Pandemic made it evident that technological transformation is pivotal for businesses. Many with traditional setup, struggled through hell for business survival during lockdown while businesses who started using technology early did fairly well. Digital transformation solutions will change the business effectiveness using technology to improve efficiency of your business.
With that being said, digital transformation has become the new North Star for many companies. It is driving business transformation resulting in improved business experiences, products and services, operations and helping in people management by aligning them into the new model. Companies are trying to integrate digital transformation solutions to encash the benefits provided by the technology and become a part of this growing technology to stay ahead of the competition. Trending technologies and digitization made work more easier than before and cuts down the lengthy processes to improve business productivity.
However, there are reports which suggest that a lot of companies are struggling to successfully integrate and take advantage of the solutions offered by digital transformation. So what is holding back the success of digital transformation? Those who have benefited after their digital transformation journey have stated certain key points following which they benefited from the transformation.
Rough path for digital transformation
The objective of digital transformation is to digitize the company’s operations, culture, consumer experience and meet the changing business environment. It is aimed at making the existing processes easy and efficient. digital transformation has change all industry to work faster, accurate and effectively. Also it enhances multiple channels like automation, accuracy, reduce human errors, and improve productivity of your business. Successful digital transformation is depends on a roadmap and path of digitization for the business.
When we talk about the digital transformation we forget that any kind of transformation has to pass the test of time and tide. Transformation is not easy as it involves shifting from the accepted norms to something new. Researches have shown that transformation has shown less than a 30% success rate and when it comes to digital transformation, it is even lower. Only 16% say that digital transformation has improved their performance. This struggle is visible even among the tech, media and telecom companies that could not succeed beyond 26%. This rate is even lower in infrastructure, automotive, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals accounting to only between 4% to 11%.
So, what is the key to successful digital transformation?
Having technology in place is different while implementing it successfully is a different story altogether. It requires deliberate effort to make technology-supported changes for its successful implementation. There are some top factors to implement successful digital transformation for your company. The factors that contribute to success in digital transformation are categorized into 5 major categories.
- Having the right leaders who are tech-savvy
- Building capabilities for the future workforce
- Empowering people to work with new technologies
- Introducing digital upgrades in day-to-day tools
- Frequent communication through digital and traditional methods
Having the right tech-savvy leader
Digital transformation takes place at all levels of the organization specially when it comes to capabilities and talent. Companies that have succeeded in implementing digital transformation have reported that their top teams changed.
Adding a tech-savvy leader is an important point to make this transformation successful. Along with this, the transformation of specific roles like leaders of program management, leaders of individual initiatives, etc. is also important.
Another important key factor for success is the dedication of the leadership team and their commitment towards implementing digital transformation solutions successfully. When they are involved in the transformation process and success is likely to be achieved.
Building capabilities for the future workforce
Developing skills and talent is one of the important parts of any transformation process. It is important for digital transformation as well. It includes :
- Redefining the roles and responsibilities of individuals aligning them with the digital transformation goals.
- Bringing integrators and technology innovation managers who can bridge the gap between traditional and digital business processes.
Building capabilities and incorporating talent helps in fostering stronger internal capabilities. Integrators translate and integrate the new technology, new methods, in the existing business. Technology innovation managers possess special technical skills and lead the workforce for the company’s digital innovation. The success of digital transformation solutions is more likely to happen when companies invest in upskilling their workforce, talent development. Future will be depends on new upcoming technologies like AR, AI, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning, and many more.
Also Read : 8 Reasons to Start a Business in a Recession
Empowering people to work with new technologies
Digital transformation demands a shift from traditional cultures and asks for behavioral changes like calculated risk-taking, customer centric approach and more collaborative efforts. Companies are required to empower their employees to embrace changes with new technologies. The coordination of new technologies and people is now new trend to make your business more productive. This can be achieved by
- Reinforcing new ways of working and behavior through formal mechanisms
- Involving employees and taking their opinions on where digitization could be adopted and where it should be implemented.
When employees generate ideas for big changes like these, they support such ideas to fruition. Another important way to successfully implement digital transformation solutions is to ensure that people in key roles play their part in reinforcing digitization.
Introducing digital upgrades in day-to-day tools
Digitizing tools and business processes are again important for successful digital transformation solutions. Day to day tools are new in demand to decrease the more efforts at work also it will benefits for your business and improve productivity. This includes making use of digital tools for daily business activities like :
- Adopting digital tools for creating an efficient communication channel
- Implementing self-serve digital tools for business partners and employees
- Modifying the standard operating procedures and include new technologies
Along with these key factors, companies should also adopt data-based decision-making for the success of the transformation.
Frequent communication through digital and traditional methods
Clear communication is critical to all transformation processes. More specifically to digital transformation, it becomes a game-changer. Companies that were successful in implementing digital transformation had this in common – communicating the change story. This helps the employees to understand where the organization is moving, the reason for this change, and why it is important for the company. Digitization method improves efficiency of workflow and productivity for organizations. Also it will enhance the communication gaps between technology and people. Enhancing communication gap between people and digital technologies will make your business more productive. Digital and traditional method will improve effectiveness of your business easily to get more profit and sale. Every businesses now transforming their work pattern to digitization.
This increases the chances of success by 3 times. Another important factor contributing to the success of the transformation. It is the urgency created by senior leaders for making the changes in their department or team. Clear targets and key performance indicators are other important point for the successful implementation of digital transformation solutions.
Wrapping Up
Even though companies report that digital transformation did not make any significant improvement in their performance, we can surely learn from those who have succeeded. To accelerate this transformation journey, it is important that companies critically evaluate how digitization will affect their business in the long term and making changes, upskilling employees should follow as a part of this transformation plan.
