Three keys for a successful Digital Transformation strategy

When it comes to your Digital Transformation strategy, and defining how you’re going to enhance your BI capabilities to drive change across your organization, there are plenty of things to consider: from updating your business offering to stay competitive, to adopting new technologies and ways of working, to changing the ways your teams interact or function to become more data-driven, there’s no shortage of information and processes that require investigation.

And while a lot of the Digital Transformation (DT) process might feel complex and nuanced, there are a few key points that you can weave in to streamline your strategy and keep things moving forward.

Key #1: Assemble a Digital Transformation Dream Team (and make sure the right people are on it)

Digital Transformation is about people, not just technology. Businesses that execute successful Digital Transformations are those that take their people into account every step of the way. According to Deloitte, achieving DT success is more likely when an organization takes the time to “inspire and prepare their workforce to use digital technology to its full potential.” Further, DT is more likely to happen successfully where a business puts its “focus on talent and realize[s] that people, more than technology, will enable long-term success.”

One way to ensure that your workforce is inspired and prepared to embrace a long-term DT strategy is to assemble a team of people from across your business who have the capabilities and skills to support and champion the transformation from every angle. And that means thinking outside the box and choosing folks who have more than just the technical know-how required to digitize processes.

Think of this collective as your Digital Dream Team – these are the inspiring, skilled, energetic experts who will guide your DT alongside your technical professionals, and ensure that key stakeholders stay informed and on board throughout the process. You might not find the following people listed on every digital task force call sheet, but if you’re looking for a modern team that can deliver sustainable results, these three experts need to be in the room where it happens:

1. Transformation translator: Per Erick Barbor, senior director, head of strategy for Samsung Electronics America, “the key [for a successful Digital Transformation] is for your IT people to speak the same language as your business people.” Put simply: you need someone with extensive business and technical knowledge to bridge the gap between teams working on the strategy and execution sides of your DT to ensure smooth communication and streamlined collaboration. One goal of any digital strategy is the elimination of silos across an organization – on both the people and the technology side of the business – getting an experienced leader in this role early on in your DT is one way to start breaking down those barriers from Day One.

2. Change cheerleader: Change is inherently uncomfortable, and that applies even where something is changing for the better. Change cheerleaders are industry experts with a knack for conflict resolution and relationship building.Their role is to use their vast institutional knowledge and ability to navigate challenging situations to ensure that push-back against the DT process is managed properly. They help stakeholders feel comfortable with the changes happening around them, and they ensure that everyone’s focus remains dialed into the end goal.

3. Post-transformation managers: Transformations aren’t ever really over. Strategies – like people and businesses and markets – evolve and change all the time. Not only will you need post-transformation managers in place to help upskill and support your people as they adapt to new ways of working, you’ll need these digital experts in place to adapt quickly as processes or technologies inevitably evolve.

Key #2: Create a Digital Transformation Roadmap (and build-in detours)

Digital Transformation roadmaps are crucial for the success of a change strategy. Per Deloitte, businesses that communicate a “clear, coherent digital strategy that integrates with overall corporate strategy,” are more likely to enjoy a successful DT, right from the start.

Your organization may choose to create one hero roadmap which includes the end goals of the business and project, alongside “mini” roadmaps that detail specific journeys for automating discrete processes or implementing new technologies and ways of working.

But however you decide to build your DT roadmaps, the most important thing to include on the journey is detours.

Knowing exactly how to get to a destination is good, but knowing what to do if your route of first resort is unavailable or blocked is even more valuable. So, from the very first roadmaps you build, get your Dream Team in the room and instead of asking them to map out your journey to a successful DT and stopping there, ask them to go one step further and contemplate how and why the roadmap could fall apart. Once they’ve done that, ask them to put it back together in a different way. Repeat the process until you’ve built a robust detours playbook.

By interrogating your process thoroughly during the roadmapping phase, you’ll not only build-in failsafes and re-routes that will save you time and frustration in the future, you’ll learn infinitely more about your change strategy than you would have without undertaking such a rigorous exercise.

Key #3: Get the right tools in place (from the beginning)

To state it plainly, data is the fuel for your Digital Transformation. You can assemble a DT Dream Team and engineer comprehensive roadmaps, but without a tool in place to help your teams harness the power of your data and extract real value, your Digital Transformation will stall before it begins.

Rahul Singh, managing director of IT and business services transformation advisory firm Pace Harmon, explains:

“The ability to analyze vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to gain insights, often in real time, is what underpins most digital transformation efforts, as the insight derived through big data analytics is used to drive digitization and automation of workflows.”

If the ability to swiftly move from insight to action is what underpins a successful DT, then a modern BI tool that enables users across an organization to reliably interact with data in real-time isn’t optional for businesses embarking on such a journey.

Astrato is cloud-native BI that supports organizations throughout (and after) a DT in several key ways, including by empowering users to make the most of new or existing enterprise systems, like CRMs, financial management platforms, and supply chain management or resource planning systems, and by ultimately making it easier for teams and users across the organization to access data and interact with it, whatever their function.

Critically, a cloud-native solution like Astrato provides an added layer of reliability and security to businesses already undergoing major shifts in terms of both technology and culture. Additionally, Astrato accelerates your Digital Transformation by eliminating the need for users to have a background in data analysis or development. Astrato is a no-code solution with familiar functionalities and a comfortable, intuitive interface and fun creation experience. It’s a solution that helps to future-proof your business, because it leaves no one behind on the journey.

 

The path to a successful Digital Transformation requires careful planning and thoughtful organization. There’s an incredible amount of considerations to take into account, but if you assemble the right team, build the right playbook, and use the right tools, your journey towards becoming a more modern, more future-proof enterprise will gain momentum from Day One.

To explore more about how Astrato’s features and capabilities can support your business on the path to enterprise intelligence, download our free IDC Analyst Brief: Define the Path to Modern Cloud Analytics.

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