Worldwide, huge amounts of money are invested in digitalization projects, yet these usually fail to yield the expected results – according to Harvard Business Review, this is true for up to 95% of them. Why? Because companies underestimate employee preparation, and communication, or don’t define their goals clearly enough. But what about companies that digitalized successfully? What did they do that others did not?
1. Have a vision, realistic goals, and listen to your clients.
Most companies decide to go for digital transformation to improve customer experience, increase efficiency, and reduce risks, with customer experience usually being the number one concern. And while companies generally agree that a strategy that’s not customer-oriented is a bad one, most companies also lack the ability to implement a customer-centric approach.
Make sure to set up easily measurable goals and aim to understand your clients. Let’s say your goal is to improve customer satisfaction within a specific area by 10%, or shorten your loan approval process by three days. Goals like these will help you focus your transformation-related projects on solving issues your customers face, critical spots in the customer journey (like having to scan paper contracts), and speeding up your back-office processes. Don’t be afraid to make customers a part of your digitalization journey as well – let them test your new app prototypes, for instance.
2. Have your future architecture ready before you begin.
Have a clear idea of what your digitalization should look like from IT, data, business, operating, and service perspectives. Keep in mind that you will need to harmonize and interconnect all these areas, and don’t forget about your enterprise architecture – in digitalization, it’s what will bridge your ideas with reality.
3. Remove and reduce your processes. Avoid developing new things.
Time to ask some serious questions and answer them honestly. Do all of your company’s processes and apps bring value? Are there any apps that you could do without? Are there any processes that could be reduced by half or removed completely? These questions will not only help you save a lot of money – they will also make work simpler and the customer experience better.
Often, there is no need for you to develop new apps and tools – plenty of them already exist, so there’s no reason to start from scratch. Using tried and verified processes will save a ton of time, and the same is true for low-code technology. Gartner predicts that in 2025, up to 70% of new enterprise apps will be low-code based since these technologies allow analysts or processing experts to develop their own apps. Read more about the benefits of low-code in this article written by my colleague Veronika Zichová.
4. Don’t have the data? Don’t do anything.
Many companies are incapable of utilizing their data. Robert Kearns, Area Vice President of Salesforce spoke about this at the Digital Transformation Summit in April: “Companies keep saying they have tons of data. That’s great, but are these data usable? Can you utilize them? Do you even understand them? These data are crucial to get the digitalization process going, but getting them is becoming harder and harder.”
Companies often lack a Chief Data Officer and a corresponding department, so there’s no one responsible for working with the data, teaching the company how to use them, and making it more data-savvy. If this is true for your company too, I strongly recommend getting yourself a CDO. Another important aspect of working with data is cohesive access – to data storage, processes, data usage, and data cleaning.
5. Manage excitement within the company.
Watch your employees’ attitude towards digitalization. If you take “digital transformation” and look at each word individually, you’ll find that “digital” comes with much more positive associations than “transformation” – while “digital” makes us think about something new and exciting, “transformation” is often associated with unnecessary changes and long, hard work. In general, people don’t like change, and that is especially true for Czechs. The point is, even the project’s name can have a big effect on how it’s perceived by people inside the company, so keep that in mind and try testing the name with your employees before committing to it.
Building a culture of constant improvement is also crucial, and it must be a top-down approach – so you’ll have to start with the top management. Your KPIs should match what you expect from your employees. Don’t forget to collect feedback from your staff too, and be proactive in resolving any imperfections. A culture like this will make your employees much more open to change and innovations.
Digitalization doesn’t have to be a nightmare – if you plan it well and use the right tools.
Check out our special page about digital transformation for more tips to navigate it successfully!
