What Is Digital Transformation, Why It Matters & What Are The Keys To Its Success

Digital Transformation is a current ‘watchword’ for all the C-Suites, who aims to revamp their business in the digital world. Irrespective of the industry, every business leader keeps themselves abreast of the latest trends & tactics to give their business processes a boost, to resolve challenges & deliver the market requirements!

But how can businesses participate & transform themselves digitally to make better decisions? Well, follow this guide to understand what Digital Transformation means, why it matters, what are the keys to achieving digital transformations & some leading examples of industries undergoing the new revolution.

PART 1: What Is Digital Transformation?

When looking to evolve, scale, or improve, businesses focus on making alterations in five key areas: business model, strategy, operation, customer interaction & workforce.

Subsequently, Digital Transformation strategy is different for every organization, it can get complicated when it comes to applying a specific definition to all. In general, it’s the way to incorporate trending digital technologies to all the key locations of a business. It should be integrated in a way that results in how the company starts operating & deliver value to customers.

According to Gartner’s glossary, “Digital Transformation can refer to anything from IT modernization (for ex: cloud computing), to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models.  The term is widely used in public-sector organizations to refer to modest initiatives such as putting services online or legacy modernization. Thus, the term is more like “digitization” than “digital business transformation.”

PART 2: Why Digital Transformation Matters?

Here are a few reasons why integrating Digital Transformation is necessary for nearly every organization today:

1. Amplified Efficiency

Implementing Digital Transformation tactics lets businesses centralize their data. It also allows them to access the data in a way that facilitates new practices around innovation, agility & efficiency. That becomes useful for every individual & their role.

For Example: Rather spending hours on managing papers, organizations can focus on creating digital workflows for automatically moving documents to their ideal locations. This boosted efficiency & free employees to focus on things that matter more.

2. Personalizing Customer Experience

Sounds so very basic, however delivering connected & enhanced customer experience is actually at the center of Digital Transformation.

For Example: If your new customers need to fill out a series of formalities, then automating the process can lift a huge amount of burden from them.

3. Keeping Up With The Market Competition

Companies implementing technology solutions have experienced 39% growth in revenues & have enhanced their time-to-market by 21%.

For Example: A Technology Company Saves $330 Million Revenue When They Moved Towards The Path Of Digital Transformation.

PART 3: What Does A Digital Transformation Framework Look Like?

Digital Transformation framework refers to a Blueprint of how a company would operate during a set of significant changes made to existing business models  & conditions.

Although this framework would differ from company to company but listed are certain elements that business leaders can consider, while embarking on the journey of Digital Transformation.

1. Operational Agility
2. Customer Experience
3. Leadership & Culture
4. Workforce Enablement
5. Digital Technology Integration

Here are a few examples of How Digital Transformation Frameworks look like:

• Cognizant: A Framework for Digital Business Transformation
• Prophet: The Six Stages of Digital Transformation
• Ionology: Evaluate opportunities, develop an evidence-based roadmap for growth!

PART 4: Keys To Digital Transformation Success

Here are the five keys used by several companies to put their best foot forward when it comes to Digital Transformation.

1. Dedicated Leadership

Want to ensure your roadmap to digital transformation gets success? Make sure the C-Suite succeeds in the whole project plan. Based on several surveys, it’s observed that around 81% of Digital Transformation projects that worked according to the schedule & ahead of the plan were led by CEOs, CTOs, CIOs & CDOs.

2. Interconnected Approach

Digital Transformation requires full-scale initiatives. It demands disruptive revolutions & organizations should look beyond the regular paradigms of traditional competitors & markets. Businesses should have effective strategies that can be built upon seeing successes of other industries’ business models.

3. Build A Project Team That Can Stay The Course

Combine C-suite,  managerial staff, project personnel & other third parties such as vendors, consultants to form a dedicated project team. A constant flow of communication with all the stakeholders & management would be in line, along with company goals & culture to ensure the long-term goals are not compromised due to short-term adjustments.

4. What Would Be The Expected Commercial Value

It’s observed that lots of Digital Transformation projects fall in the first phase, due to companies incapabilities to measure the economic value that would be created. Businesses know how they’ll move ahead with all the spending & resources, but they rarely quantify the expected gains.

5. Train Up New Talent Ecosystem

The final determinant of digital transformation success lies in the ability to surround yourself & your team with the right talent. Businesses should identify cream personnel & resources that are required to fit their plan internally & externally.

PART 5: Industries Undergoing Digital Transformation

Here’s what Digital Transformation currently means for top industries.

1. Health & Pharma

According to a McKinsey survey, nearly 40% of pharma organizations are clueless, when it comes to aligning digital strategy with their customers’ journey. While on 10% are effectively operated based on strategic decisions on a granular understanding of how digital affects their business model.

Practices Helping To Enhance Healthcare

–          New smart hospitals & medical facilities are incorporating AI to diagnose conditions to assist with surgeries.

–          Easing the medical file access & security by inducing blockchain technology.

–          Expansion of wearable devices with various healthcare apps.

–          The increase of telehealth remote services is transforming the way patients are receiving care.

Here’s a case of Digital Transformation in the Pharmaceutical Industry!

2. Telecoms

The telecommunication industry is transforming rapidly, just a decade ago, there were less than half a billion global smartphone users. Today the figure has come close to 3 Billion.

Practices Helping To Enhance Telecoms

–          From distinct network elements to an unconventionally managed, virtualized communications and cloud infrastructure.

–          From closed management systems to an Open API platform architecture.

–          From a limited portfolio of traditional services to a diverse portfolio of digital solutions.  

Read the full story on Digital Transformation Success for Telcos!

3. Finance

Technologies like AI, Cloud Computing, Analytics are surely the most innovative digital tools that can be adopted by any banking or financial institutions to put the best foot forward for attaining digital transformation. Be it mobile banking apps or smart ATMs or chatbots, the future of finance is rapidly taking shape.

Practices Helping To Enhance Finance

–          Mobile-based payments are the tip of the iceberg.

–          AI is being leveraged to offer custom service.

–          A wealth management conduct through Artificial Intelligence & detection of fraud before it happens.

–          Use of blockchain technology to add more security layers.

Here’s how Delloite made its way through Digital Transformation!

PART 6: Are You Ready For The Digital Maturity?

Since digital technologies connect people & machines with one another to deliver the best experience, business leaders should start exploring the right solutions & invest in them for incorporating the right changes to strive for digital transformation. According to a recent survey done by Gartner, “47% of CEOs are being challenged by the board of directors to make progress in digital business, while 56% believes their digital improvements have already boosted profits.”

Share your opinions in the comment section below to discuss what opportunities Digital Transformation can bring into your business?