Enterprises across diverse industries are evolving these days, shifting the existing legacy processes to digital. By taking the leap, they are witnessing increase in customer engagement, enhancement if employee morale, improvement in return on investment, and elevation in business profits and revenues. Considering these amazing benefits, digital transformation no longer remains a choice but becomes a necessity for businesses. However, the transition is easier said than done because a majority of digital initiatives bring challenges with them.
Additionally, most transformations require businesses to take on considerable risk. However, the impact it has is humongous and can truly present growth opportunities, which make the challenges and risks worthwhile. If you have not embraced digital transformation yet and are planning to do it soon, you should know about everything involved. Here is a complete overview for you.
What To Expect- Challenges & Pain Points
Planning is perhaps the most crucial phase of a digital transformation journey because a proper plan speeds up the implementation and assures success. The first concern in this context would be to know the challenges and pain points that most organizations come across.
Disruption in the structure and culture of the organization: Essentially, digital transformation is major change, a substantial initiative which requires more than just massive capital investment. It also needs the employees to adapt their routine and time and change in company culture as well. These changes may involve a lot, from moving roles, to shifting departments, adoption of new skills, replacing legacy systems with new systems, or an overhaul of the organizational structure as a whole. Experiencing a digital transformation can be a turmoil at the initial stages though employees tend to become more comfortable with the change subsequently.
Budget constraints: Another challenge that leaders may experience during this journey is budget constraints. Most of the times, enterprise application development translates into large expenses. The fact that these applications need to be empowered with innovations such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Internet of Things, and more elevates their costs. Considering the expenses, businesses need to be selective about the solutions they implement and should stick to only ones that are financially viable.
Lack of strategic implementation: Organizations often fail to outline clear ideas and roadmaps, realistic goals, and effective metrics to measure efficacy of the digital initiatives implemented as a part of the journey This complicates the implementation process and also puts the entire initiative at risk. This is a vital challenge that business leaders need to address while implementing the strategy right from the start.
Though these challenges are daunting, they are still surmountable provided that you take the right approach. Applying effective plans strategically is the key to getting successful outcomes. Dividing the initiative into different sprints is a good technique to make the project more attainable. This approach also gives the business time to analyze how everything is going and tweak the strategy where needed. At the same time, collaborating with the right digital technology consulting partner is vital. Further, the enterprise should find effective ways to internally educate and encourage the gains of change, set clear expectations, and empower employees with new skills.
How To Get Started- Core Elements Of Digital Transformation
Once you have clarity about the challenges that may come your way and an implementation strategy that addresses them, you are all set to embark on this journey. Here are the core elements that your technology partner will cover in the implementation strategy for your business.
Customer Experience – The prime focus of any digital strategy should be on transforming the customer experience, irrespective of the technology stack you are dealing with. Unless the transition enhances the way your customers think about your business and products, it is a worthless investment.
Cloud – Moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud is another vital aspect of digital transformation. Cloud offers a range of benefits for any organization, from extensive cost savings to speed to market, reliability, and flexibility. Additionally, this transition also empowers your business with data security and disaster recovery.
Artificial Intelligence – AI is more than real for businesses today and you must absolutely embrace this technology as an element of your transformation strategy. You can adopt Artificial Intelligence in various forms, right from a chatbot that converses with your shoppers to embedded AI that automates your business processes.
Data and Analytics- As more and more businesses become data driven, you cannot imagine growth unless you unlock the potential of data to gain actionable insights. Integrating data analytics in your digital transformation strategy is mandatory as it lets you know your customers better and transform their experience as well.
Personalization – When it comes to leveraging data analytics for delivering an exceptional customer experience, everything boils down to personalization. What really matters is the identity of every single customer so that you can target them with content and offers that specifically match their preferences and expectations.
Agile Innovation – Even the best of strategies will not yield fruitful benefits unless you focus on delivering innovations with agility. This is the reason why Agile, DevOps, and Continuous Testing come ahead as vital components of digital strategy. Testing is equally important every single element needs to be flawless.
Tips to be ready for digital transformation
- Start by having a clear vision with the right objective and roadmap. Don’t just invest in digital transformation because everyone else is doing so. When you assess a business case, check the benefits that it would deliver to the end users and whether technology will make a positive difference.
- Ensure that you bear in mind the scale of the business and the complexity of your requirements. If you have a system that is years old, expect the journey to be complicated and challenging and collaborate with a partner who is capable of handling them.
- Understand that Digital Transformation is strategic in nature as the program is often made of multiple projects, each having its own discovery and planning phases. Be sure to account for unknowns because many unexpected requirements may come on the way and you may have to extend beyond the original plan.
- Keep the budget and timeline expectations realistic because uncertainty is a part and parcel of digital transformation. The project is likely to stretch in terms of cost and time for a majority of organizations. So it is better to have a plan B at the start.
- Look at the competition because it can give you a fair idea of the prevailing trends and also let you know what really works for organizations similar to yours in terms of size, requirements, and type.
Conclusion
Considering these facts, it becomes clear that digital transformation is a risky and complicated endeavor. However, it can bring amazing, future-proof results if done correctly. On the other hand, when done incorrectly, it can be expensive for the company. Having a seasoned technology partner by your side can make all the difference when it comes to making this journey a successful one. OrangeMantra is a leading digital transformation company that serves innovative solutions for enterprises of all sizes. We start by understanding your needs and create applications that take you ahead on the road to innovation.