Digital Transformation for teams that are not digital-first, yet.

Digital Transformation helps you think value, not profit. Yes, it's important to focus on creating a new digital business that increases customer willingness to pay more for a product?or?a service, because if you can find a way to improve a product or service you can increase willingness to pay, this is where you start?thinking?of new business models, and hence there is a lot of attention towards the commercial and revenue-generating teams, however, it's imperative to understand Support teams provide valuable "moments that matter" in the critical journey of the Digital transformation of an enterprise.?

Support teams:

The need for support teams to plan, understand consumer behaviors that they value, and employ #creative #innovation is more critical in 2021 than ever. Many support teams deliver service in a spectrum, and this spectrum ranges from full service - to self-service. In between, there are varying degrees of collaborative service, where the organization and users share the responsibilities of the service. Seeing service with this perspective will allow you to think of #Digital that helps organizations share accountability along the spectrum.

A significant change is already in motion, driven by the acceleration of #Digitization; various functions like Ops, HR, Admin, Accounting, Credit Control, Legal, Communication, Finance, or other support functions within an enterprise?face the risk of being diminished to an efficiency-first support role.?Digital transformation for support functions, if implemented without the right strategy, may (wait, may? let me not be polite - will) magnify the revenue-generating organization's flaw within an enterprise.

The VUCA

The increase in volatility and complexity, accompanied by uncertainty and ambiguity, also known as?VUCA, makes the decision-making process complex. Simultaneously, non-commercial/support functions must give guidance to the business based on transparent and mutually agreed criteria with clear accountability.

Digital transformation creates an irreversible change, just like how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly and?cannot go back.?

Many support functions that may not get digital-first priority as commercial/revenue-generating organizations?within an enterprise have complex processes, unearthed deep data stories and may make their outcomes slower as dependencies grow further.

Ok, so what to do?

For support team looking at digital transformation, having a defined vision, clarity of value contribution, and reimagined self-perception, numerous support functions can help reimagine the opportunities digitalization offers to develop into a digital enabler that shapes the entire organization's digital ecosystem.?Eventually they have to enable revenue generation or increase willingness to pay for the customers.

Leverage Automation :

Among other tactics, these teams should consider being partially automated, leading to more efficient processes and ultimately leaner, outcome-focused organizations within an enterprise.?#DigitalTransformation needs a range of skills,?meaning there is a place for everyone involved. Generalists will be valued contributors to simplify the processes, while specialists are required to implement the new techniques. It's a misconception that digital reduces the job roles within an industry. Look at Google translate as a service; ever since machines have started leading translations, jobs for translators as a category has increased year over year.

Specially post pandemic, the innovation cycle is so fast that few enterprises can stay on top for long; with this, the value of support functions is getting more critical.

Invest in DDDn - Data Driven Decision networks

For example, HR, legal or Finance functions may combine operational and financial data (big data if matured or advance analytics, to begin with) and utilize AA(advanced analytics) and ML(machine learning) to enhance business agility while acting as a collaborative service provider to an enterprise organization within an enterprise.?

This will lead to more engagement and a new perception of adviser and partner to business units, and not just a controller or touchpoint enabler while guiding them in their decision-making process.?

It's critical as traditional role models face a trade-off between efficiency and value proposition to the business, as increases in output are linked directly to the rise in input (resources).

Digitalization can help resolve the target conflict between pure and cost-efficient versus comprehensive and value-contributing at high costs.

How do you do that??Cost-efficiency?can be triggered by automation, which helps to redesign and streamline processes with RPA/ robotic process automation technologies, especially for transactional processes.

Relevance to the business?can be described as data-driven insights. Today's restriction maybe neither the availability of data nor the integrated technology infrastructure to handle large data volumes. The critical requirement and challenge is to evaluate those data in a structured, efficient, and targeted method. This is where data analytics and advanced analytics role come into action.

Summing up a handy checklist below

1) Scale-up planning

• Setting target
• Formulate Hypothesis
• Align Strategic initiatives + What not to do
• Strategy - look forward and reason back: use data
• Allocate Resources, rethink funding model as more agile
• Establish Milestones

2) Translate Vision

• Clarify Vision
• Gain Consensus

3) Communicate

• Goals and progress
• Change management
• New value proposition
• KPI Measures
• Best practices / Next practices

4) Cyclic Iteration?

• Onboarding
• Agile Delivery
• Evidence lead decisions
• Outcome vs. Output
• Measure & Controls

If you are in the driving seat, think about how you can empower and enable support functions that don't get digital-first priority as commercial/revenue-generating orgs within an enterprise to tackle the real business problems. As teams become comfortable with?failing fast, learning along the way is expected and should not deter further progress.

Perspectives can change a lot; reimagine an organization's view as a connected collection of collaborative service providers to internal or external clients. The first step to build such a modular organization is to chart out the critical path, simplify processes and move out steps off the critical path. Know what not to do. Look forward and reason back.

Believe & you can fly.

Disclaimer:?Views, opinions expressed by the author are his personal and not of the employer.

Based out of Chicago, Rahul leads digital transformation and experience at Fortune's Top 50 Most Admired Companies that helps people live fully at all stages of life, He’s particularly interested in irreversible process transformation, reducing org-wide design/development waste, and breakthrough digital marketing innovations. He champions the use of experience design and technology in business model design to create business success.