Kickstarting Your Digital Transformation Journey
In the beginning of this series, I shared the definition of digital transformation and why companies need to embrace it in order to stay relevant in today’s digital age. I also discussed the various reasons why companies may choose to undergo digital transformation.
Now, let’s continue our journey by exploring the key drivers of digital transformation and the secrets to a successful transformation.
Kickstart the Journey
To kickstart the digital transformation journey, the first thing companies must do is understand the drivers that are pushing them towards this journey. We call these the “key drivers”, which can vary depending on the industry and the specific circumstances of the company.
Identify the Key Drivers
Based on the various analysis, studies, and my experience in executing transformation initiatives, here are the 7 key drivers of digital transformation:
New Business Model
Building new products, services, or delivery channels that align with digital trends is a primary driver for organizations. Not only does this strategy help create new revenue streams, but it can also cannibalize existing products and services to ensure continued growth.
Enhance Customer Experience
Most customers and employees engage with friends on social media, purchase via an eCommerce platform, watch videos and movies on various devices, and perform banking on mobile. Naturally, they subconsciously expect a similar experience with the product, service, and platform they use in the office. Enhancing the customer experience of the customer and employee continues to be the key priority for every organization as it will directly impact their productivity.
Modernizing IT Infrastructure
Many organizations are burdened with outdated technology and legacy IT infrastructure that hinders scalability, interoperability, and growth. Upgrading these systems to advanced technology is an essential driver of digital transformation
Operational Efficiency
Every department within the organization develops its customary business process for internal and external interaction. Over the period these business operations generally have manual interaction, bureaucratic approval processes, and are prone to manual errors. Digitization of the business process via new applications, automated systems, batch operations, integration of applications/systems, API services, etc helps in increasing the overall operations of the organization.
Upgrade Employee Skillset
Many organizations have employees working on the same job profile for decades and more. These employees lack the knowledge and expertise related to a new system, technology, and digital ecosystem. Thus, any organization that is embarking on the journey of digital transformation would need to upgrade the skillsets of the existing employees via training, seminars, certification, etc. Additionally, they would also need to hire new and young talent to fill the gap.
External Partners Collaboration
The digital business model requires strong integration with your business partners, vendors, suppliers, marketing, and delivery channels.
Most technology leaders like Amazon, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, etc has deployed an API platform that allows their external developers, 3rd party vendors, customer, and other entities to easily integrate with them. But many companies are still not comfortable exchanging data with an external party. To build a new business model, an organization can collaborate with its external business partners to provide better products/services and build new delivery channels.
Data Driving Decision
The data that digital systems generate can provide valuable insights that can be used to drive better decision-making. This data-driven decision-making is crucial to digital transformation initiatives, as it can help organizations identify opportunities, predict outcomes, and more.
With the identified key drivers of digital transformation in mind, companies can develop a clear and effective strategy that aligns with their business goals and objectives. By focusing on the drivers such as new business models, enhancing customer experience, modernizing IT infrastructure, improving operational efficiency, upgrading employee skill sets, collaborating with external partners, and making data-driven decisions, companies can achieve successful digital transformation.
If you’re interested in learning more about these key drivers and the secrets to a successful digital transformation, join me on another exciting journey where we’ll explore each driver in more detail. With the right knowledge and tools, you can kickstart your own digital transformation journey and set your company up for long-term success in the digital age.
Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash
