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Successful Digital Transformation Starts With These Steps

Forbes Agency Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Justin Grossman

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Let the dollar signs speak for themselves: Leaders industry-wide are embracing digital transformation as a disruptive force that can’t be ignored. In fact, a recent study by IDC forecasts that spending on digital technologies will reach an estimated $1.3 trillion this year and will nearly double to $2.1 trillion by 2021.

Whether your organization is in the infancy stages of its journey or has reached a point of digital maturity, keep in mind that digital transformation is never a one-and-done deal. As you map out your digital strategy, you can avoid the common trap that many businesses fall into by remembering that transformation is a key component of the overall concept.

True digital transformation is not merely about applying technology and then waiting for it to revolutionize systems and sales. It’s a holistic endeavor that requires a detailed road map for how digital tools will be leveraged across various business functions to achieve organizational agility.

Never transformed and always transforming, a solid digital transformation plan requires buy-in from each facet of the enterprise to be successfully integrated into your processes, culture and brand. As such, it’s critical to collaborate with your cohorts in every department to innovate ideas, analyze technology gaps and implement cross-functional solutions. If you’re ready to design a true digital strategy and not just a one-dimensional IT project, here are four core areas to incorporate into your digital transformation framework.

Plan thoughtfully.

Savvy teams assess organizational goals, analyze integration needs and evaluate impact before designing (or changing) their digital road maps. Your digital tools should enhance your brand’s reputation rather than derail it, which is why the following must be included in your overall plan:

 Check the boxes. Your digital transformation agenda must consider your overall brand strategy, market research, baseline metrics, performance expectations and projected return on investment. Include specific tactics for implementation, along with the vendors, partners and channels that will support each tactic. Tactical plans should include enough information to map out resource and technology requirements, processes and systems, expected outcomes, operational costs and companywide impact.

 Consider the long and short game. Don’t fail to examine how your digital goals will play out in the short-term (one year), mid-term (three to five years) and long-term (10-20 years). If your organization is more digitally mature, focus on strategizing long-term. If you’re just embarking on the digital strategy, the short-term will be more imperative to your early success.

 Rally the troops. Communicating your digital transformation approach to the entire organization helps build consensus. The documentation of goals, a benchmarking process, and the celebration of wins and discussion of challenges are indispensable.

Take stock of your technology.

As you build your digital strategy, take a full inventory of your organization’s technical competencies and gaps. Start by evaluating your company’s tech stack, noting the digital tools you use for internal collaboration, email marketing, customer relationship management, business intelligence (BI), etc.

When it comes to digital tools, less is always more. Consider how functions can be digitally streamlined by reducing the number of systems currently in use within your organization. If your team is overloaded with tools or is forced to drudge through processes manually, it can slow down your transformation considerably.

Finally, examine (with rigor) not just the customer journey but also the employee journey. Does the latter support the former? Does data flow smoothly between your organization’s teams or departments, or is the data siloed? Inefficiencies within the employee experience will most certainly impact the customer experience, not to mention the negative effect it can have on culture.

Optimize your operations.

From analyzing your headcount to auditing your policies and procedures, a winning digital transformation strategy goes hand-in-hand with streamlined operations. Tips for getting your human and technical resources in good order include:

 Understanding your team’s abilities. Carefully consider your team structure, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of existing skill sets. Does your team need outside support to drive digital innovation?

 Define and document. When you execute projects that have standardized planning methodologies and procedures, your team will communicate and perform at a higher level, leaving more room for innovation. Plan carefully for the processes and systems you’ll need in your digital transformation journey.

 Share with your stakeholders. Don’t design your strategy in a vacuum. Creating visibility among stakeholders helps them understand one another’s functions, which leads to cooperative collaboration and -- you guessed it -- fewer roadblocks. This includes ensuring teams are aware of all industry compliance and regulatory best practices.

Make good use of metrics.

As your organization matures digitally, an ongoing and consistent evaluation of key performance indicators is essential to your decision-making process and team performance. When a business applies dedicated resources to collecting, analyzing and reporting on data regularly, it is able to stay open and nimble to change. Here are a few ways to enhance innovation and agility using marketing metrics:

 Champion transparency. Comprehensive performance visibility should be available to all stakeholders. While it’s often efficient to give every team member access to reporting tools, many organizations with BI or data-supported departments find it helpful for these functions to summarize metrics in a way that everyone can understand and leverage.

 Set expectations early. When devising your digital transformation plan, make sure to clarify dissemination and communication protocol between data analysts and data consumers up front. Consistently scheduled performance updates will help keep your strategy on track and allow your team to pivot if necessary.

 Drive with data. A company that has the ability to gather insights about customer behaviors will, in turn, be more capable of reliable forecasts and informed decision making. Instead of getting wrapped up in digital drama, let the metrics speak for themselves.

Preparing your company for digital transformation can be a daunting task. It is, after all, an evolutionary process that involves every aspect of your business and is never quite complete. However, marketing leaders who conscientiously consider the intricacies of the planning process, evaluate their tech stack, assess operational strengths and weaknesses and drive with data can build a solid foundation for digital transformation success and organizational health.

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