10 Proven Ways Accelerating Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is essential for businesses to adapt to the changing market and customer expectations. However, digital transformation is not easy or fast. It requires a clear vision, a strong strategy, a committed leadership, a skilled workforce, and a culture of change. Many businesses face challenges and risks of slow digital transformation, such as losing competitive edge, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth. According to a survey by McKinsey, only 16% of respondents said that their digital transformations have successfully improved performance and also equipped them to sustain changes in the long term.

So how can businesses accelerate their digital transformation and achieve better results? In this blog post, we will share 10 ways to do so based on best practices and research findings.

1. Build an IT roadmap that aligns with your business’s contextual drivers, goals, and needs

A successful digital transformation starts with a clear understanding of your business’s contextual drivers, goals, and needs. These include your industry trends, customer preferences, competitive landscape, regulatory environment, current capabilities, and desired outcomes. Based on these factors, you can build an IT roadmap that defines your digital transformation vision, objectives, priorities, initiatives, milestones, and metrics. Your IT roadmap should align with your overall business strategy and be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances.

2. Provide upskilling training to improve your workforce’s digital literacy

Digital transformation requires a workforce that is digitally literate and capable of using new technologies effectively. However, many businesses face a skills gap that hinders their digital transformation efforts. According to a PwC survey, 79% of CEOs worldwide are concerned about the availability of key skills for their future growth. To address this challenge, businesses need to provide upskilling training to their employees to improve their digital literacy and competencies. This can include online courses, workshops, mentoring programs, peer learning groups, and certification programs.

3. Invest in customer experiences that meet their needs

One of the main benefits of digital transformation is that it enables businesses to create better customer experiences that meet their needs and expectations. Customers today expect personalized, convenient, seamless, and engaging interactions with businesses across multiple channels and devices. To deliver such experiences, businesses need to invest in customer-centric technologies and processes that can collect and analyze customer data, understand customer behavior and preferences, design customer journeys and touchpoints, optimize customer service and support, and measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

=> Watch more: Crafting the Digital Experience: Web Application Development

4. Monitor the adoption of new employee-based applications and customer-facing experiences

Digital transformation is not only about implementing new technologies but also about ensuring their adoption by employees and customers. Without adoption, digital transformation cannot deliver its intended value and impact. Therefore, businesses need to monitor the adoption of new employee-based applications and customer-facing experiences using various methods and tools. These can include surveys, feedback forms, analytics dashboards, user testing sessions, focus groups, and interviews. By monitoring adoption, businesses can identify any issues or gaps in usability, functionality, performance, or security, and address them accordingly.

5. Adopt an agile approach to all business operations and processes

Digital transformation requires a high degree of agility in all business operations and processes. Agility refers to the ability to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions, customer demands, and technological innovations. To achieve agility, businesses need to adopt an agile approach that involves iterative, incremental, and collaborative ways of working. This can include agile methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean, as well as agile practices such as sprints, backlogs, stand-ups, retrospectives, and demos. By adopting an agile approach, businesses can deliver faster, better, and cheaper outcomes while reducing waste, risk, and uncertainty.

6. Invest in tools and build processes that are reusable and can be repurposed

Digital transformation can be costly and time-consuming if businesses have to start from scratch every time they want to launch a new product, service, or feature. To avoid this, businesses need to invest in tools and build processes that are reusable and can be repurposed for different purposes and contexts. For example, businesses can use low-code or no-code platforms to create applications without writing code or relying on developers. They can also use microservices and APIs to break down complex systems into smaller and independent components that can be reused and integrated easily. By investing in reusable and repurposable tools and processes, businesses can accelerate their digital transformation while saving time, money, and resources.

7. Provide your employees with performance self-support tools

Digital transformation can be challenging and stressful for employees who have to learn new skills, use new tools, and adapt to new ways of working. To support them, businesses need to provide them with performance self-support tools that can help them improve their productivity, efficiency, and well-being. These can include chatbots, virtual assistants, knowledge bases, learning management systems, gamification platforms, and wellness apps. By providing employees with performance self-support tools, businesses can empower them to perform better and cope better with the changes brought by digital transformation.

8. Become a data-driven company

Data is the fuel of digital transformation. It can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, market trends, business performance, and improvement opportunities. To become a data-driven company, businesses need to collect, store, analyze, and visualize data from various sources and use it to inform their decision making and action taking. They also need to ensure that their data is accurate, reliable, secure, and compliant with relevant regulations. To do this, they need to invest in data management platforms and tools that can help them integrate, cleanse, enrich, govern, and protect their data.

9. Communicate transparently with employees

Digital transformation can cause confusion and anxiety among employees who may not understand the rationale, benefits, or implications of the changes. To avoid this, businesses need to communicate transparently with employees about their digital transformation vision, strategy, goals, progress, and outcomes. They also need to listen to their feedback, concerns, and suggestions and address them promptly and effectively. By communicating transparently with employees, businesses can build trust, engagement, and alignment among their workforce and foster a culture of change.

=> Watch more: What is Digital workplace transformation? How to build a successful plan

10. Encourage employees and leaders to seek new and emerging technology opportunities

Digital transformation is not a one-time event but a continuous process that requires constant learning and innovation. To keep up with the pace of change, businesses need to encourage their employees and leaders to seek new and emerging technology opportunities that can enhance their products, services, processes, or customer experiences. They also need to provide them with the resources, time, and space to experiment, test, and learn from these opportunities. By encouraging employees and leaders to seek new and emerging technology opportunities, businesses can foster a culture of innovation and growth.

Conclusion

Digital transformation service is not a choice but a necessity for businesses that want to survive and thrive in the digital age. However, it is not easy or fast. It requires a clear vision, a strong strategy, a committed leadership, a skilled workforce, and a culture of change. In this blog post, we have shared 10 ways to accelerate digital transformation based on best practices and research findings. We hope that these tips will help you achieve better results from your digital transformation efforts.

If you need any help or guidance on your digital transformation journey, feel free to contact us at SmartOSC. We are a leading digital transformation agency that can help you design, develop, and deliver innovative solutions that meet your business needs and goals. We have extensive experience and expertise in various digital technologies such as AI, cloud computing, data analytics, eCommerce, IoT, and more. We have worked with clients across various industries such as retail, health care, education, finance, and more. We are ready to help you accelerate your digital transformation and achieve your desired outcomes. Contact us today for a free consultation!