A complete guide to Digital Transformation

The only constant entity in today’s digital age is change— change driven by technology. A successful adaption to change through digital transformation marks the difference between a failing and flourishing company.

Deloitte states, “Digital transformation is nothing but becoming a digital enterprise— an organization that utilizes technology to grow and transform all aspects of its business models continuously.” It includes transforming the way of service delivery, interaction with customers and essential operations and processes.

According to marketsandmarkets, the market size of global digital transformation is expected to reach 1009.8 billion USD by 2025. The growth is driven by various innovative technologies such as Cloud computing, IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and many more.

This article covers everything from an explanation of digital transformation to a description of real-world examples. It will guide you in adapting to technological advances and ultimately transform the way of entire business operations.

• What is digital transformation?
• What are the types of digital transformation?
• Why is digital transformation necessary?
• How does digital transformation work?
• How to drive digital transformation?

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation refers to anything from digital optimization or IT modernization to innovating new business models. Enterprises leverage technology to analyze their customer needs and to improve end-user experience.

A publication, MIT Sloan Management Review, says, “Digital transformation is a continual adaption to constantly changing environment.” Beyond that, it is the cultural change that requires organizations to experiment often, get comfortable with failure and continually challenge the status quo.

What are the types of digital transformation?

There are three types of digital transformation:

Business process transformation

Data analytics, IoT, AI, Machine Learning and many other technologies offer numerous valuable opportunities to reinvent processes and transform the way the company works. Process transformation is seen in various enterprises like Airbus and Domino’s pizza. Domino’s pizza has entirely re-designed its food ordering process by launching Domino’s Anyware that allows its users to order from any device. It has drastically increased users’ convenience, which eventually pushed the company to overtake its competitor (Pizza Hut).

Implementing robotic process automation to streamline manual back-office processes is another example of process transformation.

Business model transformation

Business model transformations are focused on the basic building blocks of how value is delivered in the industry. The best examples of this kind of innovation are Netflix’s reinvention of video distribution, Uber’s reinvention of the taxi industry and Apple’s (I-Tunes) reinvention of music delivery.

The strategic and complex nature of such opportunities requires involvement and leadership by Strategy or Business units. Most often, separate initiatives are launched for such transformations. At the same time, traditional business operations continue the same way. Corporates that pull off a business model transformation open new significant opportunities for growth by changing the fundamentals of value delivery.

Domain transformation

New technologies possess the power to redefine products and services, remove industry boundaries and create entirely new sets of non-traditional competitors. A clear example of domain transformation is Amazon. The biggest online retailer, Amazon, expanded into a new market domain by introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon’s entry into this domain is a combination of solid digital capabilities developed in storage and computing databases to support its core retail business along with its relationships with numerous young and growing enterprises that increasingly need computing services to succeed. AWS is not merely an adjacency but an entirely different company in a fundamentally different market space.

The main point is to recognize new domain opportunities driven by emerging technologies.

Why is digital transformation necessary?

Every digital transformation initiative has its own specific goals, but the primary purpose remains the same, which is to improve current processes. It is essential because it provides opportunities for companies to grow, evolve and thrive in their industry. Through digital transformation, companies can adapt to ever-changing industry trends and continually improve their operations.

The main benefits of digital transformation include:

• increased productivity
• reduced labor costs
• operational agility
• improved customer experience
• provides opportunities to lead in the industry

How does digital transformation work?

Phase 1: Imagine

It is the phase to quickly set ambitions and design a path to success by creating a roadmap to achieve those ambitions. Develop an aligned portfolio of ideas that support current trends and meet customer needs.

• Sense: Understand and analyze trends to explore opportunities in the digital world.
• Aspire: Bring aspirations, analyze the value of potential initiatives and define ambition statement.
• Decide: Decide the provocations that allow clients to demonstrate momentum towards ambition rapidly.

Phase 2: Deliver

It is the phase to understand user needs and behaviors to design and develop solutions. Create tangible ideas and bring ambition to motion by designing, developing, and testing the market with minimum viable offerings.

• Deepen: Explore users’ unmet concerns, needs, motivations and drivers.
• Design: Design a solution with user insights combined with technical capabilities and business objectives to develop well-balanced concepts that are testable in the market.
• Build: Build, test, learn and improve iteratively to deliver value to customers.

Phase 3: Run

It is the phase to deliver and scale ambitions, evolve to greater maturity and improve operational pillars to support lasting success.

• Launch: Ensure a successful business launch and monitor outcomes.
• Scale: Prepare and monitor iteratively for new releases and updates.
• Operate: Identify and improve operational pillars for lasting success.

How to drive digital transformation?

The following five areas are the main drivers of a successful digital transformation:

Digital Twin

A digital representation of a real-world system or entity is called a digital twin. Its implementation is an encapsulated software object or model that replicates a unique physical object or process on a digital platform.

Privacy

Privacy and security remain the main concern for many organizations. However, since more digital solutions are available, a few organizations tend to jump on adopting solutions that offer more convenience at the cost of privacy. Such digital solutions tend to fail quickly as many users are not willing to compromise safety and security just for convenience.

The industry doesn’t support a transformation that violates privacy rules and compromise personal data security.

Culture

Resistance to change has always been a human instinct. The adaption to implementation of new technologies that lead to drastic changes is wholly a people issue. Gartner states 46% of CIOs identify culture as their most significant transformation barrier.

Companies should consider both digital experience and behavioral preferences of different social groups and sub-populations within and outside the organization.

Augmented Intelligence

It is a step beyond Artificial Intelligence that allows humans and machines to work simultaneously. Augmented intelligence doesn’t replace workers with machines; instead, it collects and presents data in a way that will enable people to augment their knowledge.

Digital Product Management

It is imperative for continuous adoption that presses on shifting mindsets from projects to products. The products are designed to improve customer experience and delivered through digital channels.

Digital product management is more about knowing the industry and developing products that serve it. For example, Apple created a watch for the healthcare industry that monitors user’s health.

Conclusion

As technology evolves, so should the business. Digital transformation helps to bring the necessary modifications and growth in the industry. Its benefits are quite extensive, from boosting efficiency and reducing costs to enable businesses to focus on development. With digital transformation, companies can thrive and remain in the competition by continually evolving.

If you want to boost your business growth by implementing digital transformation, contact our technical experts. Get a consultation and don’t miss the chance to thrive in your respective domain.