Jeremy Wanamaker | Sep 18, 2024
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It’s estimated that worldwide spending on digital transformation will touch nearly $4 trillion this year. The enormity of this spending demonstrates the immense opportunities for change and innovation presented by the digital age.
| “For many businesses, digital transformation is about survival. That doesn’t make it any less difficult to implement. The right digital transformation framework can simplify and expedite the process.” – Jeremy Wanamaker, CEO of Complete Network |
While the phrase has become a buzzword, at its heart, digital transformation is simply tech-enabled business evolution through savvy decision-making. However, rather than just refreshing old IT with new IT, true transformation aims to leverage technology to outcompete, offer lower prices, and make customers and employees happier.
Today, we share insights and advice for creating a digital transformation framework. A well-architected framework puts you on the path toward a successful transformation journey. It serves to move you past theory providing a practical road map that guides the organization forward.
Exactly what a transformation framework entails vastly differs from company to company and industry to industry. That said, here are some common components that mostly all digital transformation frameworks share.
People Focused – Always put your people first. Employees, customers, and vendors should be at the forefront of your decision-making. Seek to make their experiences with your business much easier, less repetitive, and more rewarding.
Data Driven – At the crux of digital transformation is data. Through modeling and analytics, you can turn raw data into unique perspectives. These insights become useful for making the right technology decisions to propel innovation further.
Action Orientated – Insights reveal trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement, however, they only have value when they prompt strategic action. Without translating insights into action plans, your business could struggle and stagnate behind rivals who realize the full potential of their data.
Track and Measure – Another key component of your digital transformation framework is establishing metrics such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), to evaluate the impact of your transformation agenda. Metrics provide an organized approach to monitoring and measuring success, ensuring that your transformation efforts align with your goals.
Next, let’s highlight some of the benefits of implementing a digital transformation framework.
When following a structured digital transformation framework all IT initiatives across the organization began to work in harmony. The structure prevents the deployment of siloed or redundant solutions and instead promotes an ecosystem where people, data, and processes operate seamlessly.
Year after year organizations are becoming more vulnerable to cyber threats. A comprehensive digital transformation framework involves robust cybersecurity measures as a fundamental aspect, not an afterthought. It ensures that security considerations are built into every digital initiative from the start.
Datafying across all business processes leads to improved planning, more accurate forecasting, and better outcomes. Harvard Business Review says “This is where technology can have the biggest impact — in the process of capturing or creating digital records … because the real benefits from technology are not “hard” (i.e., cheaper systems or infrastructure), but “soft” (i.e., capturing valuable data).”
Frameworks help organizations better allocate their financial, human, and IT resources, providing a clear roadmap of key objectives and priorities. This roadmap navigates organizations around common pitfalls and refocuses investments toward the most influential areas that maximize ROI and long-term innovation.
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Planning for new digital deployments or installations is easy, but the obstacles become clear in the execution phase. The next section delves into three critical transformation challenges that decision-makers frequently overlook, including the tech skills gap, legacy system compatibility, and company culture.
The ongoing skills and talent gap for tech workers presents a formidable obstacle for many organizations. As such, leaders frequently find they lack the in-house expertise to effectively leverage the technologies they wish to adopt. To address this challenge, organizations need to adopt a multi-faceted approach.
It’s also common to find outdated legacy systems still providing the backbone of entire IT operations for some slower-moving organizations. After years of investment and accumulated integrations, these systems frequently become anchors holding back progress.
Here’s some advice regarding the successful marriage of new and old technologies.
Stale organizational culture, deeply ingrained over many years, can be as unyielding as bedrock. Resistance acts as an invisible but powerful barrier undermining even the most well-planned initiatives. Here are some ways to overcome cultural resistance to transformation:
Whether you realize it or not, your business is already in the process of transformation. The real question is whether you’re following a defined, strategic framework or improvising on the fly.
Having a structured framework in place can make all the difference in your transformation endeavor. In this section, we provide a few simple steps to keep in mind when sketching out your transformation.
Establish Clear Objectives and Outcomes
Clearly define the specific goals and objectives you aim to achieve through digital transformation. Some common aspirations we hear from clients are enhancing operational efficiency, improving customer experience, driving revenue growth, and fostering innovation.
Foster Collaboration and Communication
Clear communication and collaborative efforts are crucial to secure stakeholder buy-in, address potential issues, and ensure widespread adoption of transformation initiatives. During the planning phase, it’s important to engage all key players, including employees, customers, partners, and suppliers. This inclusive approach helps align expectations and leverages diverse perspectives to shape a more effective transformation strategy.
Evaluate Your Existing IT Infrastructure
Conduct a thorough assessment of your current technology landscape to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Determine which systems and processes need replacement and explore opportunities to upgrade to more agile and responsive IT.
Enhance Employee Skills
Focus on reskilling and retraining your workforce to maximize the full potential of new digital tools. Investing in employee development shows commitment to their growth, improving job satisfaction and loyalty while being more cost-effective than hiring new talent.
As we envision future trends in digital transformation, we’re predicting that remote work, AI/machine learning, low code/no code, and automation will significantly reshape the way businesses operate and compete in the market. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Much more than simply working from home, the shift to remote work is now an ingrained fixture in the modern workplace. 28.2% of workers are in a hybrid work environment and 12.7% are fully remote, but this number is constantly on the rise. It’s incumbent for leadership to think about creating work environments that are location-independent to accommodate distributed, digital-first workers.
While much of the mainstream focus is on generative AI, significant advancements in other areas like healthcare diagnostics, fraud/anomaly detection, natural language processing, and predictive analytics are all delivering remarkable and new capabilities for businesses. It’s incumbent upon those spearheading transformation agendas to look beyond the buzz. Rather carefully evaluate how AI/ML solutions can deliver concrete, measurable value to very specific business operations and tasks.
No code and low code platforms let users without technical backgrounds build applications and automate workflows quickly. These technologies are unlocking new opportunities as more employees become “citizen developers.”
Contact us to schedule a consultation and learn how we can help you turn your digital transformation vision into reality. Together, we can unlock new opportunities, drive growth, and position your organization to win. Let’s partner together for this journey
| Streamline Your Digital Transformation with Experts in These Locations | |||
| Albany, New York | Charlotte, North Carolina | Savannah, Georgia | Bluffton, South Carolina |
Embarking on a successful digital transformation journey is a complex endeavor. It requires expertise, planning, and consistent attention to be successful. The team of seasoned IT professionals at Complete Network possesses a proven track record helping clients manage their transformation successfully.
Contact our friendly team at (844) 426-7844. We look forward to speaking with you!
In an ideal world, technology would be a consistent source of competitive advantage and benefit for small and midsized businesses. The reality is that many fail to realize that confidence.
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