You may have heard that most of the digital transformation activities fail. But the truth of the matter is what exactly failure is? How you define this terminology says everything. According to Melissa Swift, Senior Client Partner for Digital Solutions, Korn Ferry , it’s highly probable that the majority of those efforts are stuck somewhere in between versus completely doomed. Still, this doesn’t pump much confidence in those companies who have taken their first step in this arena.
Hence, in this article, we have talked about crafting a perfect digital transformation strategy in detail. To know more, Scroll Down!!
What is digital transformation?
It is the integration of digitization into all the domains of a company fundamentally molding how one operates and delivers value to customers. Digital transformation is also a cultural change that requires businesses to perpetually challenge the status quotient, experiment and get comfortable with failures too.
Why is it important for an enterprise?
According to a Research firm Gartner’s CEO Agenda, digitised businesses will represent an average of 36% of a company’s overall revenue (by 2020). While cost cutting and refining operations with new techniques is appealing, embracing digital transformation services can make your organisation much more secure and robust especially in case of IT outages. There is no better time to dig into digital marketing if you wish to reap the benefits stated below:
- A digital marketing strategy gives a proper direction to your company.
- With 50% of the global population online, consumers are opting for everything digitised.
- It makes your brand more interactive.
- Digital Marketing is an effective tool to reach out to a larger audience.
How Customer Experience and Digital Marketing interacts?
A great customer experience is the key for developing a successful brand. And for doing it, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I understand customers’ needs?
- What does their journey look like?
- How to best deliver your products for customer satisfaction?
- How to increase customer base?
- How to fetch more profits?
A digital marketing strategy gives a 360 degree perspective of your customers’ choices. It enables you to step into their shoes and view the application from their eyes.
How can I get started?
A major doubt CIOs have in regards with digital transformation is that their competitors are much ahead in the game than they are. It is because “there is too much admiration for the fastest transformers but a little admiration of how long this transformation may take.” says Tim Yeaton, CMO of Red Hat.
Digital transformation is a huge process and the mounting competition creates a lot of pressure. But don’t rush into it without checking the depth of water. First lay a strong foundation for success and then build your own strategy step by step. Here is a brief guide to develop a well-crafted digital marketing strategy for giving a new edge to your organisation. Skip any step and you may have to incur the consequences.
1. Create a Story
What will this digital transformation do for your business? Answering this question is the first significant move in your digital transformation journey.”A major step is connecting digital transformation to meaning,” says Jeff Skipper, a certified change management professional, and consultant whose clients include Goldman Sachs,AT&T, and other such high-profile organisations. Like any other transformation, employees need to tell the story before they sell. Walk a day in the life of a typical employee entertaining all the features of a digital environment. Highlight both challenges and benefits and bind them with your strategy. Give these employees a target which they aim and shoot.
2. Align it with Goals
Once you have the story in hand, ensure telling it to other people present in the organisation. The board members and CEOs have to communicate about various movements and eliminate the fear of “substitutional effect”. Transformation can not be taken out of IT, instead it should align with the enterprise’s overall path, heritage, target and future plans.
3. Analyze Market
Before trying to hit the first bowl in this digital pitch, check the grounds well i.e., carry an in-depth analysis of the market dynamics. Owing to the rapid changes in the industry, this is a very essential step for creating a relevant and up-to-date strategy. It is not a thing of the past that the largest yellow cab company in NewYork has gone bankrupt because of Uber. Today almost every company in the automotive industry invests in self-driving cars. Failure of which may risk them staying last in the race. As all the boundaries seem to vanish, for your company to excel, it is very much needed to explore varying verticals and taste the flavor of experimentation.
4. Run Pilot Tests
Trying to bring the entire group under one single roof is very critical. Identify both obvious and non-obvious stakeholder groups. Though it doesn’t seem so from the beginning, it is essential for gaining success in this journey. “To make stakeholder buy-in, take some time to run proofs-of-concept and pilots before proceeding with any solid plan,” says Martin Henley, SVP, technology services sector for Globality. “If you are deploying new technology to your business, it is quite strenuous to anticipate how things will work. Be realistically up-front and build stakeholder checkpoints into the plan for ensuring a transparent success. This will give a good to go sign for your stakeholders, while your company and business partners are learning how to implement effectively.”
5. Designing
Done with Visualisation and Analysis, now it is time for creating the experience you wish to give your customers. As per a report by Actual Experience, 93% of the business people believe that the success of their company is based upon the digital experience a customer has. Therefore, instead of emphasising on the technological limitations, stress upon the experience you want to deliver. Think about the value your software is going to provide the users. Is it convenient for your users to interact? How can you vary the method employees engage with your business process?
The main objective behind all these questions is to build an intuitive environment for making your users reach the end goal anytime. Think how fast your employee will be able to make a purchase through a web application or mobile application. Remember, it is not just about a new technology but what sort of experience your users derive.
6. Assessment
Once you have crossed all the to-do stages, the next step is to assess where we stand. For spotting the loopholes needed to be filled, one needs to stay critical. In this stage, examine the digital infrastructure and analyze how well the softwares is utilized. Discover critical elements of your strategy, look for the areas where you need to develop new features and the required integration to bring it all together. This evaluation will assist in finding which technology has to be updated, the process needed to be optimized and which digital tools you got to vary.
7. Adjust the Infrastructure
For implementing this, you need to surround yourself with a group of digital experts like Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), or other such specialists qualified to ensure the successful transformation. If you lack an in-house team, then get yourself a reliable partner for implementing this strategy effectively.
Secondly, train your team for the new skills required in future. Maybe you can hire outside agencies for the same. And finally, it is very much essential to make digital transformation a part of your DNA.
8. Risk Management
Everything about digitisation and businesses seem to go against the traditional IT concepts of risk controls. Digital transformation is all about moving rapid, challenging the status quotient, and scaling new technologies. However, according to Barry Brunsman, a principal with KPMG’s CIO Advisory, these very traits demand a diligent design of risk management and controls. CIOs who are skilled in the aspect of disruptive changes are more likely to monitor a successful transformation program, says Brunsman.
9. The most critical step- Cultural Change
“Success can only come through a careful synchronisation of business capabilities. Of course, there are different components of this – from balancing incremental and radical transformation objectives to ensure your transition from a start-up to the scale-up phase. But if you want me to identify one critical piece of the puzzle – the one which is often done poorly – then I would point to careful consideration of the cultural aspects of transformation,” said Michael Wade, professor of innovation and strategy at IMD.
Without addressing culture, the transformation will most probably fail. Do you have the right culture to adopt change? To accept the risk failure? To embrace new ways of performing things, or adapt new technologies? To take speed over perfection? Cultural change is the heart of people and overlooking it would be the biggest mistake in a digital transformation.
Final Words
Digital transformation is not a thing; partly, it is a journey and partly a goal, but mostly, it takes a clear roadmap with ample room for making adjustments in an adaptive manner. With the right digital transformation services, use the above steps to digitize the face of your business. As a result, be ready to welcome a number of opportunities and higher profits.
