NICE, France — TM Forum Live — The TM Forum is launching a new software app that will allow telcos to monitor their progress on digital transformation amid concern that some departments are being left behind or transforming in the wrong way.

The digital maturity model, as the app is called, allows users to rank their performance across a range of criteria. The resulting data can be analyzed and measured against industry best practice, or used to set targets and ensure that different parts of the business are in harmony.

Unveiled at this week’s TM Forum Live conference in Nice, the app has already been endorsed by a number of big-name service providers, including BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA), China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL), China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA), China Unicom Ltd. (NYSE: CHU), Orange (NYSE: FTE), PCCW Ltd. (NYSE: PCW; Hong Kong: 0008) and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD).

Nik Willetts, the CEO of the TM Forum , said that operators would start using the model later this month.

“We kept hearing from operators that they were running into organizational and cultural challenges and that the broader business wasn’t really transforming,” Willetts told Light Reading when explaining what motivated his association to begin developing the app. “There are lots of opportunities associated with services beyond connectivity, but transformation efforts are often siloed and lack clear measurement or destination.”

The TM Forum says that in a recent survey it carried out some 54% of respondents admitted that previous transformation efforts had been unsuccessful. Willetts believes that failure typically happens because of a “disconnect” between senior managers and the perceptions and experiences of lower-level staff — an issue the app could help to address.

In developing the model, the TM Forum appears to have examined best practices across a range of organizations, including operators as well as consulting firms and big software houses.

The app comprises a total of 175 different measures based around five broad categories: customer; strategy; technology; operations; and culture, people and organization.

“In practice it means you are looking to survey a good proportion of [staff in] each department, with perhaps 5% to 10% using the app to answer relevant questions about their area and everyone answering questions about culture,” says Willetts. “Then you bring different leaders together and try to understand why there are differences of opinion, and from there you can look at where you need to invest to produce change.”

Keep reading on Light Reading.