Digital agencies thrive on individual solutions, tailored consulting and close collaboration with their clients. Today, companies expect faster results, greater transparency and predictable investments. At the same time, AI is accelerating the development of digital solutions, while economic pressure is making efficiency a decisive competitive factor. The question is therefore no longer whether our business model will change, but how we actively shape this transformation.
There is often little time left for the innovation this requires – for thinking differently, challenging assumptions or looking at things from a new perspective. As a result, technically convincing DXPs are created, but rarely solutions that truly differentiate companies from their competitors.
The consequence is clear to me: In this new reality, we need to create the space required for innovation and inspiration. Not because individual solutions are becoming obsolete, but because standardization – where it makes sense – creates the time and resources needed for the innovations that deliver the greatest value. This means we need to rethink our business model – not as a replacement for individual consulting, but as its logical evolution. This is exactly where the productization of services comes into play.
Project Business Remains Essential – But it Needs Accelerators to Create Room for Innovation
For many years, the default approach was to treat every project as a unique endeavor: conducting initial workshops, gathering requirements, preparing proposals, estimating effort and developing solutions tailored to each individual customer. This approach has its place and will remain essential for complex transformation initiatives. However, we need to rethink where customization truly creates value and where we can reduce complexity and risk. By doing so, we create more space for the innovation and creativity that drive real business impact.
Our experience shows that many core capabilities and requirements are highly repeatable across projects: performance, accessibility, platform integration, supply chain processes, product data, personalization and security. These are essential building blocks of successful digital solutions – and in many cases, they can already be delivered faster, more reliably and with consistent quality.
So why reinvent them every time? Instead of rebuilding proven capabilities from the ground up in every project, we can standardize, continuously improve and provide them as clearly defined services. This saves time, reduces risk and frees up capacity for the areas where individual expertise creates the greatest value. This is where the real opportunity lies.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift. It automates repetitive tasks, supports analysis and creates more capacity for strategic consulting and creative problem-solving. The result is a new delivery model: standardized where it makes sense, scalable by design and tailored where differentiation matters. What seemed like a distant vision only a few years ago is now becoming reality: By combining reusable services with AI-driven acceleration, we can create a new paradigm for IT projects – with greater predictability, faster delivery and improved cost control.
Customers Can Now Buy Certainty and Create Time for Competitive Innovation
When deciding where to invest in digital projects, business leaders are usually looking for answers to the same fundamental questions:
What exactly am I getting?
How long will implementation take?
What will it cost?
What risks does this create for me and my organization?
What tangible value can I expect?
The faster these questions can be answered, the easier it becomes to make confident decisions. Productized services integrated into project planning provide exactly this level of certainty. They define a clear scope, transparent deliverables, a structured approach and a predictable path to implementation. Customers know what to expect before a project even begins. And only then can we focus on the question that truly matters: “What competitive advantage will this create for my business?”
Answering this question requires something that is often missing in today’s project environments: time to think. The right solution is not always immediately obvious. Sometimes decision-makers need the space to step back, challenge assumptions and identify the opportunity that will truly set their business apart. A frequently quoted statement captures this idea:
The idea is not about wasting time, but about creating the space to think. Because this is where the ideas emerge that make a lasting difference.
The diva-e Conclusion Marketplace as a Starting Point
With the launch of the diva-e Conclusion Marketplace, we are taking the next step in creating the space our customers need for competitive innovation.
It is not simply another sales channel. It is our way of giving customers the time and freedom to rethink digital business and create lasting competitive advantages – by providing reusable methods, proven components and expert knowledge in a structured way. To make this possible, we analyzed our project experience, identified the most valuable methods and reusable components, and transformed this knowledge into clearly defined services.
Customers can access reusable service modules and platform components and combine them with our experts to create solutions tailored to their individual needs. Together, we create the time needed for “Business Beyond Technology.”
Outlook
We are only at the beginning of this transformation. The project business will continue to evolve, and the era of complex, open-ended time-and-materials engagements is coming to an end. Our ambition is to make digital transformation faster, simpler and more economically sustainable. To achieve this, we need to rethink how digital services are designed, delivered and scaled.
The productization of services will play a critical role in this evolution. Now is the time to actively shape this change. Over the coming years, the share of standardized services will continue to grow, while AI will increasingly complement manual development efforts. For agencies, this creates an opportunity to leverage knowledge more effectively, build scalable foundations and use the time gained to develop new digital business models together with their customers.
This is exactly why we see the diva-e Conclusion Marketplace as an enabler of a new approach to Experience Business – a starting point for a paradigm shift that we want to shape together with our customers, partners and the entire Conclusion ecosystem.
