The year 2020 is notable for several events that affected the globe, critical among them would be the drastic transition to digital platforms across industries and the entire business world.

After the pandemic hit the globe, so many organizations were forced to integrate structures into their business that allowed them to keep delivering value to customers irrespective of where they were located – at home or in-store.

A hallmark of 2020 was the global transition to digital delivery of services and ensuring that customers get a consistent experience across all channels. Additionally, we saw organizations integrate the remote working structures into their business model in order to stay afloat after the enforcement of lockdown in several countries and regions.

One thing is for sure, any company that only considered digital as nice to have prior to the event of covid-19 most definitely changed that position after the pandemic hit the world. This singular factor is responsible for the mass adoption of the digital transformation agenda. With every organization trying their best to become digital in the best way they understand it.

Having the drive to go digital is great, however, it isn’t all that is needed to achieve a successful digital transformation project within your organization. We find that a predominant manifestation amongst most companies is the acquisition of the latest technology and software with the hopes that this translates into going digital or becoming a digital-first organization.

The whole idea of digital transformation is way bigger than just grabbing some software here and there. When an organization decides to become digitally enabled, it has to properly understand what it means for a business to be digital-first in its thinking.

Going digital would definitely require that you leverage technology to improve your business processes, However, much more than that, becoming digital-first is more about possessing a mindset than it is about adding a new technology tool to your stack.

Obviously, we cannot deny the fact that organizations and customers alike have benefited greatly from being able to deliver their services online via access any-where platforms; giving customers the ability to carry out transactions seamlessly and allowing organizations to capture value in the same vein.

However, it is important to avoid the temptation of distilling the idea of becoming digital-first down to having a cool app or an optimized website. Becoming digital first involves leveraging technology, but it also entails a whole lot more than just having the right tools.

A digital-first organization is one that sustains a way of thinking. Thinking that involves reconsidering every aspect of a business, from the tools employees use for the simplest of the everyday task to the entire organizational structure. At the core, digital-first organizations adopt an agile mindset that allows them to innovate and disrupt so quickly. To be digitally minded, companies need to embrace the idea of continuous change.

A culture of continuous change is crucial to success in the digital age. Though most established companies may find it difficult to adopt this mindset considering the kind of structure they operate. The fundamental step requires that we ask questions that allow us to reconsider how we deliver value to our customers.

So for a start, you need to begin with creating an interconnected online and physical experience that is user-centric. To achieve this, you need to ask questions like:

• How can our processes benefit our customers better?
• How can we make our processes easier, more efficient and effective for our employees?
• What tools do we need to make that happen?

It is crucial to note that while leveraging technology is fundamental in achieving digital transformation, it is only by implementing the right tools that you would see that change and transformation in the way you do business. The idea is to have clarity about what areas of your business you seek to improve and then get the necessary tools that allows you to achieve this.

So rather than focusing on what technology or tool is needed in achieving digital transformation, you should consider adopting digital thinking and how you can apply it to every aspect of your business from service delivery , to workforce planning, to recruitment and even compensation.

When taking the decision to go digital, we advise companies to put the following factors in place

Consistency:

As a company, you should always have at the back of your mind that your customers; both internal and external expect the same process and result across all platforms or devices through which they interact with you. For instance, the process of ordering a product, scheduling a service, or accessing support should be consistent regardless of whether the user is using a smartphone or a desktop computer. Your employees should also be able to submit reports and hand off projects on the go, at home, or from the office.

Prioritize Experiences:

In these times, more companies are aggressively competing for the attention of the same audience. It has therefore become increasingly important for agile companies to offer experiences that integrate into the user’s daily life. The quality of experience you offer to users is what determines if they would buy from you and more importantly if they would stay. By using APIs, companies can leverage the services of a software engineer or programmer to create tools and experiences that can be integrated into the user’s everyday life. When your customers are guaranteed of a fluid and familiar digital experience, they would always come back to you.

Adopting a digital-first mindset affords organizations the ability to adapt services, products, and user experiences as technology develop or as new features are created for those technologies. With the success rate of digital transformations hovering below 30%, business leaders must understand that digital transformation is bigger than just any technology project, it entails a radical change in the way business is done.

By taking a more holistic long-term view of a company’s digital future, business leaders and CIOs can be smart by designing processes and systems that allow for traditional methods and models of operating business to be replaced by more recent and effective methods. Being digital-first is similar to adopting a startup-like approach to the way you run your organization.

To get started on your journey, you would need expert guidance, Feel free to reach out to us at Kedrus Consulting for a consultation session so we can help you identify where to start and how to go about it.