DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY

In today’s fast-paced, tech-heavy market, you don’t have to look far to see the impact of digital transformation. Established organizations are constantly being disrupted by the ever-changing market and technology advancements.

For organizations large and small, new and experienced, the need for digital transformation is evident. If you want to remain competitive, you can’t just act in response to changes—you have to anticipate them and drive modernization. To do this, organizations need to plan ahead and be active creators of their own future.

That’s where a digital transformation strategy comes in. The question is how to get there. Use the following steps to help create your digital transformation strategy:

(1) Align your digital strategy with your organization. To guarantee success, align your ERP software with your digital strategy plan, and business objectives and processes. Additionally, an organizational change management plan may be necessary to outline educational plans and secure organizational buy-in. Before you can start building your digital transformation framework, it’s important to maintain complete buy-in from all impacted parties, including decision-makers, managers, and end-users. You’ll need to maintain a strict focus on re-engineering business processes and comprehensive change-management initiatives for employees. Without a united team, your digital strategy will fail before you even begin.

(2) Secure project funding. As soon as your team is on board with the project, it’s time to look at the numbers. Your budget will help you structure strategy, especially as you identify priorities, allocate resources, and establish opportunities. Keep in mind that digital transformation is not a one-time implementation, it’s an everlasting journey.

(3) Asses your organizations current state. With your organizational buy-in a budget set in place, you can begin laying the groundwork for your digital transformation strategy. Your first step is to assess the current state of your organization. A current state analysis will help you:

• Asses organizational culture.
• Evaluate employee skillsets.
• Map out current processes, operations, organizational structure, and roles.
• Identify opportunities and pain points that need to be addressed.

A current state assessment will give you the foundation to make strategic business decisions about digital processes and resources.

(4) Identify goals and set expectations for your digital transformation strategy. With a clear understanding of where your organization currently stands, you can now begin to set future goals and objectives. What do you hope to achieve? What experience are you trying to create for your customers and employees?

As you take these questions into consideration, it’s important to focus on the long-term advantages of digital transformation.

Tip: Remember that digital transformation isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.

(5) Conduct a gap analysis. Now that you know where your organization currently stands and where your organization wants to go, you are able to identify the gaps and opportunities that exist between the two states. Consider:

• What areas need to be bridged (e.g., customers, stakeholders, employees, skills, culture)
• What redundancies or inefficiencies exist?
• What resources, processes, or information will you need?

(6) Create your digital transformation roadmap. Now it’s time to put everything together. You have achieved organizational buy-in, project funding, current state assessment, goals and objectives, and a gap analysis. This roadmap will demonstrate how you will get from your current state of operations to your anticipated digital transformation vision. This roadmap may include reframing groundwork, educating employees, recruiting new talent, updating technology, and transitioning to new business processes. This should outline key goals, and objectives and include a timeline with milestone markers. Be sure to include who is responsible for each step of the plan.

Tip: Keep in mind that a roadmap should be adaptable and evolve with your business and the changing priorities of the digital landscape.

Common pitfalls of digital transformation.

Note that even the most detailed and well managed digital transformation plans can run into obstacles. Watch out for these problems when planning and implementing your digital strategy: resistance to change, lack of expertise, and failure to apply data. Here are some suggestions to avoid these problems.

Resistance to Change. Work with key organizational leaders early on in the processes to ensure organizational buy-in and collaborate on ways to make the transition easier for end-users.

Tip: For more information, read the Organizational Change Roadmap blog.

Lack of Expertise. Digital transformation is a massive initiative, and few people have all the skills or experience needed to implement those changes. To prevent growing pains and rookie mistakes, seek out partners who have the knowledge and expertise you need to execute on your plans.

Tip: Remember this isn’t a one-person job. Create a digital transformation team.

Failure to Apply Data. As your organization unlocks new digital resources such as data collection and analytics, be sure to put processes into place to take full advantage of theses resources. Bear in mind that organizations who properly utilize data will pull away from their competition with ease.

Here at ACC Software Solutions, we understand that developing and implementing a digital transformation strategy isn’t easy. However, it essential to lay a strong foundation for your strategy to fall into place.

The ACC Software Solutions team is here to answer any of your questions and begin your digital transformation journey. Contact a support specialist today!