Digital transformation tips – Leveraging the Cloud for Digital Transformation
Digital transformation tips
There are many ways to implement a digital transformation. Some methods are better than others. This section will cover some of our suggestions to shorten the implementation time and minimize disruption to our existing customer base. Let’s look at those tips.
Tip #1 – Ask the right questions
You should not just be asking this:
- How can we do what we are doing faster and better?
You should also be asking this:
- How do we change what we are doing to serve our customers better?
- Can we eliminate certain lines of business, departments, or processes?
- What business outcomes do we want to achieve when interfacing with our customers?
- What happens if we will not do anything?
- What are our competitors doing?
Having a precise understanding of your customer’s journey and experience is critical.
Tip #2 – Get leadership buy-in
Digital transformations have a much better chance of success when performed from the top down. If there is no buy-in from the CEO and the rest of the C-Suite, cloud adoption is destined to be relegated to a few corners of the enterprise but has no chance of full adoption. This does not mean that a Proof of Concept (POC) cannot be performed in one department to work out the kinks. Once the technology is adopted in that department, the bugs are worked out, and tangible business results are delivered, we can roll out this solution to all other departments.
Tip #3 – Delineate goals and objectives
In this day and age, where Agile development is so prevalent, it is not uncommon to pivot and change direction as new requirements are discovered. However, the overall objective of the digital transformation should be crystal clear. Is the objective to merely lift and shift the current workflows into the cloud? Then keep your eye on the prize and ruthlessly concentrate on that goal. Is the digital transformation supporting a merger between two companies? In that case, the completion of the union of both companies’ backend systems and operations should take precedence over everything else. Whatever the goal is, you need to focus on completing that objective before taking on other initiatives and transformations.
Tip #4 – Apply an Agile methodology to your digital transformation
Embrace adaptive and agile design. The days of waiting for a couple of years to start seeing results, only to discover that you were climbing the wrong mountain, are over. Many corporations now run with lean budgets and only provide additional resources once milestones have been reached and functionality has been delivered. Embracing an adaptive design enables transformation advocates to quickly tweak the transformation strategy and deploy staffing and resources where they can have the highest impact. There needs to be a healthy push and pull between accomplishing the objectives for the digital transformation and the inevitable changes in how the goals will be met. If some of the objectives change midstream, these changes need to be clearly defined again. Make sure to precisely spell out what is changing, what is new, and what is no longer applicable. There are but a few instances where development and projects are run using a waterfall model and Agile methodologies to deliver results faster and incrementally. Agile increases ROI by taking advantage of features as soon as they are available instead of waiting for all functionality to be delivered. Adaptability must be deeply ingrained in the ethos and culture of your digital transformation team members.Look for singles and not home runs. Home run hitters normally also have a lot of strikeouts. Players that specialize in hitting singles get on base much more often. You should take the same approach in your digital transformation. Instead of attempting a moon shot, taking smaller steps that produce results is highly recommended. If you can demonstrate value early in your transformation, this will validate your approach and present to leadership that your approach is working. How much job security do you think you will have if your transformation takes three years and the project falls behind with no tangible results?Pick the low-hanging fruit and migrate those workloads first. You will be able to provide quick results with this approach, and you will learn from the mistakes you make in the process, which will help you when you need to accomplish other more difficult migrations.
