Digital transformation is a significant part of a business strategy. And to some extent, it’s also considered to be critical to the failure or success of the transformation effort.
By using the right technologies – alongside processes, people, and operations – a company can adapt quickly to disruption and manage it effortlessly.
In addition, digital transformation might help them meet new or evolving consumer needs and requirements through innovation, many a time in unexpected manners.
However, succeeding in an initiative of digital transformation isn’t easy. According to a report from HBR, almost 60% to 70% of such attempts tend to fail at the very first stage.
Why?
Due to people’s reluctance to change and inappropriate implementation of the transformation attempt. Thus, through this article, we’ll try to address the following –
- What is digital transformation?
- How can it be beneficial for your business?
- How should you implement the transformation strategy properly?
… to guide you through the right path. Let’s get on with it, then.
Digital Transformation – The Definition
The process of digital transformation usually involves the integration of digital solutions and technologies into every possible area of business.
It’s as much a technical change as a cultural one, as it’ll require a corporation to make one or more fundamental shifts to its proceedings.
Digital solutions are also capable of augmenting your organization’s workforce and might lead to the business model and process transformation.
Why Does It Matter?
Depending on their organizational needs and requirements, businesses might adopt a different approach or method to digital transformation. But, what they all have in common is the desire to improve their organization in the long run and overcome issues that may arise later on.
A well-implemented digital transformation can be beneficial in more than one way for a company. Here’s what you need to know about it.
1: Better Customer Experience
The aspect of customer experience is the heart and soul of digital marketing. And if you can’t offer what your consumer base is looking for, your business won’t be successful.
Digital transformation allows you to integrate different technologies to ensure that you’re able to offer all of your services with a single tap.
Additionally, you can create a customer-friendly UI on your system to make it easier for them to find out whatever they are looking for easily. It’ll certainly improve their experience too!
2: Data-based Insights
With digital transformation, you’ll be able to track consumer-based metrics and evaluate them to create a perfect strategy for your ad campaign. Using these can allow an organization to see how its marketing campaign went and optimize its strategies accordingly.
Using data-driven insights can also help you understand your consumer base and allow you to feed them back with –
- Real-time feedback,
- Hyper-personalization,
- Relevancy, and
- Agility.
This, in turn, challenges a business to use both unstructured (social media data) and structured (consumer’s personal information) to drive its transformation journey.
The significance of data-driven marketing must not be underestimated in this aspect as well. If you foster the right kind of leadership throughout your organization, the road to acquiring a higher ROI will get much easier than before.
3: The Introduction of Software Monetization
With a platform like SAP, creating a software program for your own organization will be quite easy and simple. Also, you can integrate them whenever you want. And, if you want, you can also sell the product to someone else and earn money through it too.
In addition to this, digital transformation can also help you create a digital framework in your system and find newer revenue streams too. Apart from this, you can also –
- Create licenses for your software program,
- Protect them with a well-oiled security system,
- Access business-critical data, and
- Engage with your consumers accordingly.
The better your digital transition is, the more you will succeed in software monetization or usage. So, if possible, try to take the help of an expert to give you a hand in this aspect.
4: Better Business Model
With digital transformation, you will also be able to modernize your business eminently. Yes, it might take some time for you to strategize everything. However, as long as you are doing it in a proper manner, your business model will be impeccable. Here’s how it can be done –
- Encourage the core culture of technical innovation.
- Update your brand accordingly and integrate technology within it.
- Get the latest tech and apps, and integrate them within your system accordingly.
- Make new partnerships with technological marvels in your industry.
- Modernize the working environment you currently have efficiently.
The better your business model is, the higher your overall productivity level will be. Besides, it can reduce your team members’ overall stress level to some extent too.
5: Higher Collaboration Level
In today’s dynamic world of business, it’s important to collaborate with each other in order to improve your organizational productivity. And this is something you can do when you use lots of digital tools and applications accordingly.
For example, SAP JAM is a type of enterprise social collaboration program that brings a lot of people together for collaboration. With it, you can solve an issue quickly and drive positive results accordingly. It can connect your partners, customers, and employees with the required or specified form of data and processes within the cloud.
Read this article to learn more about the software.
Successful Digital Transformation – How Do You Do It?
When it comes to transforming your organization digitally, you simply cannot opt for a single procedure at all. It has to be done through different steps and by following a few elements.
Here’s what you need to know about it.
1: Define Your Organizational Objectives.
When it comes to creating a bespoke framework, it’s important to define the core objective of a business. It’ll be based on a long-term strategy and what you want from the transformation.
The interpretation of digital transformation can change depending on your corporation and the requirements it has. Depending on the same, some interpretations can include the following –
- The future of your work culture.
- The adoption of ever-so-growing digital technologies.
- The incorporation and integration of digital technologies in your business domains.
- Using a technology that can facilitate everyone to find solutions accordingly.
- A change in how your organization is using technology.
- Providing sustainable innovation through technological evolutions.
- Moving from an analog system to a digital one.
Apart from this, many companies also attempt to infuse the core data-enabled services into an organizational infrastructure. In any case, when you are transforming your company digitally, always make sure to focus on only one aspect – not more than that.
2: Create an Integrated Strategy.
Once you have determined what you want, the next stop for you will be to create an integrated strategy. And how do you do that? Well, in order to do so, you will need to create a vision for your business backed by a set of sustainable transformation goals and strategic objectives.
The success of your business strategy will also rely upon the practical application of strategies and data you’ve gathered. Ensure that your plan is solving the following issues –
- Implementing leadership and strategy into your business.
- Taking care of the shortage of skills.
- Creating innovative products and software for your organization.
- Integrating into different processes and systems.
- Catering to the speed of the market.
- Decreasing the overall investment cost while improving your productivity.
- Risk management and compliance with procedural rules.
When creating an integrated strategy, most people focus more on specific technologies. But, it is not how you should progress in your approach. Instead of putting all your budget into one, it will be better to curate a holistic strategy for your business.
This way, it’ll be easier for you to tackle everything all at once without any problem. Here’s a checklist of how you can create an integrated strategy for your business –
- Define the purpose for creating the strategy.
- Develop a digital mindset within your organizational foundation.
- Merge the leaders of your company with change management.
- Focus on the business use cases.
- Outline proper customized data and technology.
- Create a realistic roadmap.
3: Inspire the Change
Transforming your organization digitally can require you to integrate a change in your system. And that’s something you cannot initiate unless your entire organization agrees with you. So, you will need to inspire a sense of change throughout your organization.
Here’s how to do it –
- Communicate with everyone regarding the change and find out how you want to take it forward. Ask about their opinion and learn more regarding what they feel about it.
- Implement the change as slowly as you can. Don’t hurry with anything. If someone is retaliating against the change, be sure to listen to them first.
- Ask your leaders to partake in the change. They should be the ones to talk about all the changes and ensure that no one has any confusion about anything.
- The change should be integrated after thorough planning and proper communication. If there’s a loophole in your strategy, people will go against the change.
- Talk to everyone about how the change can be beneficial for your business and more. You should also talk about how the change can improve your employee’s productivity.
The better you communicate, the higher your success rate will be.
The Bottom Line
Only thinking about making a digital change in your system will not be enough. Apart from it, you will also have to ensure that your organization is ready for the change.
And that can only be done when everyone is well-versed and trained in the usage of upcoming tools and systems. So, make sure to focus on upskilling everyone as well.
