Many companies are now opting for digital transformation as the benefits and advantages of such a revolution are very promising. However, some companies may experience difficulties in developing a strong hold on this transition of technology. How can we overcome such difficulties? What are the right ways of implementing digital transformation strategies? These questions will be answered as we explore them in this article.
Here are the top 21 digital transformation strategies recommended by businessmen and company executives who have successfully overcome the challenges of digital transformation and the pains associated with it. It will help you come up with creative solutions to level up your business in this digital age.
Invest, leverage and use digital technologies that are proven to be effective and efficient. It brings your company, brand and business closer to people. Finding the right digital technologies is a must as it will pave the way for you to attract the attention of potential customers and clients who are willing to use your company’s new platform and improved digital technology.
Why leverage this kind of digital technology? The common answers are to build value and improve efficiency on the business models. You need to prioritize strategies empowering all these digital technologies. You need to know what their uses could be, understand their functions, and take advantage of the big data and information you collate. Doing so can boost the product or service quality as well as work productivity.
Practical Tips
Tip 1. Make Use of a Project Management Tool
Choose a time management tool that will help your team be more productive and cooperative. You will then be able to invest your time and efforts wisely. Examples of project management tools are: Trello, Asana, and Wrike. These three are the best and will help you and your team enhance productivity.
Tip 2. Use a Time Tracking Tool
Use tools such as Tick, TimeCamp, HubStaff, Harvest, and Toogi. These assist in measuring each member’s performance in relation to their assigned tasks. It gives them an insight on how they perform.
Tip 3. Use Social Media Management Tools
Use Automated digital tools such as Sprout Social, Hubspot’s Social Tool, Buffer, and Hootsuite. Save more time by using social media marketing tools for your business. You will be able to create content in advance and schedule them in simultaneously.
Security is often considered important but not taken as a priority. This could lead to breaches in the system. Given that the digital world is vast, many viruses and cyber incidents are likely to happen and this is something that a CIO or executive cannot ignore.
Blake Angove, director of technology recruiting services at LaSalle Network cited that a likely reason these security problems are prevalent in some business systems is because of hesitancy to hire Chief Information Security Officers (CISO). Make sure all information and data within the company are kept and secured properly. You wouldn’t want a security breach which disrupts a number of your business operations.
Practical Tips
Tip 1. Change Your Passwords Every Month
Teach your employees to change their passwords. Make sure they know how to create strong passwords. Remind your team to turn this into a habit. To further strengthen your security, you can also utilize the Dashlane software.
Tip 2. Ensure That All Connections Have VPNs
Implement Virtual Private Networks (VPN) connections between your office locations. These protect your network, especially if you are connected through public Wi-Fi services. Make sure that all your connections are secured by VPNs.
Tip 3. Install Google Chrome’s Ad Blocker in Your Computer’s Browser
Implement Ad Blocker, which can be installed as a trusted cybersecurity feature in your internet browser, protecting you as you browse the internet. The chance of bugs entering your computers will significantly decrease if there is something that automatically blocks ads.
Tip 4. All Your Corporate Email Accounts Should Use Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
Use Two Factor Authentication such as Authy or Google Authenticator; it will help prevent hacking incidents, as there will inevitably be attempts from others to log into work emails to get hold of sensitive information.
The decisions and planning behind establishing an integrative business system drive the journey towards having an efficient digital platform. Identified effects of non-integrated business software systems are: wasted productivity of employees, a deficiency of real-time visibility, spending too much on maintenance complexities and cost, and even customer churn rates.
However, having a properly designed system can increase a number of benefits for the company such as efficiency levels, improved visibility, savings on cost, and growth. Nucleus, an independent analyst firm, revealed that through the use of an integrated suite, companies sped up their financial close times by up to 50%, as well as boosted their sales productivity by 12.5%. Adapting to digital systems that are generally interconnected and integrated fuels growth in virtually every industry.
Practical Tip
Utilize SWOT Analysis With Your Team
Implement a SWOT Analysis. SWOT is an abbreviation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It allows you to approach problems in a holistic way. This will help the whole team look at the bigger picture and understand the business better. By looking at different angles, all team members will have a clearer perspective of what’s holding the company back, and what boosts it.
The need to overcome employee resistance and to encourage the use of digital systems has also risen along with the disruption of the business traditions. Culture change is hard but not impossible. Creating and implementing corporate policies that involve and motivate every member of the company to embrace digital innovation is a useful and good start.
For example, setting the rule that all transactions must now be recorded on the computer systems is simple yet compelling. Some of those employees and even customers used to traditional methods may find it hard to adapt, but they will soon get used to the new digital culture urged by a company policy.
The purpose of research and development to maximize the usage of available technologies. Forming a competent R&D team to improve the systems for digital transformation initiatives also offers the capability to further explore the functions and uses of new and promising machineries.
Technology cannot be stagnant because it grows obsolete as time passes. It is bound to develop and advance. With the presence of a team for research and development, the enterprise will be able to keep up with the demands of the market and may even encourage innovation. Technology must be put to its optimized usage, and this team promises that possibility.
Old technologies may have become routine and habitual. There is certainly comfort in the known. Nevertheless, newer technologies have been released and continually offer improvements. Thus digital transformation has started. With this evolution in business, the advice is always to start with people.
Making sure that the team is on the same page as the company’s decision to transform is a must. It is essential to fully understand the technology because if the IT team does not completely comprehend how the system works, the results will not be favorable. Measure user impact metrics, ROI, and other meaningful interactions and transactions and use them to make technology better. Make sure the technology is also user-friendly as this moves people to use it and it will be easily accepted in the workplace.
Strategy plays a big role in driving a successful and digitally maturing business in the corporate world. The innate ability of an executive or digital leader to conceptualize digital transformation strategy is a priceless talent. What makes a considerably useful and effective digital transformation strategy?
Three things were identified by Ionology.com, and these are: diagnosis, coherent plan of action, and a guiding policy. It was emphasized how these three are crucial to each other and to business processes thus they must co-exist. Without diagnosis for example, strategies may lead to mayhem, uncertainty, and even unrealistic expectation of outcomes. Without a coherent plan of action for business models, the business processes often waste resources such as time, effort and investment. Without a guiding policy, the business may not achieve strategic objectives. You could opt to undergo a digital transformation leadership course to develop the ability to plan out such strategies more effectively.
A way to further improve digital transformation strategy is through experimentation. The key to effective digital transformation experimentation is transparency. All parties must know what is going on. Always use two separate similar systems during the experiment on digital transformation This adds to the transparency when communicating errors or glitches in the system for the duration of the experiment.
Digital transformation might be driven to maturity by digital technology itself. Technology indeed plays a big part in all of the business’s advancements. However, in light of the advantages that the digital revolution has promised businesses, the strongest foundation relies greatly on the human brain and human capability.
The management, the employee’s reaction, and the customer’s response all contribute to the definitions of growth in digital innovation. In the end, it’s not only the technology that works for us, but the strategy itself. And we must take advantage. It is highly recommended to learn more about digital business transformation. You can do this by enrolling in IMD’s digital business transformation course and ensuring you are best placed to guarantee success.
Rankings
At the top of the charts
IMD's programs are ranked highly by the world's most influential business publications.
