(US & Canada) VIDEO | We Take a Customer-First Approach to Digital Transformation — Rockwell Automation VP for Enterprise Transformation and Architecture

Talal Butt, VP of Enterprise Transformation and Architecture at Rockwell Automation, speaks with Stephen Gatchell, Director of Data Advisory at BigID, in a video interview about end-to-end customer experience through digital transformation, alignment with the digital product mindset, the need for leadership storytelling, and the adoption of an agile approach to scale business and create a seamless experience for customers.

At the onset, Butt shares that he has been with Rockwell Automation, an American provider of industrial automation and digital transformation technologies, for six years. He has been specializing in technology for the last 23 years and over the past decade, he focused on overall transformation efforts in technology, operating models, and execution models, as well as expanding this to encompass enterprise transformation.

For the last four years, the company has been working on creating an end-to-end customer experience, re-engineering processes, and building a tech backend to support this. This has included introducing software subscriptions and changing business models for customers and partners, says Butt.

Moving forward, he states that Rockwell takes a customer-first view when it comes to digital transformation. He notes that digital is an essential part of the ongoing transformation in the technology industry, such as moving to the cloud and upgrading networks for seamless operations.

Businesses, especially B2C businesses, have created a much more advanced experience than B2B companies, and Rockwell strives to do the same, Butt says.

In addition, he reveals that the goal and mission is to make sure that customers, partners, distributors, and employees have a seamless experience with their journeys. The organization must consider how its processes can keep up with the ever-changing business models, ensuring alignment with the software-driven digital product mindset.

When these two pieces are put in place, Butt affirms that organizations will have successful transformation efforts.

Furthermore, he says that there was an extensive organizational debate before starting the transformation journey to understand which elements make transformations successful or unsuccessful for other organizations.

Consequently, Butt ensures that great storytelling from all leaders portrays where they are and where they are going, to ensure successful culture, change management, and the adoption of new ways of working across the broader organization. He emphasizes starting small, with the ultimate vision of creating an Amazon-like experience in the B2B space.

Rockwell prioritizes transformation efforts that involve customer outcomes, process re-engineering, and go-to-market strategies, says Butt. The company ensures having the right digital backbone from a systems perspective with a service-oriented architecture that is agile enough to pivot as needed, he asserts.

Thereafter, Butt shares that his company provides customers with three business units - one for hardware intelligent devices, one for software, and one for services. To simplify customers' experiences and processes by having all products and services renew on the same schedule and sites, Rockwell adopts an agile approach to the delivery of new capabilities on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

Additionally, the company’s senior leadership provides the necessary support to ensure there is a massive cultural impact and trust is built through the delivery of these capabilities, says Butt. The goal is to take a few baby steps and then scale up the process, connecting the thread for customers end to end, he concludes.

CDO Magazine appreciates Talal Butt for sharing his insights with our digital community.