5 Factors To Consider Before Carrying Out Digital Transformation
Today, organizations that fail to change and adapt along with the industry face difficulty remaining competitive, especially those that avoid technological changes. Digital transformation is imperative to success in this highly competent and fast-paced world.
A recent study confirms that nearly 70% of businesses have a digital transformation strategy. Another study reports that digital transformation can improve operational efficiency by 40%, meet customer expectations by 35%, and improve product quality by 26%.
The same study states that 84% of executives believe digital transformation helps yield new business opportunities, attract a more diverse clientele, and increase revenue.
If there?s one thing that these stats indicate, it?s that digital transformation is here to restructure businesses and industries. Digital transformation can change an organization?s systems, workflow, processes, and culture.
What?s interesting is that such a transformation affects each level of an organization. Furthermore, digital transformation helps you generate data that you can convert to actionable insights and leverage in each department and function.
Here Are 5 Factors To Consider Before Carrying Out Digital Transformation:
However, you must remember that digital transformation is a delicate procedure. It would help to consider specific factors before incorporating digital transformation into your business processes.
1. People
Understanding customer values and expectations are crucial for a successful digital transformation phase. Remember, your customers are your most valued assets. Your ultimate goal must be to produce an outcome that meets their expectations and satisfies them.
Knowing your customers? needs is central to the success of your business. It helps persuade potential and existing customers that buying from you is the best option. Your clients are the only ones that can give you more leads and more business. When you fully understand your customers, you can adequately provide them with exceptional service and build strong relations.
While understanding customers is one of the crucial digital transformation skills, it isn?t easy to hone. Understanding customers? psyche requires thoughtful analysis and an actionable plan.
A few easy ways to understand your customers better include:
- Tracking customers? real-time behavior
- Identifying the different categories of your customers
- Investing in social media customer engagement
Moreover, leveraging customer service engagements, focusing on customers? personal preferences, and building comprehensive contact information also help significantly.
2. Technology
Before performing the digital transformation, you must ensure you and your employees are up-to-date with technological integrations. Technology is growing tremendously and becoming increasingly powerful with every innovation.
In 1984 only 8% of the US population had access to a computer, but now nearly 40% of the global population has internet access, 5 billion own a mobile phone, and 2.65 billion people use social media.
A study states that the worldwide technology industry makes up 35% of the world market. Another report shows that the tech industry will likely grow by 4.2%. These stats prove that if you want to remain at the forefront of your game, you must become as tech-savvy as possible.
Reevaluate your back-end and front-end systems for enhanced customer and employee experiences. Make sure you use updated software and systems for better conversion rates and outcomes. The more tech-reliant your company will be, the more effective communication you will experience.
3. Objectives
Your goals and objectives matter the most when undergoing a massive business transformation. Define the purpose of your digital transformation. Is it aligning stakeholders around the new vision map?
What are the goals for your digital transformation? What areas are you aiming to improve through digitization? Furthermore, what are your metrics? What are your KPIs?
If you have the answers to all these questions, you are ready for the next phase of your digitization journey. Remember, goal setting is an essential step because it provides your business with direction and focus, helps boost employee motivation, and provides clarity in decision-making.
You get a chance to evaluate your company?s performance, focus on what is more vital to your company, and gain a better understanding of stakeholder expectations.
Aims and objectives show your business?s shareholders and investors your plans. They reflect on your ability to take actionable steps to improve company performance. If you set the right goals, the chances of investors supporting new projects such as digitalization increase significantly.
4. Expertise
As mentioned above, digital transformation is a delicate and complex process that requires considerable attention and persistence. Digitalization is exponentially different from traditional business methods and systems. You must have a relevant skill set to carry out successful digitalization. Expertise in the domain is highly critical.
Hence, you must train your employees thoroughly and prepare them for the challenges of adapting to entirely different and new business settings. Besides, you can?t learn digitalization overnight. It takes time, and one gets better with practice. However, that might serve as a risk for companies.
Therefore, it?s viable to consider hiring additional workers skilled in the field to ensure better understanding and adaptation of digitalization. These workers can also provide training and education to the existing workforce.
It is pivotal to note that you need the expertise to engage with contractors, partners, and others. They are all critical to your decision-making process and must approve your ideas and missions.
5. Budget
Budgeting is imperative, and we cannot stress this fact enough. Before undergoing a digital transformation or any other process, you must consider your project?s budget. Without budgeting, you might fall short of funds and be unable to execute your plan.
A budget indicates resource availability and provides an organization with a financial roadmap. It leads to the effective execution of projects and allows you to achieve your goals and objectives timely.
Budgeting is also helpful with cost estimations. Once you have set a budget, you will know exactly how much you can spend on your digital transformation project.
Similarly, budgeting helps with prioritizing different parts of a project. You might not have enough funds to digitalize all departments at your organization. However, you can plan to do it one by one. A budget will help you determine which departments and domains require and can afford a digital transformation as opposed to others.
Final Thoughts
Digital transformation enhances data collection, leads to more robust resource management, provides data-driven insights, increases agility, and improves productivity. Moreover, digitalization improves collaborations, enhances work culture, boosts customer experience, and increases profits.
Digital transformation is highly advantageous for businesses, and there?s no arguing this. However, you must understand that digitalization is not a simple process. It is time-consuming and requires a specific skill set. It?d help to be cautious of each step you take during your digital transformation journey to attain long-run success.
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