Digital Transformation: Step by Step towards the Digital Age

Digital Transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, which leads to fundamental changes in the way businesses operate and in the way they offer value to customers.

In addition to a technological one, it is also a cultural development and change that requires businesses to constantly question the situation in which they are, to constantly develop and experiment.

Of course, this often requires them to leave the practices they know and feel comfortable with and to try practices that are still being defined. According to a survey by Progress, a global leader in application development, 47% of organizations have not started their journey towards digital transformation, while 59% expressed concern that it may be too late to start implementing digital transformation measures.

However, it is important for businesses and organizations to make this transition and enter the digital age. But what are the steps for a business to move step by step into the digital age?

The Steps to Digital Transformation

While digital transformation may look different for every organization and business, the challenges it faces, and the demands of each business, there are some common steps to consider as they embark on digital transformation.

Step 1: Identify your goals

A digital transformation strategy requires you to have a clear picture of your business goals, as well as what is required to get there. Some common questions for every business are:

• How can the customer experience be improved?
• Can you create a more efficient operation by adopting new technologies and processes?
• Do you have processes in place to collect insights from analytics that will help you move quickly?

By answering these questions, you can identify which areas of your strategy require more attention, as well as which elements of the strategy should be addressed first.

Step 2: Focus on customer needs

The focus and priority of every business should always be on providing the best possible customer service. Adopting digital solutions, such as an ERP system, allows businesses to anticipate consumer needs and manage data in real time, as well as improve the customer experience through personalized offers and more efficient processes.

So focus on the technologies that will allow you to offer a substantial change to your customers.

Step 3: Embrace the new processes

You may not love change, but to successfully enter the digital age it is important to recognize and embrace it in order to see success.

For some businesses this may mean a complete reconfiguration of processes, to which employees will have to adapt through the required training.

Step 4: Decide what technologies to adopt

Your business does not need all the technologies on the market. Choose the technology that will support the processes you want to optimize.

So after deciding what is valuable to your business, find the technology that will meet your needs.

Step 5: Have a strong team around you

The best thing for your business is to have a team that will help you achieve your goals. The success of your transformation depends largely on your team. Bringing together people with the right attitude and the right skills is essential.

This doesn’t necessarily mean hiring new people or investing heavily in training. The first step is getting buy-in from your top management and inspiring employees to see the need for change.

Project managers are also essential to implementing the strategies you have put in place.

Step 6: Set Measurable Goals and Track Them

Define specific success metrics that will help you track the progress of your digital transformation strategy. This will allow you to take immediate action if and when needed.

Some ways to measure the progress of your digital transformation initiatives are:

• Getting feedback from your employees
• Measuring changes in customer feedback
• Looking at hard data across all the different initiatives you are implementing

Key metrics to track include:

• Level of digital adoption
• ROI of digital investments
• Customer satisfaction ratings
• Employee digital experience

The entire process towards digital transformation may seem complicated and difficult, but it is important to remember that this opens up new prospects for growth and innovation for your business!