Why Small Wins Are the New Big Wins
There was a time, not so long ago, when digital transformation almost always meant "go big or go home." Multi-year timelines, million pound budgets, wholesale platform replacements, and teams of consultants working across multiple workstreams.
That playbook doesn’t land so well in 2025.
The landscape has shifted. Businesses are still ambitious, but caution is driving decisions. Large-scale replatforming projects are being postponed, budgets are under pressure, and even the most forward-thinking tech leaders are being asked to do more with less. The result? The traditional systems integrator model built around scale, headcount, and sweeping change, is starting to feel out of step with where the market’s at.
But this isn’t a time to pause or retreat. It’s a time to recalibrate.
Smaller Projects, Smarter Thinking
We’re seeing a clear trend with our clients and across the wider market: discrete, targeted improvements are taking priority over full-scale transformation. Not because people have lost their appetite for change, but because they need tangible value, at speed and without overcommitting.
Instead of a complete platform overhaul, companies are prioritising:
Improving the on-site search experience (so customers can actually find what they’re looking for)
Replacing a legacy CMS that’s making their content teams miserable
Implementing an actual PIM that’s been on the wishlist since forever
These might seem like "small" wins, but they unlock real value for the business. They're quick to deliver, solve a genuine business problem, and often free up internal teams to move faster.
Done right, these projects don’t just fix isolated pain points, they can lay the foundations of a more modular, composable architecture that can evolve over time.
What’s Working Now (and Why)
At Cabiri, we’ve adapted our delivery approach to align with this reality and we’re seeing strong results:
3–5 person delivery teams
Nimble, highly experienced teams that don’t need a programme manager to coordinate every move. The fewer moving parts, the better.Clear deliverables, scoped tightly
No fuzzy ambition. Each engagement is built around a well-defined outcome with clear business impact.Short, focused cycles
Most of our projects are scoped for 4–12 weeks. That’s long enough to deliver something meaningful, short enough to maintain momentum and executive support.Composable by design
Everything we build plugs into a bigger picture. Whether that’s future-proofing a site for full composable commerce or simply ensuring systems don’t become technical debt again in 18 months.
Momentum Matters
The temptation in this climate is to wait. Wait for more budget. Wait for the new CFO. Wait for next year’s strategic plan. But the brands that come out stronger will be the ones that kept moving, even if it was one module at a time.
If you can make your stack faster, your team happier, or your customer experience smoother in 3 months instead of 3 years - why wouldn’t you?
This is where smart systems integration comes into its own. Not as a heavyweight transformation partner, but as a lean, pragmatic team that helps you unlock value today and build towards the bigger vision when the time is right.
Let’s Talk
If this shift resonates with what you're seeing in your own business, or you’re feeling the pressure to improve without overspending, we should talk. Whether it’s search, CMS, PIM, or something else, we can help you find the quickest path to value without locking you into a massive programme of work.