Digital transformation is a journey

Businesses Challenges

1. Technological evolutions
   • The hybrid cloud: Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
   • Big Data Analytics
   • Artificial intelligence: deep learning, machine learning, expert system, logic, and inference engines
   • Mobile/mobility
   • Internet of Things (IoT)
2. Changes in customer behavior and expectations: Because of the proliferation of technologies, customers now expect a quick and mobile personalized service. They want simplicity in dealing with businesses.
3. Digital disruption: technologists with digital business skillsets came up with ideas, solutions, business models and approaches that cause a disruption in usual business practice. In turn, it changes customer behavior and possibly reshapes entire industries. So, no more business as usual for traditional businesses. Businesses have to be more pro-active to counter the increasing competition or otherwise risk to become irrelevant and going out of business.
4. Enablers of digital transformation: By fully leveraging the possibilities and opportunities of new technologies, companies embrace the use of emerging digital technologies that can operate more efficiently. With a good digital transformation strategy, companies can create new capabilities, offer faster and innovative ways of running a business, and move into the future with confidence.

What is Digital transformation?

Digital transformation varies according to industry, region or even organization – no ‘one size fits all’.

1. Digital transformation is a journey with multiple connected intermediary goals. It requires repeating the cycle of, i) setting goals and strategy, ii) transform it digitally to achieve the goals, and, iii) monitor, measure and refine.
2. Digital transformation covers:
   • Business activities/functions: There are business functions such as, marketing, human resources, customer service, and unique business operations that vary differently from the industry. The aims are to automate business functions so that businesses can focus on generating revenue with minimum efforts on supporting activities.
   • Business processes: collaborated activities and operations to achieve specific business goals both customer-facing and internal. Here, we are referring to manage, optimize and automate (such as robotic process automation) business processes.
   • Internal silos and legacy systems: To connect legacy systems and overcome silos in all areas. With interconnected internal systems that can extend to include business ecosystems, information flow will be fast and accurate, this helps business process execution and decision making. So, integration, both from technological and people perspectives, is a key success factor. Reworking organization structures, removing specific silos, implement collaborative methods help to reach different business goals faster.
   • Business ecosystems: the networks of partners and stakeholders, which includes also the influential factors from the regulatory such as government economic policies.
     • To strive towards connecting digitally within the ecosystems;
     • To collaborate or co-create with networks of partners (between the front end and back office);
     • To embrace high-value information powered ecosystems;
     • To cater to changes in channel partner dynamics due to emerging technologies;
   • Business model: how the business generates revenue through value proposition and go-to-market strategies. By changing the business model means effectively transforms the core business, tapping into new revenue sources and even dropping the traditional core business operation.
3. Enterprise-wide digital transformation requires leadership for:
   • To get people to involve, and to respect and empower people. Digital transformation puts people and strategy before technology. For example, worker satisfaction and empowerment, customer experience enhancement, stakeholder value/outcomes.
   • To embrace digital-savvy within the Organization Culture
   • To be the customer-centric, agile and hyper-aware goal.
4. The human factor is key. Since people don't want 'digital' for everything and do value human and face-to-face interactions, there will always be a non-digital element, depending on the context.

How to implement – Digital Transformation Strategy?

A digital transformation journey needs a staged approach with a clear roadmap. This roadmap takes into account that end goals will continue to move as changes are constant. Though, there is NO “one size fits all” digital transformation strategy, there are common areas that businesses should focus on when formulating digital transformation strategy:

1. Customer-centric transformation: to enrich customer experience.
   • Understand your customers through analytics;
   • Streamline customer processes – make buying easy;
   • Social integration;
   • Offer mobile personalize customer services;
   • Digitally enhanced selling;
   • Customer relationship management;
2. Digitize Business operations
   • Activities/Functions
     • Digital Marketing
     • Customer self-service that leads to cost savings
     • Human Resource: working anywhere anytime, digital/unified communication and collaboration, enterprise knowledge sharing.
   • Processes
     • Streamlined, operational efficient/flexibility
     • Optimize and automation process through digitization
     • Data-driven (analytics/AI) decision making
3. Digital Ecosystems
   • Cross channel coherence
   • Supplier relationships
   • Digital distribution
4. Core digital proficiency to support the digital transformation
   • Unified data and processes to allow integration
   • Business and digital integration
   • Agility and innovativeness
   • Data Intelligence/Analytics capability
   • Digitize information (e.g. transform paper into digital information). This ease information flows within the organization.
5. Business Model
   • Able to induce/leverage opportunities to change the status quo
   • Digitally modified business: transitioning physical to digital, digital wrappers, product and service innovation
   • New digital businesses: digital products, reshaping organization boundaries