How Do You Execute A Successful Digital Transformation?

Implementing digital transformation is not just obtaining new or fancy technologies. It’s about experimenting virtually, studying, enhancing and continue adopting the change in an agile manner. This is what a digital enterprise needs to succeed with the digital transformation.

Most of the time we don’t know what idea might do the crossword, so we have to keep polishing our concepts and shape the most well-to-do ones. Executing digital transformation in an organization isn’t easy. It is even more challenging than traditional transformation. The survey conducted by Bain & Company says, “only 5% of companies who adopted digital transformation acquired their set objectives vs. a success rate of 12% for conventional transformations. A full 71% of these companies settled for dilution of value and mediocre performance.”

Most of the time digitally empowered enterprises fail to invest in the large businesses and their culture that allows agility. They focus more on the outcome without reaching inwards. Therefore innovation requires an expert who can rapidly position digital technologies to decode problems and enhance performance across the organization.

“By the end of 2019, digital transformation spending will reach $1.7 trillion worldwide, a 42 % increase from 2017.”

–IDC

Key Factors That Drive Digital Transformation:

The most challenging part for a digital leader is to create the right culture and direction along with balancing the transparency and performance of an organization.These five factors will help you drive successful digital transformation:

Data Plays A Significant Role

Data is a significant factor that drives a business to success. It is impossible for a digital leader to drive digital evolution without having data analytics. Having a real-time data can help the decision-maker predict the company’s future, understand their customers’ behavior, offer personalized experiences and stay competent. IDG QuickPulse rolled out a survey, “48% of respondents saw improved visibility into customer information and behavior with data strategy and 42% have successfully reduced costs and increased operational efficiencies, and 40% report improved internal decision making.”

Agility Is A Key

Agility is a key component, particularly when driving right culture inside an enterprise. Being agile will empower an organization to enhance, transform and unlock the new digital opportunities. If a digital leader fails to identify agile innovation, the enterprise is going to be the last one to enter the digital marketplace. And we know how crucial it is to be early in this competitive world to grab a significant place in the marketplace. According to Mckinsey, “shortcomings in organizational culture are one of the main barriers to company success in the digital age.”

Customer-Centric Approach

When you have access to real-time customers’ data you will be able to predict or understand your customers’ behavior. Still, more than half of the digitally empowered enterprises fail to meet their customers demand. No matter what high-quality products you build if it’s not meeting customers expectations your digital transformation execution is unsuccessful. Understand the customer, build a connection and consistently meet customers’ need or expectations throughout the digital transformation journey.

Strategies To Execute A successful Digital Transformation

Today, living in this digitally competitive world we have witnessed how technology has changed our lifestyle and how it became vital for every business to adopt the change to survive. Even though only around 25% of enterprises are fully set or organized to execute a successful digital transformation. It requires a perfect strategy to quantify digital transformation and utilize the digital opportunities to its complete potential.

• When it comes to strategizing a successful digital transformation for your organization, the first thing you want to do right is to have a right person with the necessary authorities. It’s become a challenging task for a CIO alone to take charge on a superficial level. There must be a continuous communication between a CIO and a manager. Managers have enough access to tools to automate the process and integrate both human and technical resources and prepare a report on a daily basis.
• There are numerous divisions across an organization, and each one has to be in sync accurately with each other to run a successful digital transformation. This brings “monitoring” into the spotlight. You must have a powerful software that can monitor digital transformation and help IT department to identify the issues well in advance and fix it even before it goes out live. It is the most cost-effective step you can take to enhance your customers’ experience.
• Your digital transformation strategy must have three right things, i.e, right people, right time and the right technology. As technology is rapidly disrupting the role of all digital leaders, focusing only on one thing will not drive digital transformation. As new technologies are emerging rapidly, everyday people are coming up with new technology-based innovation. As a digital leader, you need to be able to build a quick framework and predict the future with significant accuracy. According to Gartner, “By 2020, five of the top seven digital giants will willfully “self-disrupt” to create their next leadership opportunity.”

Allianz a European financial service provider with over 140,000 employees worldwide, serves 88 million customers in more than 70 countries, started their digital transformation journey and brought culture change within the organization back in 2015. They built a common platform (Allianz Connect) where CEO and all their employees can communicate, connect, share ideas. It’s a knowledge hub to increase their work efficiency. Bate believes technology is the key to deliver a personalized experience. Oliver Bate, CEO of the Allianz Group said, “Digital transformation is a journey and Allianz has spent the last few years laying the foundations. This means bringing in new people, and also leveraging the asset of our existing people – bringing the two together will make a difference.”

Final Takeaway

Though technology isn’t the only piece that runs successful digital transformation, however, embracing new and innovative technologies are going to unlock numerous broadways of improvements, reach, and change in the organizations. It is going to offer omnichannel and more personalized users experience. To be able to execute successful digital transformation a digital leader must be ready to perform and scale their ideas that provide an edge from their competitors and become a connected digital leader.