In today’s dynamic and uncertain business landscape, developing a Digital Twin of an organization (DTO) is becoming more commonplace to improve ways of working and achieve a company’s goals.
A Digital Twin stands as a dynamic software model that does more than just depict your current business operations, it is an enabler to forecast and chart your organization's path through change. It empowers your organization to adapt and maintain improved customer experiences and put in place ways of working that are resilient to emerging challenges. By adopting a DTO, you unlock better control over critical aspects such as costs, revenue, risk management, quality, and compliance, all of which collectively contribute to enhanced operational efficiency. A key component of a DTO platform is the ability to simulate, experiment and evaluate the effect of changes in a safe environment before making them.
Building a Digital Twin Organization (DTO) in a dynamic digital platform like BusinessOptix involves careful planning, execution, and continuous improvement.
Here is our 12-step guide for digital twin success:
1. Define Clear Objectives and Scope
Outline what you want to achieve with the DTO, whether it's improving operational efficiency, optimizing processes, enhancing decision-making, or achieving other strategic objectives. Determine the scope; which parts of the organization it will cover and what data and processes will be included.
How we help: In BusinessOptix you can work top down and bottom up, utilizing target operating models, service maps, kanbans and dashboards in your planning.
2. Assess Data and System Readiness
Look into your existing data sources, systems, and their readiness for bringing into the DTO. Ensure data quality, compatibility, and accessibility. Identify any gaps that need to be addressed for a comprehensive digital representation.
How we help: BusinessOptix has many ways to discover and import processes and referential data from across your organization and your systems.
3. Collaboration and Stakeholder Involvement
Foster collaboration among teams involved in the DTO development by involving relevant end-users and senior stakeholders to gather diverse perspectives, to promote a shared vision, and ensure alignment with organizational priorities.
How we help: Teams can use our collaboration tools to comment and work collaboratively on the Digital Twin. By the very nature of BusinessOptix DTO, stakeholders and end-users will gain transparency and control.
4. Devise a Roadmap for Iterative Development
Depending on your vision and the readiness of data and people, develop a roadmap to create and implement your Digital Twin. Start with the end in mind but start small. Target bite-size pieces that suit your organization’s capacity and build up from there.
How we help: The BusinessOptix team will support you and your people and guide you through your plan allowing you to implement the DTO in iterative phases.
5. Select the Right Digital Platform
Choose a robust and scalable digital platform or Business Process Management (BPM) system capable of handling and being configured to the complexities of your organization's digital twin. Ensure the platform supports integration with various data sources, provides analytics capabilities, and enables simulation and modeling.
How we help: BusinessOptix is a fully functioning end-to-end DTO solution. All our capabilities are built to align with how our clients use a Digital Twin.
6. Data Mapping and Integration
Map out the data landscape of your organization, identify where data resides, how it flows, and its relationships within processes.
How we help: We will work with you on the best and quickest way to bring disparate data sources together into the digital platform and ensure data consistency and accuracy.
7. Modelling
Create models that accurately represent the organization's structure, processes, and interdependencies within the digital platform.
How we help: BusinessOptix serves as a repository for all your processes and procedures and has capabilities to model the structure of your business for easy visualization and navigation.
8. Simulation
Leverage simulation capabilities to test scenarios, predict outcomes, and identify areas for improvement or optimization.
How we help: BusinessOptix simulation engine and dashboards are a core part of our Digital Twin solution.
9. Continuous Improvement
Empower the business owners to keep the process models and procedures up to date, allowing for continuous improvements based on small changes, feedback and evolving organizational needs. Monitor and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the DTO's effectiveness and identify areas for refinement.
How we help: BusinessOptix makes it easy to keep the DTO fresh and effective, with user and stakeholder collaboration in the models and governance via review and approval workflows.
10. Training and Change Management
Provide adequate training to employees on using the digital platform and understanding the DTO's insights and functionalities. Implement change management strategies to ensure smooth adoption and alignment with organizational culture.
How we help: The BusinessOptix Academy and knowledge base gives training on the platform, and bespoke user guides can be added into and accessed from the DTO.
11. Security and Compliance
Identify and implement robust data security measures to protect sensitive information. Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards governing data handling and privacy.
How we help: With the BusinessOptix GRC module or integration to your own risk register, you can map processes to risk and controls. Processes and activities in the DTO can be easily tagged to regulations or as sensitive data points.
12. Evaluation and Evolution
Regularly evaluate the quality and performance of your processes and adapt as needed to keep pace with organizational changes and technological advancements.
How we help: Utilize Process Mining, Process Compare, Process Surveys and Simulation capabilities to compare actual to expectation, to best practice, and to test and simulate various scenarios.
By following these steps, an organization can lay a solid foundation for the successful development and implementation of a Digital Twin Organization within a digital platform, fostering better decision-making, efficiency, and innovation.
Remember, you are not alone on this journey. The BusinessOptix team have a wealth of experience to guide you. Based on the conversations our clients and partners have had with us, we know that constructing a Digital Twin on our platform will enable you to run your business more efficiently, navigate change more easily, and provide better customer experiences.
Why should you place trust in our expertise? Gartner recognizes BusinessOptix as a core vendor1 in this emerging market. We offer a top-tier platform for building Digital Twins and have partnered with organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, including finance, public sector, pharmaceuticals, telecoms, retail, engineering, construction, and business process outsourcing. Through these collaborations, we have acquired a profound understanding of how Digital Twins generate value and the challenges they can address.
For more extensive information on the ins and outs of a Digital Twin, how to create one, and the full capabilities, read our Digital Twin Whitepaper here.
1Gartner, Inc. “Market Guide for Technologies Supporting a Digital Twin of an Organization” by Marc Kerremans, January 2023
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Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
