Right
now it feels like the whole world is moving to digital at breakneck
speed. Banks, insurance companies, retailers and large manufacturers are
all looking at how they can digitally transform the organisation to
keep up with customer demand, business expectations and compete
globally.
However, while digital transformation
is becoming all-pervasive agreement on what digital transformation
actually means, how to leverage its potential, and most importantly how
to make a digital transformation project a success still remains elusive
for many.
Digital transformation can be viewed holistically as the confluence of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)
technologies, cutting through business processes, enabling agile &
secure infrastructure, leveraging IoT & connected devises, driven by
seamless integration into (and upgrading) of current IT systems and
underpinned by actionable insights for sustainable differentiation
across customer experience and business efficiency.
See also: Cloud strategies for digital transformation
In
fact, you could argue that customer experience is a big driver for
digital transformation projects and will continue to be for a long time
to come. What this means is:
The
personalisation of content, experience, pricing, recommendation,
service and so on; the provision of real-time and aware applications
that leverage preferences, insights, context and location awareness;
systems or processes that enable on-going customer engagement for deeper
insights that drive higher loyalty and advocacy; an omni-channel approach that provides the flexibility and choice for customers to leverage any channel they want;
The
business efficiency theme driving digital transformation projects is
all around creating differentiation for organisations through one or
more of the following: helping an organisation to become more agile and
responsive in its ability to identify either opportunities or to protect
against threats; taking cost optimisation to the next level by further
automating mundane and routine tasks that can be more efficiently
handled by intelligent systems; creating better decision making powered
by real-time data and insights, rather than by gut-feel and intuition;
and unleashing the ability to innovate through the provision of new
offerings or different business models.
That
said, the key driver for most organisations around digital
transformation primarily stems from the fact that it offers tremendous
opportunity to enable business differentiation and impact in the market.
It
will give many organisations the competitive edge they are looking for -
and in some instances change the game in their respective sectors.
However,
embarking on a digital transformation programme comes with its own set
of challenges and requires an enormous amount of change to the
organisation in order to bring in this new approach.
This is a complicated programme of work that involves people, process and technology, which are all equally important.
Here are four critical success factors that will help organisations tap into the tremendous potential that digital can offer:
Transformation
Like any transformation exercise, digital transformation
needs to align to business vision, strategy, with the clarity of an
implementation roadmap and a series of connected initiatives to achieve
the goals.
A
digital transformation project with no executive management commitment
and support is the most common pitfall for organisations. Point solution
implementation without the definition of a roadmap of connected
initiatives. It requires leadership buy-in and working collaboratively
with a range of key stakeholders.
Complement your capabilities
Assessing
your digital capabilities is just the first stage. You then need a plan
to get your project from where you are to where you need to be. As this
is likely to be a large transformation programme, it is critically
important that the project team keeps referring back to their original
assessment and plan.
This
will keep the team grounded throughout as to why they are going through
the pain to get the organisation where it needs to be to advance the
business in a world that has become increasingly mobile and
progressively digital.
Front & back end
Any
digital transformation should look to leverage your current IT
investments and systems. If you only focus on digitising the front-end
technologies without adequate consideration for the enablement and
modernisation of your existing systems, you won’t leverage the full
potential and benefits of the digital project.
Multi-functional buy-in
A
fundamental review of all your business processes and capabilities is
required with a view tooptimise them by leveraging digital technologies.
Digital is all pervasive and not something led by IT or Marketing or
independent business departments - more than ever it needs a
multi-function team.
A
multi-disciplinary approach is a prerequisite for a digital
transformation initiative to be successful. Companies need to be careful
that it does not creates silos & internal competition.
See also: 3 steps to futureproofing a business with digital transformation
Most
companies tend to start small with pilots and proof of concepts. That
is a good way of getting buy-in, however it needs to be aligned to an
overall vison and roadmap.
In
my experience if a digital transformation project lacks management or
stakeholder buy-in and/or fails to adequately take into consideration
its current IT landscape, then alarm bells should start ringing as these
two factors are the most common cause of stress, delays and failed
digital projects. And remember, timeframes for these types of projects
also tend to shrink due to demands from the business.
Try
to set a realistic timeframe rather than the timeframe that the
business dictates and work with a digital partner that has the ability
and agility to deliver what you need. Otherwise you are certain to set
yourself up for failure.
Sourced from Isaac George, Senior VP and Regional Head, Happiest Minds UK
