True digital transformation can make a business more lean, agile, productive and profitable. But it’s not a simple or “one size fits all” concept; successful digital transformation will look different for every company. That can make it hard for leaders to know where to begin or how to identify essential checkboxes—and that, in turn, can lead to a digital transformation process that fizzles out before achieving real impact.
Even though the unique goals and details of a digital transformation initiative must be worked out by a company’s tech and business leadership, there are foundational and ongoing steps that should be common to every digital transformation journey. These steps can jumpstart efforts and lead to lasting, effective change. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council discuss some of the keys to quick, long-term digital transformation wins and why they’re so important.
1. Gather Employee Ideas
Solid change management throughout the digital transformation process is critical to success, and that starts with your team. Ensure you get employee ideas and feedback prior to making any changes. Your employees need to embrace the change—and understand how it benefits them—to garner the best results. – Steve Smith, Esker
2. Explore ServiceOps
Break down staff, tool and data silos by exploring ServiceOps capabilities. The push toward ServiceOps is rooted in enterprise IT’s need to deliver high-quality experiences quickly. It’s about changing organizational culture, processes and technology platforms to enable improved user experiences through real-time visibility, automation and intelligent collaboration among siloed departments. – Ali Siddiqui, BMC Software
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3. Implement Low-Code And No-Code Tools
The best way to accelerate digital transformation is to implement low-code and/or no-code applications and generative AI right away. For example, many organizations today use Microsoft Power Platform to automate processes and build digital solutions for business users without IT. Even ChatGPT, if used responsibly, can help your organization scale by giving employees agency to focus on higher-level projects. – Dr. TJ Jiang, AvePoint
4. Strive For The Flywheel Effect
Pick one initiative with a significant Flywheel Effect. For example, establish generative AI policies and a cross-functional generative AI working group. This group should work to identify everyday productivity use cases as well as training and support models for stakeholders. From there, roll out access to relevant tools such as Duet AI for Google Workspace, Microsoft’s Copilot or Microsoft’s Edge browser with Bing Chat. – Daniel Leslie, Bennie Health
5. Work To Overcome Mindset Obstacles
To accelerate digital transformation, it’s important to remove mental models and mindset obstacles. This is a transformation, not a change, and it requires a digitally expanded mindset: See the possibility in digital, believe in the power of modern technology, adopt an abundance mentality, get comfortable with ambiguity and focus on a growth outlook. – Kerrie Hoffman, Hoffman Digital
6. Keep Up With Documentation
An often-overlooked component of digital transformation is documentation. Leaders must embrace the truth that change management is not simply a one-time effort achieved through extensive training and rollouts. The light at the end of the tunnel is misleading; your organization will be transforming—and referencing documentation—well beyond your project management office’s timeline. – Ken Babcock, Tango
7. Focus First On Better-Quality Data
Whenever organizations talk about transformation, they generally focus more on the “fun” and “shiny” things, when in reality, it should start with better data. Without better data, none of the fun and flashy stuff will ever truly deliver the value you are expecting. – Bill Bruno, D4t4 Solutions (Celebrus)
8. Leverage Data-Centric Security
Each step of a digital transformation should enable greater business agility. The hard constraints of historic network security often get in the way of operating in untrusted networks. This limits agility across a dynamic, digital supply chain. Data-centric security in its various forms (such as zero trust) is one industry response that can enable greater agility and help companies achieve quick wins. – Altaz Valani, DevSecOpsMentor.com
9. Establish And Verify Clear Benchmarks
Too many times, digital transformation fails because of unrealistic expectations. One way to avoid this is to set benchmarks for both internal and external end-user experience and performance. Verify and compare these benchmarks before, during and after digital transformation has taken place. When it can be demonstrated early on that significant gains have been achieved, management will fund acceleration. – Patrick Ostiguy, Accedian
10. Start With The CX And Work Inward
To accelerate digital transformation, businesses should think about the customer experience and work their way inward. When leaders look at a digital transformation roadmap through the eyes of their end users, they will find clear signals about what processes or systems need to be digitized first to make the biggest impact. – Mike Lefebvre, SEI
11. Adopt Agile Methodology
The adoption of Agile methodology can accelerate digital transformation. It enables iterative development, focuses on high-impact projects and fosters collaboration. Agile is customer-centric and adaptable and promotes continuous improvement. It can help you prioritize projects that deliver immediate value and align with customer needs for quick wins. – Indiana (Indy) Gregg, Wedo
12. Move To The Cloud
Leveraging cloud computing is an efficient way for a company to speed up digital transformation and achieve success. Businesses gain scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness by moving their infrastructure, apps and data to the cloud. Further, access to a variety of tools and technologies is made possible by cloud services, which helps hasten the process of digital transformation. – Neelima Mangal, Spectrum North
13. Break Down Silos Between Business And Tech
Break down the silos between business and tech within your company by any means necessary. These days, business units have as much need for data as an IT division, but they’re still meeting a brick wall whenever they try to access information. Develop a culture of collaboration and transparency, and you’ll start to see the benefits right away. Neglect this, and you’ll fall behind. – Lewis Wynne-Jones, ThinkData Works
14. Begin Platform Onboarding With Just One Or Two Teams To Start
If onboarding with a centrally offered digital transformation platform means application teams automatically gain access to commonly desired functions such as audit logging, monitoring and access management, then application teams will be highly motivated to adopt such platforms. Seeing a couple of initial app teams succeed with such platforms builds motivation for others to follow suit. – Atul Tulshibagwale, SGNL.ai
15. Develop Leaders At Every Level
After the last three years, most organizations have gone through significant changes. To support continued transformation, an organization must focus on getting the little things right. Leaders must refactor the organization to align with where they currently are and with an eye to continued change. That includes developing leaders at every level—without leaders, no sustainable change will be possible. – Patrick Emmons, DragonSpears, Inc.
16. Establish A Modular Foundation
Quick digital transformation requires a modular foundation. That will take time to build. But once it’s implemented, innovation will accelerate. You can reuse functionality across the enterprise for different purposes. You need payment processing—already done. You need email delivery—done. And so on. Plus, with a modular structure, maintenance and upgrades will easily propagate across the company. – Nicholas Domnisch, EES Health
17. Focus On Positive Impacts For Customers
Digital transformation is best tackled by focusing on low-hanging fruit that delivers a positive impact for customers. By prioritizing projects that improve the customer experience, streamline processes or address pain points, businesses can demonstrate tangible results, build momentum and gain buy-in for further digital transformation efforts. Remember, this is an iterative process. – Dr Vivek Bhandari, Powerledger
18. Embrace Technical Partnerships
Embrace technical partnerships to expedite digital transformation and uncover new opportunities. Prioritize better data management as the foundation for successful transformation. Foster a culture of continuous improvement, emphasizing feedback loops and data-driven decision making. – Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech
19. Implement KPIs To Monitor Progress
The aspect of digital transformation organizations most commonly struggle with is measuring results. Leaders won’t be able to manage a digital transformation strategy if they can’t measure it. Implement key performance indicators to monitor the progress of your digital transformation initiatives. Regularly measure and analyze the data to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. – Shahar Chen, Aquant
20. Reduce The Steps And/Or Softwares Required For Common Workflows
Our brains love to think in terms of overall tasks or objectives. Creating a user account, closing a sale or writing a blog post are examples of workflows that involve multiple steps and, often, multiple softwares. Identifying these workflows and reducing the steps needed to carry them out by unifying the underlying IT components can give you a big win right from the get-go and reduce the number of touchpoints and data sources later. – Kevin Korte, Univention
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