Against the backdrop of consumption upgrading, intelligent manufacturing, and omnichannel integration, digital transformation for home furnishing enterprises has shifted from a "nice-to-have" to a matter of survival. However, after many companies invest heavily in systems such as ERP, MES, and CRM, they fall into the dilemma of "systems going live but results falling short." The root cause often lies not in technology, but in the lack of an internal digital team that truly understands the business, knows the technology, and can deliver implementation.

So how should home furnishing enterprises build an efficient, sustainable, and combat-ready digital team from zero to one? Combining benchmark practices in the industry, this article breaks down the key strategies for you.

I. Why must home furnishing enterprises have their own digital teams?

Many enterprises mistakenly believe that "buying software + outsourcing implementation = completing digitalization." But the reality is:

Outsourced teams do not understand the veneer process of your panels.

IT suppliers cannot judge whether "order scheduling logic fits the production rhythm of Nankang."

After the system goes live, no one maintains it, and the company returns to the Excel era within three months.

Digitalization is not a one-time project, but a continuous operational capability. Only by establishing an internal team can enterprises:

Deeply understand business pain points

Quickly respond to process changes

Continuously optimize system value

Prevent the recurrence of digital silos

II. The "golden triangle" structure of an efficient digital team

Referring to the practices of leading enterprises such as Sophia, Qumei, and Tuantuanyuan, an efficient home furnishing digital team should consist of three core roles:

1. Business owner, the "commander-in-chief" of transformation

Usually held by a vice president, operations director, or CFO

Responsible for formulating digital strategy goals, coordinating resources, and promoting cross-department collaboration

Key capabilities: understands the business, has decision-making authority, and is willing to be accountable for results

Recommendation: avoid leaving the IT department to fight alone. Digitalization must be led by the business head.

2. Power users, the "bridge" for implementation

Backbone employees from frontline departments such as marketing, warehousing, finance, and production

Familiar with their own job processes and able to understand system logic

Responsible for requirement submission, testing and validation, training, and promotion

Example: a finished goods warehouse supervisor can accurately propose requirements such as "storage location binding + set sorting," which is far better than an external consultant.

3. Technical enablers, the "guardians" of the system

Including internal IT personnel or a technical team co-built with long-term partners

Responsible for system configuration, data governance, interface integration, and troubleshooting

They do not need to be coding experts, but must master the mapping logic between business and systems

Tip: in the early stage, enterprises can leverage professional service providers such as Soonfor Software to cultivate internal IT capabilities and gradually achieve independent operations and maintenance.

III. Five steps to build a sustainable digital team

Step 1: Clarify goals and align with strategy

Do not pursue digitalization for its own sake. First answer:

What problem do we most want to solve? For example, delivery delays or inaccurate inventory.

What quantifiable goals do we hope to achieve in the next year? For example, improving scheduling efficiency by 50%.

Step 2: Move in small steps and pilot first

Select one or two high-value scenarios, such as order scheduling or finished goods outbound delivery, form an agile team, quickly validate the model, and then replicate it horizontally.

Step 3: Select "dual-capability" talent

Give priority to employees who both understand the home furnishing business and are willing to learn digital tools, rather than those with purely technical backgrounds. Potential talent can be identified through internal competition and job rotation mechanisms.

Step 4: Establish a collaboration mechanism

Hold weekly business + IT alignment meetings

Use DingTalk or WeCom plus project management tools such as PingCode to track tasks

Set up a digital issue feedback channel and encourage frontline employees to provide suggestions

Step 5: Continue empowerment and incentives

Regularly organize system operation training and industry case sharing

Include digital contributions in performance appraisal

Provide promotion or bonus incentives for outstanding power users

In the wave of intelligence, software can be purchased, but organizational capabilities cannot be outsourced. An internal digital team rooted in the business, agile in response, and continuously evolving is the real moat that enables enterprises to move through cycles and win the future.

To empower home furnishing enterprises to build dedicated digital teams, Soonfor Software provides a trinity service of system + methodology + implementation companionship.

As an integrated digital solution provider focused on the pan-home furnishing industry for more than 20 years, Soonfor not only provides mature systems such as ERP, MES, WMS, and CRM, but also deeply participates in customer team building.