Digital business transformation: process management at all stages

The success of the entire event largely depends on how well digital transformation management (CT) is organized. If it does not work properly, the automation of internal processes will not be effective enough, and the company will not be able to properly adapt to the latest trends and changing market requirements. How can we ensure that innovations bring maximum benefit, and not turn out to be a waste of money “for the sake of hype”? Let's find out now!

Main requirements

Regardless of the company's field of activity, its scale and the complexity of its hierarchy, CT management must meet the following criteria:

1. An integrated approach. Digital transformation is not a one-time campaign: it involves the introduction of technologies at all levels of business, from logistics to customer service. To do this, you have to use a variety of tools and methods, from technological solutions to personnel management. If you start focusing on one aspect without the others, this will lead to overspending of resources and a decrease in management efficiency.
2. Objective assessment. At the planning stage, we need to answer key questions: what specific business goals we want to achieve, for example, to speed up order processing times by 15%, and what budget this will require. If it turns out that the forecasts were too high, it would appear that the management is not bearing fruit. We need to focus on long-term growth indicators: for example, conversion rates may increase by 25-30% only a year after implementation.
3. A careful approach to organizational culture. It is important that the implementation of CT and the selection of appropriate management tools do not conflict with the company's mission, goals and values. For example, a new CRM system should take into account the peculiarities of interaction with customers.
4. Transparent communication. Each part of the business, which is in one way or another concerned with the introduction of innovations, must be aware of its role in the process, tasks and prospects.

CT management at different stages

The specifics of this process directly depend on the stage of implementation of the concept. Management will need to take into account not only private but also general nuances, primarily related to the human factor.

Analysis

Since this stage requires defining the goals and objectives of digital transformation for a particular business, management involves the following actions:

1. Collecting information, evaluating it. Specialists will need to study the company's current processes and understand how CT can improve them. They will also have to analyze data on the target audience and the position of competing firms, and identify weaknesses and strengths. To do this, they use questionnaires, study documentation, use SWOT analysis and assess the maturity of current digital processes. The latter is especially important because the result will help you understand how well prepared the company is for the upcoming changes.
2. Directly formulating the goals and objectives of CT. The same action involves the development of criteria by which the success of implementation and KPIs will be assessed.
3. Development of potential risks. The latter can affect both technological and administrative aspects, as well as the human factor. The Department should take into account measures that mitigate all identified risks and develop an algorithm for their application.
4. Designing individual solutions, selecting tools for integration and technologies. For example, these could be ERP systems for resource management or marketing automation platforms.

Strategy

At this stage, it is necessary to draw up a clear plan for implementing technologies, which includes specific steps: selecting contractors, distributing tasks by department and planning a budget for each stage. It also regulates the modernization of individual business sectors, from internal processes to customer feedback processing. Actions at this stage should be aimed at developing a management structure, planning, budgeting and Change management (aka change management). The main tasks are:

• appointing employees who are directly involved in digital transformation processes, determining their area of responsibility;
• development of a roadmap that defines the composition and sequence of steps for integrating CT;
• allocating a budget for implementation, searching for main and additional sources of financing for innovations;
• search for contractors if you plan to entrust the implementation of digital transformation to experts.

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In addition, already at the strategy stage, management should develop measures that will help staff adapt to upcoming changes. These can include special courses, coaching, meetings, and other events that inculcate a culture of digital innovation and help employees adapt to them. It is also necessary to establish the frequency of monitoring results, reporting rules and methods for assessing interim and main results.

Implementation and adaptation

This stage directly involves digital transformation processes — introducing tools and software, stimulating staff involvement, unifying standards to new realities and optimizing the company's work. In the process, it is important that employees quickly adapt to innovations and learn how to work with them, routine tasks are fully automated, and standards are redesigned for all departments, divisions and branches.

CT management at this stage should include the following actions:

• organizing events for employees — lectures, seminars, courses, trainings, etc.;
• assessment of staff readiness for upcoming work in the new conditions, differentiation according to the level of development of skills acquired;
• adapting individual processes (for example, working with clients, collecting information, preparing presentation materials, etc.) to implemented digital technologies;
• identifying problems that prevent full CT, processing objections from employees, stimulating involvement in the business transformation process (both financial measures and intangible methods are suitable for this);
• providing support and working with infrastructure, from debugging the frequency of software updates to feedback from users.

Monitoring and optimization

This is the final stage, the task of which is to monitor the results, evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented solutions and choose a further strategy. For example, if the digital transformation went according to plan and there were no major obstacles in the process, management comes down to generating reports and further supporting processes and infrastructure. If problems are identified during the CT (for example, overspending, difficulties in adapting employees, technical problems), they must be fixed in a timely manner.

The main management tasks at this stage are:

• collection and processing of interim and final data and metrics;
• assessing the percentage of deviation between actual results and expected results, identifying the cause;
• formulating the results of implementation, the degree of improvement in business processes (for example, it is worth calculating how you managed to reduce costs, reduce the time spent on routine tasks, increase the response speed in working with customers, etc.) );
• identifying weaknesses and negative factors that require increased attention.

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After that, management should adjust the strategy taking into account the identified shortcomings, problems and conflicts (for example, redirect resources to improve the system if it failed to speed up data processing as planned). This will help not only to clearly understand how effective the digital transformation has been, but also to assess where to go next and how to achieve even better results. At the same stage, successful IT products are being scaled up and initiatives are being expanded. For example, if CT initially affected only the head office, it is advisable to extend it to all branches of the company.

How do you measure performance?

One of the difficulties faced by company executives is the ambiguous assessment of the productivity of innovations that have already been implemented. On the one hand, a number of changes are qualitative in nature, so it is difficult to reflect them in numbers; on the other hand, some of the results do not appear immediately, but several months later. For the most objective assessment of efficiency, it is better to use several methods at once:

• monitoring KPIs, or key performance indicators (depending on the particular business, this may be, for example, the number of sales, the average check, the number of closed objections, resiliency, subscriber growth, etc.);
• use of metrics — profit growth, cost reduction, optimization of time for business processes, the number of automated processes, the speed of integration of IT products, etc.;
• data collection through analysis, questionnaires, benchmarking.

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It is recommended to assess the effectiveness of digital transformation at the end of each stage and at the end of the entire process. Interim monitoring will help to respond to errors in a timely manner, eliminate weak links, resolve conflicts, and the final check will show the overall result.

Digital transformation management tools

This process is simply impossible to carry out using outdated methods and manual data processing. For maximum efficiency, it is necessary to use modern IT solutions that simplify and reduce the cost of the task. For example, specialized platforms like Trello can be used for planning and monitoring, BI systems can be used to conduct business intelligence, and RPA services like UiPath can be used to automate routine operations. The following are also often used:

• CRM systems for optimizing interaction with the target audience;
• ERP services that help with resource planning and financing;
• cloud platforms like Google Cloud, which are designed to ensure scaling and rapid integration at all levels of business;
• applications for effective and fast communication, thanks to which you can exchange information in a split second and always keep up to date with the team's affairs.

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For the most efficient management of CT, it is recommended to use not one but several tools to ensure that the process is optimized at all stages.

Mistakes, Challenges, Risks

Unfortunately, many companies that have decided to go through digital transformation make various mistakes that have a negative impact on results. A careless approach can lead to budget overspending, delayed integration, hidden and open conflicts between management and staff, and other difficulties. Most often, entrepreneurs make the following mistakes:

1. An insufficiently developed strategy. This is usually due to the fact that the company has a vague idea of what digital transformation is and why it is needed in a particular case. As a result, the goals set are vague, the tasks are ambiguous, and employees do not work for results, but “for the sake of appearances”. Of course, it is impossible to talk about efficiency both in terms of managing and operating the new infrastructure.
2. Ignoring human culture and staff attitudes towards innovations. Simply confronting employees with the fact that they will have to adapt to CT is more likely to cause problems, from layoffs to reduced quality of work. It is important not only to motivate employees, but also to explain what digital transformation will bring to them and how it will help make their work easier.
3. Slow response. Although the results of CT itself may not appear immediately, the slightest changes should be taken into account as soon as possible. This will make it possible not only to identify problem issues in time, but also to discover new trends and prospects, following which will make the transformation even more effective.
4. Incorrect assessment of results. For example, if management expected sales to go up sharply immediately after the introduction of IT products and the company's change in concept, but in reality this did not happen, they are disappointed in the solution and reduce support. As a result, digital transformation fails before it can bear fruit.

In addition, cybersecurity rules may be ignored in the process of managing the CT, which can not only reduce the efficiency of the process itself, but also large losses.

Digital transformation management covers all stages of innovation, from planning and analysis to scaling. A competent approach will help to achieve maximum profits and optimize production with a minimum of effort and finance, while negligence can result in large losses of money and reputation.

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