Digital Transformation – What does it take??

Digital transformation is now a part of nearly every industry because of enterprises battle for the competitive edge in this digital age. Despite this competitive edge, enterprises still struggle with a number of common issues as they begin to transition from legacy equipment to more customer-focused tools.

It takes risk and commitment as well as agility and experimentation to deliver a successful digital transformation in modern times. While we all believe we have the best strategy in place, let’s also understand that everything that we are trying now might not be the best because the digital field is constantly evolving.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the ways through which we can create a winning Digital Strategy:

Prioritize your Benefits

There are times when programs lose focus and get caught up in the constant need of delivering projects on-time and under-budget to gain more work and money, but they get sidetracked on delivering the benefits in the process. Transformation leaders need to create a culture of benefits first which will enable short-term wins and create the appropriate catalyst to facilitate aligned program decision making.

Enable Collaboration

If you are working in small co-located teams, collaboration can come naturally. However, working and collaborating on programs located in multiple cities or countries is a completely different story. To facilitate collaboration, leaders need to focus on:

1. Putting in place internal program processes that demand cross team input before sign-offs
2. Relationship building between business silos
3. Methodically exercising the external network of experts available through your consultants or software provider.

Be aware of Risks

In case you have a high failure rate, then the same can be attributed to many causes. One significant failure point is the lack of engagement of the transformational leader in a robust and comprehensive program risk management process. Robust processes require the engagement of experienced practitioners with a well-developed situational awareness of IT transformational program efforts.

Define the Path

The crucial path is defined by the sequence of executive decisions required to ultimately reach the business goals of the transformation. The time required for engaging executives to provide enough information that will allow for meaningful discussions and necessary “soak” time is something not easily calculable. Transformation leaders need to develop a sixth sense as to what the big decisions are and then manage the overall process to ensure the necessary decisions will be made on time.