In 2019 Holcim founded the corporate digital unit called MAQER to drive and support the digital transformation across the global footprint of the group. Since then, countless digitalization projects were conducted through partnerships with market-leading as well as new up-and-coming start-ups. The goal of the thesis was to analyze and identify a strategy how to utilize the immense amount of user usage data generated by the digital systems.

In a first step, a literature review was conducted to understand how digital transformation is done and how user usage data is used in other industries. In a second step, six past digitalization projects were analyzed focusing on their usage of data. This resulted in a first draft of a strategy on how to conduct digitalization projects for Holcim. The third step applied the identified strategy to a digitalization project analyzing it and adjusting it to conclude the thesis with a real-life verified approach on how Holcim should conduct digital projects focusing on the usage of user usage data.

The identified strategy on how to conduct digital projects with the main focus on how to utilize user usage data was achieved through the above-mentioned analysis procedure. The identified strategy consists of a series of best practices to follow as well as a series of previously made mistakes to avoid while conducting digitalization projects. The key finding of the research is that user usage data does not drive the digitalization projects itself but is fundamental to enable the projects to be effectively executed. One can say that data is the fuel that drives digitalization with the management being the driver steering it. Another big finding was that user usage data completely changes the way decisions are made, again increasing effectiveness. From gut feeling decision making transitioning to decision making based on actual facts identified through the user usage data. The thesis also identified and tested an approach how to conduct A/B testing. This is used to iteratively improve the developed systems to maximize the value it brings to the organization.