Tech Strategy: The First Step to a Successful Digital Transformation!
Introduction
Seeing the tremendous growth that digital transformation can provide, organizations across sectors are eager to experience the benefits of digital transformation for themselves. Although most businesses have undergone some form of digital transformation in their lifetime, we must acknowledge that it's not easy to adopt new technologies and digital services, update IT infrastructure, or move workloads to the cloud. They demand careful thought about precisely what the best technological solutions are, as well as a comprehensive plan that takes into account every part of the organization, from the effect on the workforce to the security implications.
The road to digital transformation can take many different directions, and each organization's journey will be different. However, every step towards transformation starts with a mindset shiftand that requires a strategic approach. Starting with a sound tech strategy ensures that your first step into digital transformation sets you up for long-term success.
What is a digital transformation?
In simple terms, digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology into all functions and aspects of a business. Customer-driven and digital-first thinking is applied to every area of an organization, including its business models, customer experiences, procedures, and operations. This completely changes how a business operates and delivers value to customers. In addition to the integration of digital technology, a holistic digital transformation also involves a cultural change where everyone in your company, right from the top management to employees at the floor shop level has to give up age-old practices, understand the reason and applicability of the transformation, and actively participate towards extracting the most out of the transformation by understanding their role in it. For a company to get the most out of their digital transformation, it is crucial that they follow a tech strategy that aligns with both the organization’s preferences and with the goals of the transformation.
What is a tech strategy?
The world of business is filled with shifting variables. From rapidly advancing technology, to changing consumer needs and changes in consumer behavior, organizations have to keep up with a lot to stay ahead of the competition and on-top of consumers’ minds. In addition to this, how, when and where customers interact with a brand has changed drastically in just the past 5
years. To be able to successfully understand and keep ahead of all such variables, organizations need a tech strategy. A tech strategy is a comprehensive plan designed as per the strengths, weaknesses, requirements, preferences and goals of the organization to help them make the most of their data, keep abreast of the various changing variables in the business industry and vastly improve efficiency, all while reducing risks. However, there are many more reasons why you may want to implement a tech strategy before you start your digital transformation.
Reasons to have a tech strategy in place for your digital transformation?
A well thought-out, sound tech strategy helps you and your organization -
● Identify and Leverage New Technologies - How an organization does business is heavily influenced by the current and upcoming technologies. Social media is a great example of a technology that provided an entirely new medium for organizations to reach out and sell to their customers. A properly craftedtech strategy helps the organization make the best of the available technology, while also positioning them to be perfectly positioned to switch to any new technology whenever required.
● Optimize Business Processes - Business functions tend to work in silos without being well integrated with other verticals/functions. This leads to a lot of duplication of work and efficiency bottlenecks. Tech strategy helps you streamline business processes by understanding the flow of operations and creating a single dashboard where all verticals can keep track of all other variables to boost productivity.
● Develop a Data-Driven Approach - With different business departments interacting with customers at different times and touchpoints, organizations often experience data silos, where there is no inter-department data flow and no synergy between their workings. A tech strategy understands how various departments interact with customers, where their data comes in the value chain, and creates a common data storage where each department gets access to all other relevant data, allowing each department to make the best possible decisions based on data.
● Enhance Cybersecurity - With cybercrime at an all time high, tech strategies also include the aspect of cyber security in your upcoming and future operations to ensure that your organization can stay safe in the digital space with getting the most out of the transformation now and in the future.
● Plan for Future Growth - As all the variables in the industry keep changing consistently, any transition that’s made has to be relevant in the future as well. A tech-strategy that’s properly thought out ensures that your organization can keep taking advantage of the digital transformation done in the present, well into the future.
Choosing the right partner to help you get started.
When it comes to making the first crucial step towards a complete digital transformation, choosing the right partner is key! At Digile, we have helped our clients achieve successful digital
transformations by understanding their needs and goals, and creating strategies tailor-made to them. We understand that a successful digital transformation requires a clear roadmap and buyin from all levels of an organization. That is why, when it comes to developing the best possible tech strategies for our clients, we follow a process that has helped our clients succeed time and time again. Our process involves -
● Readiness Assessment
● Infrastructure Resilience Mapping
● Operating Model Setup
● People and Change Strategy Alignment
Looking to get started on your digital transformation journey? Check out our Digital Enablement service offerings to learn about how we can help you make the right first step!