I recently worked with a client on their ambitious “digital transformation.” They were ready to invest over $1M in a PaaS and allocate another $1.5M for its integration and customization. The strategy was laid out, timelines were approved, and confidence levels were sky-high.
But before starting, I asked the one question I always do: “What’s the goal of this project?”
What followed was 10 minutes of enthusiastic but vague explanations. After listening carefully, I still didn’t have a clear picture of the purpose or the pain this project was supposed to solve. So, I took a step back and helped the client go deeper. Two hours of coaching and consulting later, we uncovered the real objective—and a far simpler way to achieve it.
By tweaking their existing CRM, adding three fields and four reports, they could meet the same goal.
The cost? 36 hours of work by one internal developer. No $1.5M integration project. No $1M platform spend.