Digital transformation helps companies embrace the culture of change and remain competitive in today's globalized environment. But it's not all that easy, is it? When a company decides to start the transition to digital, the process is more complicated than it seems. To shed some light on the keys to Digital Transformation, In this article we will talk about Big Data, transversality and agile processes. In other words, we will explain what are the best practices that a company should carry out to start with its digital model.
Big Data and Digital Transformation
Digital environment expert Daniel Newman put a bit of irony into the matter at Forbes, where he assured that the digital transformation for a company is like “going on a diet”: «You can't go on a diet for a few weeks and expect quick and lasting results. As when we want to lose weight, Digital Transformation should be a process of lifestyle change”.
How can we achieve this change in mentality? In part, as Newman points out, it is thanks to the Big Data. Big Data allows companies to make important strategic adjustments that minimize costs and maximize results. If we know what consumer and employee behavior consists of, we can create projections about what they will do in the future. We can then begin to implement the changes necessary to address customer needs and our objectives. In this sense, Newman is categorical: «Digital Transformation cannot be complete without the use of Big Data».
How to complete the Digital Transformation in a company
Experts agree: The first thing we need to do is identify the most important challenges facing our company. With a list of objectives and challenges, we can begin to employ Big Data to solve some of our issues. The most important thing is to come up with specific objectives, such as:
- Improve or change the our customer's experience
- Improve the workflow of our employees to increase the productivity of our employees. productivity.
- Retaining our customers and improving engagement.
- Reduce costs
Big Data can be useful both for the management of the company and in order to get new customers and improve the sale of our product or service. In particular, the important thing is to identify which are the data patterns that can influence us to achieve some of our objectives.
5 Best practices to complete our digital business model
Although it is true that there is no perfect and definitive formula for the correct Digital Transformation, in the following points we summarize a series of best practices. According to the latest Annual Survey on the digital ratio of companies by the consulting firm PWC, companies should have:
- A CEO committed to Digital Transformation. A leader who raises the digital opportunities and challenges of any strategic decision about products and services, marketing strategy, customer management, talent attraction and retention policies, operations, etc. Once the digital strategy has been formulated, the CEO must clearly define the roles, responsibilities and corresponding IT organizational structure. According to PWC 76% of the companies surveyed state that their CEO is an active advocate of the use of digital technologies to achieve the business strategy.
- A smooth relationship between the CIO (Chief Information Officer) and the CMO (Chieg Marketing Officer). The CIO should not be relegated only to the internal environment, but should be involved in customer strategy and in product and service innovation processes, where the technological component is the most important (development of apps, web pages, customer analytics...). A task that requires being coordinated with the CMO and delimiting their roles and functions when working.
- Ongoing analysis of the sector. The search for external inspiration is crucial, as the companies that manage to get the most out of digital transformation are those that demonstrate a predisposition to “look out” (industry analysts, suppliers, universities or think tanks). However, most companies still rely on traditional sources, such as internal planning sessions or workshops facilitated by the IT team.
- New work methodologies. A more strategic approach to align the IT department with the business through the design of a new organizational architecture, more agile processes, new profiles and skills, new digital channels and mobile technologies in the cloud. According to PWC, only 20% of the Spanish companies use agile processes in more than half of its projects.
- Adapt all company departments to the new digital paradigm. Only if the digital transformation is transversal the company will be able to benefit from the advantages it offers. The finance, sales and services and marketing departments can adapt to digital along with the development and operations department.
In addition to following these guidelines and, as we have previously stated, treating Digital Transformation as a change of business mentality, In this way, many companies will be able to apply new business models without losing the essence of their product.