Digital Transformation: A Framework for Success

In my previous article on Digital Transformation, we explored its value in today’s business world. This week, I’d like to walk you through the structure of a digital transformation journey, analysing possible risks and a tried-and-true process for success.

Understanding the Risks

Starting a digital transformation path brings with it its own set of problems. Common problems include high prices, resistance to change, and mismatched corporate processes. However, strategic errors, such as a lack of a clear goal, poor communication, and insufficient leadership commitment, are the most common causes of failure.

Data on digital transformation failures highlight the considerable challenges that businesses encounter when attempting to modernize their processes.

1. 84% of digital transformation initiatives fail, and 70% don’t deliver the expected results.
2. 16% of organizations report that their digital transformation has improved performance
3. The odds of a digital transformation exceeding profit expectations are just one in ten

With this information at hand, how can we prepare our journey to success?

Crafting a Successful Digital Transformation Journey

Despite the inherent challenges, many firms have successfully navigated the rough waters of digital transformation by employing a systematic approach. One of the possible approaches to use is loosely based on an Agile methodology, with a strong customer focus. But in this case, your customer can be considered the internal processes and employees. This approach relies on the three pilars of the digital transformation [People, Process, Technology] to deliver the required success. The steps are as follows:

1. Listen and Gather Feedback:
   • Before initiating change, it is crucial to understand the current business processes, pain points, and improvement areas. Survey tools like [SurveyMonkey], [Microsoft Forms] or internal meetings can facilitate this feedback collection.
   • Use the different ideas and feedback to create a backlog of improvement.
2. Communicate the Intention to Start a Transformation Journey:
   • Clearly communicate the plan, objectives, and benefits of the transformation journey.
   • This journey will have a significant impact on how your employees work and relate to their processes. This is relevant to ALL levels of your organisation, from your clerks and operators to your Chiefs and middle managers A key element of your success will be to bring your employees along in this journey.
   • Keep this global communication open and alive. Provide the reasons why the journey is initiated or is ongoing.
3. Find Change Champions or Digital Heroes:
   • These are individuals within the organization who are tech-savvy, influential, and enthusiastic about digital transformation.
   • Identify your key experts for any conflicting or convoluted process, they will be your most fierce supporters, or become huge blockers.
4. Prioritise the feedback and Identify ONE Single Transformation Initiative:
   • With the collected feedback, identify a single, high-priority initiative that could serve as the starting point of the journey.
   • For your first initiative, use something that would reach as many employees as possible, but has a low technical complexity. Avoid multiple systems connections, processes that involve direct customer contact or many departments.
   • Prioritizing ensures the efforts are targeted, which can lead to tangible results faster.
5. Build a Success Story Around this Single Initiative:
   • Once the chosen initiative delivers positive outcomes, turn it into a success story.Use this as a motivational tool and a blueprint for future transformations.
   • Create some lessons learnt with the transformation team to make the next initiative even better.
6. Communicate Success and Iterate:
   • Celebrate and communicate the wins widely within the organization, emphasizing the benefits realized.
   • This success creates a positive loop that fuels further transformations.
   • Your success on the journey will be proportional to the communication you provide to your employees. They will be more likely to want to change their work pain points if they know there is an efficient and reliable way to do it.
   • ALWAYS (can’t really stress this enough) recognize the people that brought the change, not only the technical changers or the champions but the actual employees that provided you with the initiatives and ideas.

The Power of Low-Code Tools

To streamline the digital transformation process, low-code platforms such as [Mendix] are invaluable. They allow organizations to rapidly develop and deploy digital solutions with minimum coding effort, accelerating the transformation journey while reducing the associated costs and risks. But what exactly are low-code tools, and why are they so critical?

Low-code tools are platforms that enable the development of digital applications with minimal hand-coding and a heavy reliance on visual, drag-and-drop interfaces. They simplify the development process, allowing non-technical users to create applications while also accelerating the work of experienced developers.

Several key benefits of low-code tools make them a game-changer in the digital transformation journey:

1. Speed and Agility: Low-code platforms significantly accelerate the application development process. They come with pre-built templates, components, and integrations that save time and effort.
2. Cost-Efficiency: With low-code platforms, organizations can reduce the need for large, specialist developer teams. They also are heavily focused on graphical development, making your transformation champions able to put their knowledge into the system, having a very easy learning curve.
3. Collaboration and Innovation: Low-code tools promote collaboration between IT and business teams by breaking down technical barriers. They have pre-built support systems to allow users to develop and collaborate all in a single UI, including parts of the application lifecycle.

In Conclusion

Digital transformation is a difficult and challenging task. However, with an organized approach and the correct tools, it is possible to turn it into a worthwhile effort that unlocks enormous value. Begin your journey today, embrace change, and move your company into the digital era. The journey may be difficult, but the benefits are well worth it.