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By now, you would have learned the benefits that digital transformation brings about but it can lead to costly mistakes when not managed well. The first thing to remember is that any kind of digital transformation can be a challenge. But the success will advance your organization to a higher level. The project involves almost every aspect of your business namely your people, processes, and IT infrastructure. That is why there is room for errors that may happen along the way.
In this article, let’s take a look at 5 examples of the common digital transformation mistakes to avoid making when you are making the big move.
1. Having unrealistic goals and expectations
Before your company begins the digital transformation journey, it is important to have a plan. You need to know what are the results you are looking to have. Is it to increase revenue? Or to increase the overall efficiency of the business operations? Regardless of what your goals are, try not to be overly optimistic and set unrealistic timelines to achieve them. You need to understand that changing to a digital business model is a “marathon” and not a one-time. The entire process is ongoing and will take time to integrate. Recognize that gaps won’t be fixed immediately.
Instead, you need to take gradual steps. Firstly, identify your milestones and set periodic goals as “checkpoints“ to measure the results of digital transformation over time. Be mentally prepared that it could take months and sometimes maybe even years for you to start seeing the positive impact. Eventually, your organization will reap the long-time benefits that digital transformation.
2. Misunderstanding the Concept of Digital Transformation
Often, digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation are used interchangeably. To clarify, digitization is the process of converting information from a physical format to a digital format. Digitalization is the process of using digitization to strengthen business processes. However, one of the digital transformation mistakes is to think that it is just “going paperless”. In fact, it is the total integration of digital technology into your business’s operations; changing the way you operate and deliver value to your customers. To put it another way, digitization and digitalization can only be the first steps on your digital transformation journey. But the success of digital transformation depends on a much wider scope than just adopting the latest technology.
3. Overlooking Cultural Transformation
As mentioned, many organizations misinterpret that digital transformation is just about technology. They often overlook that it also involves the people, including the stakeholders as well. Just like any other decision in life, we must shift our mindset. We must be willing to experiment, accept failures and learn from them. Not to mention, addressing the employees’ concerns of possible layoffs or re-structure, etc, and getting stakeholders’ acceptance. To put it simply, everyone needs to be on board for your digital transformation to be successful.
4. Forgetting About Users’ Perspective
Even before the pandemic, customers’ needs are always changing. Especially after the pandemic breaks out, their expectations have also increased. And with more businesses going digital, the competition has also gone stiffer. If you do not monitor your customers’ buying behavior, you may end up creating products, systems, and/or services that are of no value to them. In turn, leading to a slower ROI (Return on Investment). Consequently, affecting your revenue. Hence you need to think big. Use data insights to learn and anticipate what your customers need. From there, you can then try to identify their buying trends or behavior. Remember to always consider your customers so that you can be a step ahead of your competitors.
5. Selecting the Wrong Digital Partners
By now, you should realize that the journey towards digital transformation may not be a smooth ride, at least not at all stages. With rising costs, it is typical for many companies to take cost as their main factor of consideration. However, it is important to bear in mind that digital transformation is an organization-wide transformation. Hence you need to choose the right digital partner to determine your success. You should thoroughly evaluate other factors including experience during the selection process. You may want to begin by figuring out the right technology and tools that are suitable for your organization. Then conduct a full analysis of the various offerings in the market to do a comparison based on their costs, clients served, reviews, and services offered. You should be specifying your needs in advance and assess the capabilities of the shortlisted vendors to find the best-suited one.
Conclusion
A project as huge as the digital transformation of your organization is not going to be an easy road. There is a good chance that you may experience several failures too. But the long-term benefits of digital transformation offer make it a worthy investment.
Over at TechTIQ Solutions, we have helped many businesses in their digital transformation journey. Our experts will work together with you to face these challenges and find the best solutions that will put your business on the road to success. Contact us today to start your journey. Our team is also available via WhatsApp should you have any enquiries.
