3 Steps Forward for Digital Transformation

Executive Summary
Digital transformation is more than hosting applications in the cloud. It requires workforce enablement, digital technology integration and automation, and operational agility. Real-world companies apply it to make the difference between merely being in the cloud and enterprise cloud readiness that allows you to take full advantage of the latest innovations as they happen. This paper offers real-world examples from world-class organizations describing their digital transformation journey.

Transforming the Mindset

Digital transformation is the near-uniform mindset of CIOs moving into 2021. IT leaders expect a 2.0% increase, on average, in the IT budget for 2021. However, not everyone thinks about it in the same way. Understanding what digital transformation is and applying the best strategies and underlying technologies is critical to maintaining flexibility and competitive advantage. Having a diluted understanding of digital transformation can create speed bumps and resistance within the organization, slowing down cloud readiness and hurting your overall competitive advantage.

Three-part Digital First Strategy
Digital transformation is a strategic and innovative approach that combines cloud technology with business processes. It’s not a product, or a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s a complex cloud system of applications, data storage, automation, and management. Integrating and adopting these company-wide can increase overall performance, develop an agile environment, and accelerate service delivery. Three critical components of a strategic approach are:

1. Workforce Enablement
2. Digital Technology Integration and Automation
3. Operational Agility

1. Workforce Enablement: Deliver High User Satisfaction

A recent report outlines how remote work is potentially permanent for many organizations in the public and private sectors. A robust digital transformation strategy accounts for remote workers and working with cloud providers to make it easier for your end-users and IT team.

Collaborative and connective tools abound, but not all are suited for running large companies or projects. For example, it is common to have personnel using project management software on corporate IT infrastructure (standard computers sitting on corporate networks, behind corporate firewalls). When remote work is more than just a convenience, providing reliable access to software and corporate data is critical. Unfortunately, granting access to remote or non-employee workers can be a complicated and risky endeavor due to firewalls, hardware, geographical, and other restrictions.

Cloud-hosted software removes the complexity and the risk by virtualizing the software (running it on high-performance cloud environments but letting your team operate it), enabling secure, easy login from just about anywhere for anyone with the proper credentials. Even industrial sectors like architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) that have traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies are moving to the cloud. Their diverse and often remote operations benefit from the ease of access, which improves overall operations. Other industries like manufacturing, financial, supply chain, and more benefit from this type of cloud adoption.

2. Digital Technology Integration and Automation: Data Lakes

All businesses generate copious amounts of data, often of many different varieties. Some data types
include communications, financial, project, operational, client-oriented, and more.

Data serves the apparent intended purpose, but it can also be gathered, cleaned, arranged, and stored in such a way as to be searchable and usable for relational databases, analytics, and business intelligence.

Cleaned data structures, as described, are called data lakes; cloud-based data lakes allow companies to leverage the performance, reliability, ease of use, and affordability of cloud infrastructure. Using the data in these structures enables companies to increase operational efficiencies, predict changes in market conditions, and make better decisions in steering the enterprise toward opportunity.

Example: LoadSpring AEC Customers
AEC companies like and Flatiron Construction have made use of consolidated data for business intelligence; they reap the benefits of knowing where they’ve been to see better where they’re going.

3. Operational Agility: Improving ROI, Software Adoption, and Scalability

Digital transformation is about streamlining processes, allowing for agility and flexibility, and maximizing your return on investment. A sound cloud hosting solution provider can not only host all the best project portfolio and program management software in the cloud; they can also optimize performance for an exceptional user experience. Leading-edge LoadSpring Cloud Platform hosts over 300 project management applications, including business intelligence, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Document Management, Geospatial, and can integrate custom apps. Each one has been tested and retested for security, compatibility, stability, and ease of use.

More benefits of cloud hosting include:

• • Ease of license management
    — Grant access to the people that need it, when they need it
    — Assign licenses to different personnel as projects spin up and spin down
  • Zero downtime for software upgrades
    — Upgrades happen in the cloud and roll out via the platform with no need to halt operations — Data integrated from earlier versions
  • Testing of proposed new software quickly and seamlessly
    — Let your teams decide what works best, then roll it out
    — Train users within the platform

Whether you choose to use data lakes or not, it’s critical to streamline your infrastructure to manage data from hosted applications. Take advantage of built-in cloud storage capabilities. A robust cloud storage service will allow you to scale quickly and efficiently as needed while providing top security. Choose a provider that has servers close to your teams so that you can adapt your cloud experience to your organization’s needs. Geographic location matters! Your cloud solutions provider should enable IT the agility to thrive in any business environment. LoadSpring has data centers worldwide, providing customers with the fastest performance and 99.99% uptime and offers turnkey support for the most significant pillars in any digital transformation initiative.

EXAMPLE: BAM Nuttall

World-class AEC firm, BAM Nutall, utilizes LoadSpring Cloud Platform for their ongoing digital transformation initiatives.

By leveraging LoadSpring Cloud Platform, BAM Nuttall employs BIM to manage complex construction projects. Their goal of creating a new type of BIM has been realized by carefully managing processes as part of a holistic digital transformation initiative. LoadSpring successfully integrated planning, estimating, and project controls software, including:

• Oracle Primavera P6 (project controls)
• Capterra CostOS (estimating)
• Bentley Systems Synchro (digital construction management)
• ARES Prism (project portfolio management)
• Bentley ProjectWise (document management)

Hosting these software packages through a single cloud platform allows BAM Nuttall to achieve:

• Automation
• Consolidated data storage
• Single sign-on
• Integrated applications

BAM Nuttall was able to streamline their processes to make the most informed decisions, hit their deadlines, get new business, and learn from current and past projects to improve future ones. Their highly coordinated effort of digital transformation grants them the ability to manage their enterprise efficiently and smoothly, with LoadSpring as an integral part of their ongoing efforts.

How LoadSpring Delivers

LoadSpring Solutions, Inc. offers services in business architecture, data management, business intelligence, and analytics. LoadSpring specializes in supporting portfolio, program, and project management. In other words, LoadSpring can help implement your digital transformation initiatives, big or small. When considering your digital transformation strategy, consider a partner instead of a vendor. LoadSpring’s team of engineers, analysts, and support staff customizes a set of tools tailored to your business needs. Not only that, LoadSpring offers world-class support and security.

24/7/365 Support
Companies need to rely on their skilled internal IT teams, and CIO leaders need their IT teams to be driving strategic initiatives. LoadSpring’s experts absorb IT tasks so you can attend to other project goals. LoadSpring’s digital transformation approach automates your processes quickly, and efficiently. LoadSpring Cloud Platform hosts the best, most sophisticated project management tools that exist. Along with assisting with any questions or issues with LoadSpring Cloud Platform, LoadSpring’s highly trained staff assists with the software hosted on their platform as well.

This service level means that hiccups in software won’t slow down teams. Maximum uptime means maximum efficiency, which in turn means projects are finished on time and inside your budget.

Built-in Security
One of the biggest concerns that hold decision-makers back from using cloud services is a perceived lack of security. The fear is that hardware, data, and software in a site that isn’t owned by the company outright will not be more secure than on-site solutions.

The fact is that cloud security is often higher than what most companies provide for themselves. For example, LoadSpring Solutions Inc. is SOC 2 Type II certified. Multiple security layers work seamlessly in the background so that you don’t have to worry about monitoring hardware and firewalls day and night. Automated systems include:

• • Firewall infrastructure
  • Intrusion detection
  • System monitoring
  • Fire suppression and air conditioning

Turnkey, impenetrable security offers not only peace of mind from intruders but also potential disaster. If the unthinkable happens, your data is safely backed up and can be online again with minimal downtime.

Your Path to Digital Transformation
Every organization’s digital transformation journey is different. Utilizing cloud services prevents that journey from being difficult and enables companies to hit many of their objectives in a centralized way. Whether it is transforming how individuals collaborate through workforce enablement, hosted integrations and automation, or how organizations manage large-scale data, digital transformation offers a significant advantage for all enterprises, regardless of their size or operation.

About LoadSpring Solutions, Inc.

Founded in 1999, LoadSpring is a global cloud solutions provider that strives to boost customer ROI and offer quality managed services. LoadSpring challenges the traditional IT approach to deliver innovative solutions for its customers by providing easy procurement and secure access to best-in-class project-based applications and their data.

LoadSpring’s SOC 2 Type II security certification provides a highly secure infrastructure and cloud environment hosting for more than 200 Project Management related applications. Through LoadSpring Cloud Platform and LoadSpring Marketplace, customers and partners achieve maximized productivity and ROI, all while reducing their IT department’s burden for support, infrastructure, and security management.