2016 was heralded by some as the year of digital transformation for businesses. You only need to look as far as your local post office or supermarket, both of which are likely to have replaced regular tills with self-service checkouts, to see the impact digitisation is having on everyday businesses. It’s no surprise that digital transformation has become a buzzword phrase in the last 12 months, with leaders across industries championing its ability to revolutionise company operations. However, the reality of the situation is that modernising business processes to bring them into the digital age is presenting a serious challenge for many; it’s not always easy to see what digital transformation looks like for your own business.
You can’t copy digital natives
Inspired by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, many CEOs and CTOs have jumped on the bandwagon, hoping that a complete revamp of their IT systems will produce the same level of success and profits. But what they are often overlooking is that these ground-breaking companies are digital natives, founded firmly in the digital age. They engage with a consumer base that is already well-versed in the technology behind the companies’ successes. It would be a mistake to try to draw comparisons between these digital-first companies and large, enterprise-level organisations – a study of the former will never accurately predict how the latter will fare when implementing new digital technologies.
So, what are the top three things you need to consider before you dive headfirst into a digital transformation project?
1. Digital change needs a plan
While most business leaders understand that they need to adapt quickly to take advantage of all the opportunities on offer from new digital technology, the practicalities behind making this a reality are less clear. Older, more established organisations should take a step back to evaluate the bigger picture and understand what is the best strategy for the business. It’s important to understand what technology is currently being used within the company, and where the gaps or opportunities lie.
Without a solid strategy and list of objectives, digital transformation projects are unlikely to get off the ground, let alone succeed. To avoid failure, business leaders should look to technology vendors that can help throughout the entire transformation journey.
2. People power is important
By the end of 2017, IDC predicts that more than 70% of the Global 500 companies will have dedicated digital transformation or innovation teams. Although this demonstrates that businesses are taking things seriously, many run the risk of assembling teams that are lacking the necessary talent. Organisations often turn to senior IT managers to make digital transformation a reality. But these managers are rarely the right people for the job – their day-to-day function lies in keeping the business technology running smoothly, not spearheading an innovative new way of working. Developing an organisation-wide digital transformation strategy requires new blood. Therefore, companies shouldn’t shy away from hiring someone whose sole responsibility it is to decide which technology implementations to undertake and has the extensive technical knowledge about digital solutions to back these decisions up.
It is essential that this new role sits at the board level; digital transformation encompasses key business activities, meaning that this dedicated person needs to have enough seniority and clout to command the direction of the implementation. But on the flipside, this new hire still needs to have an understanding of the core business objectives and be able to drive change with these in mind. For example, they must be able to give recommendations on which technology should be prioritised in order to create new value within the company. Essentially, pure technical know-how alone isn’t enough for someone who is required to implement a digital transformation strategy.
3. The customer is king
At the end of the day, any digital transformation project should have the customer front and centre. Whether the new processes are focused on providing personalised sales offers to customers by using more meaningful data analytics, or streamlining doctors’ appointments by installing automatic ‘check in’ machines in waiting rooms, the number one objective needs to be to improve the end-user experience.
For large enterprise organisations, true digital transformation needs to be based around multi-speed IT architecture, which can simultaneously deal with fast paced customer-facing activities, while still maintaining the high-quality processing power within the back-end functionality of the mainframe environment. This will mean the business can deliver the service that consumers demand without compromising on the technology that forms the IT foundations. Consumers are only becoming more digitally-savvy, so you need to keep up with their requirements or else risk losing business to the competition.
The end-game
Gartner has predicted that 25% of businesses will lose competitive ranking by 2017, thanks to a lack of digital business competence. Clearly, the importance of digitisation cannot be overlooked. Companies need to do more than pay lip-service to the biggest business disruptor since the industrial revolution; this means going further than simply having a website or mobile app. Investing in true digital transformation requires a fresh approach to processes and new business models. If you get this right, there will be immense opportunities for efficiency, customer service improvements and, ultimately, business growth.
