InsideBoard Cracks the Code to Successful Digital Transformations

Over the past decade, one topic has come up over and over again, to the point of becoming an obsession for companies: digital transformation. While this kind of transformation is essential for companies to survive in increasingly competitive environments in every industry, it can quickly turn into a fiasco if it isn’t well planned and executed.

“Three out of four projects fail because employees aren’t properly brought on board in this transformation,” says Michaël Bentolila.

With this principle in mind, he founded InsideBoard in 2014 with his brother Yohan to focus the transformation squarely on employees. This might seem obvious, yet many companies set up transformation projects without making sure their employees fully understand them.

A digital transformation changes the way people work as new tools and practices are implemented. An employee can quickly get lost if their employer doesn’t take the time to concretely explain what’s expected of them as part of this digital change. And an employee that no longer understands the point of their work because their company isn’t being transparent becomes a demoralized employee who doesn’t see the added value they can bring to the company.

The AI and Gamification Mix that Engages Employees

To fix this situation, the two Bentolila brothers developed a platform that combines social media conventions and gamification to connect and motivate employees to achieve shared objectives. “With our approach, the goal is to enable employees to drive this transformation. It shouldn’t be something done to them, but something they actively get involved with,” says Michaël, InsideBoard co-founder. With this framework, the platform also has to enable companies to be more transparent with their employees. “Transparency unleashes employee potential,” says Michaël.

To crack the “code for success” that InsideBoard promotes, the company uses artificial intelligence to recommend relevant training and content to activate the right levers that will motivate an employee to adopt new tools and practices during their company’s digital transformation. With Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s recent admission that the company is “genuinely struggling with… transparency at scale,” we think InsideBoard has the ideal card to play on the other side of the Atlantic. The timing couldn’t be better: the French startup now has offices in San Francisco and New York. And more than 30 companies already rely on InsideBoard, including Adecco, PSA and Audi, with 100,000 employees using the platform.