The new era of Microtransformation

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital disruption, telcos are introducing a new era of transformation: Microtransformation. Departing from conventional transformation programs, Microtransformation prioritizes small yet impactful changes across people, processes, and technology in an incremental manner. It is not merely a project management methodology; instead, it is an approach that yields substantial improvements in KPIs more quickly.

What are the drawbacks of large-scale transformations?

1. Inefficiency
   One reason why small teams operate more efficiently is the lower number of communication threads. Let’s consider a team with 4, 5, 6, and 7 members. Assuming that all team members communicate with one another, the number of communication threads increases from 6 to 21.
   

   

   The same formula can be extrapolated for the case when the nodes reflect cross-team communication instead of cross-individual communication. The communication overhead, the potential for cross-team misalignments, and the challenges of change management can cause inefficiency.
   

2. Becoming obsolete
   Multi-year transformation programs often become obsolete by the time of completion due to changes in customer behavior, market dynamics, or technological advancements. According to a study by BCG, 70 percent of digital transformation programs fail, and the lack of adaptability is identified as one of the key reasons.
   

3. Compounding risks
   What are the things that could possibly go wrong with a transformation? The risks in a large-scale transformation compound, they increase the probability of issues arising.

How has Microtransformation helped telecoms?

1. From Loyalty Application to Marketplace Platform
   The goal of the telco was to increase and diversify the revenue. To achieve this, they created 2 new offerings:

   1. B2B Whitelabel Loyalty SaaS, where large enterprise customers can start their own loyalty program in no time, leveraging the proven platform of the telco.

   2. B2C Marketplace, where telco customers can pay with the telco’s loyalty points or with a credit card to merchants for goods or services, generating hefty commissions for the telco.

   This telco embarked on a Microtransformation, a Loyalty Application re-implementation because certain capabilities were required:

   1. B2B Whitelabel Loyalty SaaS required support for multi-tenancy, enabled by cloud-native components.

   2. B2C Marketplace required flexibility to quickly adapt the platform to customers’ behavior, enabled by a modern, Microservice-based architecture.

   With a relatively small investment and a short time span, the telco was able to tap into new adjacent revenue in a diversified manner, while also improving customer experience and stickiness.
   

2. Customer Experience fine tuning with CMS replacement

   The goal of the telco was to optimize the online sales funnel. To achieve this, they created a new UX with the same functionality. Furthermore, they combined the web redesign with CMS replacement. Since the redesign implied re-implementation, the telco went ahead with a paradigm shift from a full-stack CMS to a headless CMS as a Microtransformation.
   As a result, the telco not only increased the online sales conversion rate but also paved the way for a modern digital architecture where the new CMS enables omnichannel experiences and provides more flexibility.

Microtransformation best practices

1. Do one thing at a time

   One common impediment to progress is the tendency for companies to juggle too many initiatives simultaneously, leading to delays as teams await the completion of others' work. Microtransformation emphasizes a simplified mantra: do one thing at a time, finish it, and take up the next one.

2. Least complex components first

   Moving the least complex components first onto a modern platform are considered as stepping stones in an organization's journey toward comprehensive digital transformation.

3. Start with one business line only

   By digitizing just one business line along with targeted MVP features, telecoms can achieve tangible improvements, such as the previously mentioned optimized conversion rate, at a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional large-scale projects. This is based on the understanding that continuous iteration and improvement are integral to the process.

4. Continuous measurement

   By selecting the right business KPIs, experimenting with ideas, and continuously measuring them, telcos can navigate the direction of the market.

Bottom Line

As telecoms embark on this new era of Microtransformation, the emphasis on adaptability, risk mitigation, and incremental yield brings a more responsive approach to the ever-changing digital landscape. This marks a departure from the outdated model of traditional transformations and represents a step towards a more agile, efficient, and sustainable future for organizations embracing the complexities of the digital age.

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This is a personal post. The views and opinions expressed here are only those of the author and do not represent those of any organization or any individual with whom the author may be associated, professionally or personally.