Planning Your Digital Transformation Journey

This post is part of our continuing series, Your Guide to a Successful Digital Transformation.

For some organizations, the process of digital transformation may be ongoing or even complete, while others may be considering first steps. It is a multi-faceted journey, and the goals will differ depending on the industry and the digital maturity of the individual organization.

As you plan and prioritize for your digital transformation journey, keep these general concepts in mind:

Changes are led by people, not technology. Technology solutions are tools deployed throughout the journey, but without the engagement of the people who perform the processes, technology alone will not lead to improvement.  The most important component of your digital transformation journey is the engagement of your people. Not focusing on the people aspect is like giving someone the latest and greatest iPhone allowing them to use it only to place telephone calls.           

Culture drives success more than any other factor. Without a culture that encourages innovation, collaboration, and a freedom to fail, programs can often become limited to only specific areas of the business or are unable to achieve the transformative benefits.

You can enhance processes without changing them. Digital transformation does not require dramatic changes to processes to achieve benefits. The most valuable components may simply be performing an activity that is done today faster and more accurately.

The best value comes from the bottom. High volume and high transaction is the sweet spot of digital transformation. That means engaging with the broadest user base to get the highest return on investment. For example, if an automation saves the user two hours per week and is employed across 100 users every week, your time savings could amount to about 10,000 hours per year.

Your IT department can (and should) support, but should not drive change.IT organizations are tasked with ensuring that the operational systems are up and running. That will always be the priority over incremental enhancements to the organization, so having the IT department lead the initiative often puts them at odds with their core requirements. 

For information about how we can assist in your organization’s digital transformation, contact us. We are here to help.

© 2022