Agility and culture change. How does Uppwise (SPM Product) enable Business Agility and drive Digital Transformation?

Business Agility and Digital Transformation are at the centre of debate for many families. It is essential for Managers to adopt and search for new solutions for introducing new change culture within the company’s decision-making processes.

In this article we will focus on some solutions presented by Uppwise related to the new guidelines issued by Gartner regarding the Strategy & Portfolio Management (SPM) methods in particular. We will try to understand together how it is possible to implement an Agile philosophy as part of the company processes, and how Uppwise can aid the change process step by step.

On this matter, Gartner has issued new guidelines on Business Agility and its use in the company. Specifically, thanks to its solutions, Uppwise allows us as companies to perfectly adhere to the Gartner guidelines.

But what is it exactly? What are these new directives specifically?

• Aligning the main company business goals with the execution of the digital investments that they make.
• Using the strategic portfolio management to adopt a strong decision-making process aimed at creating value for end clients.
• Exploiting the strategic portfolio’s flexibility to constantly change priorities depending on needs and necessities of any one moment.

What is business agility?

But what are we referring to when we address the topic of Business Agility? What exactly is it? And why has it become so important today?

Using the words of Peter Taylor, we can define it as “a corporate philosophy based on flexibility, speed and conveying value to the end client. In other words, the speed of adaptation and the management’s flexibility in process management is essential to drive and promote change and corporate culture, embracing new work methods and tools that may simplify company processes and put them in step with the times.

Peter Taylor suggests a continuous, proactive “learn and unlearn” phase to prepare the management, that is vital if the company is to gain what we have so far called the Business Agility philosophy. This mindset requires managers to be mentally open to accepting change in company processes, some of which may not have undergone change in several years.

With a view to achieving an Agile philosophy in the company, this first stage plays a vital role, without which it would be impossible to achieve the goal. To sum up Business Agility in key points, we can define it as a philosophy that allows us to have:

• Rapid adaptation to the internal and external changes that the company is facing.
• A rapid, effective response to customers’ needs.
• A continuous search for a competitive position in the company’s own reference market.
• A reduction in company costs, maintaining a high level of final product quality.

As part of this context, the Strategy & Portfolio Management (SPM) solutions offered by Uppwise offer several advantages to aid and simplify project management in companies.

But how? Let’s look at the details a little more:

Uppwise Strategic & Portfolio Management (SPM) is a software solution that combines several tools on a single platform, which allow users to create, manage and formalise a strategy for agile, effective project management.

This solution, in particular, can help company management to:

a. Map the strategic points and final goals. Namely, it offers us the possibility of using a dedicated strategic module that supports the creation of correct corporate strategy, placing emphasis on key elements that will bring greater value to the company.

b. Prioritize important projects, via the creation of portfolios, connecting them to the strategy adopted. A specific function will combine the importance of these portfolios with their priorities, so as to give priority to those project that will bring higher value creation.

c. Develop an agile company culture by using these specific tools, it is possible to spread awareness of a new operational method among employees, which will increase the final value for clients;.

d. Develop collaboration among remote workers, improving and optimising project management. This will make the relationship among remote workers even more collaborative. They will, in fact, have a guideline to follow while carrying out their project, increasing efficiency and reducing any wasting of time and resources.

In addition to this key Uppwise function, there is also another that further helps companies on the path to becoming more agile.
This is a dashboarding tool that allows analysis pages to be created, which help managers to understand what the main causes of success and failure are for company projects. This visual, graphic representation of results helps them to see where improvements need to be made and where they are not necessary.

This look at Business Agility in companies and which Strategy & Portfolio Management tools to use can help us to achieve them. Let’s look again at the three essential steps in the process:

1. Preparing to change philosophy, accepting initial failures and difficulties. This is the only way to achieve Business Agility;
2. Adopting dedicated methods and software in the company, such as the ones offered by Uppwise, for example;
3. Actively involving all workers, who are the bedrock of this change in philosophy.

If you would like the support of an expert to speed up and modernise company processes, the Uppwise team of expert Engineers and Consultants will be all too happy to listen to your needs and guide you towards the solution best suited to your needs.

Be Agile. Be Smart. Be Digital.