Digital technology adoption: Practical approach for stakeholder engagement
A case study conducted with Domino Printing UK
Case Study Authors
Jessica Godleman (Domino Printing UK), Dr Boroto Hwabamungu (University of Bath), Professor Paul Shepherd (University of Bath)
Context
Although new and innovative digital technologies promise enhanced efficiencies and productivity across industries and sectors, their adoption is still challenging. This is because their adoption involves multi-dimensional change, which must be carefully managed and coordinated amongst different people and groups who are involved or affected. Engaging these stakeholders is key to success.
Involving different stakeholders in the digital transformation journey can be complex but it is essential. Successful engagement requires deliberate efforts across the stakeholder groups. Knowing how to successfully engage all relevant stakeholders and manage the process is key to achieving a smooth and effective digital transformation.
Objective
One of the challenges identified in the Made Smarter Review and by practitioners, is that people are key to successful change. The Centre for People-Led Digitalisation (P-LD) has co-developed, with our industry partners a practical, useable activity-based framework which enables digitalisation managers, leaders, practitioners, and developers to identify and involve relevant stakeholders in a timely and effective way during their digitalisation process. Through this engagement the trust in the digitalisation project by stakeholders increases, buy-in improves and the benefits anticipated from the move to digital can be achieved and sustained.
Approach
To explore how stakeholder involvement can be effectively achieved, we undertook a thorough review of the literature to identify how/why organisations engaged stakeholders. This was followed by surveys and 1-2-1 interviews with experts in the construction and health sectors. Working with the P-LD partners we co-created a framework to facilitate stakeholder engagement.
This framework was reviewed by experts from a cross-section of industries, and fine-tuned to reflect their insights, leading to a practical activity-based framework. This activity-based framework was evaluated by Domino Printing UK during the live deployment of a number of new digital solutions over a six-month period. To evaluate its effectiveness, monthly meetings were held with the company to gather feedback and assess the framework’s practical value and undertake continuous improvement.
Insight
Participants found the framework to be a valuable resource when managing the complex task of involving stakeholders during the digitalisation process. Its structured layout, detailed activities and clear guidance made it easy to follow and apply. Participants found that the framework can be relevant to different phases and aspects of the digitalisation process, including planning, execution and evaluation of stakeholder involvement, and the adoption of digital technologies.
A crucial insight from the study is that, while the framework can be helpful to different organisations, medium and larger organisations are likely to follow the full set of activities over a long-term digitalisation project, however, smaller organisations may select only the most relevant activities that can be undertaken quickly.
Some participants felt that the tool would be helpful to colleagues who are involved in digitalisation and proposed to share the framework more widely.
Artefacts
Impact
“As the business evolves and as we are introducing new digital technologies, internal and external tools, we are going to need a step-by-step guide for the people aspect. I think this is where the framework will have a huge impact: the digitalisation process will greatly benefit from this.
The framework has reinforced that we need to make sure our stakeholders are aware of what we are doing and where we are going. Using the framework, I have a better idea of how we are going to get the stakeholders to engage. It has been key for me to follow the framework and figure out what the process is and, how we can make sure the stakeholders engage throughout to prevent us from building or deploying new technologies that will be rejected.
Using the framework has been positive: it helps to determine the steps that you want to take and, something else that I've found interesting, it reinforced the steps that I had already taken. The framework is really insightful because it is covering many factors that are easy to forget, for example I think I tend to focus on why people aren’t engaging rather than why they are engaging. This has been key in learning from successes as well as failures and ensuring we can reuse successful techniques in the future.
Jessica Godleman, Team Leader Data Platform, Domino Printing UK
For further information on this case study please contact the P-LD at P-LD@bath.ac.uk
Acknowledgement
The work reported in this paper was supported by the Made Smarter Innovation: Centre for People-Led Digitalisation, at the University of Bath, University of Nottingham, and Loughborough University. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant EP/V062042/1.