Digital Transformation is
business transformation
Before embarking on any Digital
Transformation strategy, it’s vital to start by
understanding your key business drivers and
strategic priorities. Digital Transformation
is not a technology box-ticking exercise
and any strategy must focus on business
objectives and explain how Digital
Transformation will benefit the business.
More broadly, you also need to gauge
what level of change your organisation
can effectively resource and drive. This is
important because change brought about
by Digital Transformation is so much more
than technology upgrades or increased IT
investment. Research published by McKinsey
illustrates the considerable effort required,
arguing that technology is ‘only one part
of the story’. Success depends on some
radical activity, from re-imagining the
workplace and upgrading the organisation’s
‘hard wiring’, to changing the way you
communicate. Not only do businesses need
to have the ‘digital savvy’ leaders, but they
also need to build relevant talent and skill-
sets throughout their organisations.
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INDUSTRY
INERTIA, FOR
EXAMPLE,
CAN LEAD TO
THE FAILURE
OF DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
PROJECTS.
Looking at the bigger picture also requires
a willingness to learn lessons from those
who report success, to ensure that Digital
Transformations do not ‘fall short in
improving performance and equipping
companies to sustain changes’. This has
happened to many a digital project as, for
example, an organisation has been unable
to sufficiently update entrenched, analogue
business processes to support a whizzy new
digital customer interface.
Understand your broader
business environment
Businesses need to identify external
pressures and challenges covering key areas
such as their markets, processes, regulatory
environment, competition and supplier
and customer ecosystems. Time and effort
should be put into researching where to
invest and how Digital Transformation
strategies are being applied in relevant
businesses and industries.
This underlines the need to focus Digital
Transformation more broadly than
tech procurement because, as Gartner
argues, ‘the non-technological aspects,
if not addressed, can mask the depth of
organisational transformation required and
become serious inhibitors.’ Industry inertia,
for example, can lead to the failure of Digital
Transformation projects. You might have
a shiny new customer-facing process, but
if it relies on a partner who can’t support
digitally transacting in this way, it will never
achieve its promise.
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