Marcus Richards
What’s digital transformation and why do organizations have to strategize for it? People often describe it as a company adopting technology to function in today’s digital environment. Organizations must transform for their long-term survival in the post-COVID business industry by integrating technology into all aspects of how they operate. This “technology transformation” brings fundamental modifications to business operations, thereby helping managers and companies adapt to digital-friendly consumer demands. Simply put, a company must reimagine itself by adopting an effective digital transformation strategy. How do you do that? That’s what we shall explain by talking about some integral components of such a strategy.
Essential components to make your business tech-savvy
You may ask, “How does digital transformation help my business in 2022?” Studies have revealed that 80% of business executives observed increased profitability after implementing robust digital transformation strategies. Similarly, a digital model can allow companies to meet customer expectations more effectively, as per 35% of business executives interviewed by researchers. Adopting a better digital transformation strategy than your competitors will help you increase operational efficiency while honing your reputation in the market. These benefits have motivated many companies to, for instance, store their data on the cloud. Now, how do you implement this strategy?
Integrating technology into your company’s workings requires you to redesign your organization while revamping your firm’s structure. Managers can leverage distance learning opportunities that focus on digitizing the backbone of an organization. These courses help professionals create a digital strategy tailored to their company’s requirements. Large-scale digital changes in a company require a comprehensive transformation of how the business functions. Therefore, it is essential to develop a firm grip on components of an effective transformation strategy. Let’s examine some of these aspects to ensure you are ready to make your company more tech-savvy:
1. Clear objectives
Designing your framework isn’t possible without having clear-cut business objectives in front of you. Your pre-established goals will determine which strategies must be implemented to ensure a digital change in your organization. So, your team will pursue these goals while integrating technology into every business function. Companies that attempt to integrate different technologies without goals end up with every department trying to change on its own, resulting in poor decision-making. Employees and teams must work towards common objectives to achieve boosted connectivity throughout the organization. Shared goals make your organizational structure ready for digital adoption.
2. Accurate data
The business industry relies heavily upon DDDM (data-driven decision-making) instead of depending upon mere intuition. Companies collect customers’ information and this information helps them improve their products, enhance their marketing, and bolster their decision-making process. Since organizations deal with terabytes worth of data, marketers and other decision-makers are “datafying” their customers’ behavior. This data-based digitalization is now an important component of any organization’s digital transformation strategy. It enhances your data-driven decision-making, thus preventing a company from creating products nobody needs in the market.
3. Clean insights
What does this data turn into after processing? It gives you useful insights and keeps companies growing. Hence, your digital transformation strategy shouldn’t just take data into account, but also find a way to extract relevant insights from the information you’ve gathered. Without creating a method for processing data, data’s useless and doesn’t provide anything worthwhile for your organization. What are the tools to extract data to valuable insights? Your company should include analytical sciences as a major part of your digital transformation strategy. These tools allow you to extract useful insights by recruiting relevant experts who excel at churning numbers.
4. Team structure
Transforming your organization’s design isn’t just about the tools you need but also about the team behind the strategy. Communicating your objectives to your employees is imperative for your efforts to go digital. Unfortunately, surveys reveal that 60% of a company’s workforce usually isn’t aware of their employers’ business objectives. Hence, communicate your ideas to the team and structure them in a way that benefits the transformation process. You need the following categories of people in the team:
- Leaders serve as torchbearers of the digital revolution you’re about to bring to the company. They motivate others to follow the objectives you’ve established. Some common ranks for a leader include CIO, CTO, and others. Outsourced cio firms (outsourced chief investment officer firms) are the quickest to adapt to these changes..
- Experts or “business ninjas” are well-experienced individuals with hands-on expertise in the technology you need to digitize your organization. These designations may include program managers, product managers, and solution architects.
- Finally, you have your programmers, or coders, proficient in designing software solutions to fit your business objectives. You might require the services of data scientists, e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers who make automation possible while allowing AI the capability to make predictions and decisions about self-improvement.
5. Reliable partners
Partnering with relevant business mindsets shouldn’t be neglected, as these partners serve as assets during your digital transformation. But you have to choose these partners carefully while attempting to revamp your organization’s structure. Ensure these partners are ready to support you today in a long-term capacity. Also, they should be prepared to integrate into the technology you’ve chosen for the company’s transformation.
6. Right technologies
Business managers should carefully consider which technologies can improve the company’s profitability and which may serve as mere hindrances to the workforce’s productivity. You can’t draft a digital transformation strategy for your organization by randomly choosing any popular digital trend in the industry. You have several new-age technologies such as AI, the cloud, data analytics, and others that let companies conform to customer expectations. So choose wisely based on what fits your organization’s new design and requirements.
7. Swift adaptability
Don’t forget that the business landscape is constantly evolving, and companies should learn to adapt accordingly. You can’t neglect adopting rising industry trends, especially when COVID has made adaptability imperative for a company’s survivability in the 21st century. Your digital transformation strategy should continue evolving with market trends and remain adaptable. Keep a lookout on and stay aware of what’s happening in the market to build and retain a competitive advantage.
8. Proper feedback
Your company needs proper feedback to ensure your chosen strategy has been successful. An organization must clarify its KPIs or key performance indicators to receive the requisite feedback for improving its business strategies accurately. Create proper channels to transmit this feedback to the stakeholders, thereby informing everyone of the outcomes of the transformation process. Keep checking the progress of your strategy and keep improving it as well.
Conclusion
An effective digital transformation strategy is essential to your company’s survival in today’s rapidly shifting business environment. The coronavirus pandemic has shown how managers and business owners rely on technology to stay connected. Integrating technology into your organization’s structure and business functions can help your company stay profitable even during an ongoing health crisis. A Flexera report shows that 56% of CIOs had made digital changes their priority in 2021. You can begin your company’s transformation by curating a digital strategy comprising the components mentioned above. These include an organization’s commercial objectives and accelerated adaptability for long-term survival in today’s tech-dependent world. Use accurate data, relevant insights, and trusted partners to redesign the structure of your company. A robust plan should be able to set you on a sustainable path to growth in a dynamic environment.
