There are many facets to digital transformation and too often people focus on the technology. Every IT supplier has jumped on the digital bandwagon and they are the building blocks. I'm sorry to say, they are not.
Since the beginning of time, it's been about the people, the process and the IT. And on top of that a strategy that the whole of the Board / C-Suite buy into.
In terms of the people and the process, the operating models, often baked into legacy IT systems have to be broken down. And if business are to survive in the future then the operating models need to be de-coupled so that they can remain flexible. Put it another way, they need to be able to flex in the future.
Communication to the employees is key, so they understand what is going on and can make sure they stay current with not only the current business objectives but also the future of the business. Of course, some people will resist, they always do and some people will, with a little coaching come on the journey with you.
One of the critical components to this is social. I'm not talking about Twitter, I'm talking about using social internally to support your digital transformation.
Internal social has, according to McKinsey given companies a 25% efficiency gain. So that's an additional 25% of staff, free of charge. I've certainly seen it, enable different teams collaborate on projects such as digital transformation. As well as support returners, new starters, get sales people contributing faster, and increasing the % accuracy of a sales forecast. Massive impact and people already use social, so there is no change required to get them to understand a new technology.
It's time to accelerate digital with some quick wins!
To sum up, digital transformation is a massive change management process where companies must not only think about a technology response but also put people and processes right in the centre. It is the leader’s responsibility to constantly challenge myths and mindset issues to accelerate digital change
