What Is Digital Transformation?

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What Is Digital Transformation?

A Digital Transformation involves integrating digital technology into all areas of a company, fundamentally transforming how it operates and delivers value to customers. Furthermore, it involves a cultural shift that requires organizations to constantly challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failures.

Digital Transformation Framework

As all business and technology leaders embark on digital transformation, several constants and common themes emerge from existing case studies and published frameworks. 

McKinsey Digital Transformation Framework

You need a framework to help you manage the change when you’re transforming. Use established change management models for a quick shortcut.

A good example is the McKinsey 7-S Model. A balance is maintained between seven components: 

  1. Strategy
  2. Structure 
  3. Systems 
  4. Skills
  5. Shared values
  6. Style
  7. Staff 

Hence, maintaining a balance between people, technology, and training is key to successful digital transformation. You may overlook the need for additional staff and skills training (if you focus too much on a new tool). Besides the 7 main components, there are:

  • Customer experience
  • Agile operations
  • Leadership culture
  • Making work easier
  • Using digital technology

They should keep those important shared themes in mind when developing their digital transformation strategy.

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What Are The Top 3 Trends Of Digital Transformation?

To stay ahead of the competition, you need to follow the trends. Below are the top digital transformation trends in 2023 that you should look after:

Technology Changes

Technology changes lead to different transformations. To prepare for inevitable changes in your industry, it’s important to keep an eye on trends.

Customer Experience

Customer and employee experience is the hottest trend in digital transformation right now. It involves technology that complements human work, despite people worrying that it will replace them, especially employees.

Advanced Technology

Additionally, digital transformation trends include AI, robotic process automation, 5G, mobile development, and personalized user experiences, which aim to improve communication and reduce repetitive tasks alongside humans.

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Digital Transformation Objectives

Organizations can better serve their principal stakeholders through digital transformation. Organizations benefit from computer-based digital technologies when they integrate them into business operations:

  • Develop new products and services faster;
  • Enhance employee productivity;
  • Increase customer responsiveness;
  • Improve product and service personalization by understanding individual customers;
  • Increase customer engagement and improve customer service.

Digital Transformation Pillars

It can be understood by looking closely at the six pillars, according to Daniel Newman, the principal analyst at Futurum Research.

Technology-Enabled Change

Rather than focusing on tech alone, focus on the pillars that support change. Digital transformation is not just about technology; it’s about technology-enabled change. Hence, customers and employees are examples of experiences.

Transformations that are successful lead to positive experiences for people. If so, do these initiatives improve my customer service? Are employees more efficient after the transformation?

People

It is important to remember that people are both the top drivers and barriers to digital transformation. Tech-enabled changes cannot ignore the people affected.

Therefore, change leaders who support and accelerate the transformation can strengthen the people pillar. Moreover, a technology-led initiative is key to improving the human experience.

Change

After people, change comes. Without change, transformation cannot happen. Hence, the change pillar encourages you to communicate your expectations for transformation and establish clear goals.

Change management models and best practices can help you address this pillar. People are also essential to the success of this pillar because change cannot occur without their support.

Innovation

Next to change is innovation. A spark of innovation can transform your business. In the meantime, the innovation pillar aims to create a place for collaboration and creative ideas to flourish.

Therefore, by finding creative solutions to problems, innovation supports digital transformation.

Leadership

Innovation brings in leadership. Unless you lead, nobody follows. Its initiatives must be proactively monitored during implementation and afterward. Successful transformation depends on leaders setting key performance indicators (KPIs).

Culture

Effective leadership fosters a flourishing culture. It requires a strong business culture. Rather than focusing on technology first, focus on employee and customer experiences, which will return to our first component – people.

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Digital Transformation Strategy

An enterprise’s digital business model must be articulated as the blueprint for harnessing digital technologies for strategic objectives. Introducing cutting-edge technologies without understanding how they’ll enhance ROI for the organization and its customers won’t transform the company.

Each organization must have a vision of success when developing a digital transformation strategic plan. Here are some steps to follow:

  • Be aware of the market, where the organization sits, and who its customers are.
  • By evaluating internally and externally the company’s position in the market, potential value proposition, and the potential impact of digital disruption.
  • Identify how to evolve products and services to meet future customer expectations and needs for the organization.
  • Identify current and future states of digital transformation.
  • Identify what additional capabilities will be needed based on the organization’s existing capabilities — from employee skills to its technology stack. 

Transforming digitally is a continuous process. Hence, companies should continuously evaluate and adjust their digital transformation strategy and process to maximize business value.

Bringing an organization, its culture, its people, and its technologies into the future will require leaders to use both traditional disciplines and new techniques, such as Agile methodologies.

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What Are The 3 Main Components Of Digital Transformation?

There are a number of things that make digital transformation easy, but below are 3 main components you should look for:

What Are The 3 Main Components Of Digital Transformation?

Customer Experience 

Understanding customers better, utilizing technology to grow customers, and expanding customer touchpoints.

Operational Processes

Making strategic business decisions using digital tools to enable employees, monitoring performance, and collecting data to improve internal processes.

Business Models

Transforming the business by introducing digital products and services, digitizing the physical offering, and leveraging technology to provide global shared services.

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Benefits of Digital Transformation

One of the biggest benefits is its ability to enable organizations to succeed in the digital age. Moreover, increasing revenue and profits means success for businesses. Similarly, nonprofits can better serve their stakeholders with digital metrics for success.

It gives organizations many advantages, not just survival and strength in the future. Hence, among them includes:

  • Boosting worker productivity, reducing errors, and speeding time to market through the integration of AI and RPA technologies, as well as re-designing business processes;
  • Data processing improves customer and employee engagement and allows organizations to make more accurate decisions and anticipate stakeholder needs.
  • A shift in organizational culture and capability that supports ongoing change; and
  • Increased innovation capability, as new technology and a nimble workforce, encourages experimentation and limit risk.

By automating work and increasing agility, organizations can identify opportunities and pivot resources to take advantage of them, driving ongoing business transformation.

Also Read: What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

What Are Digital Transformation Services?

Several digital transformation technologies are critical to digitalization, though no single application or technology enables it:

  1. Data storage, software, updates, and new functionality can be accessed quickly and easily from anywhere;
  2. A commoditized IT marketplace makes it easier for organizations to focus on the IT customizations that distinguish them;
  3. Work can be done anywhere and anytime with mobile platforms;
  4. With AI and machine learning, organizations can make better, faster decisions in areas such as sales, marketing, product development, and more;
  5. RPA frees up humans to focus on more important tasks by automating mundane, repetitive tasks; and
  6. Organizations can move faster, work more efficiently, and create new products and services with these technologies:

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How Is Digital Transformation Changing The World?

As businesses operate, digital transformation has changed how they are seen and how they operate. Companies can also become more efficient and profitable when digital transformation is successful. Hence, all industries benefit from digital transformation workplaces are rapidly evolving, and businesses are adapting to the changing needs.

Therefore, almost all elements of a business operate using digital transformation technologies today. Every business serves customers differently because of digital innovations. Moreover, businesses are undergoing a variety of ways, including:

  • Geographic expansion and a broader audience.
  • Enhances efficiency overall.
  • Empowering the workforce.
  • Provides a better customer experience.

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Why Choose Us?

Looking for a partner that can help you digitally transform your business and utilize the latest technology? We have successfully transformed businesses across industries by utilizing the various features of platforms. Taking your business to the next level is what we can do for you within your timeframe and budget. 

Conclusion

Transformations to digital can be in response to market changes or to compete more effectively. In the meantime, both will be involved. A clear digital transformation strategy and objective are essential from the outset, regardless of the reason for shifting. 

FAQs

How To Do Digital Transformation?

Step 1: Assess your organization’s needs.

Step 2: Perform a self-assessment.

Step 3: Obtain buy-in from the right people.

Step 4: Set up a plan.

Step 5: Prepare yourself with the right skills.

Step 6: Get everything in order.

Step 7: Embark on a digital transformation.

Why do We Need Digital Transformation?

Technology is at the core of digital transformation. Inefficiency and operating costs can be reduced with this approach. Meanwhile, a small change in this area could have a major impact on the future of your business. However, by integrating business and technology, future ambitions can be achieved more easily.

What Is An Example of Digital Transformation?

It brings artificial intelligence to your service organization. Therefore, you can reduce customer waiting times by using AI-powered chatbots on your website to answer simple customer inquiries.

Why Digital Transformation Is Essential For Business Growth?

Because it keeps organizations up to date with the latest technology trends, helps them reach new markets, and increases the efficiency of operations.

What Are The Challenges Of Digital Transformation?

There are several reasons why digital transformation failures occur, but the following are some of the most common reasons:

  • Employee disengagement
  • A lack of management support
  • Lack of cross-functional collaboration
  • Inadequate accountability
  • Security and privacy concerns regarding data
  • Constraints with finances
  • In-house expertise and skills are limited
  • Legislative and regulatory changes
  • Culture of digital immaturity

What Is The Cost Of Digital Transformation?

When implemented correctly, digital transformation efforts can prove to be a huge cost saver over time. Depending on the size and scope of each program, digital transformation projects can cost thousands of dollars, but by 2023, organizations are projected to spend more than $2.3 trillion on them.

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