Digital transformation has become an important enabler for sustainable growth, innovation and disruption. Organizations across the globe are digitally transforming as they are challenged to improve business processes and develop new capabilities and create new business models from scratch. This can involve multiple or all departments and business processes. It is a continuous improvement and innovation process that enables companies to stay competitive in a digital economy. So the development and implementation of a digital transformation strategy is the key concern across industry verticals namely BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail, E-Commerce, Transportation, Healthcare or any other industry vertical.
“The formulation of the Digital transformation strategy focused on how value can be created and exploited using digital technologies keeping the customer at the center of the focus.”
Dr. Rabi Prasad Padhy, CTO, Crayon
IT Strategy vs Digital Strategy vs Digital Transformation Strategy
IT Strategy, Digital Strategy and Digital Transformation Strategy are different related concepts. Traditional IT strategy outlines the ways in which a business leverages technology to keep operations running and an IT strategy is an essential component of a robust enterprise digital strategy. While IT often starts with a technology solution, a digital strategy outlines how technology solutions can map to business goals. Digital strategy focuses on technology but not on culture. Digital transformation strategies are large-scale attempts to build entirely new business models using a combination of Digital technologies (AI, IoT, Blockchain, Industry 4.0, Cybersecurity ) and Digital tools like DevOps, AIOps, MLOps, Mobile Apps etc.
Key Building Blocks & Benefits of Digital Transformation:
Organizations are looking for digital solutions to help them make products faster, better, and cheaper than before using new age forward looking technologies. There are many benefits of digital transformation and some of the major benefits are increase customer insights, reduce cost, improve time to market, increase operational efficiency, transform existing business processes, improve customer experience, and introduce new digital revenue streams. The main building blocks for digital transformation include customer experience, operational processes, and business model. It mainly includes six key elements namely customer engagement, digital marketing, digital operations, digital innovation, transformational Leadership and data and analytics.
How to Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy
The formulation of the Digital transformation strategy focused on how value can be created and exploited using digital technologies keeping the customer at the center of the focus. Digital transformation strategy implementation includes a roadmap that outlines the steps an organization needs to take to adopt a digital transformation strategy. The roadmap should be tailored to the organization’s specific needs and should take into account the organization’s current state, its desired future state, and the gaps that need to be filled in order to get there. The Chief Digital Officer (CDO) needs to work closely with business unit heads along with the core business application or product owners to take a strategic approach to digital transformation. Below are the steps involved while building a digital transformation strategy.
Assess the Current Market and Industry Vertical: Understanding the industry’s level and doing research on specific market and industry segments at which digital transformation is progressing is very important to stay ahead of the game.
Establish Goals and Objectives: The overall digital transformation goals must be broken down into more specific objectives with timelines and understanding of all costs involved.
Identifying and Building Digital Leadership Team: Changing the way an organization operates requires leadership, teamwork and emotional intelligence. It also requires strong, efficient communication and courage.
Prepare for Culture Change: Understanding that digital transformation is a journey and how to prepare for cultural change within the organization that supports innovation and digital change is created from a blend of capable digital tools with employee support.
Investing in the right technology: Technology and technology partners are key components of a digital transformation strategy. Depending on the organization, we may be looking to adopt new technology into our overall business strategy that includes a modern centralized integration platform. Measure and Monitor: Monitor for continuous improvement and new opportunities as digital technologies will keep evolving and create a strong feedback loop with key stakeholders to ensure everyone is learning from the experience.
Profile:
Dr Rabi is currently working as a CTO Crayon India, Bangalore. He is helping global customers for creating digital roadmaps and providing Data driven AI powered solutions. He has rich experience in public Cloud, Data, AI and Cyber Security Ecosystem. He has successfully led multiple business transformation programs for Large enterprise customers that includes multi-cloud adoption, Application Modernization, building modern data platforms like cloud data lakes, data warehouses platforms and enabling data science tools. He has published 200+ research articles in various open source platforms, international journals and delivered 100+ Online Webinars, Tech Talks for Technical/Management University Students. Recently he was awarded CTO of the year 2022.
