18 Oct, 2020 | Blogs
Digital transformation has taken the center stage, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a study by Twilio, coronavirus has accelerated businesses’ digital communications strategy by an average of 6 years, and 96% of enterprise decision-makers claim that the pandemic sped up their company’s digital transformation. Moreover, the global spending on digital transformation technologies is set to grow by 10.4% in 2020 to reach $1.3 trillion, according to data researcher IDC published in May. If these eye-opening statistics still don’t convince you, then read this blog to know more about digital transformation and why it has become a necessary disruption.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation is considered a combination of several modern tools and processes that are used to solve business problems. It is a strategic move led by the CEO in partnership with CTOs, CIOs, CHROs, and other senior leadership. These changes are usually undertaken to re-engineer business models and revenue streams, driven by recreating customer expectations of the company’s products and services. Traditionally, it was only started to counter a potential threat from incumbents and startups. For instance, several retail stores and hypermarkets have been forced to re-think their logistics and make it quickly across the last mile to counter the disruption from Amazon.com.
But in the light of the pandemic, many IT leaders have reprioritized their roadmaps, with several embracing cloud software to make data accessible to employees and building apps to allow employees entering offices to follow social distancing norms. Whether you want to capitalize on such low-hanging fruit or go for the implementation of robotic process automation (RPA) or machine learning (ML) software, it is a step towards digital transformation. However, just implementing these tools do not facilitate digital transformation. Instead, how they are integrated into your overall business strategy will determine the digital fitness and priorities of your company.
Five Successful Digital Transformation Tips
Align business and digital transformation goals
Your digital transformation goals should complement your overall business goals. In other words, your team needs to know what you are trying to achieve through these modern tools and align the outcome with your overall company goals.
Think big, start small
Don’t get overwhelmed by the capabilities of digital transformation solutions. At the same time, don’t get stuck only on incremental changes. Think of enterprise-wide implementation while starting small with a pilot or a proof of concept. See how it works in the controlled environment of your business and then scale it based on your needs and usage.
Team collaboration
When thinking of digital transformation, the IT and business teams must cooperate to solve issues and provide value for customers. It may sound easy in theory, but it is often difficult to execute, with departments ending up working in silos. It also needs a change in the culture of the entire company.
Be Adaptive and Agile
With the days of rigid KPIs over, the senior management is embracing adaptive design to optimize and adjust their strategy, whenever required. It allows the company to test, learn, as well as make faster and informed decisions.
Mindset Change
When implementing digital transformation solutions, it is okay to disrupt yourself. It requires preemptive changes and a mindset shift to explore uncharted areas. Therefore, have a strong bias toward change even though your employees might resist it initially.
Digital transformation pitfalls
There are several reasons why digital transformations lag or even fail in organizations. Some of these reasons are:
- Identifying the wrong process or setting wrong goals
- Poor leadership and decision making
- Disconnect between IT and the business departments
- Siloed approach while implementation
- Ineffective employee onboarding in terms of training
Most of the conversations in the board room are about embracing digital amid a constant pressure to prove its ROI, which invariably sets wrong expectations. The obsession with a dramatic change, myopic focus on cost-cutting, and failure to involve it in business are the main culprits of a failed implementation. For a successful transformation, business needs to come together with the IT team, own the process and monitor the impact of transformation.
To know more about these revolutionizing technologies or start your journey, contact Nuummite Consulting today.