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successful digital transformation

What Does Successful Digital Transformation Look Like?

3 minute read

‘Digital transformation’ is more than just a catchy buzz phrase; for many organisations, it’s become the mantra that steers them towards a brighter future. But what exactly does successful digital transformation look like, and how do you know you haven’t sailed past it?

By now, it’s more than likely that you’ve come across the term ‘digital transformation’ – and that you’ve developed something of an expectation as to what it means. For many of us, those two magic words conjure images of innovative new technologies and simpler ways of working, though these are just two ways digital transformation manifests itself.

We might also jump into the challenge of transforming our organisation without first considering how to measure the success of what we’re doing. While measurements and metrics will differ between businesses, we can offer up a glimpse of what successful digital transformation looks like with help from five easy-to-spot signs.

  1. Everybody’s On Board

To make any change a success, you need to secure the buy-in of personnel at every level – that means going beyond the stakeholders to include employees, suppliers, and contractors. Why is it crucial to ensure that employees are being actively included in the process and are engaged? Because not only are your people the ones living this new approach in their day-to-day lives, but also because transformational programmes that disregard employee feedback tend to cultivate low technology adoption – sabotaging how worthwhile the effort is.

  1. Security is Much Tighter

Security is a huge reason for undertaking digital transformation; we’re moving away from the traditional methods of securing our data to include multi-factor authentication (MFA), identity management, and even passwordless living.

Successful digital transformation will have security enshrined in its very DNA – and although it will always need to be kept up to date to match emerging threats, introducing cornerstone features like MFA and Microsoft Intune to manage devices marks the beginning of a golden age of digital thinking.

  1. Efficiency Extends Beyond Work

If we revisit for a moment the conjured image of digital transformation, greater efficiency is a common expectation. But while efficiency is one of the most attractive benefits of digital transformation (and is often the reason its undertaken in the first place), it extends far beyond just how fast a tedious task can be done with the help of technology.

Instead, true digital transformation will move technologies and thought processes into new spaces, challenging how much resource wastage is affecting the organisation, or highlighting where resources are being misallocated to everybody’s detriment. In this vein, success lies in how transformative the approach to efficiency – and what encompasses ‘efficiency’ – becomes.

  1. Treating Data as a Resource

If the rise and rise of Big Data has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t get enough of data. The ways we collect, manage, move, and interrogate data should all be areas of interest in a digital transformation campaign – and when we’re confident that data is clean, compliant, and being leveraged in eye-opening new ways, we know we’ve been successful.

  1. An Open Mind

The road to digital transformation is, in truth, never-ending, and organisations need to adopt a mindset that reflects this ide and keeps them receptive to future innovations. When successful, this mindset can be spotted in the business’ values, its culture of idea sharing and innovation, and in everybody’s acceptance that although transformation has been achieved, there’s still more to do. When this has been achieved, an organisation can write its own destiny, and continue to transform in new and exciting ways.

Through our consulting services and the Surveil platform, ITEXACT are experts in enabling digital transformation among our customers and partners. To find out how we might be able to help, feel free to get in touch.

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