Digital Transformation
Digital Ecosystems

Digital Transformation Versus Technology Update

A digital transformation can be such an enormously large elephant that you have to know where to start to eat it.

All the businesses in the world – from multinational corporations to corner stores – are feeling the pressure of having to sophisticate or modernize operations and products in order to maintain competitiveness. But what most companies are not getting, is that this sophistication begins with their own business and management paradigms and not with the technology renewal.

The first step for a Digital Transformation Process

There are many flavors and depths of Digital Transformations, but what ultimately pushes that transformational process of a company is a strategy, not a technology. I know it sounds obvious, but it still seems to me that most businesses are falling into the trap of renewing their technologies thinking that this is the first step for transformation.

Many businesses believe that just by buying a new technology, they are also “developing” a competitive advantage … but unless that technology is proprietary or developed by themselves, it is not -by itself -a sustainable advantage. Any company can buy the same (or similar) technology and it will cease to be an advantage instantly.

Digital Transformation and Technology Updates are different processes, in the same way Digital Transformation and Digital Disruptions have different objectives.

The Real Challenge for a Successful Digital Transformation

The real challenge is implementing a more iterative way of working and form problem solving, that promotes experimentation and documentation of business cases.

For instance, being anchored to how best to use the data they have, instead of letting the strategy dictate the data they will really need (which they may already have).

Digital Tranformation Framework

There are many frameworks available online to plan a digital transformation process, my recommendation is that you choose and commit yourself to one. This improves the chances of moving forward and not just going in circles… this is one of my favorites:

Digital reality

In  this phase, Digital  reality, the company’s  existing  business model is sketched along with a value-added analysis related to stakeholders and a  survey of  customer  requirements. This  provides  an understanding  of  the Digital Reality for this company in different areas.

Digital ambition

Based on the Digital reality, objectives with regard to digital transformation are defined. These objectives relate to time, finances, space and quality. Digital  ambition postulates which objectives should be  considered for the  business model  and  its elements.  Subsequently,  objectives and  business model dimensions are prioritized

Digital potential

Within this Digital potential phase, best practices and enablers for the digital  transformation  are collected.  This serves as a  starting point in terms of Digital potential and the design of a future digital business model. For this purpose, different options are derived for each business model element and logically combined.

Digital fit

The Digital Fit  phase looks at  options for the  design of the digital business model, which are evaluated to determine Digital Fit  with the existing business model.  This ensures  that one fulfills  customer requirements  and that business  objectives are  achieved.  The evaluated  combinations  are then prioritized.

Digital implementation

Digital implementation  includes  finalization and implementation of the digital business model. The various combination options are  further  pursed within  a  digital implementation  framework.  The Digital implementation also includes the design of a  Digital Customer Experience and the  digital value-creation  network that describes integration  with partners.  In addition, resources and capabilities are also identified in this phase.

 

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