Digital Transformation at Rockwell Automation

Rockwell is the world’s largest industrial automation company. They build both the parts that make up manufacturing machinery as well as the software that runs plant operations.

As part of their growth over the last 100 years, Rockwell has continuously acquired new companies and capabilities. But due to this growth, they operate in a series of disconnected business units. Customers must work separately with different areas of the Rockwell company, maintain multiple accounts and use legacy manual processes.

This creates overlap in disparate digital experiences, limits opportunity for cross-selling, and places a heavy organizational burden on users.

Solstice became a partner in transforming the Rockwell enterprise into a modern digital business focused on customization and business unity to make better experiences for their customers.

the research.

Through a series of qualitative studies we learned that Rockwell customers found Rockwell hard to do business with because their disconnected tools cost users extra time in their busy work days.

the need.

Customers need a way to easily design, collaborate, buy and maintain Rockwell products & services in one consolidated digital experience so that working with Rockwell adds efficiency to their work lives.

the strategy.

Build one connected experience for Rockwell’s Users.

We are building this new experience iteratively just like the transformation that is taking place in Rockwell’s organization. As we move through releases, our agile scrum teams integrate new business units into our consolidated portal and approach new features with a test and learn methodology.

fragmented customer journey.

Through qualitative research, we were able to clearly understand why Rockwell was getting feedback from their customers that it was hard to do business with them. By watching customers design and order parts and services from the company, we could see that the burden of disconnected business units was being passed to the customer. To customize and order a product users had to interact with the company in many different channels and no interaction impacted the next, causing rework at each step.

user roles and needs.

Because of the global scale of our user base, instead of using traditional personas, we focus our solutions around customers’ role at their companies and the needs they will have to complete their job duties. While each segment has a different focus, we heard consistently from all user types that speed and efficiency is key to their success in their job. Based on this user insight, efficiency over choice is one of our foundational design principles on the program.

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myRockwell.

MyRockwell is an integrated digital portal that connects all business units into one centralized location. This personalized experience stores frequently used apps, services, and digital tools in an authenticated site that connects to other Rockwell sites. With three main functions, Search, Manage, and Browse, it’s intuitive to use and easy to navigate.

Using search as our entry point allows visitors to quickly navigate to content related to equipment or software - for sales and support

Next, the manage screen houses all of the customization features that MyRokwell offers. Here you’ll find dashboards about a user’s factory and collaborative sales tools like a bill of materials builder. Sales tools and facility efficiency reporting — all work that used to be done with spread sheets and phone calls — are now centralized into a one stop shop that customers can use to navigate their work day.

The browse panel surfaces up Rockwell’s most valuable content in quick launch point so that we can connect with areas of business that aren’t yet fully integrated.

In 6 releases we’ve integrated 10 business units into our portal and our single stakeholder has grown into a team called digital business transformation, which is 30 members strong.

powered by personalization.

Rockwell Identity and Access Management System

IAM takes the burden off of users to maintain different accounts across different business units. Streamlining these accounts into single identity associated with the enterprise, empowers Rockwell to customize every touchpoint to a user’s needand grant them access to information and services that their company has purchased.

user need.

A single set of login credentials to remember and profile to maintain

Receive faster customer support
Seamless & customized user experience

business need.

Establish a single source of truth
Reorganize around the user
Enhance security and authorization
Resolve customer issues faster

my role.

design.

I joined the Rockwell project at Solstice in early 2017 as a UX designer collaborating to create some of the foundational features of the myRockwell experience including Bill of Materials and Repairs. I then owned the UX design of the brand new Rockwell Identity and Access Management System, a sister product to myRockwell.

lead.

My role as both consultant and UX designer is to facilitate design through cross functional collaboration. I lead workshops to bring teams to understand user needs, technical constraints and business objectives. After a deep understanding of our problems and goals we can diverge and converge in the ideation process. I then refine the outputs into wireframes, clickable prototypes or development ready designs.

grow.

Now, as UX design lead on the Rockwell program at Solstice, I’m responsible for driving design maturity and mentoring UX designers at Rockwell and Solstice. I build processes to gain evidence based user insights through rapid experimentation, continue finding new ways to grow our design system and spread the reach of our design principles.