Published on the 14/08/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

Phased, right-sized transformation leads the way…

“It is the people, it is the people, it is the people,” the Maori proverb, asking what the most important thing in the world is, states.

Mike Jackson, chief technology officer at Grant Thornton, would likely concur.

The global professional services network’s advisory arm recently released a report showing the ‘big bang’ technology deployments are giving way to more modular, phased rollouts as business leaders eye up resource optimisation as a top priority for the year.

“In a crowded landscape of options, efficiency comes from matching the solution to the real problem – and knowing when less is more.”

The report, Make technology an engine for profitability, says while efficiency and profitability remain top priorities for business leaders, achieving them through digital transformation remains elusive for many – and many well-funded transformations stall when execution overlooks a key factor: The people.

Jackson told iStart the report rings true for Australia and New Zealand too.

He says user-centric design is a powerful tool in enabling local companies to improve efficiency and productivity and boost profitability and it’s one he’s seeing increasingly deployed across local organisations.

While the IT function remains responsible for infrastructure and IT security, employees throughout organisations are innovating with technology to solve problems and solving for user friction.

“The efficiency imperative isn’t just about picking the right tech – it’s about empowering the right people. And in a crowded landscape of options, efficiency comes from matching the solution to the real problem – and knowing when less is more.”

The user-centric model is one adopted by the New Zealand Grant Thornton operations.

Jackson notes the company’s move to nine-day fortnights across Australia and New Zealand – something it couldn’t do without initiatives for improving productivity and efficiency.

“That, combined with the current economic climate means we have to push even harder,” he says. “As we do that, it is better if we decentralise and it’s not just an IT thing. The innovation and great ideas from the coal face come back to us and we work together on them. And it works really, really well.”

Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents in the report said user adoption challenges were one of the top three reasons tech initiatives have failed at their organisation.

“Get people involved early and that adoption piece is taken care of as they come along on that journey,” Jackson says. “Even if it is a vanilla install and then you add the features as you go along based on feedback.”

It’s not just people though.

The report highlights that as technology spend continues to increase, leaders are learning lessons from the past on optimising return from their investment.

The competitive edge is no longer in large, monolithic systems, but in phased, right-sized transformations that fit the business need and can scale effectively – and enable them to adapt quickly and drive higher margins over time.

Jackson says local companies, including Grant Thornton New Zealand, turning to small, manageable improvements – and lots of them – to drive efficiency.

“The big bang stuff is not as effective as the small attainable goals in efficiency improvements – and of course, technology runs through all of that.”

The company has worked on around 30 ‘small, bite-sized’ apps to help with automation, speed up processes and improve efficiency and drive productivity to enable the nine-day fortnight.

He admits, however, that New Zealand’s ‘number eight fencing wire’ mentality provides a strong pragmatism which lends itself to the small incremental improvements anyway.

However, for larger companies, and bigger projects, that can be a challenge, and sometimes Jackson says, the big bang remains the best option.

“In the larger finance firms and banks and that, because of the sheer size and the need for a lot of due diligence, testing and putting together things that are big and those often lend themselves to the big bang,” he says.

Tony Dinola, Grant Thornton technology modernisation principal, says modern tech allows for modularised deployment.

“Instead of 24- or 36-month projects, we’re talking six to eight week cycles. You get value faster and can stop if it’s not delivering,” Dinola says.

That approach of small wins can also aid local companies as they struggle with digital maturity, Jackson says.

“Digital transformation is going well for most local clients, but they are having struggle when looking at digital maturity. And digital maturity comes from those small wins, those little pieces that build up, eating the elephant a mouthful at a time so you have more success there.”

When it comes to the challenges faced by organisations taking the ‘small is beautiful’ approach, Jackson says tracking metrics is ‘always a challenge: Measuring the right thing and not using numbers in isolation’.

Where once success was measured in terms of cost savings or successfully meeting go-live dates, today it is measured by usage, behaviour change and tangible business outcomes.

“Adoption metrics predict return on investment, and cost savings are maximised when technology achieves high levels of adoption,” the report notes. Tracking behaviour change, not just usage, can show leadership where hidden resistance may be stalling outcomes.

Jackson notes an example he sees regularly: People putting in CRM systems only to use them to measure executive performance.

“Your shoe will get a nail into the wall, but it’s not what it was built for, and this is a classic example of the wrong tool measuring the wrong thing. The CRM just becomes an electronic rolodex and the only data that gets captured is whether partners and client-facing people are winning work or not, and whether they get paid more by winning more work. That’s not where the value of a CRM lies.”