Digital transformations are a complex topic with multiple faucets of intricate practices in order to see success. Flipping an organization from one side of the coin to the other is no small task, and it can often be the most expensive and time-consuming project an organization can take on. For that reason, business leaders must understand the nuances of business transformation and digital transformation, and become familiar with the 3 pillars of digital transformation: people, processes, and technology.
Without an intentional organizational change management strategy, organizations will fail as they help their employees cross the bridge from one operation to the next. Organizational change management is a critical success factor in any digital transformation initiative. Without the right tools and processes in place, an organization will struggle to manage the expectations of all stakeholders, both internally and externally.
It all starts with performing an organizational assessment to understand your company's appetite for said changes. Through this assessment process, you'll want to facilitate a handful of anonymous, third-party surveys to probe the company's cultural nuances. The questions should be formulated to pull insights around employees' respect and trust levels in management, current bottlenecks, preferred communication styles, and overall satisfaction with different elements of their job.
Based on the information garnered from the assessment, your dedicated change management project team should craft a communication and training timeline. This should include what to say to whom and when to say it. As these communications are crafted, keep the message of personal benefit to the employee at the forefront, with all other informational elements of the project as supplemental info. By the time your team reaches training, they should feel fully aware and on board with the new way of doing things. The training will be around new processes and how to operate new technologies, not answering questions about why we are doing it or addressing fears of job automation.
Business process mining is another important aspect of successful digital transformations. This technique allows organizations to map out their current business processes, identify gaps and opportunities, and then redesign processes to be more efficient and effective. Business process mining can be performed manually or through the use of software that automates the process.
Once current processes have been mapped out, it's time to start redesigning them. This is where business process management comes into play. Business process management is a methodology used to redesign business processes to be more efficient and effective. The goal of business process management is to improve organizational performance by streamlining future state. When selecting new software, it's important to consider the processes and eliminating bottlenecks.
Finally, technology is a key enabler of digital transformations. The right software can help organizations automate manual processes, improve communication and collaboration between employees, and make decisions more quickly. Many people get hung up in the software selection process, but the reality is, if due diligence is done before reaching the technology pillar of a digital transformation, it will be easier to come up with a shortlist of technologies that would fill the need.
When selecting new software, it's important to look at the prioritized processes that will help your organization inch toward your overarching business strategy. The new technologies should also be able to integrate with current systems, whether it's cloud computing software or legacy systems, and have the capacity to scale as the organization grows.
Technology should be seen as an enabler of the processes and people, not the other way around. By following these three pillars, organizations can set themselves up for success as they embark on their digital transformation journey. If you are exploring digital solutions to help optimize your processes, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our team has helped hundreds of small businesses and high-profile organizations alike in their pursuit toward digitization, and we are always happy to be an informal sounding board to ensure your efforts go smoothly. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly videos around all things digital transformation.
