So, what are the challenges of digital transformation? Well, by prompting a rapid change in consumer behavior, digital technology is upending “conventional” business models. As challenging as it can be to successfully embrace and enact change, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A recent Dell study demonstrates that "organizations actively using big data, cloud, and mobility enjoy up to 53% higher revenue growth than those that have not invested in these technologies." Obviously it’s not just about installing the latest technology, but businesses will have to apply the technology in a manner that delivers tangible benefits to the customer. This means putting the consumer at the heart of the business model.
When taking their business through a digital transformation, organizations have no choice but to recognize that customer experience is king! In a Forrester study published in October 2015, 56% of surveyed companies planned to assess the impact of digital as it relates to customer experience, and 63% were improving their online customer experience.
How do we capitalize on digital technology to improve the customer experience?
You can start with personas. In today’s customer-centric world, everyone wants everything to be personalized and localized for them. A company’s customer journey can be very different from one customer to another, so linking customer journeys to specific personas helps deliver the tailored experience the customer is expecting.
Digital is not a temporary phenomenon; the key to keeping the consumer at the heart of your business model is visibility and transparency. You can’t change what you can’t see. Unless your company was born “digital,” you are staring at layers of old and new technologies that can’t just be wiped out and replaced to suit the needs of digital transformation. Instead, you need a plan and tools in place to optimize these existing systems – modernization, rationalization, upgrade, etc. – to launch and sustain a transformation initiative. Don’t forget about business capabilities. Having the opportunity to map capabilities to drivers of digital transformation – SMAC: social, mobile, analytics, cloud – is a critical piece to achieving business outcomes. Even more, having a clear view into how your business capabilities will evolve over the short- and long-term helps business leaders understand how their decisions will impact transformation plans. The visibility into and transparency of your IT landscape is fueled by business outcome-driven enterprise architecture practices. It allows you to take into account: people, processes, technology – even drivers of change, capabilities, competition, customer expectations - and how each of them are interconnected … and how they impact your digital transformation initiatives.
If you’re looking for a way to get started with digital transformation, or to optimize what’s already been done, look no further. Download our whitepaper “How enterprise architecture will successfully help you plan your digital transformation” to read about 4 key steps to help you lay the groundwork for transformation, and how today’s digitally-driven, consumer-led market will decide whether your company sinks or swims.
