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Digital Transformation – The need for speed

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The Missing Ingredient in Digital Transformation Success

You’ve heard it, you’ve read about it. If you’re embarking on a digital transformation project, you’re headed nowhere fast without a robust digital strategy to guardrail that journey. But what if by the time you manage to achieve the boardroom buy-in you need, there’s already a competitor out there doing it faster and better?

Yes, you need to get strategic – strategy is king – but you also need to do it fast! But not in a “move fast and break things” kind of way. We’re talking about allowing your business to build an accelerate and overtake lane so you can “outexecute” your competitors. This is the “other” missing ingredient in digital transformation – Speed!  After all, you have to be fast enough to catch up, before you can pull out ahead!

Why do 80%-plus of digital transformation projects fail?

  • Lack of strategy (no roadmap)
  • Ineffective execution (failing to get on the road, much less stay on it), and;
  • No agility (inability to change lanes and deal with roadblocks along the way).

Here we look at how to build your business an “accelerate and overtake” lane so you can speed up!

Why do businesses need to speed up?

Data on the Internet today can circumnavigate the globe in mere milliseconds. With masses of information and data are now available, not only to businesses but to impatient customers making purchasing decisions too, it’s pretty clear that businesses will live and die by moving at digital-fit speed. Even the latest and fastest IT systems in the world will only take you so far when legacy obstacles and bottlenecks still slow you down at the coalface. This is the real-life frustration SMEs feel when they’ve adopted leading digital-grade technology but achieved very little – certainly not the transformative digital experience they might have been expecting!

What’s stopping businesses from moving at speed?

…And how can organisations speed up to get Dx-fit?

In dealing with SMEs at various stages of their business technology and digital transformation (Dx) journeys, we routinely encounter six obstacles that are guaranteed to slow digital transformation initiatives to a crawl in spite of the best tech.

1. Business processes that are not match-fit

Are your business processes still “analogue” heavy? Can some human-centric back-check, check and recheck processes be optimised through automation or even embracing AI?

Whilst the business technology might be cutting-edge, if it has to work alongside and wait for analogue business processes, there won’t be any gains to be had.

2. Half-baked accessibility

Have you “moved to the cloud” but still have people saving to their desktops, or unable to access the information they need when they’re out of office? You need to investigate what “cloud-first” looks like in a next-generation enterprise. We can help you find out how to leverage cloud to its fullest for file management, data collection and management, analytics, and flexibility and mobile workforce solutions.

3. Relationships that are TOO sticky

Are your ecosystem partners aligned with where you’re headed? If they’re not interested or able to accommodate your need to go-to-market or service-your-market faster, better and more flexibly, maybe they’re not the right partner for you. Why? Because fast and agile supplier, vendor and partner relationships are more critical than ever before to deliver that fast yet more personalised customer experience.

4. Outmoded business models

When both your processes and ecosystem relationships are moving faster, organisations need to revisit their fundamental business model. From the way they spend and make money, to the way they market themselves and service their customers. This process of Business Model Transformation is sometimes to most challenging for organisations to accept, but is the only way to ensure that gains made in speeding up processes and relationships will be sustainable.

5. Snail’s pace leadership and communication

Leadership teams need to speed up their decision-making time both company-side and client-side by utilizing data analytics and reporting to get the insights they need, FAST. Explore the vast array of enterprise-grade data management, dash boarding and data visualisation tools available to businesses of all sizes today. These tools can give you leverage to make faster, more insightful decisions and meet your customer’s need for speed AND personalised experience.

Similarly those insights and decisions need to be communicated quickly and effectively by embracing the benefits that collaborative work and unified communications solutions have to offer.

6. And finally, a static culture

Does your team feel pressured instead of inspired by new directions? Time to boost buy-in by communicating your organisation’s digital transformation vision in a way that demonstrates benefits both company-side and client-side.

Your team needs to know and understand that the need for speed is not just leadership heaping on the “pressure” or “upping the ante”, but that pursuing speed strategically through faster processes, relationships, and business models is actually aimed at giving employees greater flexibility and satisfaction longer term. Again fast and adaptive communication is key here too.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row header_style=”qodef-light-header” css=”.vc_custom_1515546160550{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;padding-top: 35px !important;padding-bottom: 35px !important;background-color: #dddddd !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”1232″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

How we can help?

At Maxsum, we’re all about people, processes, insights and strategy first. Talk to us today about building the right business technology strategy from both top-down and line-of-business out. If you are looking for a technology partner to help with your digital transformation, call us today on 1300 MAXSUM or fill in the form on our contact us page.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1524013454510{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]

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