Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of an organisation altering how you run and provide value to customers. It's also a cultural modification that requires companies to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.
Digital transformation is vital for all businesses, from the small to the enterprise. That message comes through loud and clear from seemingly every keynote, panel discussion, article, or research study related to how businesses can remain competitive and appropriate as the world becomes increasingly digital. What's not clear to many business leaders is what digital transformation means. Is it an appealing method to say moving to the cloud? What are the particular steps we require to take? Do we need to create new jobs to help us create a framework for digital transformation, or use a consulting service? What parts of our business method require altering? Is it worth it?
This post aims to answer a few of the typical questions around digital transformation and provide clarity, particularly to CIOs and IT leaders, comprising lessons learned from your peers and digital transformation specialists. Since innovation plays a crucial function in an organization's capability to develop with the marketplace and continuously increase value to customers, CIOs play an essential function in digital transformation.
It's likewise worth keeping in mind that today's companies remain variously put on the road to digital transformation. If you are feeling stuck in your digital transformation work, you are not alone. Among the hardest concerns in digital transformation is how to get over the preliminary humps from vision to execution. It produces angst: Many CIOs and companies think they lag far behind their peers on improvement when that isn't the case.
Even companies that are well down the digital transformation course face difficult ongoing hurdles, like budgeting, talent struggles, and culture change. Let's dig in for recommendations for organizations that various put on that road to change.
What Is Digital Transformation?
Due to the fact that digital transformation will look various for each company, it can be difficult to determine a meaning that applies to all. In general terms, we define digital transformation as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in essential modifications to how businesses run and how they deliver value to clients. Beyond that, it's a cultural modification that needs organizations to continuously challenge the status quo, experiment frequently, and get comfy with failure. This sometimes means leaving long-standing business processes that companies were built on in favour of relatively brand-new practices that are still being specified.
With a variety of articles and various definitions of digital transformation, it's easy to see why there is some confusion around the topic. For instance, author Greg Verdino focuses on what businesses that go through digital transformation might anticipate attaining. He says, "Digital transformation closes the gap between what digital clients already anticipate and what analog businesses in fact deliver."
A meaning from The Agile Elephant stresses all the ways businesses may need to adjust their existing practices:" [Digital transformation] involves a change in management, various thinking, the support of innovation and new business models, including digitisation of possessions and an increased use of innovation to enhance the experience of your organisation's employees, consumers, providers, partners and stakeholders."
And the Wikipedia definition, while vague, discusses how the impacts of digital transformation extend beyond businesses to society as a whole. "Digital transformation is the changes associated with the application of digital innovation in all elements of human society," it states.
Leaders, think of what digital transformation will mean-- in practice - to your company and how you will articulate it. "Digital is a crammed word that indicates numerous things to lots of people," states Jim Swanson, Senior Vice President/CIO and Head of Digital Transformation at Bayer Crop Science (and formerly CIO, Monsanto.) When you discuss digital transformation, unload what it implies, he recommends.
At Monsanto, Swanson talked about digital transformation in terms of customer-centricity. "We discuss automating operations, about individuals, and about new business designs," he says. "Wrapped inside those topics are information analytics, technologies, and software applications-- all of which are enablers, not motorists."
" In the center of everything is management and culture," Swanson states. "You might have all those things-- the client view, the services and products, data, and actually cool technologies-- however if leadership and culture aren't at the heart, it fails. Comprehending what digital methods to your company-- whether you're a monetary, farming, pharmaceutical, or retail institution-- is vital."
Melissa Swift, who leads Korn Ferry's Digital Advisory for North America and Global Accounts, agrees with Swanson's take that the word "digital" has a problem due to the fact that it means a lot of things to many people.
" Say 'digital' to someone and they think about going paperless; another may think about information analytics and artificial intelligence; another might visualize Agile teams; and yet another may think of open-plan offices," she keeps in mind.
" Digital" is a hot mess of a word. And this causes a lot of grief in organizations."
"Imagine purchasing a hamburger over and over, and getting whatever from a hotdog to a chicken sandwich to a Caesar salad …" she states.
Leaders need to be fully aware of this truth as they frame discussions around digital transformation. For recommendations from Swift on how to speak with this topic without getting burned, read our associated post, Why people enjoy hating digital transformation.
Why Does Digital Transformation Matter?
A business may handle digital transformation for numerous factors. By far, the most likely factor is that they have to: It's a survival problem for many.
Howard King, in a contributed post for The Guardian, puts it by doing this: "Businesses don't change by choice due to the fact that it is costly and risky. Businesses go through improvement when they have stopped working to evolve."
John Marcante, CIO of Vanguard, points this out, too: "Just look at the S&P 500. In 1958, U.S. corporations stayed on that index for approximately 61 years, according to the American Enterprise Foundation. By 2011, it was 18 years. Today, businesses are being changed on the S&P roughly every two weeks. Innovation has actually driven this shift, and companies that wish to succeed must understand how to combine technology with strategy."
Business leaders have largely gotten the message-- and are prioritizing accordingly. IDC projections that worldwide spending on innovations and services that enable digital transformation will reach $1.97 trillion in 2022, per the (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide. IDC anticipates that digital transformation costs will grow steadily, achieving a five-year substantial annual development rate of 16.7 per cent between 2017 and 2022.
"This shift towards capital funding is an important one as business executives recognize digital transformation as a long-term financial investment."
" IDC forecasts that, by 2020, 30 percent of G2000 companies will have allocated a capital budget plan equal to at least 10 percent of income to sustain their digital strategies," stated Shawn Fitzgerald, research director, Worldwide Digital Transformation Strategies. "This shift toward capital financing is a crucial one as business executives come to recognize digital transformation as a long-term investment. This dedication to moneying DX will continue to drive spending well into the next decade."
As of 2018, advanced analytics is the number-one digital financial investment – with enterprises planning to increase related deployments by 75 per cent during the next 12 to 18 months, according to research from The Hackett Group. This includes a particular focus on information visualization tools and machine learning.
Organizations are at different locations in the digital transformation journey, obviously. But speed has actually ended up being a business necessity for all. IT leaders deal with pressure to show that digital initiatives continue to equate to increased agility and speed for the entire organization.
As Dion Hinchcliffe, VP and the primary analyst at Constellation Research, composes: "The leading IT executives in today's quickly progressing companies should match the rate of modification, fall behind, or lead the pack. That's the existential concern at stake in today's digitally-infused times, where vibrant action should be actively supported by out-of-the-box experimentation and pathfinding. This should be done while managing the inexorable daily drumbeat of operational concerns, service shipment, and the distracting vagaries of the unpredictable, such as a significant cyberattack or details breach. The CIO this year needs to be both a very skillful priority juggler and an efficient digital leader from the front."
Improving consumer experience has become an important goal-- and therefore a crucial part of digital transformation. Hinchcliffe calls smooth client experience "the most crucial discriminating aspect for how a business will carry out.
What Does a Digital Transformation Framework Look Like?
Although digital transformation will vary widely based on the organization's specific challenges and demands, there are a few constants and common themes among existing case studies and published frameworks that all business and technology leaders should consider as they embark on digital transformation.
For instance, these digital transformation elements are often cited:
Customer experience
Operational agility
Culture and leadership
Workforce enablement
Digital technology integration
While each guide has its own recommendations and varying steps or considerations, CIOs should look for those important shared themes when developing their own digital transformation strategy.
What Are the Key Trends in Digital Transformation in 2022?
2022 will be a year of reckoning for digital initiatives. Organizations that continue to underestimate the need for culture change do so at their own peril.
“The operative word that defines the purpose for digital transformation in 2022 is resilience,” says E.G. Nadhan, chief architect, Red Hat. “The pandemic taught enterprises to be prepared for seismic shifts in the market dynamics and consumer needs. Forward-thinking enterprises will focus on the ability to effectively pivot and deal with change with minimal to no impact to internal and external consumers.”
Here are eight key digital transformation trends that business and IT leaders should be aware of in 2022:
5G
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Business Process Automation
Data Analytics
Multi-cloud Architecture
Data Protection and CyberSecurity
Digital Banking
Hybrid Working
For more detail and advice on each of these items, read the following related articles, Digital transformation: 5 future and 3 fading trends for 2022, Top 9 Digital Transformation Trends for 2022, 8 Digital Transformation Trends and Strategies for 2022.
How Can I Measure ROI on Digital Transformation?
To show the success of digital transformation efforts, leaders are required to quantify the return on investment. That's much easier said than done with projects that cross-functional and business limits, change how a company goes to market, and often essentially reshape interactions with consumers and employees.
A project such as revamping a mobile application may have a short-term payoff however other projects are going after longer-term business worth.
As we just recently reported, "Digital transformation efforts are ongoing and developing, which can render standard business value calculations and financial governance techniques less reliable."
Still, quantifying success is important to continue financial investment. "Just carrying out the innovation isn't enough-- the technology requires to be specifically tied to keeping track of crucial efficiency indicators on customer insights and business process effectiveness," states Brian Caplan, director with management consultancy Pace Harmon.
Initially, ask if you're taking sufficient risks.
"When determining how well digital transformation investments are performing, it's best to take a portfolio view and not a project level view," states Cecilia Edwards, partner with digital transformation consultancy and research study company Everest Group. Just as a mutual fund manager or equity capital firm would look at overall efficiency to identify how well things are going, digital transformation leaders must take a holistic view of digital change efforts.
This is especially important so that the underperformance of one particular job does not reflect adversely on the overarching efforts of IT. It also constructs tolerance for the necessary dangers that should be undertaken to attain real digital transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's another word for digital transformation?
Digital transformation is frequently thought of as synonymous with 'digitization' and 'digitalization'.
What is digital transformation in simple words?
Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. ... It transcends traditional roles like sales, marketing, and customer service.
What are the main areas of digital transformation?
It's about technology, data, process, and organizational change.
What is an example of digital transformation?
Bringing artificial intelligence into your service organization is a prime example of the power of digital transformation. AI-powered chatbots that answer simple customer inquiries serve as a welcoming presence on your website, reducing the time customers have to wait to reach an agent.
What is the purpose of digital transformation?
While every digital transformation initiative will have its own specific goals, the main purpose of any digital transformation is to improve your current processes. Digital transformation is important because companies must evolve to remain competitive in their industry. If you aren't evolving, you're falling behind.
Is digital transformation mandatory?
While digital transformation may no longer be optional, it does not necessitate abandoning an entire business model or a brand that customers like and trust.
How Can I Get Started on Digital Transformation?
If all of this makes you feel woefully behind, fear not. One of the biggest misconceptions CIOs have about digital transformation is that all of their competitors are much further ahead of the game than they are. That's because “there’s much admiration of (and popular press around) the fastest transformers, but little critique of how hard transformation is or how long it may take for a typical Global 2,000 company,” says Tim Yeaton, CMO of Red Hat.
As businesses formulate their own digital transformation strategy, there is much to be learned from CIOs and IT leaders who have already begun their journeys. See the latest trends in the digital marketing landscape in this article.
Our team at Sphere is here to talk through your own digital transformation, and more. Contact us today.
