P.S. and P.P.S. in the Digital Age: Why People and Process Should Never Be an Afterthought in Change and Transformation.

There was a time when, after writing a letter, you’d realise you’d left something out, so you’d add a short note at the end: a P.S. Sometimes, if you really needed to squeeze in one last thought, a P.P.S. We all accepted this as it was a big time sink to rewrite the letter to include your afterthoughts.

In the digital age, we can edit our messages and emails easily, but when it comes to technology acquisition, organisations are still working the old way – and sadly, it’s costing them.

Too often, the most essential elements of any transformation, the people and the processes, are only considered after the fact, shoehorned in at the end, considered far too late, and handled reactively.

Instead, the starting point is usually a shiny new system, a vendor promise of a greater new world with new capabilities. The assumption is: get the solution in place first, but this is where projects derail.

The Pattern I See Too Often

Recently, a client approached us, having invested heavily in a new platform. It looked impressive in demos. It ticked all the technical boxes, and it was meant to solve everything.

Whereas now, months and months later, there’s friction. Teams aren’t using the system the way it was intended. Customers are confused. Internal processes haven’t adapted. Everyone is frustrated.

When we dig into these projects, the pattern is always the same: the problem wasn’t the technology, it was the order of thinking.

They, or whoever led on the project, jumped to a solution before truly understanding the problems. They brought in the technology before bringing in their people, and essentially ended up moving around the deck chairs, and adding glitter for good luck.

This “solution-first” mindset is one of the most persistent and damaging habits in modern business.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

Forbes reported that 84% of digital transformation projects fail. More recent studies, including my own, have shown that this number is between 70 and 90%. That’s not a few bad apples...it’s a serious issue. By comparison, in the 24 months from February 2020, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that 70% of the UK had, at one time or another, caught the COVID19 virus, and we called that a Pandemic!

When projects stall, or don’t deliver the promised results, it’s rarely because the technology was bad. It’s because requirements for that technology were not robust, underlying processes were poorly designed, or manual intervention is still necessary, possibly based on outdated assumptions, and both users and customers were not included early on to inform the technology selection.

The result? Problems not resolved, manual workarounds still in place, low adoption, low morale. Eventually, further investment in another transformation project to try fix the last one.

It’s like building a house on sand and then wondering why the structure keeps sinking.

One Organisation’s Painful Lesson

A few years ago, I worked with a mid-sized organisation that wanted to improve its customer engagement. Senior leaders were sold on an AI chatbot that could reduce call volumes and automate routine queries. On paper, it was a great idea.

But no one consulted the call centre staff. The very people who spent their days listening to customer frustrations were never asked what problems needed solving, and how they could truly add value to their customers’ day.

The process for managing complex queries wasn’t reviewed. The team simply assumed the technology would “slot in”. Of course, the chatbot couldn’t cope with the nuance of real-world customer issues. In no time, call volumes increased, as did complaints, and the call centre staff ended up doing twice the work, and ultimately focused more on fixing the damage caused by the bot, and less time working with the customers. This leads to employee and customer dissatisfaction.

Only once things unravelled, the leadership team tried to improve the processes. And only after that, did they speak to the users and the customers - they had done it all wrong – they bought the solution, and then tried to retrospectively get the employees engaged, and fix the processes.

The Alternative: People. Process. Solution.

There is a better way. One that may not feel as fast up front, but delivers real results in the long run. At Equantiis, my team call it the P.P.S. approach:

People → Process → Solution.

It starts with people. Your users and your customers. What do they actually need? What gets in their way? How do they experience the current systems and workflows? If you don’t know, you’re not ready to invest in any new technology. Then, we look at your processes. Not the ones documented when existing systems were implemented, the real ones. The messy, inefficient, manual workarounds, and ways that things actually get done on a day-to-day basis.

Only then, once we’ve mapped what’s happening and clarified what needs to change, implemented any quick wins and changes that can be applied without significant investment, do we start looking at technology changes. But now, we’re not guessing. We’re choosing solutions that fit real needs, fix real operational issues and come with come with the support of your users and customers baked in.

When It Works

We saw this approach in action with a leading university that wanted to streamline its student onboarding. Instead of rushing to procurement, they brought in stakeholders across departments, from IT to admissions, to front-line student support.

Workshops with students and staff helped identify pain points and opportunities. Process mapping uncovered bottlenecks in how documents were handled and approvals managed. The picture was messy, but honest.

Armed with this insight, they approached the vendor market with clarity. The solution they chose wasn’t the most hyped or expensive. But it was right for them. Onboarding became faster, staff adoption was high, and students noticed the difference immediately.

No firefighting. No wasted spend. No afterthoughts.

Take time to Save time. It’s Not Slower. It’s Smarter.

There’s a common belief that engaging people in early stages slows things down, and that it’s easier to “just buy the tech”, and sort the rest out later. But in practice, cutting corners is costly, in lost time, morale and impact. According to McKinsey, projects are 1.5 times more likely to succeed when a wider stakeholder group is engaged early. And Gartner found that only 16% of solution-first transformations deliver the expected results.

If we know that engaged people and process improvements are essential, why do we still leave them until the end?

Final Thoughts

Transformation isn’t about technology. It’s about trust. About clarity. About creating change that lasts. That starts with people. Then process. Then, and only then, the solution.

Don’t let your digital strategy read like a complicated script (The ‘S’ in the original P.S or P.P.S) that cannot be corrected and then you need to include important details as afterthoughts.

Make people and process your starting point. Your team and your customers will thank you.

If you're about to invest in digital technology or untangle the consequences of a previous investment, I’d love to talk. This is the kind of work my team does, day to day, at Equantiis. You can make your next project a success story and plan the best way for your organisation to get it right...first time!

#DigitalTransformation #Leadership #PeopleProcessSolution #ChangeThatLasts #Equantiis