Busting digital transformation myths

According to an IDC Report, two thirds of the CEOs of Global 2000 companies will have digital transformation at the centre of their corporate strategy by the end of 2017. This is understandable, as the promise of digital technology is that it can optimise any organisation.

The risk is that people will buy into the many myths surrounding digital transformation and rush to make changes which are unnecessary at best and damaging at worst. These are just a few of the digital transformation myths which any organisation embarking on the process would be strongly advised to ignore.

“It’s all about customer experience”

Organisations often place the emphasis of their digital transformation policy on transforming the customer experience, generally through better utilisation of the various digital channels available. Whilst digital transformation can lead to changes which will benefit customers, this shouldn’t be the only or even main focus. By concentrating your digital transformation efforts on the practices and interactions of your employees, you’ll achieve an improved performance at all levels. By cutting down the time and effort which your team have to put into often fairly mundane tasks, you’ll improve efficiency and reduce costs in a manner which will inevitably lead to an improved customer experience. For digital transformation to work, it has to be organisation wide.

“It’s all about technology”

Clearly, technology represents a vital component of any digital transformation policy, but technology will only work if it’s used properly. However much time you spend sourcing, testing and installing new systems and processes, you have to put exactly the same effort into bringing your team along with you on the digital journey. Change which is imposed from above often takes longer to adhere, whereas if the members of your team feel they own the digital transformation from the beginning they’re much more likely to deliver it. This shouldn’t really need saying, as the input from those on the ‘shop floor’ should play a vital role in informing the creation of your digital strategy in the first place.

“It has to happen in one go”

Many organisations assume that the word ‘transformation’ means that everything has to change at once, and the scale of this projected upheaval leads to paralysis. The truth of the matter is that digital change can be introduced like any other kind of change — incrementally. Select smaller processes which would benefit most from digital transformation and work on them. Refine and perfect this change and then roll it out. When it’s embedded, move on to the next process. Breaking the process down into small steps in this manner makes it manageable. In time, each of these smaller steps begins to integrate with the others, and the transformation permeates throughout your organisation.

“It can be left to the IT department”

‘Digital’ means technology and IT, and that all too often means organisations handing the responsibility for their digital transformation over to just the IT department. For the reasons set out above, however, successful digital transformation has to be something which runs throughout the organisation. If the other parts of your team are suddenly confronted with an IT expert unveiling a plan to transform the way they work they’ll assume (rightly or wrongly), that it’s all just tech based and likely to go over their heads. Since digital transformation is about a state of mind as much as anything else, it has to be championed by every one of your departments.

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