Take Stock Before You Buy
Sit with the teams who live in Salesforce, Zendesk, NetSuite, or your data warehouse. Catalogue the modules you pay for but left idle—knowledge search, automation builders, data contracts, embedded analytics.
Pair that inventory with the manual workarounds people run today. If analysts export CSVs because the built-in reporting is misconfigured, fix the configuration first.
- Map each pain point to an existing feature before approving new spend.
- Quantify the time and error-rate cost of workarounds to prioritise enablement sprints.
- Tag every backlog item with the system owner so accountability is clear.
Sequence Enablement Sprints
Run focused two-week bursts that activate one capability end-to-end: turn on CRM knowledge search, wire native integrations, or enforce data contracts. Measure the lift before layering AI or automation on top.
Use those wins to build trust. When teams see their existing tools finally working, they become champions for the next slice of modernization.
- Co-lead each sprint with a platform specialist and the business owner.
- Ship lightweight runbooks so regional teams can repeat the pattern.
- Instrument the before/after metric inside dashboards leadership already reviews.
Add New Tech Only When The Core Is Healthy
Once baseline workflows run cleanly, layer on copilots or automation where they amplify trusted data. Otherwise the AI simply broadcasts your existing noise faster.
Bake an "enable before buy" gate into your roadmap reviews. Show which features you activated, the metric it moved, and the capacity it freed before pitching new platforms.
- Use enablement wins to free analyst cycles and budget for future innovation.
- Share success stories internally so teams associate modernization with simplification, not sprawl.
- Revisit the backlog quarterly to retire features that no longer earn their keep.