................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1 . ASSESS THE MARKET
Before you can begin your digital transformation , you must start by honestly assessing where your organisation falls on the digital maturity curve . Do you have smaller , more nimble competitors eating away at your market share ? Unfortunately , most companies don ’ t see the need for digital transformation until there ’ s a steady dip in net income or increasing pressure from competitors .
To spur change within your organisation , do some scenario planning . Consider how you could interact with your customers in a world without digital boundaries . Then , consider what your business could look like if you did nothing and your competitors took action to engage customers through digital .
2 . MAP THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Digital transformation doesn ’ t start with IT or marketing ; it starts with the customer . The first ( and perhaps most important ) action you should take is to define who your customers are and where they ’ re engaging with you .
Once you ’ re confident you ’ re pursuing the correct customer base , you need to map the entire customer journey . Whether you ’ re in retail , food services or the nonprofit sector , it ’ s easy to get caught up in understanding the transactional points of engagement .
But don ’ t forget about other customer touchpoints that occur before and after the sale . These can have an equal or even greater impact on the customer experience .
3 . ALIGN YOUR ORGANISATION
To mould your company into an agile , fully digital organisation , you need to take a top-down approach to change . This means you must have a leader with the right mindset , motivation and authority to take ownership of the entire customer experience and a team to implement digital initiatives .
Many times this calls for a chief customer officer outside the marketing and IT organisations to promote a unified approach to digital and own the customer journey .
4 . BUILD AN AGILE ENVIRONMENT
Once you ’ ve appointed a team to implement your company ’ s digital initiatives , you need to examine the culture and environment of your business . If you aren ’ t working toward becoming an agile organisation , your company isn ’ t going to be able to keep up with the rapid pace of digital .
Working to become more agile isn ’ t all something that can be achieved overnight ; it ’ s a cultural and philosophical change that involves focusing on your customer , having the correct frameworks to implement new initiatives quickly , and building a culture that enables innovation .
5 . REMOVE BARRIERS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
People and technology are the two primary components of digital transformation , but sometimes there are other factors that prevent businesses from progressing in their quest for digital dominance .
The word ‘ digital ’ has become so ubiquitous today that it ’ s almost unnecessary . ‘ Digital marketing ’ is just marketing , and a company ’ s ‘ digital strategy ’ is inseparable from the rest of its business strategy .
Embracing new technology isn ’ t just a tick box exercise anymore – it ’ s an essential commitment that companies must make to survive and prosper in the coming years .
Digital transformation isn ’ t about the individual channels that customers can use to interact with a brand , and it isn ’ t about big data , social media or the mobile revolution .
At its core , a digital organisation is just an organisation that ’ s free from silos and is eager to rise to new technological challenges .
But more than anything , it ’ s an organisation that ’ s adopted a change mindset and empowered its employees to put the customer experience at the heart of everything it does .
CIO Magazine Autumn 2015 Issue
27