How to get started with Digital Transformation

In the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking about the tremendous change in customer engagement delivered on the backbone of digital transformation. Not only has this made things simpler for the customer, but has also given the organization valuable insights on customer preferences. That’s why Digital is so powerful.

I strongly believe that the latest cycle of business is driven by digital and from this perspective it can enable new business models for customers, drive significantly superior customer experience, and provide opportunities for stronger employee engagement and exceptional operational excellence. Thus making digital transformation the prime business enabler for transformation for organizations today. I had discussed this nature of digital in a post some time ago. The key elements driving digital transformation is the perfect amalgamation of growth and efficiency that can be attained through:

• Revenue Growth
• Competitive Advantage
• Business Agility
• Employee Productivity
• Operational Efficiency

At Dell Digital Business Services, we focus on building strategic road maps for digital as well as creating a 360 degree digital persona analysis of our customer’s end consumer.   This helps us in establishing a link between the business goals and the digital goals and initiatives of any organization with the needs of the end consumer.

In my conversations with business leaders, I have seen that most of them understand the importance of digital. But where they seek answers in terms of  the next steps. I believe in order to have a successful digital transformation in any organization there needs to be a strong methodology. At Digital Business Services we recommend a robust methodology called its 5R Methodology. The process is divided into the five following stages:

• Recognize: During this phase we analyze the industry, organization’s existing business models , how non industry players can disrupt the industry and how competition is adopting Digital
• Rethink: After an in-depth industry analysis, we build out a comprehensive Digital Strategy and Roadmap.
• Render: Journey maps are built in order to map out the touch points of the customer’s digital experience so as to get a more customer centric approach. The team also builds the prototypes of the proposed ideas .One of the ways of achieving this is by taking a design approach, something I had discussed in my earlier post. This helps validate the Digital Strategy and Roadmap created in the Rethink phase.
• Reorganize: The team identifies the main initiatives, goals and tools for the implementation of the transformation
• Realize: Final execution of the transformation done through a combination of business process changes and technology implementation of initiatives around Analytics, Cloud, Mobility, Social, Commerce, Digital Integration and IoT.

Digital transformation is all comprehensive. And therefore organizations should craft a comprehensive Digital Strategy and follow a structured process to drive business benefit from Digital .  I  would love to hear your views on the current process you are following to adopt digital and where you are on this transformation journey. Do respond with your comments on this blog or on twitter.