How Does a Digital Transformation Organization Operate?
Digital transformation is not reversible in today’s digital world, particularly in the non-tech savvy world. Consumers demand a consistent experience across both online and offline channels and therefore expect the brands to up their digital offering. The Digital natives want more from their shopping experiences and are demanding better experiences from their brands. The Digital natives have expectations that the brand must meet to satisfy these demanding consumers.
A digital transformation strategy is required if you want your company to become competitive in today’s market place. The strategies must include business objectives, business performance and business models to understand your customers’ mindset towards your products and services. To meet the changing consumer expectations and obtain a competitive edge over your competitors, you need to develop effective business capabilities. Your business capabilities are a framework or map that clearly describes your company’s vision and mission and its core competencies.
The four transformational drivers are: corporate culture, digital transformation, cloud computing and security. Cultural change is about managing people and culture through technology, it is about communicating brand new experiences in a relevant and compelling way, creating a culture of sharing and value creation. Digital transformation is all about realizing the brand value and making it part of the digital network. Cloud computing is all about enabling businesses to build, operate and manage their data through an IT infrastructure that integrates the hardware, software and networking platforms of the enterprise.
The fourth driver is digitization, which is all about providing a seamless experience for your customers. In order to digitize an entire platform, it requires an entirely new approach. The strategies must focus on enabling businesses to create and deliver digital experiences to customers. Security is all about securing information and making it secure. Digital transformation enables companies to leverage their security and digital capabilities to provide a higher level of customer value and at the same time minimize the potential for liability.
Once an organization has identified the four transformational drivers, they can design an integrated risk management strategy. This includes the design of a digital transformation strategy, the development of a digital transformation policy and the implementation of that strategy. Most organizations start with a policy and then develop their strategy. A digital transformation policy should define the purpose and the objectives of the organization, the actions it will take to achieve those objectives and the actions it will take to mitigate risks.
The digital transformation strategy should also include the identification of its key digital deliverables, business processes, business process modeling assumptions and business capabilities. It should also identify the actions it will take to mitigate risks associated with those objectives. Finally, it should describe the scope of the project and the time scale.
When organizations first begin the process of implementing a digital transformation exercise, they must establish the purpose and the objectives of the exercise. They then need to develop their digital transformation policy. Finally, they must implement their strategy.
The strategies and policies developed by the organizations form the foundation of the digital transformation strategy and the digital transformation policy. The digital transformation policy is designed to manage the organization’s activities in relation to digitization. It defines the roles and responsibilities of every employee in relation to the digitization effort. It also describes the actions employees will take to ensure they comply with the policies. Lastly, it describes the time scale and budget associated with the plan and describes how those activities will mitigate risk.
The organization will implement its strategy and policy through the implementation stage. During this stage employees will receive training about the benefits of the digital transformation initiative. They will also receive instruction about how to handle customer issues that may arise during the program. This training will address issues such as security, compliance, privacy, usability and quality. Trainees will also be provided with a hands-on experience with various components of the initiative and be provided with an opportunity to network with other employees who are participating in the digital transformation strategy and program.
During the customer experience stage, the organization will conduct trainings and activities that will address issues such as understanding the digital transformation initiative, measuring the success of the effort, understanding customer expectations and reviewing the entire customer experience from start to finish. This stage focuses on building understanding, measuring success and understanding customer expectations. It also focuses on creating action plans for addressing any issues that may arise during or after the initiative.
Finally, the organization will test its new digital transformation strategy and program. During this final stage, it will conduct pilot tests using real business capabilities. Employees will use these business capabilities in an effort to gain an understanding of their effectiveness. If these pilot tests show that the digital transformation strategy and programs are effective, it will be deployed across all business units.
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.