The term ‘digital transformation’ has been well-used in marketing communications and strategy meetings for a long time – and for good reason. For a business, digital transformation can lead to increased revenue, improved customer experience, and greater efficiency, among other benefits. It’s therefore no surprise that 91% of businesses are currently undergoing some form of digital initiative. Similarly, 87% of senior business leaders say digitalisation is a priority, according to Gartner.
However, while there is a consensus among senior leaders about the value of digital transformation, it doesn’t mean it will resonate with everyone in an organisation. Indeed, resistance to change can be one of the biggest roadblocks a business faces when undergoing a digital overhaul.
Rather than accepting this as part and parcel of their digital transformation journey, there are simple steps businesses can take to ensure they reap the rewards of a smooth transition.
A new state of play
Contrary to common perception, staff working in organisations undergoing digital transformation won’t just need to learn how to use new digital tools, but change their mindsets and traditional ways of working, too.
While tech-savvy members of the team will often wholeheartedly embrace the shift, others might be understandably concerned about what it means for them.
Some will question whether they have the right digital skills, and if automation and the use of AI in particular, could render their role redundant. Others may simply be uninterested in the entire process. They might see it as an unnecessary disruption to their working day when current processes have worked perfectly well before.
Here, it’s important to communicate the benefits of digital transformation amid the changing business landscape. Almost everyone now needs to adopt a data-driven approach to business processes to make meaningful decisions. Traditional departmental silos could be broken down and replaced by cross-functional collaborative teams on some projects.
Communication is key
Communication is the hallmark of both successful digital transformation strategies and a healthy organisational culture.
Not everybody needs to know everything straight away, nor in as much detail as senior stakeholders in the business. But, with a clear plan and regular updates, setting out the vision and what it means for each team should help to allay any concerns and ensure they’re fully onboard with implementing the technology and training.
Empowering digital transformation champions is a good way to cascade skills and knowledge across the business. These champions provide a point of contact for people to ask questions and see the software used day-to-day.
A personalised approach
Digital transformation has become a catch-all term, but it means different things depending on the type of organisation and sector it occurs in. Bsiness leaders regularly cite efficiency and productivity as benefits, but it’s important to turn the focus on what they could help the business achieve.
For our Canadian community member, OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), a new CMS has ultimately helped farmers save money and reduce their use of pesticides – tangible outcomes that resonate with people.
There’s also the significant cultural impact this digital transformation project has had on OMAFRA’s stakeholders – farmers. This project took 13 printed crop protection guides, in both Canadian French and English, each over 200 pages long, translating and transforming them into a single web-based resource. The outcome boosted sustainability through the digital solution. It ensured information was never outdated and increased accuracy compared to its printed counterpart.
It has made farmers’ jobs simpler and their crop protection more accurate; a dramatic, yet impactful change across an industry hesitant to adopt digital technologies, but the benefits have helped to future-proof an often unpredictable market.
Staying agile
Big change doesn’t happen overnight. We always recommend taking an agile approach to digital transformation – working iteratively to ensure teams feel confident using and getting value from the technology, rather than waiting months or even years for the big reveal.
Organisations should introduce new systems and processes in stages to avoid the disruption and risk of a wholesale roll-out, and to minimise any push-back from internal teams.
In OMAFRA’s case, future iterations for the team have seen them look to reduce the technicality of their crop protection content. With the help of a content quality and governance tool, Insytful, they’re improving the readability of the content, making content easier to understand and reducing the barriers to accessing information.
In the race to adopt new technologies, especially the exciting AI-driven ones, it’s easy to overlook the fundamentals.
Knowing what you want to achieve and setting clear objectives will guide your investments in new software and help you measure its success using agreed KPIs. In most cases, this will be a mix of over-arching and granular KPIs – everything from the time users spend on your website, to reducing the number of support calls your contact centre receives to overall business performance.Working iteratively means you can define and track your KPIs to understand the impact of the changes you make, enabling teams to build on and celebrate their successes at each milestone in the roadmap, and make continuous improvements along the way.
Moving forward
A focus on digital transformation has never been more important; enabling businesses to rapidly innovate, adapt to changing consumer and employee expectations, boost efficiencies and compete with other agile competitors. While there are many businesses already investing in technological advancements, there are some yet to begin that journey. Having seen first-hand the impact it can have and the financial savings it can bring, I would wholeheartedly encourage others to embrace the positive transformation it can bring in order to future-proof their business.
- Digital Strategy
- People & Culture
