4 Ways To Develop A Digital Transformation Strategy

The modern business environment requires companies to transform their business and modify their work to the new digital age. The application of digital technologies in everyday business has the potential to completely change the way companies operate and imposes itself as a key factor in long-term survival. This means you need to have a well-developed strategy. Therefore, we present 4 ways to develop a digital transformation strategy.

The Impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses

The use of digital technology in various parts of our business and private lives has become part of everyday life, either on social networks and virtual communities, or through the use of smartphones for payment, information about products and services, or in the direct marketing activities. And while for companies digital technology provides a strong foundation for faster and almost disruptive development – at the same time, it is a growing challenge to adapt different parts of the business to new technologies.

Namely, under the influence of digital trends, most organizations go through a process of digital transformation. This involves several processes – from the use of digital technology in customer relations to its use throughout the organization. At the same time, the requirements and expectations of all key stakeholders are changing – from customers, employees to the organization.

The Development

Numerous experiences show that not all companies are successful in adapting to new digital trends. This is most often dependent on the industries and markets in which they operate – but also on their willingness and approach to embracing digital trends. However, most companies are implementing digital transformation in a series of stand-alone initiatives – or implementations of stand-alone technology solutions. Unfortunately, this doesn’t achieve a unique experience for customers – and the company doesn’t fully exploit the potential that is coming from the analysis and availability of a large number of diverse data.

How Mature is your Company?

The readiness to accept new technologies and the speed of acceptance also result in different levels of digital maturity of individual companies. The most mature are certainly the IT and technology industries, the telecommunications industry, and the media and entertainment industry. They are followed by the professional services industry, tourism, and transport services. The lowest level of digital maturity, according to the assessment of digital capabilities – was recorded by the financial industry, health, education, manufacturing, and the public sector.

The Power Of Strategy

Research shows that digitally mature companies are focused on integrating digital technologies. Companies are increasingly opting to use technologies such as social platforms, mobile technology, analytics, and cloud solutions, etc. Applying these technologies helps to change the business model, business processes, and talent management. However, medium and low digitally mature companies solve their business challenges, often ad-hoc, with individual digital technologies and solutions. What is quite clear today is that digital strategy leads to the establishment of digital maturity. Therefore, it is not surprising that more than 80% of digitally mature companies have confirmed that they possess a comprehensive digital strategy. On the other hand, for most low to medium mature digital companies, the biggest challenge is the lack of a digital strategy – that is, a focus on some different priorities and individual challenges that technology seeks to address.

Ways You Can  Develop A Digital Transformation Strategy In Your Business

1. Make A Plan And Set Goals I

The strength of the digital transformation strategy lies in its scope and goals. Companies with low to moderate levels of digital maturity focus on individual technologies or possess strategies that are short-term and operational. The main goals of their strategies are to improve business efficiency and a better user or customer experience. Digitally mature companies use digital strategies to transform business, foster innovation – and gain a competitive advantage.

2. Defining Strategy

It all starts with a consultation. According to Creitive, the first and most important step in the development of a digital transformation strategy – involves the engagement of an expert team that provides consulting services. In this initial phase – current business models will be analyzed as well as the possibilities of digital services through a comprehensive business assessment (data analysis, process analysis, data processing, user experience, etc). After that, work is planned and carried out – during which the management gets acquainted with the business model of digital transformation. The outcome of this phase is a harmonized proposal for a business model of digital transformation and an execution plan.

3. Execution Planning

This phase aims to cover all new aspects and impacts of the agreed business model with the new digital services. For this purpose, a completely new assessment of the new business model is performed, a new information system architecture is defined – and all communication channels, process automation, and integration are analyzed. The outcome of this phase is an agreed action plan for digital transformation.

4. Implementation And Adaptation Of Information System

The final phase is the most serious step in which it is very important to harmonize the new information system with all key hardware pillars, old/new basic digital services and applications with real-time analytics – and all aspects of cybersecurity for the entire IT system. As the main reason for the failure of people’s projects is their unreadiness to accept changes and a new business model – in this phase, education is provided, which is crucial for the success of the transformation project. Although it serves to bring the digital transformation to its goal, this final phase is still a “story that never ends”. It seeks to organize continuous cycles of analyzing and improving the business model through the adoption of new digital services and a customer-focused approach.

IT System Transformation

New technologies follow the complexity and through the unknowns. Their right choice and successful integration into existing systems become a major challenge. Today, IT managers are gaining an increasingly important role. In addition to their regular activities, they are expected to make decisions regarding the strategic direction of their companies. Obstacles encountered in performing these tasks most often come down to a lack of experts, the pressure to optimize IT budgets, misunderstandings by management, and difficulties in comparing alternatives.