More businesses than ever are adopting dynamic digital transformation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. And if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that brands and businesses need to be nimble, particularly with how they interact with their workforce and the valuable digital data that is being generated on a daily basis.
After all, most businesses rely on cloud-based services and other digital tools that would make work difficult if not impossible if some kind of disruption were to take place, and managing that digital transformation is one way that organizations are staying current and allowing them to do more in less time with less resources — and that can have a very real impact on the bottom line.
However, while some industries and businesses are wondering how to exist in a COVID or post-COVID world, many companies may have no idea how to modernize their processes, and all too often there’s lots of money spent on solutions that may not really move the needle because it lacks a unifying and holistic approach.
But keeping up with the changes is hard work, and many companies may approach their technology capabilities as something to reevaluate once in a while instead of a cornerstone of their overall business strategy, yet those in the know realize that this is a sure way to be left behind.
Here are some signs that your business may need help in managing your digital transformation.
No Technical Best Practices or Low Adherence
One commonality among businesses that need help in their process modernization is that there’s a lack of understanding of technical best practices, or at least a lackadaisical approach to adhering to them. It’s often not intentional, but it speaks to the difficulty in staying up to date and aware of changes in the landscape and the tools that are available to help do the job.
It can often be difficult to do itto go it alone or try to keep up on your own while fulfilling your regular obligations, and many companies either pick the wrong solutions or they don’t leverage them nearly enough to realize the benefits, leading some to doubt the efficiencies of digital solutions and the value of modernizing.
But best practices exist precisely because there is consensus, and most businesses can benefit greatly from managing their digital transformation from the ground up, not merely by picking up a couple new digital tools and hoping that they help organize and streamline those bloated processes.
Furthermore, when there are no deployment resources, no code management, out of date software and a lack of backups, it’s easy to see why many companies quickly fall behind even when they do luck out and manage to opt for the right tech or toolsets. Aside from the security risks, a haphazard approach can easily squander the budgets and resources devoted to the effort.
A Lack of Information and Reporting Gaps
For companies that may be using the right tech or that are further ahead on the digital competency spectrum, it’s not necessarily all smooth sailing. Bringing together your processes under the tech umbrella isn’t a one-time event or something that is ever really completed. It requires an ongoing focus and the continued accumulation of information that can help you make those informed decisions.
But while the names of common tools may be well known, it’s surprising how little many companies, departments and even their employees understand about how the data is collected and how they can best use it. If there are any sweeping changes, which is an all-too-frequent activity in the world of tech, what little knowledge that was present may be lost entirely, making for even more confusion and poor decision making right when it’s most important.
That’s because great data is only valuable if it leads to real insights, yet many businesses view data collection and reporting as an end in and of itself. With the right approach, you’ll be able to manage your digital transformation at the point of inflection and beyond, making better decisions and incorporating the right tools and processes to really make a difference.
No Troubleshooting or Escalation Plans
There’s more to your company than your website or your email. But if some important system should go down during the day or overnight — what’s the next step? Many companies may believe that rounding up a current toolset is enough to manage their digital transformation, but it says nothing of how you can move forward after a problem or some kind of outage.
If that downtime is significant enough — not hours, but days or weeks — it could disrupt your normal day to day without anyone having a clear idea of when or if things will be working properly again. Worse yet, if you don’t have the tech capabilities in house, you’ll have to find someone that can fix it, which becomes difficult when there’s low institutional knowledge and they have to spend time diagnosing the issue before it can be addressed.
With a comprehensive digital transformation plan, all those important protocols and policies will be in place before something goes wrong, which makes fixing any issue much easier, and it also means sufficient monitoring so that you’re the first to know that when something goes wrong and you can reach out in the early stages of a problem rather than after it’s too late.
Few Changes in Work Culture and Norms
It goes without saying that a digital transformation should have a huge impact on your business and your bottom line. But if your company culture or behavioral norms don’t dramatically change after your digital transformation, you’ll likely not see most of the benefits. Instead of paying lip service to the value of tech, your company has to want and to work towards that change if it’s going to have a lasting effect on your business, and those old habits and norms may need to be updated for the digital age before you can see the real benefits.
Not only should the disruption to the status quo be self-evident, but data-driven insights and analyses should be the norm, not the exception. As your workers get into and leverage the tools that are made available to them, they should be collaborating more and bringing more valuable suggestions and recommendations to the table as a result of all that valuable data and the mechanisms that are in place to help amplify and guide the changes.
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If you’re interested in managing your own digital transformation, look to the experts at iTransform. We’re a digital transformation company that helps businesses like yours more effectively compete and get more out of your resources than you ever thought possible.
