Digitizing a process does not mean “drop a tool and hope.” In Senegal many projects fail on adoption: the team bypasses the new tool and returns to WhatsApp + Excel. Here is how to digitize without losing your people.
Map the real process
Not the PowerPoint process — the field one. Who does what, where it stalls, which exceptions exist. Watch for a week. Informal shortcuts are often the core of the work.
Choose what to automate (and what not)
Automate repetitive low-judgment work. Keep humans on relationships, negotiation, ambiguous cases. Automating too much too early creates rigidity and frustration.
Adoption: training and rituals
Short training, internal champions, weekly rituals for the first weeks, visible support. Measure real usage, not only go-live. If nobody opens the tool, the project is not delivered.
Success metrics
- Cycle time (request → response)
- Error / rework rate
- Adoption (% of active team)
- Internal satisfaction after 30 days