Overcoming Roadblocks in Digital Transformation

Digital transformation has permeated nearly every industry, innovating and revolutionizing the way that businesses run and expanding technological capabilities. As businesses tackle digital transformation on a large scale, it is only natural for roadblocks to come up. The key to overcoming these roadblocks is a commitment to consistency and a willingness to learn. In battling digital transformation challenges, it takes a full team’s support to come out on top.

Prioritizing the C-Suite’s Support

Receiving the C-Suite’s approval and commitment to a digital shift is the first roadblock many organizations will face when taking on digital transformation. Without the commitment of an executive team, the likelihood of successful integration is threatened, as a business’s reform begins with a top-down approach.

To win over the C-Suite, several steps can be taken. First and foremost, the benefits of digital transformation for both the C-Suite and the customer/organization must be clearly laid out. Improved team-wide communication and more efficient, streamlined efforts, for example, are significant factors for an executive team to consider. Showing investors that profits will likely maximize in tandem creates an alluring proposition.

Junior team members looking to showcase digital transformation to their leadership can do so by helping them to identify and understand the parallel between the business’s goals and the proposed digital processes to demonstrate the competitive advantages. In addition, proving that though digital transformation requires an initial cost upfront, this investment will increase revenue and transcend ordinary organizational functions to improve efficiency.

Once C-Suite is committed to pursuing these digital integrations, increased collaboration and communication are inevitable.

Educating the Team

Adopting digital transformation requires a full team understanding in order to function properly. If some team members do not fully understand systems, it can cause roadblocks that trickle down and obstruct the entire process.

To begin, an expert on digital transformation must spearhead the integration process. Whether this is bringing in an outside source or dedicating a team member to take on the initiative, it is important to have a leader. This leader needs to be accessible and approachable. Giving team members a single source of truth that they can reach out to means decreasing the probability for mistakes, contributing to long term success.

To fully educate the team, there must be established and consistent communication, as well as company-wide training to ensure deep comprehension. Technology is ever evolving, which means that this edification is an ongoing process. Whether these trainings are conducted on a monthly or quarterly basis, it’s vital to a team’s alignment, cohesion and understanding of these digital tools.

This training can consist of open forums and recurring meetings to respond to questions and prioritize cross-departmental communication to ensure the entire organization is aligned in their commitment to the implementation of the technology. If mistakes are made when taking on digital transformation processes, such as a product road mapping solution, it decreases efficiency and may ultimately lead to profit loss.

Making the Commitment

Now, more than ever, companies and organizations are being more conservative with their spending – CIO’s and senior leadership are watching every dollar and want to ensure returns. When taking on digital transformation, for it to be worthwhile, an understanding needs to be facilitated that constant check points must take place in order to see the ongoing return.

Digital transformation results are not shown overnight, and during a rocky economic climate companies want to invest in options that supply them with quick returns to remain afloat. Digital transformation processes are much bigger picture and reap massive benefits down the line.

In making the investment, ensure you are aligning your strategy with your business goals. Make digital transformation have purpose by proving to the C-Suite that not only will these transformative processes achieve goals, but they will help the process run much smoother when in development.

Teams need to work to break down processes into smaller gains along the way to prove the organization is on track. Keeping an eye on these smaller goals also allows for constant check-ins where mistakes are quickly noticed which leads to time savings and ultimately cost savings.

When broken up this way, companies can see returns in the short term, providing reasoning behind why these processes were taken on in the first place. Digital transformation best succeeds in environments that are patient and constantly keeping up with the system – only then will the optimal benefits be reaped.