Keywords

1 Introduction

With the advancement of new digital technologies and enhancement of quality-of-life requirements, consumers and businesses are increasingly demanding for new digital services and higher customer experience. This invites ICT services providers to innovate and offer new digital services with high quality and agility in such fast-changing environment (Albers et al., 2019).

Information and Communication Technology Services Provider are known for their technology and products leadership across all decades. With the Industry 4.0 revolution, a major focus is provided to transform their culture towards innovation-driven based delivery to overcome increasing needs of digital products especially business services where delays are encountered with quality problems causing efficiency issues and user experience issues.

In order to support ICT Services Providers to fast track their innovation and products leadership, this study explore the literature to find out a cutting-edge innovative solution to be taken into consideration to transform the existing delivery method towards achieving faster time to market and maintain their technology leadership using transformative framework (Heimicke et al., 2021).

Several strategies found in the literature to accelerate the products delivery such as the need for proper staffing of product development teams, usage of focused teams, and effective portfolio management deployment. This involves prioritization and resources reallocation. Also, new digital technologies are required to accelerate the delivery through agile and lean development which are often used interchangeably (Cooper, 2021).

Several design principles are considered such as Time to Market, Speed of Delivery, Quality, and Voice of Customers. Hence, a hybrid delivery method is recommended with a proposed framework and recommendations.

2 ICT Environment Analysis

2.1 Industry 4.0 Services Scaling Up Rapidly

In alignment with the Government Strategies, the ICT Sector introduced the 5G Network with huge potential of digital solutions. These enables to meet essential needs of improving quality of life, enable corporate social responsibility, enhance customer experience, and support the digital economy.

5G has a huge potential of delivering a distinct product portfolio supporting the societies. It is enabling today’s new use cases driving new products development with a high level of complexity such as cloud computing services, edge services, private networks, business edge solutions, IoT solutions, Safety and control solutions, security and surveillance solutions, traffic control solutions, vehicle tracking solutions, connect cars solutions, health solutions and banking solutions (Rao et al., 2018).

The above solutions and opportunities to be delivered in a fast manner need huge collaborative efforts across the full supply chain and a high level of communication among the development teams and suppliers as well as systems integrators. The existing operating model and development processes need a revamp by the ICT Company under this case study to enable continual technological leadership and faster time to market targets achievements (Albers et al., 2019).

2.2 Pandemic Increased Demand for New Services

The recent spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in the last two years generated a huge amount of demand on new services that enable health, education, remote working environment, entertainment anywhere, new business products those enabling higher firms’ efficiency and performance, logistical services, smart cities services, online services, governmental digital services. Hence, Rapid new-product creation is more vital than ever, and it highlighted instances of companies who created game-changing products at record speed (Cooper, 2021).

In Parallel, the level of competition is increasing in the marketplace as hyper-scalers such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, others are competing strongly to serve their customers through the pandemics, as an example the sharp scale-up of Microsoft Teams, Zoom, food delivery, and other smart surveillance services and home services targeting home and office eco-system products.

Therefore, in order to respond to these market forces, the ICT services providers are striving towards enhancing their agility, re-engineering its functional processes, improving communication, and focusing on talent development as key.

2.3 Problem Identification

The high demand for digital products is driven by the increasing use of internet (Kemp, 2020) and need for smart societies to improve living standards globally which require more complex in nature products that needs high integration capabilities both by Services providers and their partners. New products also need higher compliance to the high standards and quality is a pre-request by Regulators. Most importantly, customers expectations and products specifications shall meet all legal requirements as well.

Projects, like business environments in general, become increasingly technologically complex, with a higher number of tasks and complex interrelations and inter-dependencies. Due to adaptations to unanticipated and dynamic changes in the project environment or within the project itself, revisions to the initial plan are unavoidable (Collyer et al., 2010). Furthermore, the inability to precisely identify project goals is a major reason for project teams’ lack of planning upfront at an early stage of the project (Chin, 2004; Shenhar & Dvir, 2007). Moreover, according to (Williams, 2005), structural complexity, ambiguity in goal definition, and project time restrictions are also the key reasons why the conventional method is ineffective for the bulk of today's projects.

Due to the nature of the information and communication business and the evolution of the conventional and traditional products which were simple and not sophisticated, the products development teams were following a basic project management approach. These methods are not in a position to properly reflect all complexity and dynamics of today’s projects (Cicmil et al., 2006; Collyer et al., 2010; Williams, 2005). Therefore, ICT Service Providers under the study are facing challenges such as coping with the increasing complexities of products development, vendors alignment, demands alignment/prioritization, teams’ communication issues and hence delays of product launches including quality issues which impacts market share, revenue and market leadership.

2.4 Identification and Evaluation of Alternative Solutions

The problem and issues described in the previous section necessitates to find out a suitable approach to transform the ICT Services Providers Sector towards delivery agility and an appropriate selection of project delivery approaches is critical to support faster time to market and product experience goals. Hence, the following elaborates on possible innovative solutions.

2.5 New Products Delivery Approaches

Based on the literature review, several cutting-edge innovative solutions which could be recommended methods such as: Customer-Centric Delivery, Iterative and Spiral Product Development, Idea to Launch Stage & Gating System, Agile Project Management and Hybrid Delivery Model. These alternatives are elaborated and evaluated in the following sections.

Customer-Centric Delivery

Understanding customer needs is a fundamental pre-request for organizational marketing-oriented firms where customers’ requirements are thought of in-depth and considered as essential success criteria for new products, (Cooper 2018). By doing so, the voice of the customer is built in the design of the product at an early stage and calibrated across the full development life cycle of the product. This is an area of challenge for most organizations while delivering their products. The below Fig. 1 is proposed by (Cooper 2016a) which is highly recommended in delivering innovative products with higher complexity.

Fig. 1
An illustration represents the discovery of idea generation, followed by scoping, building a business case along with market research and product design, then rapid prototyping during development, testing, and validation with customer tests and trials, and finally executing a proficient launch by planning properly.

Customers’ requirements and involvement across the full project life cycle and stages-gates Method (Cooper, 2016a)

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Iterative and Spiral Product Development Method

In the innovative studies of Cooper in product development suggested the concept of build, test, feedback and revise which is enabling continuous improvement of the intended product where the features and scope definition in lower maturity and this is the case today where the complexity is high and ICT products require a lot of efforts and integration over digital native architecture design (Cooper, 2014).

In this approach, the agility increases and the adaptability to the changes in the product’s specifications across the various front-end stages of the innovation process (ideation, conceptual, design) becomes doable and achievable.

The cycle of this approach starts with the building phase where the product is built to demonstrate to the customer or his/her representative from the commercial teams via a prototype and other similar models. Then the product is continuously tested with the customer. Users’ feedback is obtained and provided instantaneously to the design team for immediate improvement and finally, the value proposition is revised and moved on to a new iteration cycle as indicated in Fig. 2 below.

Fig. 2
An illustration includes stages 2, 3, and 4. These are as follows. Study the needs and wants of customers and build a business case with a full proposition concept test. Then, development by taking frequent rapid prototype tests. Then comes testing and validation via field trials, beta tests, and user tests.

Prevention of time and resources wastage through real-time feedback iterative process (Cooper, 2016b)

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This spiral process is cost-efficient because it allows an early trial and error stage, enabling experimentation and testing the acceptance before detailing and delivering the product which thus enhance the success rate. Therefore, The ICT services providers sector who deliver products to B2B customers, this process is fit for purpose especially where customers will be able to validate high expensive development and enables faster time to market accordingly.

Idea To Launch – The Stage & Gating System Method

The stage and Gating approach is widely adopted in recent years which follows an organized step starting from ideation till the launch of the product, (Cooper 2018). Each product pass through this journey where value is assured and governed to ensure that all criteria set are met and enable the project teams to move on from one stage to another one. This approach is designed for three types of projects based on risk level as per Fig. 3.

Fig. 3
An illustration of three stage-gate processes for high-risk, moderate, and minor projects. All undergo the idea stage and gate 1 of discovery. A. High-risk includes 1. scoping, 2. business case, 3. development, 4. testing, 5. launching, and P L R. B. Moderate includes 1. scope and business case, 2. development and testing, 3. launch, and P L R. C. Minor projects include 1. scope and business case, 2. develop, test, and launch.

Stage-gate is context-based and scalable—one size does not fit all. Source, (Cooper 2016b)

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This staging system enhanced and reached a new level of maturity over time with new practices, (Cooper 2016b) which match the ICT sector products projects’ agility requirements. For instance, low-medium risk projects stage and gate process suites technology platform development, ICT typical projects. Lean process across full cycle the product development where unnecessary steps are removed and value is assured. It is also considered as an open innovation adaptable system (Grölund et al. 2010). It enables end to end integration and adaptive and iterative (Spiral approach) and featured with autonomous development across the full cycle (idea-launch) using agile software development techniques.

Agile Project Management Method

“Agility - based on the system triple approach - is the ability of an operating system to continuously check and question the validity of a project plan with regard to the planning stability of the elements of the system triad and, in the case of an unplanned information constellation, to adapt the sequence of synthesis and analysis activities according to the situation and requirements, thereby specifically increasing the benefits for customers, users, and providers”, (Albers et al., 2019).

The process consists of small iterations where partial products features (marketable) is delivered. Proactive customer testing is key and feedback is enabled instantaneously which helps fast detection of issues and quick changes implementation, (Aguanno, 2004). According to (Benediktsson & Dalcher, 2005), project scope can be adjusted by up to 30% during each iteration stage. Table 1 shows a comparison between conventional and agile approaches.

Table 1 Comparison between traditional and agile project management implementation methods
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Hybrid Model Approach

As ICT companies are very much known and oriented in developing B2B Products where the risk is increasing, building agile (popular in software development field) into the stage and gating system is essential. The specifications are developed through collaborative and self-managed project teams. This is also known as adaptive in-nature and customer centric planning process with stepwise development including higher rate of response to changes, (Beck et al., 2001) as shown in Fig. 4 below.

Fig. 4
An illustration of an agile built-in stage hybrid model includes generating ideas, concept feasibility, development, testing, then launch and P L F. Every stage goes through customer identification, tests, and feedback.

Typical agile built-in staging system (hybrid model), (Cooper 2018)

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The benefits of the hybrid model are: Speed of delivery, dedicated resources, high collaboration and communication including capturing customer voice during the process.

As per (Cooper & Sommer, 2018), early adopters such as Chamberlain, Danfoss, GE (General Electric), Honeywell and LEGO Group to this agile–stage-gate model showed high success rates. They were able to have higher flexibility, productivity, communication, coordination, prioritization/focus, and teams’ motivation. Hence, they have improved Time to Market by 30%. Therefore, ICT Services providers are recommended to use this model with a project selection matrix (risk based).

A Cost-Benefit analysis was carried out to select the best approach which is summarized in Fig. 5 below.

Fig. 5
A bar graph of cost versus project methods for high, medium, and low-risk products. Conventional project management has a higher cost compared to the hybrid model. A paragraph on the right-side talks about the benefits comparison of each method.

Cost-benefit analysis

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2.6 Findings and Recommendations

Several key success factors which influence the product’s agile delivery (Cooper 2019) such as superior, unique, customer-focused, due diligence prior to starting the project, well defined and agreed project, use of iterative model while teams are engaging the customer upfront, including marketing launch plan were reviewed.

Based on (Heimicke et al. 2021) study, a systematic transformation is important in the current business environment. The implementation of agility in the delivery processes is a highly complex matter. The adoption of agile methods needs a certain framework to be built by the organization. Hence, based on the study and the above analysis, ICT Services Providers is recommended to follow the hybrid delivery approach which fits this industry and develop the below proposed operating model as illustrated in Fig. 6 and described below.

Fig. 6
A chart of the proposed demand and delivery operating model. It begins with customer needs through corporate strategy and technology, flows to governance, the center of excellence, front-end engineering and design thinking-based, and then execution. Both the core and project management teams communicate and market the product.

Proposed new operating model

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The proposed operating (framework) is designed considering strategy, agile delivery and business impacts accordingly. It starts with obtaining customer needs followed by corporate strategy development and technology strategy planning (which avoids unfamiliar technologies to minimize failures). Th same inputs to a centre of excellence which assess and prioritize requirements following stage and gate process (to assure value) then push qualified demand to the front end and concept engineering who use design thinking method leading to agile teams’ execution (iterative agile development approach, (Cooper 2019)). The agile team (core and project cross functional teams) communicate tasks prioritization and results (Time to Market, Customer Experience) which are governed and linked to an incentive scheme that enhances collaboration and agility. Based on revenue outcomes, feedback is provided to improve both the corporate strategy and commercial plans to maintain market leadership and growth.

In order to maximize the success rate of this transformation, the following recommendations and implementation plan is proposed as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7
A broken horizontal bar graph of the transformation plan with 4 steps, Q 1 to Q 4, depicts, as is analysis at Q 1, processes-re-engineering at Q 1 to Q 2, teams set-up, the performance management model, and training at Q 2, the pilot at Q 2 to Q 3, and scale up at Q 2 to Q 4.

Proposed transformation plan

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  1. 1.

    Prepare a clear development plan with full details of the communicational plan (branding), financial plan, resources plan, implementation timeline, products design strategy, processes development plan, piloting plan, scaling up, performance targets and performance reviews schedule.

  2. 2.

    Develop Business Case for the proposed operating model and the method selected then obtain formal management approval to pitch this transformation

  3. 3.

    Conduct a kick off meeting to engage stalkeholders upfront covering contracts, finance, procurement, operations, human resources, commercias and technology teams.

  4. 4.

    Engage the technology partners and offer the methodology as shared methodology for alignment especially ofr complex products

  5. 5.

    Obtain feedback from the commercial teams and customers and re-iterate the processes for continuous improvement

In conclusion, based on the research and in order to enhance the delivery of new products according to the customer’s expectations, the following is recommended:

  1. 1.

    Implement the proposed Operating Model embracing the hybrid agile development approach supported by a prioritization process, project selection guidelines based on complexity and risk level.

  2. 2.

    Conduct a Pilot for the above proposed Model with clear success criteria driven by Time to Market and Voice of Customer and then scale-up

  3. 3.

    Communicate products priorities to raise the sense of urgency on a regular basis for teams’ alignments cross-departmental

  4. 4.

    Establish a Performance Governance with advisory board considering measurements such as Time to Market, Quality, Voice of Customer, Service Level Agreements, etc. with shared Key Performance Indicators to enable teams’ collaboration

  5. 5.

    Establish continuous processes optimization based on customer feedback and delivery performance

  6. 6.

    Deploy a new Competency Scheme to enhance product quality, learning and agility while focusing on customer engagement and education