the goal is to increase sales, it is vital to understand how the given solution is going to help increase sales.

If the solution does not further the stated goal, then companies must examine why they are doing it.

3. Know the role of ISV’s in implementation and adoption

For ISV’s, Profitt believes that it is important to think about the solution and how it differentiates one from competitors.

To ensure adoption ISV’s need to translate the differentiation into the business process and help customers to train and adopt the software.

End users are on a system every day and the way they operate on it is important because if they do not feel comfortable or know how to use it, then the system (no matter how amazing it is!) doesn’t matter.

Profitt shares insight on how ISV’s should contribute to the implementation process:

It’s been like my saying a lot lately. This is not the field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. It doesn’t work that way. I think the way ISVs can contribute to that is to work to translate your clicks, your technology to actual business processes and benefits. And then when you’re implementing those solutions, we can compare those business processes that you’ve outlined your best practice to, “Okay. If this is your business process, this is how you configure the solution.

Rachel Profitt

More often than not, when businesses implement the latest technology it fails because users are not properly trained. Because of poor training, users might find software too hard to use or are not comfortable enough to use it effectively.

To combat this, strategy is vital – testing strategies, training and adoption strategies, and change management strategies as well.

What’s coming – Microsoft set to increase focus on change management

Right now, there are whole chapters on these topics in the Dynamics 365 implementation guide.

Profitt divulges that a new chapter on change management is coming soon (after having been in the works for some time).

And a lot of times, I see businesses, they put all this really cool technology and it’s really great, but it’s too hard to use. Or we didn’t train our users, or we forgot to ask about X, Y, and Z. And so there’s these corner cases that we didn’t cover. And that’s where testing strategies and training and adoption strategies and change management strategies are so critical. We have chapters in our Dynamics 365 implementation guide that are all about these topics. Change management is a new chapter that’s coming hopefully really soon.”

Rachel Profitt

For people who need more change management tips, she suggests doing an internet search. There is a wealth of information and tips out there on the topic – until Microsoft soon adds to the field by publishing some standard guidance.

Get more advice for digital transformation and digital adoption in the Digital Adoption Talks Podcast. You’ll find out even more about why and how Microsoft is increasing focus on change management. 

For more insight on digital adoption for F&O from Rachel Profitt, listen to the Digital Adoption podcast episode 8🎙️

Read the full transcript 📃

Here is the full transcript of ‘Essential User Adoption Tips for D365. Rachel Profitt joins hosts Rick McCutcheon (Microsoft MVP) and Joachim Schiermacher (ClickLearn CEO). 

Introduction

Rick McCutcheon:  Hello, everybody. My name’s Rick McCutcheon. I’m a Microsoft Dynamics business application MVP and I want to thank you for tuning into Digital Adoption Talks. Today, there are over 300,000 business professionals with digital adoption in their job titles on LinkedIn. On this show, along with my co-host, Joachim Schiermacher, the CEO of ClickLearn, we talk to some of the leading digital adoption experts in the Microsoft ecosystem. And do we have a guest today. This week, we’re thrilled to be talking to Dynamics community legend, former Dynamics 365 MVP legend, and the host of Dynamics 365 Unboxed. Let’s welcome Rachel Profitt from Microsoft. Hello, Rachel. How are you?

Rachel Profitt:  Oh, I’m doing really great today. Thanks for having me, Rick.

Rick McCutcheon:  Rachel, we’re going to jump right in and we’re going to let you introduce yourself. And talk a little bit about your Dynamics 365 history, and we’re very interested in Dynamics 365 Unboxed and your role at Microsoft.

[00:01:00] Background on Rachel Profitt

Rachel Profitt: Sure. My Dynamics 365 journey started 21 years ago when I was working for an RV manufacturer in Northern Indiana. And we were implementing Damgaard Axapta 2.5 at the time. I started  in accounting roles and that’s where I got my finance background from. Transitioned into some IT roles, taught myself how to write X++ back in the day when there was no documentation on these things.

And then I moved into the partner channel for about 15 years. And that’s when I found my passion for training. In the partner channel, I spent a large majority of my 15 years there learning how to, or helping others learn how to use and implement Dynamics 365 throughout all the different versions and years. And then, about two and a half years ago, I moved to Microsoft where I’m at now and I am a FastTrack solution architect.

I think when I jokingly describe to people what I do as a FastTrack architect, I like to say I’m a free resource to customers, to explain things to them that they likely already know. But in all seriousness, I think helping customers understand how to be successful with our platform and talking about a lot of different topics, like project governance, testing, training, your users, adoption, along with those actual technical and architectural questions about the system.

[00:03:00] Founder of YouTube Channel-Dynamics 365 Unboxed and Dynamics365lady.com

I started my YouTube channel about a year ago at the urging of Dona Sarkar, like the famous Dona Sarkar. And I’ve been doing that for just over a year now. I did take a little bit of a break earlier this year and have been focusing a little bit more on my blog. In my personal life, as many of you might know, I found out earlier this year that I am an autistic ADHD or with PTSD.

On my blog at Dynamics365lady.com, I’ve primarily been talking about that. But I do have a new series of YouTube videos that will be coming very soon. I actually have 11 of them that are queued up. I just need to get past my ADHD and edit and publish them. Keep tuned to my YouTube channel at Dynamics 365 Unboxed soon to see some really exciting new content.

Rick McCutcheon: Okay. Joachim, would you like to add anything or ask Rachel about her history?

[00:04:00] User adoption inside Dynamics for F&O

Joachim Schiermacher:  No, I’m really just super excited to see you and it’s a really interesting past. I had the opportunity to speak a little bit to you, Rachel, as well when we were at Summit. That was an extreme pleasure. I can see that there’s a lot of competencies. And I look forward to talking a little bit about user adoption, especially inside Dynamics and particularly on the F&O side. Very excited to have you.

Rick McCutcheon:  And when we talk about Dynamics, Rachel, you are in the F&O finance space. And why don’t you talk a little bit about the program you work on at Microsoft for those listeners that aren’t familiar with it.

[00:05:00] Can you tell us about what program you work on at Microsoft?

Rachel Profitt:  Sure. FastTrack is a program that’s been around since really AX7 and then that rebranding of Dynamics 365. Moving to the cloud can be a little scary. There are a lot of these buzzwords and terminology and a lot of new technology that is being used in the cloud with Dynamics 365.

And helping customers along the way I think is really key. FastTrack, it’s certainly evolving, but when it originally started it was really focused on helping customers actually deploy their environments, get things set up and get them running. Now I feel like from a Microsoft perspective, we’re in a much better place. We’ve simplified those deployment steps, and we’ve got a lot of great documentation and tech talks out there about that.

[00:06:00] Product-specific workshops to make implementations go faster

We’re now starting to shift focus a little bit more toward how to make those implementations go faster. And thinking about those business processes that you are using within your organization. And how do we optimize and get the most out of your Dynamics 365 investment while also still trying to make sure we’re dotting all those I’s and crossing all those T’s with your implementation? All of your testing, your training, your program strategy, et cetera, to make sure that we’re successful.

I spend a lot of my time when I’m working with customers, talking about focusing on those things. Since I started Microsoft, we’ve started to evolve and add a lot more workshops. We now have workshops that are product specific. We’ve got some finance workshops, we’ve got some supply chain management specific workshops, and so on, where we can actually talk about business processes and how you’re implementing the solution to get the most out of your solution.

Rick McCutcheon:  Rachel, we had I think a great conversation when we were at DynamicsCon in San Antonio, talking about this whole area of digital adoption. Because I’m coming from the CRM side, which has traditionally been a problem with digital adoption.

[00:07:00] You’re coming from the AX F&O side of things. Where does digital adoption play a role in what you’re doing with your unboxed show as well as what you’re doing with your Microsoft program?

Rachel Profitt:  Great question. One of the key things or one of my key playlists on my Dynamics 365 inbox channel is called Success by Design Nuggets. And so, these Success by Design Nuggets are short videos where I’m giving typically just one or two tips about how to make sure you’re having a good implementation. I probably have 4,000 more to make, so bear with me. There are a lot of them out there.

But I think the other thing that I’m working on internally, to your point, Rick, is how do we help customers use the entire platform going across the CE and the F&O sides of things? Some of you might be familiar, I did a TED Talk series last year that was a 12-part series on how to extend F&O using the power platform, which are all the tools that are our CE friends, sales, customer service, field service use on a daily basis. But teaching you how to use those with F&O.

[00:09:00] Business process documentation: breaking barriers between accounting, sales, and marketing in F&O

But I think the next pet project that I’m working on right now, and I’m very excited about it, is this idea of business process documentation. Breaking down the barriers of the accounts receivable module and the sales and marketing module in F&O versus Dynamics 365 sales. And starting to have the conversation about, “Well, let’s talk about order to cash.” And when we think about order-to-cash as a great example, there are seven different products that Microsoft offers to help you with your order-to-cash process. And this can be very confusing.

Rick McCutcheon:  Plus everything in the ISV space.

Rachel Profitt:  Oh, yeah. Exactly. You add all this stuff in the ISV space and it’s super confusing. As a customer, how do you navigate that? How do you know which one is right for you and which one should you be using to meet your business requirements? I think this idea of flipping the script on some of our documentation and aligning it to some of these business processes is super exciting for me. And starting to write documentation that talks about order-to-cash-in business processes.

[00:010:00] Get the community involved, break down barriers, & share knowledge to improve implementation time

And here are the differentiators. Here’s how you might choose to use Dynamics 365 finance and supply chain management and Dynamics 365 sales. And I think one of the things that I really hope for is to get the community involved and to break down these barriers of let’s share our knowledge, let’s share our experience. Let’s write this documentation, let’s make our implementations go faster.

Microsoft has some lofty revenue goals to meet in the next several years. And I think in order to meet those, we all have to come together. And while myself and my team here at Microsoft can do a lot of great, I think together as a community, we can go a lot faster, a lot stronger, and a lot better. And I think everyone will benefit.

[00:11:00] Deliver better process descriptions to partners and customers

Joachim Schiermacher:  I think this is probably the most exciting thing. And I’m seriously getting goosebumps when I hear that we are leveraging on the most important asset that we have inside the Dynamics community to deliver better process descriptions to both our partners and our customers.

I think this is a fantastic initiative and it’s one that most of your competing vendors do, how do we actually bring a very strong community together to start facilitating that the clients are getting better user adoption? And typically better process descriptions allow them to actually do a transition to your project. I think it’s a wonderful thing.

[00:12:00] How do we bring a strong community together to start facilitating better user adoption?

I’m hoping, I’m seriously hoping that we get a chance to look into this. I know that we have some of the connectivity around deploying into MS Docs. We are capable of doing that. We’ve done that before. I think that we are going to have to investigate if we can perhaps help on the tooling side of this and make sure that partners have some strong tooling on the other side. I’m really hoping that we can move this forward. I know that you are in a hurry to do this as well, Rachel. Yeah.

Rachel Profitt:  Definitely. We were…

Rick McCutcheon:  Rachel.

Rachel Profitt:  Oh, go ahead.

Rick McCutcheon:  Go ahead. No, go ahead, Rachel.

Rachel Profitt:  I was just going to say, we’re in the early prototyping stages right now. We’ve prototyped out some kind of shell docs articles, creating templates and trying to reduce the barrier for people to be able to contribute. If you’re not familiar right now, anyone can contribute to Docs today, but it’s complicated and you have to know markdown. And it’s not the easiest thing in the world.

I think what we’re hoping to do is reduce those barriers, and make it easier for people to contribute by providing them with some templates and outlines. And we want our partners and our community members to be able to showcase their knowledge. And so, we’re following suit with what our Azure Architecture Center has done. And Azure is already doing this I think very, very well.

[00:13:00] Layering ISVs and partner solutions

We want our Dynamics community to do the same thing. And to your point, Rick, there are all these ISVs out there. I think when you start to layer in these ISVs and these partner solutions that have industry expertise and all these niche industries. I think when we take the baseline and we add in and layer in ISVs and partner expertise, then it’s just going to get better.

Rick McCutcheon: The last couple of weeks we’ve talked at both shows, DynamicsCon and the summit. And what it got me thinking about is we’ve been away from the community for a few years because of the pandemic. And now, when I was in DynamicsCon, I’m sitting next to two people with Enterprise on-premise installs that they’ve been running for 10 years. And they really haven’t looked at, “Where do I go next?” until now.

[00:14:00] Get documents, videos, and community back together

And they really didn’t need help on power apps yet. They just needed help figuring out, “What do I do? How do I get started?” And I saw the same thing at Community. I was working at the CRM desk, and people were coming up to me at the beginning of the Community. And saying, “I’m on-premise.” Two came up to me, “I’m on-premise with AX. Where do I go here? What do I do?”

And luckily, I knew you were working at the desk, so I don’t know if they told you I sent them over. But I said, “There’s a desk over there with a purple banner.” I said, “And Rachel Profitt’s there. Go over there now. And she’ll tell you exactly where you got to go and what you have to do.” I think there’s an importance on not only getting the documents, getting the videos but getting our communities back together.

[00:15:00] Communities can help in the decision-making process

Rachel Profitt:  Absolutely. I think it was great to be able to be at the conference again in person and talking with people. I think I learned a lot. I think we get going. And I’ve been doing this Dynamics 365 thing for four or five years now. But to your point, there are still a lot of people that are still back on AX 2009 and 2012. I know when I was delivering sessions, we always tried to do the, “Show of hands, who’s running what versions?” And I even heard a lot from GP customers coming over and confused about, “What should we be doing? Should we go to BC? Should we go to F&O? What’s next for us?”

And I think even in those beginning decision-making stages, it’s hard to know which way should we go. And I think it’s another one of those areas that I think we as a community can help our customers along in this decision-making process. And showcase your expertise and your skills by contributing. Whether that’s through these Docs articles.

[00:16:00] Dynamics 365 implementations can be easy

Or obviously, Rick, you’ve got this channel where we’re doing these podcasts. I think there are a lot of ways the community can contribute and make this Dynamics role a better place. I feel like it’s now time to do my Martin Luther King. I have a dream that one day we will all share everything we know.

And Dynamics 365 implementations can be easy. You can use this whole stack together. And while Microsoft is working in advancing the platform and bringing the two application suites closer and closer together, we need to continue to work closer and closer together as a community, as the product comes closer and closer together.

[00:17:00] What can SI and ISV partners do to get involved with digital adoption?

Rick McCutcheon:  Rachel, we talked about community. We’re glad we’ve got strength in the community. And we saw the turnout at these meetings that the customer base is looking for it. And we both worked on the partner side of things. What can SI and ISV partners do to get involved with digital adoption and not just focus on, “Hey, we’ve got all this functionality?” But how do we get our customers to absorb it? Because on your end, from an F&O perspective, they tell me there are eight to 15 ISVs connected to every big install. That’s a lot of people with their hands in digital adoption.

Rachel Profitt:  Definitely. I think getting back to the basics of your business processes and what you need and why you need it, and program strategy is what I view in my head as your two starting points. You have to really understand your business processes internally. And I think it’s actually, it seems simple. Like, “Oh, order to cash.” And I think we all get the basics of order to cash. We take an order, we fulfill an order, we invoice an order, we capture a payment, and then we collect that payment.

[00:18:00] Don’t talk about the software – focus on company vision and goals first

But in real life, there’s a lot more to it than that. And I think getting back to those basics of what are your actual objectives, what do you hope to get out of this Dynamics 365 adoption? And thinking about your goals and objectives. And when I was talking to customers at Summit and DynamicsCon and just in general, one of the things I always encourage people to do is don’t talk about software with me right now.

Take the software out of this. As a company, when you listen to your CEO, what is your company’s vision? What are your company’s goals? And that has to be your starting point. If your goals are to increase sales or increase customer satisfaction, that has to be the driver. And so everything you do from a technology standpoint should stem from that.

[00:19:00] Everything has to relate back to the vision and goals

And I think when we talk with our customers about these ISVs, about what Microsoft offers out of the box, it all has to relate back to that thing. If we’re talking about increasing sales, how is this going to help me increase my sales? And if it’s not, why are we doing it?

I think if we’re looking to increase sales and we’re putting all these things on top of it that aren’t helping us increase sales. Maybe they’re helping us increase customer service or they’re helping us go faster, we have to equate that. And I think helping customers draw those dotted lines between our technology solutions and your ISV solutions to their actual business goals is pivotal. It’s so critical in the digital transformation journey. If you don’t start there, you’re never going to get the end result you want.

[00:20:00] Bring in core Microsoft tech and ISV, making the process as simple for the user as possible

Rick McCutcheon: And at the same point.

Rachel Profitt:  Did you have something?

Rick McCutcheon:  As you start to bring in core Microsoft technology and ISV, we’ve got to make this process as simple for the user as possible. We got to keep that in mind because I’ve done a lot of work in the last two years from not all the way back from the quote to the cash side of things with a lot of CPQ vendors. We’ve got to make it simple or they’re just going to revert to their spreadsheets. And they’ll give you as much information as they need to, but their world will be revolving at Excel as we’re trying to bring in this information.

[00:21:00] If it’s too hard with too many clicks, users will revert back

Rachel Profitt: Yeah. And I think to your point, it’s like, okay, so you have to start with those goals in mind. And then to your point, Rick, step two in this process is you have to have that user focus. You have to have that end goal focus. If it’s too hard, if it’s too many clicks, if it doesn’t actually meet the business objectives, they’re going to revert back.

And a lot of times, I see businesses, they put all this really cool technology and it’s really great, but it’s too hard to use. Or we didn’t train our users, or we forgot to ask about X, Y, and Z. And so there are these corner cases that we didn’t cover. And that’s where testing strategies and training and adoption strategies and change management strategies are so critical. We have chapters in our Dynamics 365 implementation guide that are all about these topics.

[00:22:00] Change management standard guidance in the works for Dynamics 365 implementation guide

Change management is a new chapter that’s coming hopefully really soon. We’ve been working on it for a while. But there are a lot of resources. If you’re not really sure how to do change management, I encourage you just go do an internet search. You can find so much information and get a lot of great tips. I think we’re going to be helping by publishing some standard guidance.

But even as an ISV, when you think about what’s different about your solution, what differentiates you? And how to help your customers adopt that, how to help your customers train that. And translating this into business processes in the way end users think and the way end users use systems on a day-to-day basis and the way they operate is super key. Because even if you build the most amazing technology solution, if nobody can use it or nobody knows how to use it, it doesn’t matter.

[00:23:00] Gap analysis can reveal the difference between what you have and what you need

It’s been like my saying a lot lately. This is not the field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. It doesn’t work that way. I think the way ISVs can contribute to that is work to translate your clicks, and your technology into actual business processes and benefits. And then when you’re implementing those solutions, we can compare those business processes that you’ve outlined your best practice to, “Okay. If this is your business process, this is how you configure the solution.”

And when we do that whole comparison, that gap analysis of here’s what I do today versus this is what my technology offers, we now know where we have differences. And there are differences, you just identified where your change management process points are. And you have to put efforts into those change management process points to be able to train and teach your users.

[00:24:00] Vital to translate business processes to the clicks, configurations, and setups you need

At the end of the day, anyone with some PDFs or a video or whatever can learn where to click. But it’s how to translate those business processes into real-life business problems. That’s the hard part. And I think that’s where we can all contribute. Whether it’s your ISV solution or standard out, maybe it’s a creative way to use an out-of-the-box solution.

There’s a lot of that I think in sales, customer service, and field service, where there’s creativity being used to implement these solutions in industries that you maybe never would’ve thought of before. But the reason they were successful was that they translated those business processes to the clicks and the configurations and the setups you need to do.

Rick McCutcheon:         And.

Rachel Profitt:               And partners. Yeah.

Rick McCutcheon:         Go ahead, sorry. Go ahead.

[00:25:00] Partners help customers compare and translate differences, finding out where to make things better

Rachel Profitt:  And at the end, right in the end, those partners translate where these partners are bringing values. They’re helping customers compare the differences and translating those and helping them with that change management. Guiding them through the configurations and then finding the gaps. Where can we make this even better?

Rick McCutcheon:  Yep. All right. Rachel, on what you said, I love the idea around change management. But I think when I was talking to our AX customer that’s been on the same system for 10 years and their CRM was sitting out here somewhere. And maybe they had a very low-level integration between the two.

[00:26:00] Digital transformation is not one-and-done. Change is going to be a constant

Change management is going to be a constant. It’s not going to be like in 2016 we put a new system in and it’ll change a little bit. I think now we’re in the cloud and we’re going across finance, we’re going across CE, we’re going across field service, we’re going across teams. And with Sales Viva. We’re going across the call center. Change is going to be constant. I think there’s going to be a responsibility of the partner to stay engaged. And as we’re making those changes, really concern themselves around adoption.

Rachel Profitt:  Absolutely. What you said is so, so important, Rick. Digital transformation is not a one-and-done. It’s not like you go live with any Dynamics 365 product or any technology product for that matter, and you’re done. Digital transformation is a journey. You should constantly be transforming your business. What’s next?

[00:27:00] What to do AFTER the initial implementation?

When you get that initial implementation done, you should have a group or a team of SMEs and people in your organization, whoever that is, that are talking about this. Maybe it’s on a quarterly basis, maybe it’s on an annual basis, whatever cycle makes sense for your business, but it has to be constant.

And to another point, I think to add to what you were saying, it’s we’re evolving technology, but your business is constantly evolving too. The supply chain is evolving. COVID happened and changed the way we work from a human capital management standpoint. Businesses are still trying to figure out how do we engage our employees and keep them invested in our business so that they want to stay here and create work-life balance and create work environments that are great for them.

Rick McCutcheon:  And how do we get them back in the office?

Rachel Profitt:  But do we really need to get them back in the office? Question mark.

Rick McCutcheon:  Exactly.

[00:28:00] Digital transformation needs to support work-life balance and employee engagement

Rachel Profitt:  It’s like that digital transformation needs to support these things. And I think that’s why, we as Microsoft, we’re inventing all these cool new things on top of Teams and Office. That’s what Viva was born out of. And it’s going to continue to happen.

Another barge is going to get stuck in a bay somewhere and it’s going to mess up our supply chain even more. Or whatever. I think whatever is happening out in the world affects so many aspects of our business. I mean, the way the economy changes, affects the way we operate our businesses. How do we make things more affordable? How do we make things go faster?

[00:29:00] Address digital transformation one bite at a time

Because of the way the economy is right now, it’s tough. And we can’t just keep inflating our prices and making things take longer. It’s like how do we get more value faster? And that’s one of the key things FastTrack is really focused on, how do we get more value faster? I like to use the analogy of how do you eat an elephant? I mean, implementing ERP technology solutions, especially, I think it’s true of even CRM solutions like sales, customer service, field service. But how do we eat an elephant, Rick? Well, we eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I think the key here is figuring out how do we adopt and attack our digital transformation one bite at a time. And what bite is most valuable? Do I want to eat the steak first or do I want to eat the broccoli on my plate first? Which one makes more sense? And depending on your business, it might be a different answer to what’s more important to your business.

[00:30:00] What do people need to get started on a digital adoption journey?

Rick McCutcheon:  Rachel, we could talk about this all morning, but we’re going to have to stop at some point because this is a whole different conversation around understanding where to get started. But on today’s session where we’re talking about digital adoption. Any closing thoughts, especially about what people need to do to get started on this journey?

Rachel Profitt:  Yeah, I think my closing thoughts, if you take nothing else away from this, are two things. One, start by documenting those business goals and objectives. And step two is to have a business process-focused approach to your implementation. If you take nothing else away, take those two things away.

Rick McCutcheon: Okay, Rachel.

Rachel Profitt: And be a community. Like, let’s be a community.

Rick McCutcheon:  Get to the community, join your community. And we’re all about community on this show. Rachel, I can’t thank you enough for joining us today. Joachim, thanks for participating and I look forward to continuing this conversation with you.

Rachel Profitt: Thanks, Rick. Thanks for having me.

Rick McCutcheon: Bye for now.

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