Change is hard for humans and organizations alike. While little changes don’t seem very hard, a radical overhaul is daunting at the very least. It’s no surprise that initiatives like digital transformation are terrifying to businesses everywhere. Companies are left clueless about where and how they should start.
To begin with, it’s important to put aside the hype and understand what digital transformation actually entails.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation (DX) is a paradigm shift in how organizations use technology, processes, and resources to deliver value and improve performance. It changes the way companies do business to emphasize technology and innovation.
You may wonder why organizations are sweating it when it comes to DX. There are multiple driving factors for this rush to adopt this major transformation:
a)Disruption from competitors
b)Need to improve customer experiences
c)Application overload within the organization
d)Staying relevant in the industry
So does that mean a business has succeeded in DX if it just invests in a bunch of new technology? Far from it!
Many organizations that are attempting to implement DX initiatives are realizing the folly of taking such a narrow and limited view of it.
Challenges on the road to digital transformation
In a whitepaper titled What’s Going Wrong With Digital Transformation, Mulesoft found that there’s a significant lack of understanding when it comes to the term digital transformation. 82 per cent of respondents said that going paperless was a top initiative in digital transformation. This seemed to imply favouring an immediate shift in tactics rather than a long-term strategy of changing the way business is done.
The entire premise of DX implementation can seem rather heavily reliant on IT teams. The Connectivity Benchmark Report 2019 by MuleSoft reports that survey respondents expected IT project demands to increase by 32 per cent this year, but 79 per cent of respondents expected a budget increase of less than 10 per cent. This is just the tip of the iceberg when considering how much of DX initiatives have to be shouldered by IT teams.
The report further revealed that 84 per cent of respondents felt integration challenges were slowing down digital transformation initiatives. They also reported that legacy systems and infrastructure were making it harder to adopt cutting-edge technology such as AI, big data, and IoT.
In addition to these hurdles, companies also face difficulties such as
a)Lack of a clear DX strategy
b)Differentiating between hype and necessity when it comes to emerging technology
c)Data management concerns
d)Organizational resistance to change
e)Lack of resources
So what can businesses do to ease the transition and gain a solid footing?
Process management – A solid foundation for digital transformation
Business process management can lay the groundwork for an effective DX implementation through the following aspects.
Agility
An important prerequisite for smooth DX is agility. BPM systems facilitate greater transparency into and control over processes. This helps businesses stay agile and relevant in a constantly changing business environment.
Ease of use
Cloud-based, no-code BPM solutions take the pressure off IT teams and put the power in the hands of business users. This way, the entire DX imperative doesn’t need to rely on the availability of overloaded IT teams.
Customer-centric functions
BPM shifts an organization’s internally oriented focus to satisfying rapidly changing customer needs. This means that every process is redesigned and optimized to meet SLAs and provide better customer service. Customer centricity is a key driver of DX initiatives.
Data management
Data management is a significant concern for organizations considering DX. From storage to regulating access, businesses worry about keeping their data safe. BPM solutions address this concern effectively. Cloud-based hosting provides a centralized database for improved data organization. BPM systems also facilitate granular access control so that you can authorize specific users for data access.
Collaboration
BPM solutions foster greater collaboration in organizations. It necessitates organizational buy-in to be effective. BPM also eliminated silo-ed thinking and unifies teams to achieve business goals. These changes power DX success.
Every major change starts by breaking the effort down into manageable steps. Business process management is a significant and powerful step towards effective digital transformation.
