If you’re preparing to embark on a digital transformation, Advisory Services ensures you have the data and tools in place that sets your project up for success.
Nicole Dawson, Director of Advisory Services at Pierce Washington, answers common questions about Advisory Services, including what it entails, how it helps your business, and when it makes sense.
Q: What are Advisory Services?
Advisory Services is a consulting service that ensures you have the foundation needed to support the technology you are purchasing or enabling.
An advisory is based on the individual needs of the client, but generally includes:
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- Master data analysis and optimization
- Q2C business process definition
- Technology gap analysis
- Q2C process and product governance
- Total Commerce Maturity assessment and roadmap
At the end of the day, it’s about shoring up your foundation and ensuring your master data management and your business processes are established and can support your ideal future state.
Q: What are some ways Advisory Services benefit an organization that is embarking on a digital transformation?
The advisory services process will help your project go more smoothly. It will fully support your change management path for whatever tools you’re doing, because it provides a clear picture of what people and departments are going to be impacted.
It also helps you know where you need to focus. Many times, a client will know that there’s a problem, but they don’t know why. They often assume a new technology will fix the issue, and sometimes, yes, that is the case. But sometimes the underlying problem is that there are no business processes in place. There’s no technology in the world that will fix broken processes.
Q: Is an implementation required to do an Advisory?
An advisory can be done at any time. Often people start an enterprise project with an advisory, but an implementation isn’t required to benefit from Advisory Services; for example, if you don’t have documented business processes and need to revamp them, or if you’re looking to purchase a new technology and are unsure where your gaps are. Maybe you have the right technology in place, but you’re still seeing margin leakage. These are all situations where Advisory Services can help you ultimately run the business more efficiently.
Q: How will Advisory Services help ensure the success of an implementation?
Advisory Services helps ensure everything is in place for your digital transformation. Sometimes, we’ll begin a project and uncover things; for example, we might find that essential business processes to support the new technology are missing. Or, data is siloed after a recent acquisition. This can result in major setbacks, driving up the cost of the project and potentially even leading to failure. Partnering with experts in the field who provide advisory services can help avoid these pitfalls.
Download our Advisory Services Whitepaper to learn more.
Download our whitepaper to learn more about the Advisory Services process.