Prepare for a digital transformation

I have lately been involved in some very interesting digital transformations, why I last night made some notes of what went wrong and what can I do better next time. So this article is a reflection of some of my thoughts/findings.

Digital transformation is something everyone talks about, and seems to have an opinion about, so I hope my article will start some great discussions.

Prepare for a transformation

Let me start saying it’s not easy to make a transformation, and I’m sure most people along the way are doing mistakes - I surely did, but what’s most important in my eyes is you are prepared for changes from the beginning to the end, as nothing goes as planned.

An effective game plan seems to be the obvious but often overlooked component of a digital transformation strategy. However, “how and who” formulates the strategy is what makes it important.

A basic strategy along with the fitting technologies can help you digitize or digitalize your business, but transformation requires the correct mindset and guidance. Hence, strategy combined with the right leadership is the first and most crucial component of an effective digital transformation strategy.

Visionary leadership with the correct digital transformation strategy can lead to a better, smoother, more cost-effective and time-effective plan to transform your business, while keeping your business’ North Star in mind.

Some key areas to plan for is:

·    Communicate clear strategy

·    Define clear scope

·    Employees & Team structure

·    Technology changes

·    Process optimization

·    Strategy & Vision

·    Cultural change

·    Measure progress

·    Use externals

·    Change, change, change

Communicate clear strategy

Many digital transformations fail even before they have been started, simply because the strategy has not been well enough developed & communicated.

Define clear scope

Everyone in your organization must understand the scope, and how to succeed. When you are defining your scope then ensure the scope is aligned with business values, as you in the end are doing the transformation to ensure higher customer (customers can be internal & external) satisfaction.

Employees & Team structure

The most important area to success is your employees & the team structure you setup.

Without the employees a transformation will never happen. So to ensure a successful transformation it’s extremely important that the focus is on the workforce, this will incl. but not limited to:

·    Inform why/when transformation is happening

·    Expectations

·    Training (skills & competencies)

·    Reorganize if need be – see below how to organize your team

Digital Transformation is not about tools, is about people says a Harvard Business Review. Hence structure of the team is a determining factor delivering outcomes according to your Digital Transformation Strategy. 

The team structure should be decided according to the size of your project. Your Digital Transformation Initiative should be well-balanced and must comprise of:

Senior management: With digital business model in mind and well-thought implementation plan, your team must have an agile leader (Chief Digital Transformation Officer, CIO etc.)

Business stars: The core digital experience team are the hands-on practitioners of different technologies and business verticals (Product Managers, Program Managers, Solution Architects & Senior Managers of Business and Technical teams)

Coders: Having the proficiency and skills in areas of development, designing, coding. data science and to provide finesses to the transformation program (Developers, designers, visualizers, data scientists, AI etc.)

The methodology you choose will influence your team structure. For example, if you opt for the agile methodology, then you need a bigger team with several smaller sub-teams with specific objectives. You must ensure that you form a team from within your existing talent pool / hire a team with experienced members for seamless transformation. Your end goal is to create high performing teams where everyone is accountable for the team’s and organization’s success. It is essential that the leader and PMs are effective, promote teamwork and are good communicators. Role of the leader is to remove bottlenecks so the team can move towards the common goal.

Technology changes

Is digital transformation all about using the newest technology? Some people might say yes and other no. In my view this really depends on the organization as well from which legacy system you are upgrading from. I can share an example, where I was involved in upgrading a very old AX3 solution into an AX2012 R3, I got quite a few questions why we would upgrade to 2012 R3 which is a 10-year-old solution and not the newest D365? The answer is quite clear as the HQ was running the same solution, and to ensure the entire company is on the same legacy system it made sense to take one step at the time.

Therefore to summarize in my view transformation must be made to the technology that makes most sense for the company, and where you get most benefits and optimizations.

Process Optimization

How many times have you found yourself in the middle a task, hoping that you could find a simpler way to do it? Every business involves numerous processes and operations which can be transformed to make workflows smoother and easier.

Hence, you must keep business process optimization in your mind while formulating the digital transformation strategy.

The strategy must ensure business process optimization while meeting the goals set for customers as well as for the internal team. All interconnected business processes must be covered in the digital transformation strategy, so that maximum output can be achieved.

Along with business process optimization, you must also make good use of data you have gathered over the years. Let’s see why.

Strategy & Vision

Many companies are failing on this point, as the strategies/visions are not compatible with the transformation you are undergoing. Therefore, a very good advice is to ensure you are having a “red line” from top to bottom, as this will make your transformation much smoother.

Cultural change

A company that has an “I can do it attitude” will have a much higher chance of success, than the company where changes will be met with “we have tried this many times without success”.

Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and I simply can’t agree more. If you are not having the right culture within your company all the strategies, you have made will never succeed.

An extremely important part for the transformation is to ensure you are creating a culture, where your employees are innovating and not afraid of bringing new ideas to the table.

Finally, the management of the company must take ownership of the change and work with the organization in multiple levels to ensure the cultural change is happening.

Measure progress

As in any other project measurement is extremely important, therefore do yourself the favor to establish a very clear set of reportable metrics that drive strategic insights. This has to be both operational as well strategic metrics that can be captured and reported on a regular basic.

Use an external company

There are so many great consultancies, that are specialist in digital transformations, they can be extremely valuable especially if you are hitting roadblocks in your transformation or simply need advices on how to get started. Unfortunately way too many companies today try to handle this internally, which is a major risk for your transformation.

Change, change, change

Let me use another quote, this time from Charles Darwin “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change” and I can’t agree more.

A digital transformation is not a sprint, but a marathon that in theory never will end. It’s extremely important for any business to adapt their transformation to new possibilities, reassess the journey and question the rate of digital change.

I hope you enjoyed the article, feel free to like, share and comments.