Digital transformation means different things to different organizations. For example, using advanced technologies like automation to enhance customer experience is one kind of digital transformation. A company investing in low-code or no-code platforms to enable citizen development also falls under digital transformation. Basically, any decision that involves a pinch of technological innovation, will fall under the umbrella of digital transformation. Whatever digital transformation process you’re planning to implement, you need to draft a step-by-step roadmap before getting started.
There are plenty of expert opinions and insights floating in the air about the digital transformation process, you need to know that not everything works for everyone. While planning the digital transformation process, weigh the pros and cons of the process, before implementing it. In this blog, you will come across the process of digital transformation in detail.
But before we jump into that, let’s look at the 3 important processes that support digital transformation.
Digitization - Simply put, it is a transition from paper to paperless. Technically it means translating all your analog data into digital form. For example scanning and storing a soft copy of a document. Without computerizing your physical assets, you can never enter the digital transformation phase.
Automation - The use of technology to cut all the redundant manual processes that are consuming time and productivity is called automation. For example, implementing a CRM tool in place of manual record-making.
Optimization - It is implementing the right tools and practices to improve the existing processes for company growth and innovation.
The Digital Transformation Process- A Journey and Not a Destination
Companies are no longer in the resistance phase as they were a few decades back. They are ready to experiment with digital tools. This change is especially after the pandemic when organizations had to switch to the remote model for cruising through. Every major enterprise-level business worked without disruption and continued to offer its products and services to customers. But all this is easier said than done.
When it comes to digital transformation, taking shots in the dark will only take your business to a dead end. With a well-planned road map and strategies, you can ace the digital transformation game and emerge successful.
The Digital Transformation Process is a journey and not a destination. The systematic integration of digital technology into all business areas fundamentally changes how the business operates and delivers value to customers. The process includes assessing current systems and processes, developing a digital strategy, implementing new technologies, redesigning processes, managing organizational change, and continuously monitoring and optimizing transformation efforts.
1. Assess and identify your organization’s gaps
2. Align business goals with transformation goals
3. Craft the right strategy
4. Choose the right leaders
5. Designate relevant metrics & measure the result6
6. Find the areas of improvement
Assess and identify your organization’s gaps
According to research by BDO, leaders of many businesses believe that information technology can really help them to transform their business but, there are still many gaps and challenges that they have to face. Digital transformation isn’t about planning overnight and executing right away. It is a long journey that requires a great deal of planning and execution.
You need to first evaluate the current state of your business, its components, the critical process, etc. This may include everything from software and hardware in use to your website and your social media presence.
Adopt a structured framework to identify your immediate priorities and test them with digital initiatives.
Once you paint a clear picture of where you stand, you can start sketching your road map. The one thing to keep in mind is that digital transformation is ongoing, so it is very important to keep it flexible so that you can accommodate changes that come your way in the future. With a well-structured plan, you can begin your digital transformation journey.
Align business goals with transformation goals
When your business operations and technology are aligned, it becomes easier to reach your goals. Alignment here means bridging the gap between knowledge, skill, and communication The focus is to build an environment where everyone is working towards a single goal with a pre-planned strategy.
Initiatives such as digital transformation have long-term strategic objectives. Creating the alignment can subsequently help teams understand the operational context and spot roadblocks in the early stages.
Crafting the right strategy
A digital transformation strategy means your plan of action for introducing, studying, and rolling a digitized landscape in your organization. Your strategy will ideally contain the business goals that you aim to achieve through digital transformation. An effective strategy will act as a framework that you can follow throughout your ever-evolving process. But before you start, it is important to analyze what you are hoping to achieve and designate relevant KPIs that you can track.
A well-crafted strategy will address how the new digital initiative will affect your employees and customers. You can begin by assigning change leaders who will be in charge of supporting and announcing the process to gain momentum. They can also get regular feedback from the employees that can keep up your momentum.
You already know that implementing digital transformation is not an overnight process and it is built gradually over continual analysis, trial, and error, etc. This process can be different for each business and totally depends upon the company’s positioning, customers, niche, and growth.
Choose the right leaders
Important decisions in digital transformations can’t be made by just one person. At least it should consist of 15 members from the top leadership, with most of them from IT. Leaders from multiple teams need to come forward, represent their respective teams, and set goals that align with the company.
A strong leader can only keep the employees calm and composed during times of change. They play a critical role in implementing digital change by making their employees feel empowered.
Such powerful leaders are crucial for digital transformation to become successful. You can also assign a Chief Digital Officer if your organization doesn’t have one to carry on the transformational efforts. Even the leaders of business units should be equally engaged in the overall digital transformation efforts.
If your business is still following a traditional method of operations, where there is unnecessary hierarchical leadership, it can cause micromanagement and frustration among employees. When an organization is in the process of transformation to a digital workplace, it should empower passionate tech-savvy employees to be a part of the initiatives and projects.
Designate relevant metrics and measure the results
Business leaders are already initiating digital transformation but only less than 30% of them succeed. This critical situation can be addressed only if the business leaders show equal interest in measuring the KPIs as they do while planning the digital transformation initiatives. To succeed in this ever going digital transformation process, you need to find out whether you are making progress.
While planning, you need to include certain scalable initiatives that can improve business operations. For example, if you have implemented a new CRM in your organization, you need to know whether it is being used effectively. The metrics include customer satisfaction scores, active usage, adoption and performance, revenue growth, productivity scores, etc./p>
After you start the process, you need to slowly start measuring the results with the KPIs. You know the ideal outcome you are going towards. With the metrics, you would be able to figure out whether this is going in the right direction or not.
Find the areas of improvement
After you have initiated any digital transformation move, you need to ensure that’s working for you. For example, if you have initiated automation of the onboarding process for the HR department, you need to see if there is a visible decrease in the time spent on the process. If changes have become evident, look for ways to improve and optimize other critical operations and keep them going.
It should be a journey
Digital transformation is a journey and not a destination. Even when you feel that you have reached the maturity phase, there will still be the need to innovate and respond to the changes and challenges as they arise. Only when you are moving ahead in the maturity phase, you can incorporate and inculcate the advanced skill sets and capabilities and become agile.
Examples of the digital transformation processes from various sectors
BFSI
Banks are still backward when it comes to adopting new technologies. digital transformation in banks is primarily the transition to digital or online services. Banks are often constrained by a lot of security and compliance matters to protect customer data which causes hindrances in their digital transformation initiatives. Digital banking has been there for some time now but isn’t completely utilized by users. Digital transformation can help banks predict changing customer behavior, adopt newer technologies, and strike a balance between their internal processes and compliance requirements.
Some examples of digital transformation in the banking sector:
Customer Satisfaction Survey to keep centralized track of actionable customer feedback
Customer Help Desk to manage and resolve customer requests quickly and efficiently
Complaint Management to prioritize customer complaints and resolve them quickly
Healthcare
The US healthcare industry is reported to touch $1.5 trillion by 2030 due to digital transformation initiatives. With digital transformation, the healthcare sector today is able to take a patient-centric approach which ensures personalists and better user experience. With a digital collection of data, the ability to access patient information has become easy.
Some examples of digital transformation in the healthcare sector:
Medical Care Management to ensure the effectiveness of hospital operations
COVID-19 Status to adhere to health protocol and prevent the spread of COVID-19
Marketing
Marketers’ goal is to find more customers by spending less money. Digital marketing has opened gates to generate more leads that convert, helping the marketing team get close to their customers. The shift from traditional to digital marketing helps to produce the materials at a much more economical cost. You can engage in email marketing which is comparatively cheaper than print and mail campaigns. digital marketing also automates a lot of tasks saving a great deal of time for fellow marketers.
Some examples of digital transformation in the marketing sector:
Marketing Budgeting to cut down budget preparation time and improve ROI
SEM Management to create great ads, track efficiency, and captivate audiences
Content Marketing to produce great marketing creatives by prioritizing requests
Kissflow’s Case Study:
Vietnamobile (VNM) is one of Vietnam’s forerunning telecom companies. A few years ago the company faced huge difficulty in handling its own processes as all of its workflows were manual. Their manual workflows involved sensitive customer data and were prone to errors, while the process steps were a challenge to track. The company’s project director Warin figured this out and implemented Kissflow to automate some crucial business processes. As Warin had expected, the teams at VNM saw drastic improvements in their process speed and overall efficiency. They saved a lot of money and time by adopting the Kissflow Work Platform.
You can read the full case study here.
Kissflow- Making your digital transformation journey hassle-free
Kissflow is a comprehensive no-code and low-code platform that simplifies work management and dramatically accelerates digital transformation for businesses. The platform offers sophisticated and holistic functionalities to develop smarter tools that drive efficiency and productivity. Whether it is automating processes, digitizing your operations, managing requests, or building custom applications, with Kissflow you can do it all within a unified platform.
