Demystifying Digital Transformation

According to research, the majority of organisations undergoing digital transformation don't understand what it is. To understand more about digital transformation and whether to undertake it or not, companies should ask themselves the following questions:

1. What type of digital strategy do I have?

2. What size business do I have?

3. What is influencing me to undertake digital transformation?

4. Can I afford it and am I in it for the long haul?

5. What am I hoping to get out of it?

6. What other options are open to me?

Improving an organisation's digital capability may be regarded as the start and end points of a journey, where the journey itself is the digital transformation that the business needs to undergo. Knowing if a business needs digital transformation and to what extent is vital. As is implementing the right level of digital transformation and being able to measure its impact. While improving the customer experience is the most important parameter, measuring internal impact is also important, for example by applying digital KPI's to every business unit.

Organisations that undergo digital transformation need to understand better how it can benefit their business. That way they stand a better chance of achieving improvements. Many companies don't have this understanding. They tend to bolt on digital strategies to their businesses, whereas they should be developing business strategies for the digital age. Successful digital transformation is not just about technology, it's about a fundamental change in business thinking.

A company deciding to launch an app with no clear digital strategy in place is not undergoing digital transformation in any meaningful way. The digital economy has grown too large to accommodate a one-size-fits-all approach to digital strategy so a number of different variants have emerged. Quite often when I talk about digital strategy to a room full of people from different sectors, it means something to all of them, but you can tell from their responses that it has many different meanings.

The Digital Marketing Strategy tends to be the default and is used to promote business and influence sales using the web, mobile, video, social media, EDM, SEO and advertising. This type of presence enables people to find a business online and enables the business to build and engage with a community of interest. A Digital Business or e-Commerce Strategy is for companies that wish to include transactional capability in their online presence. Having this capability also enables them to expand easily into international markets

A Digital Transformation Strategy is usually synonymous with large organisations such as Procter & Gamble but smaller companies with the right digital mindset can also do it. It requires enterprise wide implementation and adoption to be successful.

A Digital Economy Strategy such as the one I developed for the City of Brisbane is a digital strategy designed to create economic growth in a city, region or sector, not just in one company. Its objective is to raise the digital maturity of the city in order to increase prosperity and quality of life.

It is no longer sufficient for a company to assume that digital strategy is all about marketing - digital has implications right across the business. Knowing what these implications are will help organisations shape the long term value proposition when weighing up investments in digital technology, including the viability of digital transformation.