Digital AssesmentRoute Analytics

Digitalisation is the future. However, the transition to a digital organisation is no easy task. Digital transformation is a marathon, not a sprint. Each change takes time: at digital, but also on human level. That’s why it is important to really think your digital transformation through and fully integrate it into the entire company. Not only higher management must stand behind this change, but the remaining staff should also support and convey the digital vision of the company. Digitalisation can lead to gigantic possibilities for your company, but you have to get through the necessary steps to get there.

To get you moving, we made a digital roadmap. For each step, we’ll give you insights of how to handle digital transformation and which actions you have to take. We’ll also give you tips to get you going.

Step 1. Create a strategy and vision about the digital transformationof your company

Define what your current situation isWork out a vision for your ideal companyMake the necessary change SMARTDefine all steps that you’ll take to get form your current to your ideal company

Step 2. Prepare your staff for the transformation

Ensure clear, open communicationMake sure that your employees understand why the change isnecessarySet the right exampleReward your employeesBe open to feedback

Step 3. Choose a technology that suits your way of working

Keep your budget and time in mindDo you have the right knowledge?Can the system be integrated?

Step 4. Provide a clear implementation process

Provide a clear implementation planEducate your employeesCoordinate the transition

Step 5. Evaluate the digital transformation

Evaluate your digital transformationUse KPIsUse the data you collectedLearn from your experience

Before we start with this digital roadmap, we would like to give you a few basic principles of digitalisation:

The approach should be thought through on strategical level. All action in the company should support and convey the digital transformation and vision.

It’s important to be flexible. Set a goal and take your decisions based on this goal.

Digital transformation requires leadership, but also followership. It’s important to have a benchmark and a few best practices, but don’t rigidly hold on to them. The “right” answers evolve over time and your company should be flexible enough to deal with this.

Keep your long-term goals in mind. In the beginning, the digitalisation process will seem an impossible task. But taking small steps towards your goals will bring you more progress than doing nothing. Step-by-step, small actions and changes will also take you to where you want to go.brengen

Introduction

BusOnline bvba Jelle@busonline.eu+32 472 290 291godigital.busonline.eu

BusOnline bvba Jelle@busonline.eu+32 472 290 291godigital.busonline.eu

STEP 1Strategy and vision

DIGITALISATION 5 steps

Strategy and visionCreate a strategy and vision about the digital transformation of your company

Each change starts with a vision. Whether the change is being triggered by external factors (politics, economy, social or technological) or internal factors (change of structure, wanting to innovate or need), articulating a vision creates a clear understanding of where you want to go. A vision also helps to evaluate of each decision is one in the right direction.

Define what your current situation is

Self-knowledge is the beginning of all wisdom.To be able to define where you want to go, it’s important to think about (and be critical about) your current way of doing business.

Take your time to think about what happens in your company each month. Going from day-to-day operational tasks to actions you would like to take, but you don’t find the time for. Think for example about your customer contacts, the management of your fleet, the follow-up of your staff, invoicing, … To what extent do you have these things under control? Are there carefully documented processes for these tasks, or is it just a matter of “we succeeded, but I’m not very proud of how we did it”? Try to give yourself a score on each of these points, and give each point a degree of importance.

At the end of this step, you’ll have a better overview of what is going well and less well in your company. You’ll realize which points need to be worked on.

Work out a vision for your ideal company

You’ve already captured what your current situation is. Now you can start thinking about what you would like your future situation to look like. Think about the advantages you might get out of digitalising in terms of your business, your employees and your customers. Combine these advantages into one story that is clear and is easy to tell in 5 minutes or write on an A4-page. This is your vision. The advantages are most important to focus on, but keep the risks also in mind. Think about the possible risks and keep an overview in a risk log.

STEP 1

Use this document as a working document to start with your digital transformation.

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In Excel, you can make a very visual listof these points.

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Your vision-story should meet the following characteristics:

Attractive: the story should give stakeholders (employees, customers, …) positive feelings and create involvement.

Give meaning: the vision should give meaning to the work of your employees.

Ambitious, but achievable: set high standards, but keep it achievable for your employees.

Exceed the status-quo: the story should talk about growth and change, not about status-quo and cost savings.

Make it focused but flexible: the story should function as a guideline for the future, but should also be broad enough to allow individual initiatives.

The vision should link to the core principles of your company.

To create this vision-story, it’s important to listen to your employees. Talk to and gather all your employees to create a story together. This is important, because they are the ones who will have to convey and follow-up this vision.

Make the vision visible in the company, with a poster, a picture or a slogan.

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STAP 1Strategie en visie

DIGITALISATION 4 steps

Define all steps that you’ll have to take to get from your current to your ideal company

If you have a clear vision of where you want to go, the next step is to create a roadmap to get there. Based on the previously made list, you can now set priorities and decide which steps to take first. Start with, for each step, making an estimation of the effort that is necessary to improve your company. Also estimate the advantage (in terms of cost savings, time savings or revenue increase) each step will bring you.

The following step is to arrange this list according to priority and create a timeline out of this. Try to split up the timeline into small parts: what do you want to achieve in one year? What do you want to achieve in the next quarter? In the next month? In the next week? This plan need to be evaluated yearly, quarterly, monthly and even weekly, so you can make adjustments.

Start with a few quick wins for which your time and/or money investment is low. Implement these quick wins into your company.

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Make the necessary change SMARTSpecific - Is the goal unambiguously?Measurable - Under which (measurable) conditions can we conclude that the goals has been reached?Acceptable - Are the goals acceptable for your employees and management?Realistic - Is the goal achievable?Time-bound - Make a time-path within which the goals needs to be realised.

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Make your successes visible and communicate them with your employees and management.

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STEP 2Human

DIGITALISATION 5 steps

HumanPrepare your staff for the transformation

It’s of great importance that each employee is involved in each big internal or external change in the company. The collaboration of the management and your employees determines for a great deal the success or failure of the change. Guarantee the employees that a digital transformation is not only beneficial to the company, but for everyone involved. The management team should try to evolve their employees in this digital journey.

Ensure clear, open communication

The communication within the team is very important during a period of change in the company. On a regular basis, employees have questions and concerns. Make sure that they know who to talk to when there are ambiguities. This communication can happen both online and offline. Employees can gain a lot of information from a monthly internal newsletter or a post on one of the social media channels of the company. Don’t flinch to face to face conversations. Make sure you use accessible and simple communication. Texts that are too formal will only raise ambiguity even more.

Set the right example

If you, as the company leader, fully support the change, it will motivate your employees to do the same. It’s important that all actions in the company support the digital vision. Give instructions and tips to your employees. Consider hiring an expert to give a digital workshop to your employees. He is aware of the big change your employees are going through and know where the biggest problems may occur.

Reward your employeesIt’s easy to punish your employees when they don’t collaborate. However, this will turn against you. Employees that are resistant towards the digital transformation, often do this with a reason. Rewarding employees that commit to making the change into a success, will encourage them to try even harder. It will also motivate other employees to do the same.

STEP 2

Try to put yourself in the shoes of your staff: which concerns would you have in case of a digital transformation?

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Involve your employees from day one in the creation of your vision. This will foster theimplementation of the necessary change.

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Find out which reward has a preference. A rewards in terms of money is not alwaysnecessary.

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Create an environment in which employees know they don’t have to be scared in sharing their feedback and frustrations.

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A lot of experts give free advice about this topic. Make good use of this free expertise.

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Be open to feedback

If you’re open to feedback of your employees, they wil feel heard and involved. This way, you can create a support base. The feedback of your employees can give you valuable information. This way, you know what is happening in your company. You’ll be able to identify misconceptions quickly and correct them. Furthermore, don’t forget that your employees might have good ideas that might be useful in the digitalisation process. They are the driver of your organisation.

Make sure that your employees understand why the change is necessary

To ensure a smooth change, it’s important that your employees understand why the change is necessary. Explain to them why the change is happening and how it is going to help to achieve the desired results. Make sure that you employees are aware of your vision. If it is possible, involve your employees in the creation of this vision from day one. Give them a chance to contribute to this vision and think about what is necessary to achieve this vision. This way, they will feel more involved and appreciated. Name the benefits for your employees, so they realize that the change will not only benefit the company but also them.

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STEP 3Technology

DIGITALISATION 5 steps

TechnologyChoose a technology that fits your way of working

Choosing the right technology acquires some research work. You have to keep in mind your current way of working, to make the transition for your employees easier. On the other hand, it’s also important to choose your technology based on your vision for the future. The technology should also allow to evolve. Once your company is fully digitised, the technology will become part of you company structure. That’s why you have to take your time while choose the right technology and make sure that you collect enough information to make a well-considered choice.

Keep your budget and time in mind

Converting your bus company to a strongly digitised company will require a certain amount of effort. There are hundreds of applica-tions that might be able to help your company, from accounting to payroll processing. Execute enough research to find suited, indus-try specific systems and tools. Keep in mind where you want to go and choose your system and tools based on this vision. That’s why it’s important to decide upfront how much money and time you can free up for this. A full digitalisation of your company will require more money and time than the implementation of a limited number of small digital changes. In case of a limited budget, it might be best to choose a few small digital changes that are executed optimally and move towards your vision with small steps.

The same holds for knowledge of the law. The legislation about bus transport changes regularly. Stay up to date by subscribing to newsletters of a professional association. Certain industry specific software also implements these updates directly into the system, which keeps you up to date constantly. Furthermore, the govern-ment is also very strict about saving data and digitalisation. The new General Data Protection Regulation takes effect from the 25th of May 2018. This law imposes strict rules to the acquisition and saving of personal data. Make sure you are in order with all legislations. If needed, you can ask a lawyer or expert to assist you in this.

Do you have the right knowledge?

Do you have employees that know about servers, back-end and other IT-related concepts? Setting up a digital system requires specific knowledge. Collect information and surround yourself with people that can advice and support you during the digital transi-tion. This way, you can save yourself and your employees a lot of time, money and frustrations.

Can the system be integrated?

When looking for IT systems, keep possible integrations in mind. Check whether the new digital system can communicate with your current digital tools, hardware and telematics. When your current systems can’t be integrated in your complete digital system, a lot of potential benefits will be lost. Keep this in mind when choosing a platform.

STEP 3

Based on your digital vision, write down how much money and time you think you’ll need. Be realistic and consider building a margin.

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Contact an expert. Als a all-in-one partner for digital transformation, BusOnline can assist you on all levels with the necessary knowledge.

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Based on the list of processes you made in step 1, you can think about how these processes will have to communicate and work together. This is where the integrations will need to happen.

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BusOnline bvba Jelle@busonline.eu+32 472 290 291godigital.busonline.eu

STEP 4Implementation

DIGITALISATION 5 steps

ImplementationProvide a clear implementationprocess

A good implementation is essential. Ambiguities and setbacks in the implementation, can slow down the project considerably. Make sure that your employees and your management are aware of the necessary actions and the moment each action should be executed. No one should be faced with surprises.

Provide a clear implementation plan

When implementing a software, there are always a few attention points that are important to keep in mind. That’s why you have to make sure there is a good implementation plan. A thorough plan prevents problems from happening during or after the implementation. A part of this plan, is a checklist which describes which action should happen and who’s responsible for each action.

Educate your employees

A good education for your employees that’ll have to work with the software is important for a smooth implementation. It’s important that your employees know from day one how the new software should be handled. If you come from a paper administration, the use of this new digital system is not always obvious for your employees. Make sure they get a thorough training and get the chance to ask questions and raise concerns.

Coordinate the transition

Think about how the transition will take place. Until when will you be using the “old” system or process? From which moment on will you start using the new system? How long can employees still use the “old” system to find information? Are all involved employees authorised to use the new system? Is there a fall back scenario in place?

STEP 4

Make this plan easy to access. Make sure the plan is structured and clear.

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Ask the involved employees to study the implementation plan thoroughly, so they know what is expected of them.

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Make sure that employees know who to contact when they have questions or problems. Create an environment in which they don’t have to fear asking questions.

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BusOnline bvba Jelle@busonline.eu+32 472 290 291godigital.busonline.eu

STEP 5Evaluation

DIGITALISATION 5 steps

Execute this exercise at least one or two times each year. Even better is to do it every three months. This way, you can make adjustment when needed.

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Be selective. Write down which information might be interesting for your company and why. Afterwards, see which data are in your posses-sion and can support you in your business mangement. This might change over time, since your company is constantly evolving.

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EvaluationEvaluate the digital transformation

Evaluate your digital transformation

Decide upfront which digital data you will be using to determine to what extent the digitalisation delivered benefits for your company. This should be determined based on your vision. What are your goals for the future? How will you be measuring whether the digitalisation has helped to reach those goals?

Based on the acquired data and the overview of the achieved goals, you can determine which matters need improvement. It’s important to find out why certain goals weren’t reached. Isn’t everyone using the new system? Are there certain flaws in the system? Are there other issues that must change to optimally function? This way, you can continuously improve and optimise your company.

Use the data you collected

Digitalisation provides a gigantic amount of data. It might be useful to see which data are most interesting for your company and analyse these data. This way, you can discover which factors your customers experience as important when choosing a bus. Such information can help you to better service your clients and make it easier to convince them to order a bus with you and not with your competitor.

STEP 5

Use KPIs

KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are standards that you create yourself based on your vision. They are indicators that tell you to what extent you are moving towards your goal. A KPI is for example: the number of minutes you spent on a price offer, the number of clients that orders a bus through your website, … Determine upfront how high each KPI must be to be able to reach your goal. Determine for each change to what extent it should influence each KPI and check regularly whether his is happening or not. If you notice this is not the case, you can immediately find out what went wrong and what can be done to improve this.

Inform with your employees if there are any problems and think of a solution together. Base your KPIs on these solutions, in combination with your vision.

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Learn from your experience

Even the most successful change contains lessons to learn from. Whether you are implementing a change of leading a change project, there’ll always be lessons you can learn. An effective change manager documents and analyses these lessons and uses this knowledge for future changes in the organisation.

Create a system in which you can easily collect and consult these lessons. Some are only small things you might easily forget.

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BusOnline bvba Jelle@busonline.eu+32 472 290 291godigital.busonline.eu