The pandemic has brought major changes in the way the world works. COVID-19 digital transformation & technology was an unexpected and sudden change for the working industry.
Most businesses and enterprises think digital transformation is all about an organization that uses technology to evolve its business models. It is true that as technology evolves, so should your business. During covid-19 digital transformation & technology is not about just technology rather it is more about leveraging technology and analyzing customer needs to improve the end-user experience. The end-users could be anyone, your customers or employees. There are also cases where many businesses need to consider the opinion of both.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is about growing your business or enterprises by experimenting with new and advanced technology and thinking of solutions for the problems in your approach. Because it is constantly growing, a transformation need not necessarily have a clear endpoint. In other words, it means continuously seeking out ways to improve the end-user experience. This could be done by offering improved on-demand training, migrating data to cloud services, AI, and more.
Why is Digital Transformation Important?
For every digital transformation to happen in a company, there is a specific goal behind it. However, the main purpose of digital transformation is to improve your current processes. Digital transformation is important because companies must evolve to compete and survive in their industry. If you are not evolving, then you are falling behind the industry.
A study shows that only 8% of the companies around the world have been successful in achieving their business goals by investing in digital technology. One of the strategies that set leaders apart is that they spend more on transforming their businesses entirely instead of running them.
What is a Digital Transformation Strategy?
Just adapting new technologies to your business won’t solve your problem, you need a proper digital transformation strategy. It is a plan of action for introducing, analyzing, and driving a transformation ahead. Your digital transformation strategy will define what business goals you aim to achieve through digital transformation.
An effective digital transformation strategy will form a framework. You will have to follow this framework throughout the process to achieve your desired goals. But before you start the process, it is important to know what you hope to achieve. This will help you to designate KPIs to track along the way.
It is important to have a properly thought digital transformation strategy. It will address how the transformation will affect business, that is your customers and employees. Start internally by designating change leaders who will publicly support your evolving process. You will have to put trusted leaders in charge of announcing and supporting your company’s transformation. This will help in generating momentum for your ever-evolving process. Further, getting feedback regularly from anyone affected by the change will also help in maintaining the momentum going.
Successful Digital Transformation
According to Gartner, a company needs to focus mainly on these five arenas to enable successful digital transformations.
1. Digital Twin
A digital twin is an enfolded model that copies any unique physical object, process, organization, or other abstraction. Digital twins support transformation because they facilitate experimentation. It also collects data that will help you to make more informed business decisions.
Read also: Digital Transformation Efforts In 2021: How It Is Changing Industries?
2. Privacy
Privacy is very important when it comes to digital transformation. If you fail to maintain proper privacy, then your digital transformation will fail. As more digital solutions become available, organizations tend to stay on the industry trend. However, research reveals that a large portion of users and employees do not prefer compromising on safety and security for convenience. Your employees and customers will not support your transformation plan if they feel it violates their privacy or personal data security.
3. Culture
Accepting a change is not easy. If you ignore the cultural aspects of a digital transformation, you will face a lot of resistance against the change. Various studies claim that 46% of CIOs of the company voted the cultural aspects as their biggest barrier. Addressing the culture and using the voices of the changed leaders can drive your initiative forward.
4. Augmented Intelligence
Augmented intelligence goes beyond artificial intelligence. It allows both humans and machines to work back-to-back. Augmented intelligence is not just about replacing employees with machines, but it is more like AI collects and presents data in a way that allows employees to augment their knowledge.
5. Digital Product Management
Digital product management is understanding your industry and designing products that serve it. For instance, instead of expecting the medical industry to come to terms with the Apple company, Apple created a digital watch that monitors its users’ health.
Few Common Reasons Why Digital Transformations Fail
There are many reasons why investing in digital transformation might fail. But in most cases, it can be linked back to when one of the three things failed: People, Communication, and Measurement.
1. People
People are a very important factor when it comes to digital transformation. They can make your digital transformation process a success or else even break your process. If you fail to put enough focus on people and culture, your transformation plan is bound to fail quickly.
2. Communication
Poor communication has led to the end of many businesses and enterprises. Announcing your digital transformation plan is not the same as making a usual conversation. As it is an evolving process, it will have many changes. But leadership simply making changes without explaining the why and how, will not work. If you do not provide proper necessary guidance before, during, and even after a transformation, your initiative won’t work for a long time.
3. Measurement
You need to make sure that you know what success means to your company depending upon its goal. If you fail to define your company’s goal then you cannot have a successful digital transformation.
Companies usually work based on the key performance metrics that they have already established for their business. And many companies assume they can monitor success based on this. But if you are changing the way you do business, you will need to set additional KPIs to monitor its effects on the company.
Frequently Used Digital Transformation Technologies
Below we have mentioned some of the digital transformation technologies that are frequently used by the business:
- Mobile phones and apps
- Cloud computing
- Digital twins
- AI/ ML
- IoT
The Final Words
The goals and objectives you set and most importantly the technology that you utilize will define the results of your digital transformation. Regardless of how you choose to transform, proper planning and follow-through are very important.
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