Digital transformation rarely begins with abundance. More often, it starts with limits — of budget, time, legacy systems, and expectations. Sandra Luciano, a digital transformation adviser from Italy, understood this well when she joined the International Youth Federation at a moment when ambition significantly outpaced infrastructure.

Her mandate was not to “modernize” in the abstract, but to make the organization work better — across headquarters and regions — using what was already available. The challenge was as practical as it was strategic: how to turn fragmented tools and ad-hoc workflows into scalable digital capacity, without the resources of a large institution.

What followed was not a single platform or product, but a shift in how the organization approached digital work altogether.

Working within what later became the Smart and Digital Infrastructure Division (formerly the ICT Support Unit), Sandra helped lead the development of multiple interconnected platforms built primarily on open-source technologies. These systems were designed to meet real operational needs: enabling team collaboration, task and project management, a global support desk, and an integrated management suite supporting oversight and coordination.

None of this was built in isolation. The work required sustained cross-functional collaboration — with programme teams, management units, and regional colleagues — to ensure that tools reflected how people actually worked, rather than how systems imagined they should. Digital design, in this context, was less about elegance and more about usability, adaptability, and trust.

As platforms were rolled out, a second challenge emerged: change management. Introducing new tools is rarely the hardest part. Helping people adopt them is. Sandra played a central role in ensuring that digital transformation at IYF was accompanied by structured onboarding, clear guidance, and practical learning resources. Training materials, user guides, and knowledge-sharing products were developed not as static documents, but as living references — supporting staff and volunteers as processes evolved.

This emphasis on learning reflected a deeper understanding: digital transformation is not a one-off upgrade, but a continuous capability.

That understanding came into sharp focus with the development of the IYF Digital Maturity Model. Rather than measuring progress by the number of tools deployed, the model assessed how digital capacity actually functioned across the organization — from reactive, manual processes to integrated, optimized systems. Drawing on established digital maturity approaches, the model mapped IYF’s evolution across areas such as governance, risk management, compliance, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and delivery.

The value of the model lay not in categorization, but in orientation. It helped teams understand where they were, what was realistically achievable with existing resources, and which steps would deliver the greatest institutional benefit. Digital maturity, in this framing, was not about technology alone — it was about decision-making, visibility, accountability, and coordination.

For Sandra, this work captured both the challenge and the satisfaction of digital transformation. It was demanding, iterative, and often constrained. It was also collaborative, creative, and quietly rewarding — especially when systems began to reduce friction, improve clarity, and enable teams across regions to work as part of a shared operational ecosystem.

Her contribution illustrates something essential about how IYF approaches innovation: progress does not require scale before substance. With the right design choices, open technologies, and collaborative discipline, even limited resources can be transformed into durable institutional capacity.

For volunteers and professionals interested in digital transformation within international organizations, Sandra’s work offers a grounded lesson. The most meaningful digital change is not built for demonstration. It is built for use — and sustained through people who understand both systems and the institutions they serve.