Digital transformation is a challenging journey. Though the results may be amazing, reaching there is the toughest part. For CIOs, recognizing the right technologies and implementing them while evading the risks means a lot of work. The choice between build and buy is another complex aspect of embracing innovation. Here are some things that CIOs can bear in mind to drive the change successfully!
The role of CIOs in the business ecosystem is truly unique as they need to juggle between the twin responsibilities of both business and technical leadership. And it’s an important role from business transformation perspective as well because this is one person who take the organization on the road to innovation and ensures that the goals are achieved successfully. This is best done by a leader who understands the hurdles to digital transformation and knows how to work around them, while ensuring speed and risk management during the entire process. Here are some facts and steps that CIOs can adopt to stay on track while driving the change.
Embrace Diverse Perspectives
For a majority of organizations, the digital transformation begins at the grassroots, outside the CIO’s domain. When employees running different operations of the business look for better way to do things, it is an indication that the business needs a change for the better. But while the need for improvement may be the catalyst, the theoretical improvements may not really align with the reality of technical, business, budgetary, and time constraints. The chances of transformations going awry at this most fundamental level are high because the actual outcomes diverge from the original concept.
The CIO essentially needs to act as a bridge between the business objectives and technical implementation. Their job is to needs to identify and address the divergence between the two before it undercuts the transformation. This requires transparent and consistent communication to ensure alignment on the milestones and timelines for achievable results. Further, the CIO has to facilitate a seamless collaboration between the transformation teams and business stakeholders so that each of them knows what the others expect.
Focus on incremental wins
Beginning radical change is always a challenge and it gets all the more tough in the organizational contexts. Businesses face two different choices, firstly, to start immediately on disparate pilot programs and secondly, to have a meticulously crafted comprehensive transformation strategy with the adoption of the right enterprise applications. The first approach risks control and scalability while the second one increases the probability of months or even years of delay with limited returns.
CIOs should take a middle part by avoiding the extremes and striving for a well-orchestrated series of incremental wins instead. Here, it is significant to have a broad strategy with clear end objectives. At the same time, there is a need to identify are regular and manageable milestones that assure quick successes. Mini-milestones are actually vital when it comes to assuring frequent results that can be shared with various stakeholders. The best that a CIO can do is to identify the processes which stretch across diverse aspects of the business and automate the key steps in them. Each step is like a milestone and together, form the roadmap for the larger transformation.
Get the team in your favor
CIOs should expect resistance because it always happens when there is change. While few people in your organization may be happy with the digital transformation initiatives, a major segment may be hostile. Yet, it is only the people in the key technology roles who can understand the criticality of transformation to the long-term success. It would be apt to say that employee participation in the digital transformation journey is not only important but a matter of survival.
The key for CIOs is to draw a clear line between executive communication and broader understanding and consensus within the organization. Departmental heads act as a bridge to the workforce and can play a key role in getting them on board. This is vital to make the transition easier for the business. It is important to share the larger vision with the managers and show them the role they need to play. Further, they have to be educated about the benefit of the transformation to their respective department and how the initiative would contribute to the wider objective.
Discover a scalable solution
When it comes to digital transformation, the best approach is to start small and then go big. However, the scale itself brings its own set of challenges. While it is one thing to execute a trial initiative in a small team, an organization transformation that involves core systems and critical processes is a completely different ball game. There are two important challenges that CIOs need to consider.
Firstly, it is entirely possible to implement digital transformation initiatives at the micro levels, but each of the transformations may remain confined to a single aspect of the business. The second problem lies in the possibility of the pilot transformations which are successful in controlled environment failing at scale-out in the ecosystem as a whole. A CIO’s job is to find a scalable solution that is capable of penetrating deeply into the organizational silos as well as broadly across lines of business.
FAQs
What is digital transformation strategy?
Essentially, digital transformation strategy is a strategy that businesses of all sizes use to improve their core operations and processes by developing new capabilities and business models. It involves investment in enterprise applications based on ground-breaking technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT, robotic process automation, and more.
What is the goal of digital transformation?
The goal of digital transformation is to make a business capable of matching the competition and standing apart in the evolving scenario. It enables the organization to act rapidly and evolve with the changing competitive conditions and strategies and customer expectations as well.
What are the challenges for digital transformation?
Digital transformation is a major change for any organization, so challenges are imperative. Employee resistance, lack of proper strategy, limited budgets and tight timelines are the common ones. Also, businesses lack the expertise to lead digitization initiatives on their own.
What are the pillars of digital transformation?
Digital transformation for businesses stands around four pillars. These are:
- Engaging the customers
- Empowering the employees.
- Optimizing the operations and processes
- Transforming the product or service
Why do businesses need digital transformation partner?
Every business that envisions embarking on this transformative journey needs a technology partner to take them ahead. This is because there is much involved in terms of applications to be created, processes to be modernized, and people to be trained.
Conclusion
The role of CIOs is a pivotal to digital transformation within any organization. The better they are able to align different perspectives and educate people and teams, the easier it becomes to drive the transformation at the organizational scale. The choice of a reliable digital transformation partner is equally crucial and this responsibility too rests on the shoulders of the CIO. If you are looking for a company that you can trust to help you with your digital initiative, OrangeMantra is a reliable partner. With more than two decades in the industry and a team that is adept with innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, Internet of Things, Big Data and Analytics, and more, we emerge as partners you can depend on. We are capable of taking organizations of all sizes on the transformation journey so that they can capitalize on the growth opportunities in the digital landscape.