CORPORATE STRATEGY AND BUSINESS MODEL
Any digital transformation should aim to support the company in reaching the corporate strategy, vision, and mission.
When working with the corporate strategy, it is necessary to distinguish between a strategy and a strategy plan
A strategy provides a vision of the firm’s future market position and definition of how the company will be competitive in that position. The strategic plan lays out the roadmap, activities, investments etc. required to realize the desired market position and competitiveness
Preparing a corporate strategy usually involves scenario planning and evaluating various scenarios against each other, and one of the critical elements is the current and future digital capabilities of the company
DIGITAL STRATEGY
The digital strategy is based on the corporate strategy and is built to support the company in reaching corporate targets. Unless the corporate strategy is to become a full-fledged digital player in its field, the digital strategy will in practice be more of a digital strategic plan, prescribing the actions required to enable the realization of the corporate strategy
It can be useful to split the digital strategy into two main areas, the digital enablers, and the digital movers. Digital enablers are the initiatives required to run the business and progress it towards the strategic targets, they can be seen as the initiatives required to secure the base, ensuring that all systems, processes, and customer-facing activities are ready to assist the different units to achieve the set targets
Digital movers are the initiatives that actively move the firm towards the strategic ambition. This could be introducing new digital distribution channels, a new digital business model or new digital products and services
USER EXPERIENCE
Traditionally user experience (UX) is thought of as the experience customers have when interacting with the company, but in a digital transformation setting it is wider than that, as user experience here covers customers, employees, partners, and all other stakeholders interacting with the company
Successful implementation of digital transformation projects is in most cases depends on the ability of the users of the new digital processes and workflows to access and use the systems – even automated processes need a good user experience aimed towards the users that maintain the automation and ensures it is running correctly and with all needed updated implemented
User experience is, therefore, the ability for any user to access and interact successfully with the company, regardless of the type of interaction (i.e., automated process, live chat, e-mail, call center, etc.), and in the most efficient way possible
TECH ARCHITECTURE
Often referred to as ‘the machine room’, a company’s technology architecture is where all software applications, data structures, and workflows and processes come together. The tech architecture is a mapping of how all internal and external systems are connected and how they work together
It is because of the tech architecture that some companies can deliver radical and innovative digital solutions fast and frequent and others cannot. It is a digital blueprint of how the company is working and is a living document changing with the changes in the company’s systems’ landscape. A well-maintained tech architecture is a major advantage for digital transformation projects that in this case will be able to deliver impact from the transformation faster, simply because the effective tech architecture allows for faster digital deliveries
On the other hand, a complex and poorly kept tech architecture will be a challenge for the digital transformation program and one of the first initiatives of the transformation program should be to simplify and modernize the technology architecture
WORKFLOWS AND PROCESSES
Value from any company is delivered through its workflows and processes and these are at the center of any digital transformation project seeking to automate and optimize the ways the firm is operating. A rule of thumb when working with process automation is to avoid optimizing processes and workflows that shouldn’t exist in the first place. This means that the teams working with process automation and digital transformation should scrutiny every part of the processes, seeking to understand the true reason the process exists in the first place
Many processes exist not because of necessity but because of legacy. It is processes that’s been a part of the company’s operations for years, even decades, and the reason the process exists has been forgotten long ago – it is there because “we’ve always done like this”. Relentlessly questioning why the process exists, and what information or value it really provides is key to understanding whether the process needs to exist or can be removed
This method of process elimination can lead to many quick wins for the digital transformation team as this kind of project typically does not require many changes to digital systems
UNSTRUCTURED AND STRUCTURED DATA
Access to high-quality data is the cornerstone of successful businesses, and it is equally important for digital transformation initiatives that relies on data for automation, improvements, tracking of benefits realization and much more. Artificial intelligence and intelligent automation are not possible without access to the right data in an adequate quality
A widely used method to provide the firm the needed overview of and access to data is building a master data management strategy. Master data management operates on the concept of a Golden Record for each logic unit, i.e., a person, a product, a location or similar. The golden record does not hold data about the logic unit itself, it holds a pointer to where the single source of truth for each data field can be found
For example, the golden record will point to the database that holds the true mobile number of a person and to another database that holds the true name of the same person. The content of the golden record is therefore data about the data and is used to avoid collecting all data in a big, slow data warehouse, and to ensure information is only updated one place, eliminating duplicates with mismatching data
EXTERNAL CONNECTIVITY
Virtually all industries have seen the rise of ecosystems and digital platforms, acting as marketplaces for exchange of products and services. Companies that wish to successfully participate in these digital ecosystems must find ways of offering their services via the platforms, often in a highly configurable form, allowing the platform users to configure the firm’s products to their needs and wants
Besides requiring the company’s software applications can deliver custom products, participating in ecosystems demands the firm to offer simple ways of connecting the platform to the company digitally. This is done via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and is a vital part of any company’s digital success
It is not only ecosystems and platforms that require digital connections, but it can also be partners, suppliers, and key customers, connecting to the company for automated management of workflow and processes, increasing the overall competitiveness of the firm. The ability for a company to offer easy digital connectivity to external partners is an important part of the digital transformation journey in terms of optimizing workflows between various partners in the company’s own ecosystem, and it also offers the opportunity to connect with specialized or niche players in the industry for even further improvement of the company’s products and service offerings
CULTURE
Any change and any digital transformation project depend on the people working on planning, developing, and implementing the change. Successful change equals successful change of culture which is why cultural change in covering all the elements of the House of Digital Transformation
Every project must include a plan for working with cultural change. Digital transformation changes the ways companies and people operate, and this means successful implementation of digital transformation projects must include a change of the daily habits of the company’s employees
Changing habits is one of the most difficult things for people to do, and each digital transformation project, small or big, should include a plan for how to influence the change of the teams’ habits. This includes creating motivational programs and including financial incentives for completing the transformation and successfully working within the scope of the new processes
Frequent celebrations of the achievements of the digital transformation programs are strong ways of creating motivation for the employees to actively participate in the transformation, and is at the same time a way of demonstrating the success of the transformation programs to the organization, motivating employees to participate in the changes going forward
“Deep tech knowledge paired with experience in successful implementation”
— TOP-TIER HEADHUNTING FIRM