Digital transformation is no longer optional—it’s a business imperative. As organisations strive to stay competitive in an increasingly digital-centric space, the long and winding road to modernising IT systems, streamlining operations, and adopting game-changing cloud-based solutions has become critical.
However, digital transformation is more than just upgrading technology; it’s a strategic, multi-phase process that demands careful planning, execution, and ever-vigilant improvement.
In this article, VOSS will take you through the ultimate digital transformation journey step by step, encompassing everything from discovery and auditing your existing IT estate to piloting new tech and overseeing large-scale migrations. You’ll learn how automation tools and expert services can streamline the process, why a clean and optimised IT estate is absolutely vital, and how to maintain visibility and control throughout the transition.
Whether you’re starting fresh or reigniting a stalled project, VOSS’s guide will help you revitalise your organisation’s tech infrastructure for lasting success.
The Critical Importance of the Discovery and Audit Process
The discovery and audit process is the lynchpin of any large-scale digital transformation or migration project. This phase combines automation tools with expert services to ensure a thorough and exacting understanding of the current IT estate.
The automation tooling delivers efficiency and scalability, enabling precise audits of even the most complex distributed environments. Furthermore, the service side leverages years of experience and industry know-how to adjust to and configure tools for bespoke requirements.
The process typically follows a three-phase approach. It begins with project kickoff and mobilisation, followed by the deployment of the discovery toolset.
This toolset is installed within the organisation’s data centres, which often host multi-cluster technologies and servers spread across the globe. For example, a recent VOSS project involved eight clusters across eight global data centres, with configurations pulled from a PBX system into a secure SQL database using automated software. This step affirms data integrity, security, and controlled access, utterly critical for safeguarding sensitive organisational information.
Discovery isn’t just about gathering data; it also uncovers actionable insights into the IT estate. By analysing the collected information, organisations can clean up outdated licenses, remove unused equipment, and optimise processes to align with future business goals. As an extra boon, this phase often assists in securing internal buy-in by helping organisations tangibly quantify migration costs and benefits, reinforcing the business case for change.
As part of a structured migration methodology like DETVL (Discover, Extract, Transform, Validate, Load), discovery ensures that transformations are not only well-informed but also underpinned by a precise strategy. By identifying inefficiencies and opportunities early on, organisations can streamline their journey to cloud-based solutions while minimising disruption.
The result is a data-driven roadmap that complements both current needs and future ambitions, setting the stage for a seamless transition.
Next Steps: Cleaning up the Estate, Pilot Transitions, and Batched Migrations
Before diving into a full-scale digital transformation, it’s critical to address the clutter that accumulates over time in an organisation’s IT estate. Many businesses excel at onboarding users and configuring tools but often stumble in offboarding, culminating in needless complexity and inefficiencies.
To tackle this, the first step is rolling back insight and automating the cleanup process. Organisations can declutter their systems by utilising tools with built-in logs and audit controls, retiring redundant users, apps, and configurations. This not only optimises the existing estate but also pinpoints instant cost savings.
With a leaner, more efficient foundation set in stone, the next step is to pilot new technologies to test the water and prepare for larger transitions.
For instance, for a large VOSS customer with over 100,000 employees across over 40 countries, the transition to Microsoft Teams Phone began by moving a small group of pilot users. This allowed the organisation to test the service, observe how it interacted with existing workflows, and refine processes. Piloting also provided valuable insights into user experiences, ensuring a smoother, more informed rollout across the organisation.
From there, the focus shifts to batched migrations. Using automation software, entire sites, departments, or user groups are scheduled for migration from legacy on-prem systems to Teams in the cloud. This process includes transforming and mapping features to the new platform while minimising disruption.
Digital Transformation is an Ongoing Journey
Digital transformation is not a one-time project; it’s an ongoing journey that requires continuous improvement and management. A key aspect of success resides in ensuring a smooth transition from the existing estate to the cloud while maintaining visibility and control.
By providing a unified portal, organisations are equipped with a single view of their entire environment—across inventory, users, and services—simplifying day-to-day automation and management.
Tracking progress through clear KPIs is essential in this journey. Metrics like migration speed, success rates, and support case frequency ensure transparency and accountability. Many migration projects begin well but falter as teams lose visibility into user statuses or inventory. Programme phasing timelines and milestones are established to prevent such disruptions, helping teams stay aligned and on schedule.
Batch migrations are a proven method for managing large-scale transitions, such as moving tens of thousands of users in the case of the customer mentioned above with over 100,000 employees. While some challenges or “quirks” may arise in smaller batches, pre-agreed parameters for success refine the process, encouraging rapid issue resolution and continuous progress.
Digital transformation is also a partnership. Organisations can rely on VOSS to handle the heavy lifting—data extraction, transformation, and migration—while bringing strategic best practices to the table. At the same time, VOSS’s collaboration with an organisation’s internal teams ensures unique business requirements and departmental dynamics are integrated into the overarching strategy.
By treating digital transformation as an iterative process and fostering the dynamic as an ongoing partnership, organisations can navigate this complex journey with care and grace, laying the groundwork for long-term success and scalability.
If you are about to embark on a digital transformation, or if you think that UC automation could help you with an existing project, you can learn more about VOSS’ proven methodology here.
This post originally appeared on Service Management - Enterprise - Channel News - UC Today.