The term digital transformation is so widely used that you might mistake it as a reference for everything related to technology and business. Yes, digital transformation might mean different things for different people but this can also lead to some confusion. Your digital transformation journey might hit a roadblock or be hampered by hurdles before even taking off.
According to statistics, 84% of digital transformation initiatives fail. Another study conducted by Everest Group showed that 73% of businesses failed when it comes to delivering business value from their digital transformation initiatives. With enterprises pouring billions of dollars into digital transformation, this can translate into a huge financial loss.
As a business, you don’t want that. That is why it is important to have clarity on goals and create a well thought out strategy for digital transformation. This will only happen if you know exactly what areas to focus on the most. That is exactly what we will tell you in this article. If you are interested in learning how to create a winning digital transformation strategy, you are at the right place.
In this article, you will learn about five guidelines you must follow in order to lay a solid foundation for your digital transformation strategy.
5 Guidelines You Should Follow To Succeed With Digital Transformation
Here are five guidelines you need to religiously follow to build a solid base for your digital transformation.
- Think Big but Start Small
The first mistake businesses make when they start their digital transformation journey is that they flip this formula around. They pour a lot of money into digital transformation in the early part, leaving them no path to backtrack. What’s even worse is that they usually have a narrow vision and understanding of digital transformation and what they want to achieve with it.
Instead, you should always start small and think big when it comes to digital transformation. Test the waters by implementing digital transformation in one department then try to scale it from there. This will give you more room for experimentation and also give you more confidence. Never try to enforce digital transformation throughout your organization at once. You might have to face a ton of criticism and backlash which could even lead to the wastage of tons of resources.
The best strategy is to target the low hanging fruits and the ability to score quick wins. Once you start getting those quick wins, it will set the ball rolling for your digital transformation journey. Not only will it help you stay focused on key areas but it will also enable your business to bring products and services faster to the market. As a result, you can gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.
- Define Your USP and Context
Every business is different and has its own requirements. This means that if you try to copy what someone else is doing, it will not work. Just because it is working for them does not mean that it will work for you. You are much better off focusing on what makes your organization unique. Ask yourself, what is your unique selling proposition? What differentiates you from the rest of your competitors?
Answering these questions will help you identify your strengths. Secondly, you need to look at the challenges and threats your businesses might face on your digital transformation journey because it also varies from business to business. Lack of context and clarity can have devastating effects as it can disrupt your company before disrupting the industry you are in so it is important to know your organization inside and out.
- Different Angles and Fresh Perspectives
After analyzing your strengths and challenges, it is time to take a deeper look at the business model and value chain of your business. Successful digital transformations are usually multi-faceted. This means that you might have multiple small objectives but they should all align with the ultimate goal.
Make sure to set a SMART digital transformation goal with google skillshop. Instead of setting generic, ambitious and timeless goals, you must define specific, achievable, and time-bound goals. This will keep you motivated and focused. Involve subject matter experts from different departments and see what they think about your digital transformation plans. They will look at it from a whole new perspective as you are as they come from a different background. This will give you a new take and another angle on your digital transformation efforts.
- Decide The Future Today
Before embarking on your digital transformation journey, it is important to visualize your future organization. What would it look like after you digitally transform it? Even if you are currently stuck with legacy systems and have a lot of technical debt, peeking into the future will give you a better understanding of how your organization might work in the future. It could be upgrading to New York dedicated servers or buying a new software solution.
More importantly, it will make it easy for you to define your roadmap to get there with cheap dedicated hosting. You will have a clear idea of how digital transformation will impact the processes, technology and people in your organization. What changes will you have to make to your organization’s culture and technological architecture in order to transform it digitally? Answering this question will help you set milestones and define your action plan.
- Focus on Becoming a Platform Company
Your ultimate goal should be to become a platform company or implement platforms in your organization. The biggest advantage of becoming a platform company is that it allows your business to take advantage of assets from external sources to deliver more value.
For this to work, you need to break internal silos and look to create harmony among all the stakeholders. Once everything from your systems, processes and people are on the same page, this is where the digital transformation magic starts to happen. You will start to see how powerful digital transformation can be when you become a platform company.