Developing a successful digital business transformation strategy

Amidst increasingly competitive landscapes, you need a sound digital business transformation strategy that encompasses most facets of business operations, from logistics to marketing. Here’s how to craft a comprehensive strategy for your company’s merger into a digital world.

Understanding the need for digital business transformation in 2023

Digital transformation is a necessity in both B2C and B2B sectors today, and there are a number of market forces driving the need for digital business transformation.

Businesses are turning to a digital-first approach because the digital world is where the customers are. According to a Forbes report, 70% of companies already have a digital transformation strategy in place or plan to establish one. Various white papers and case studies also lend credibility to the long-term success associated with the agile methodologies that come with digital transformation. 

The top challenges faced by businesses in the digital era

With the integration into a digital sphere, businesses face new challenges. Hurdles to plan for include:

• Increased cybersecurity risks
• Potential audits from national or federal entities to ensure digital privacy compliance
• Data inaccuracy and reliability issues
• Increased customer expectations

Assessing the benefits of a successful digital business transformation

In spite of the challenges, adopting a digital approach remains a key element for staying competitive. With a digital strategy comes a myriad of advantages, such as:

• Reducing spending
• Reaching a wider demographic range
• Promoting sustainability (i.e. reducing paper waste by disseminating information digitally)
• Reducing time-to-market
• Improving cross-collaboration efforts with subsidiaries, shareholders, remote employees, etc.

Key elements of a digital business transformation strategy

A digital transformation strategy needs to cover the following elements.

1. Identifying business objectives and goals

Identify what benchmarks you hope to achieve with a digital business strategy. Example objectives may include:

• Adopting a customer-centric approach model with greater client networking
• Optimizing the use of existing digital assets
• Establishing a hybrid in-house/remote work environment
• Phasing out traditional business models, such as paper invoicing and manual record keeping

2. Assessing current digital capabilities and gaps

If you have a digital management system in place, what are its capabilities? Are these capabilities sufficient enough to achieve the objectives established in your business transformation plan?

Identify potential shortfalls in your current SaaS system. For example, does it have the latest encryption technology to meet risk management requirements? If not, then maybe it’s time to explore some of the emerging technologies in the SaaS market.

3. Developing a roadmap for digital transformation

The strategy should be a step-by-step process completed in stages. Have a detailed blueprint with nodes and modules describing:

• The members who will be active in each step
• The timeframe for each step
• A list of to-dos in each step

4. Allocating resources for implementation

Identify resources required in each step. Resources may encompass a number of items. This may be specific data sets or key performance indicators (KPIs). Likewise, it may include contact info for cross-collaboration with partners and shareholders.

Recommended strategies for modern digital business transformation

Here are a few tips we suggest for businesses hoping to execute on and succeed with their digital transformation.

Do: Incorporate changes gradually

Don’t enforce the entire digital transformation at once. Roll it out gradually and in phases. If the goal is to achieve a 50/50 hybrid in-house/remote work environment, for example, then start with a 90/10, then 80/20, and so forth. Gradual changes also help you phase out older legacy systems and IT infrastructure in favor of modern cloud computing networks. With the lessons learned from each phase, you can make changes based on first-hand experience of what works and what doesn’t.

Do: Consider talent and culture transformation

Developing a digital transformation strategy may require hiring new talent. This may be a permanent or temporary role. Hirees may also be in-house members or from third-party vendors. Secondly, with the transformation also comes the adoption of a work culture and ethics indistinct from the digital landscape. Practices like data privacy, security, and maintenance should all be core components of the culture.

Don’t: Overlook change management and data governance

Have a change management procedure in place. This helps you stay organized during the strategy rollout. Each person involved in the project should have an assigned role. The assigned member is the go-to person for all questions and concerns. Furthermore, this is also the time to incorporate a data governance plan and have it in writing. This is the company-level “bible” for handling all data-related issues.

Do: Manage risks and compliance

As you prepare for the digital overhaul, be mindful that the steps undertaken should be in lockstep with compliance at the state, federal, and global levels. These standardizations comprise updated practices on risk assessment and management.

Don’t: Forget to measure and evaluate your success

The strategy needs to include metrics and KPIs to measure benchmark success. The analytics should be the main driver for your data-driven decision-making processes. Heavy A/B testing will help you make adjustments should you fall short of accomplishing a benchmark or two.

Constant evaluation helps you identify and capitalize on current and even possible future trends.