Ista CEO Hagen Lessing explains why he believes every company can benefit from adopting an agile-at-scale management system.
What Is a Digital Platform?
To develop a digital platform, first you must understand what a digital platform is. The characteristics of digital platforms include:
- Data can be liberated from old, inflexible legacy core systems.
- Data can be owned by the business, not IT, which is critical to prioritizing and driving business use cases.
- The business side can roll out new use cases independent of IT’s decisions about how and at what pace to upgrade the core.
- New digital services can be delivered every few weeks, powered by artificial intelligence and leveraging open-source software and cloud services.
- Differentiating engineering capabilities can be re-shored and built in-house, improving time to value.
Our Approach to Data and Digital Platform
It has only recently become feasible to build the digital platform and smart business layers separately from the existing core, thanks to multiple advances in SaaS, PaaS, cloud computing, low code platforms, and the open-source community.
We bring unique capabilities and deep expertise to data and digital platform strategy and development. Our data and digital platform consultants—including IT architects, data integration and migration experts, and technology and cloud specialists—work with clients on:
Business-Led ERP Transformation
ERP transformations are often treated as technology upgrades, but they are fundamentally strategic business transformations that redefine how value is created. We position ERP as the foundation of a modern data and digital platform, ensuring alignment to enterprise priorities and measurable outcomes from the start—while using AI as a key enabler to unlock incremental value and impact.
Acting as an end-to-end business integrator, we orchestrate the full transformation—connecting strategy to execution, aligning stakeholders, and enabling real-time visibility into performance and value delivery. In close partnership with SAP, we link business objectives to platform capabilities, combining SAP’s technology with our deep expertise in process redesign, operating model evolution, and change management.
Our data and digital platform consultants connect and orchestrate across the organization, combining the role of business integrator with advanced AI enablement to accelerate value—while working seamlessly across the broader technology ecosystem. As an independent, ecosystem-agnostic advisor, we steer decisions objectively across partners and solutions, integrating ERP into a scalable digital platform. By combining strategic leadership with system integrator execution, this model increases certainty, improves ROI, and delivers sustained impact.
Acting as an end-to-end business integrator, we orchestrate the full transformation—connecting strategy to execution, aligning stakeholders, and enabling real-time visibility into performance and value delivery. In close partnership with SAP, we link business objectives to platform capabilities, combining SAP’s technology with our deep expertise in process redesign, operating model evolution, and change management.
Our data and digital platform consultants connect and orchestrate across the organization, combining the role of business integrator with advanced AI enablement to accelerate value—while working seamlessly across the broader technology ecosystem. As an independent, ecosystem-agnostic advisor, we steer decisions objectively across partners and solutions, integrating ERP into a scalable digital platform. By combining strategic leadership with system integrator execution, this model increases certainty, improves ROI, and delivers sustained impact.
Data Strategy
We help clients develop a structured and substantiated view of the value that data can generate for their company—and a roadmap to achieve it.
Data Governance
Our data and digital platform consultants work side-by-side with clients to create a target operating model for data management and analytics, tailored to the needs and culture of their organization.
Our Work with Clients on Data and Digital Platforms
We have helped many of our clients build and realize the benefits of digital platforms as part of their digital transformations. Examples include:
Client Impact
Client Impact
Adriana Nuneva, chief digital officer of CWS Group, explains how the company’s shift to a holistic, data-driven approach emboldened the company's growing sales force, sparking a massive boost in productivity.
Video
May 17, 2023
BCG X and Orange Built a Customer-Centric Marketing Ecosystem
Replace product-centric marketing with an AI-driven, personalized strategy to reach the right customer with the right offer at the right time, no matter the channel.
Video
August 3, 2022
How Citizens Is Competing—and Winning—Against Fintechs
Michael Ruttledge, CIO of Citizens, explains how a digital transformation has allowed the company to compete against fast-moving startups.
Our Solutions for Digital Platforms
BCG’s proprietary digital maturity assessments enable companies to benchmark against peers and develop a rock-solid data and digital platform strategy.
BCG PowertrAIn Cockpit
Enables 360° value tracking across ERP, leveraging SAP Signavio to provide real-time visibility into performance and benefits.
BCG PowertrAIn Cockpit
Value Path AI
AI-first engine combining agent-led execution with human judgment to accelerate ERP transformation value and impact.
Value Path AI
Rapid Assessment of Data and Digital Platform Architecture
Offers a high-impact, two-week exercise to identify technology gaps that must be addressed to achieve data and digital platform excellence.
Rapid Assessment of Data and Digital Platform Architecture
Data Governance Maturity Assessment
Informs actions and priorities to further mature data governance capabilities.
Data Governance Maturity Assessment
Our Partnerships in Digital Platforms
BCG and SAP partner to accelerate ERP transformation and help organizations build for growth through integrated strategy, technology, and AI.
Our Insights on Digital Platforms
Article
November 7, 2025
Platform lock-in is the practical cost of operating in today’s enterprise IT environment. Companies must exercise active oversight to realize their strategic ambitions.
Video
October 27, 2025
Turning Data into Business Value at Scale
By partnering with leading cloud and AI providers, organizations can turn fragmented data into measurable business outcomes—gaining a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven world.
Article
October 13, 2025
Agentic AI is redefining how businesses operate, installing intelligent virtual assistants that can analyze data and make decisions without human intervention.
Article
July 31, 2025
As governments increasingly assert export control over digital products, compliance design has become integral to a company’s product and business strategy—and can create a competitive edge.
Article
April 25, 2025
The real benefits of GenAI do not come from a “low-hanging fruit” mindset; they can only be realized if the technology is deployed consistently.
Video
Companies Can Generate Value by Improving Their Data
Dealing with data quality issues at the source lets businesses start with a strong foundation and make the most of GenAI, DQC’s Michael Spira explains.
Meet Our Data and Digital Platform Consulting Team
Our data and digital platform consultants and industry experts help clients create the foundation for a successful digital transformation. Here are some of our experts on the topic.
