Digital TransformationPart 4

But is it that easy?

Is your company seeing the benefits of Digital Transformation? After all, ‘digital’ has been on the business agenda for many years now and it is generally expected that organisations will invest in digital strategies, likely matched with the expectation from those investing that the benefits of doing so in the financial year, will be visible in the same period.

In today’s organisation, there are many ideas of what constitutes a digital strategy. A Marketing Executive may see a digital strategy as social media and web channels. A member of the IT team may see a digital strategy as cloud adoption. An Operations Executive may see it as Data Analytics. An R&D Executive may see it as online products. A Financial person may see it as online revenue channels. And so on and so on……! So, is it realistic to assume that a huge investment in ‘digital’ in the financial year, whatever that digital investment is, will deliver the anticipated benefits in the same period? It probably isn’t.

Major transformations require a high degree of planning and execution if they are to be successful. As I alluded to in my last two blogs, it requires a cultural shift and this requires excellent leadership and communication from the top down, with input and support from everyone in the organisation. Once the organisation is clear about the vision and goals it wants to achieve, it can then tailor the business operation to ensure those deliverables can be met. Only then can it begin the transition away from the legacy processes of today that are deeply embedded in the organisation, for which technology can help further optimise these processes. And when doing so, setting relatively short term objectives to achieve each goal will enable the organisation to remain focused, review progress with the agility to adapt its longer-term plans as client demands and other forces dictate.

Irrespective of where you or your organisation is with its business or digital transformation initiatives, we can support your transformation activities by conducting a discovery exercise, create proposals recommending actions, lead or help lead you through various stages of the initiative. Please contact us for more information or to arrange an initial conversation to discuss how we can help.