The impact that digital technology is having on business and commerce worldwide is revolutionary. IDC puts a figure of $18 trillion on the combined added value businesses have gained from digital transformation to date, while Gartner has predicted that, by the end of 2020, digital would account for more than a third of commercial revenues.
Digital transformation has been the direction of many organizations for the past decade and has been on the agenda of many companies for a while now. Unfortunately, some companies left digital transformation at the bottom of their priorities list. This isn’t the case anymore! With the spread of the new Coronavirus, many countries under lockdown and a global economic slowdown, we have seen that organizations that had previously implemented a digital transformation strategy, have been better able to cope up than the ones who resisted going digital.
Time to dispel the misunderstandings and misgivings and clarify the meaning and value of digital transformation. So, what is all the fuss actually about?
Digital transformation is a strategic journey of organizational change that starts with creating a highly motivated, self-managed and empowered team that is given the methods and tools enabling it to create a culture of innovation powered by data driven strategies.
Digital Transformation doesn’t mean the creation of a new website or the use of a certain technology. It is utilizing and adopting new technologies in order to help existing organizations adapt to ever-changing consumer behaviors while creating a flexible and sustainable competitive advantage to keep up with the fast pace of change.
For organizations to start being digital, their strategy should be built with the four foundational pillars in mind:
For organizations to start being digital, their strategy should be built with the following points in mind:
- Create an innovative culture: enable employees to be creative. This will open up an organization to create and deliver its best value proposition.
- Adopt Agile: creating value stream based (product-based or service-based) teams that align with the organizational strategies and objectives driven by customer feedback and market changes, allowing learning from implementation rather than assumptions. Granting more autonomy to teams that are driven by objectives will get products out faster which will bring early ROI and reduce the risk of building the wrong products while sparking new ideas to boost the culture of innovation.
- Have the right technologies in place: a fast delivery will need proper technology to support it. Make sure to keep up-to-date with technologies that enable faster deployment, decoupled to eliminate dependencies and guarantee higher quality of outputs.
Data = Gold: Implement analytics tools as this will help gather enough data to understand customer behaviors and how to make more informed business decisions.
During the digital transformation journey, an organization will usually need to overcome these six stages:
Digital is in Aspire’s DNA. We offer our services in order to help other organizations start or complete their digital transformation journey. Aspire has a solid record of supporting customers in utilizing leading industry practices and solving their business challenges through transforming their processes and relevant digital technologies. We connect our clients to their customers by analyzing and aligning their data, systems, and processes to create mutual value. We help to understand the maturity of current processes and IT applications in order to adapt to the current challenges, through increased agility & efficiency in processes and digital platforms.
Agile adoption can help organizations shape processes, build a competitive business strategy and create an innovative team culture. Decoupling technologies can help organizations to be flexible and increase their speed to market. DevOps practices help organizations to build and enhance their digital solutions rapidly while ensuring quality. Analytics tools can help organizations to leverage data and take data driven decisions. The current crisis has been a wake-up call for organizations that have focused too much on daily operation needs instead of thinking about long-term digital business needs. Businesses that can invest and shift to digital platforms might help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Let us help you to keep your company running smoothly and seamlessly; our Digital Transformation offering includes:
We are all in this together and we will survive this crisis by maintaining a business contingency plan, thriving in the digital era and providing the best possible customer experience. Transforming to an innovative digital organization means to win by pioneering any conceivable marketplace enabled by the adopted technologies, start your transformation today with Aspire as your Trusted Partner.
Written by: Mohammad Taffal, Agile Coach/Scrum Master.
