Digital transformation is one of the most important initiatives any company can undertake. By digitizing your business, you open up a world of possibilities for growth and innovation that were not possible before.
But embarking on a digital transformation journey can be daunting, especially if you are not sure where to start.
In this article, we will outline a basic nine-step framework for embarking on your digital transformation journey.
This framework will provide you with a roadmap to follow as you make the necessary changes to your business to enable it to thrive in the digital age.
Table of Contents
9 Steps for Your Digital Transformation Journey
1. Define Your Objectives
The first step in any digital transformation journey is to define your objectives. What are you hoping to achieve with your digital transformation? Are you looking to improve customer experience, increase operational efficiency, or something else entirely?
Once you have a clear idea of your objectives, you can begin to develop a plan to achieve them.
Here is where you should also be honest about your company’s stage of digital maturity. You don’t want to jump right into a transformation that’s focused on AI or IoT for example, if you are still running legacy systems that could benefit from a cloud migration or basic workflow automation.
Starting at a realistic place, and pinpointing the areas that will have an immediate impact, will help you define attainable objectives and low-hanging fruit that could have a massive impact on your company’s efficiency and profitability.
Many companies don’t spend enough time on this part. But this is a critical step and worth spending the time to get right.
2. Assess Your Current Situation
After defining the business objectives, assess your current situation. This is a more granular assessment than the first step. Here, you are looking at the specific hat processes and systems are currently in place.
For example: What technologies are you using? How well are they working?
Do a full inventory and analysis to identify areas that are working and those that need improvement.
For example, if you’re looking to improve customer experience, you’ll need to assess how well your current systems are meeting customer needs. Is your CRM or ERP system helping or impeding your workflow as it relates to customers? Are you deriving the right kind of data to understand and serve customers better? Are customers satisfied with the experience they’re receiving? If not, what could be improved?
Conducting a thorough process and technology assessment will give you a better understanding of the work that needs to be done.
Once you understand what technology exists and prioritize what needs to change, it’s time to develop a DX roadmap.
3. Develop a Roadmap
After you have assessed your current situation and defined your objectives, you can begin to develop a roadmap for your digital transformation.
A digital transformation roadmap is a key ingredient to success. It will help to keep you on track and ensure that everyone involved understands the plan.
This is where many DX consultants or agencies can truly prove their value. It’s the heart of a well-executed DX campaign.
This roadmap should detail the steps that you need to take in order to achieve your objectives. It should also include timelines, budgets, and other important information.
A well-constructed roadmap deserves its own series of articles and encapsulates many of the steps in this guide, but here are some essential elements to include:
- Define what digital transformation means for your organization
- Set goals and objectives
- Identify which processes need to be transformed
- Select the right technologies
- Create a governance framework: define who is responsible for what, who will lead the digital transformation and how decisions will be made, and how progress will be monitored.
- Implement change management processes: help people adapt to new ways of working and thinking.
- Develop communication and training plans: should be developed before the initiative is launched so that everyone knows what to expect and how they can help make the initiative a success.
- Establish metrics: will allow you to track progress and determine whether or not the initiative is successful.
- Monitor progress and course correct as needed
There are many good resources online about how to create a digital transformation roadmap. If your organization is new to the concept, this book is a good place to start.
4. Implement Your Plan
Once you have developed a roadmap, it is time to start implementing your plan.
Of course, this will involve making changes to processes and systems, adopting new technologies, and training employees on how to use them.
Moving to the execution phase in your digital transformation journey can be a very involved and nuanced process. And depending on the scope of your digital transformation, this process could take months or even years to complete.
We recommend starting slow and working incrementally. As mentioned in the first step, find the low-hanging fruit and tackle that first.
For example, if your company still uses certain paper-based processes, you can focus on moving this to a more efficient digital model.
Your team can go through steps of implementing change, and an early success like this will keep people motivated to carry on with more advanced steps of your transformation.
It will also show leadership the benefits at an early stage before the doubts start creeping in.
5. Monitor Progress
Of course, as you implement your digital transformation plan, it is important to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed.
This will help ensure that you are on track to achieve your objectives and will allow you to make changes if something isn’t working as expected.
Basically, your business needs to be flexible, as a realistic DX plan or roadmap is not written in stone.
There will likely be some trial and error as you implement new technology, try new tools, train staff, and experience a few setbacks along the way. You’ll need to pivot from time to time.
And, as much as many business owners and managers may dread this phrase, this is where having a well-constructed set of key performance indicators (KPIs) comes into play.
6. Evaluate Results
As you complete incremental steps in your digital transformation journey, it is time to evaluate the results. Did you achieve your objectives? What worked well and what didn’t? What lessons were learned?
This is another step that is often overlooked but is crucial to the success of future digital transformations.
Taking the time to evaluate your results will help you to understand what worked and what didn’t, and it will allow you to make necessary adjustments for future projects.
7. Communicate With Stakeholders
Throughout the digital transformation journey, it is critically important to communicate with stakeholders such as shareholders, employees, customers, and partners.
Keep them updated on your progress and solicit their feedback on the changes that are being made.
This communication will help ensure that everyone is on board with the transformation and that there are no surprises along the way.
Keep some of these tips in mind to open the lines of communication with stakeholders during your DX journey:
- Be transparent about your plans and objectives
- Keep everyone updated on your progress
- Seek feedback and input from stakeholders, including customers
- Be open to changes along the way
8. Be Prepared for Change
A digital transformation can be a major undertaking for any organization, so it’s important to be prepared for change.
Things will inevitably go wrong during the process, so it’s important to have a plan for how you will deal with these challenges.
Additionally, be prepared for resistance from employees who may be hesitant to embrace change.
Here are some ways you can plan for and manage change as it happens:
- Communicate with stakeholders regularly to keep them in the loop
- Have a plan for how you will deal with challenges that come up during the transformation
- Prepare for changes in processes and systems
- Embrace change as it occurs and be willing to make adjustments
9. Celebrate Successes
Finally, don’t forget to celebrate successes along the way!
A digital transformation can be a long and difficult journey, so it’s important to take time to celebrate milestones along the way.
For example, your company can acknowledge successful transformations by:
- Celebrating with employees
- Holding a press conference
- Giving awards to team members
- Having a party
- Creating a DX Hall of Fame
Even if it sounds a little cheesy, these little moments of recognition can play an important role in keeping employees engaged, customers in the loop, and your journey towards digital adoption on track.
A Digital Transformation Journey is Ongoing
Digital transformation is an ongoing journey, not a destination. Even after you have completed your initial transformation, there will always be room for improvement.
Don’t allow your organization to become complacent after a successful digital transformation. Instead, use this as an opportunity to continuously improve and stay ahead of the competition.
By following these steps, you can begin your own digital transformation journey and position your organization for success in the digital age.
