By Richard Conn, Senior Director, Demand Generation, 8x8

Digital transformation has taken the business world by storm. From cloud and mobile technologies to artificial intelligence and robotic process automation (RPA), digital solutions are flipping internal and external business processes on their heads.

Some companies have enthusiastically embraced the digital revolution. Others, less so.

Businesses that hesitated to begin their digital transition usually do so for one of two reasons: a fear of the unknown, and a resistance to change. While this hesitation is understandable, it's become increasingly clear that to survive in the new business climate, digital transformation isn't just an option. It's a necessity.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is the process of integrating emerging digital technologies into all areas of a business.

Digital transformation strategies increase the resilience and value of business models, activities, and processes, leveraging new technologies to optimize internal business operations and deliver superior customer experiences.

According to a recent report, the most utilized and important digital technologies for small businesses and enterprises alike include the cloud, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT). 91% of companies are engaged in some kind of a digital initiative, but this doesn't necessarily make them all digital-focused businesses.

 

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Digital transformation is a cultural shift. In order to position your business in the digital climate, you and your employees need to wholeheartedly embrace change, experimentation, and even the risk of failure.

Sound scary? It doesn't need to be. Here are five digital transformation best practices to increase your business' resilience in a digital-first climate.

1.   Create a Digital Roadmap

Failed digital transformation strategies tend to have one thing in common - a lack of focus. Since digital transformation is so heavily entwined with innovation and experimentation, It's easy for businesses to fall into the trap of saying yes to every new initiative, even those that don't adhere to their ideology.

Trying to run too many initiatives at once can have a disastrous impact on management productivity. A manager who is spread too thin is unable to devote the necessary care and attention to individual projects, hindering the success of their most promising initiatives.

The same goes for your other resources. Taking on too many projects at once can have severe financial repercussions and starve projects of the expertise that they require.

Creating a long-term digital transformation roadmap that prioritizes your most important initiatives is a digital transformation best practice that is used to increase success.

Concentrating on a few essential digital themes rather than an abundance of different initiatives can help to drive success for businesses when executing their digital transformation strategy.

 

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Be sure to focus on the right kind of initiatives. Hyper-personalize your priorities to your unique business goals and needs instead of relying on industry trends. For example, while cloud-based phone solutions are currently the industry go-to, your business might demand that you opt for SIP phone calling (Session Initiation Protocol, the process of transferring voice calls over to a SIP trunk or channel) instead.

Always analyze your business' unique requirements and make transformation decisions based on specific internal processes or customer pain points.

2.   Invest in Talent Acquisition and Retention

How hard is it to make an app? Pretty easy.

How hard is it to make a high-quality app that customers love? Pretty darn hard.

The same goes for all aspects of digitalization. It's one thing to understand the technical implementation of a new technology, but utilizing it in a way that is profitable and customer-centric is another thing entirely.

The success of a digital transformation strategy is dependent upon the talent behind it. By employing specialized professionals like a chief digital officer and a chief analytics officer, you equip your strategy with the managerial expertise it needs to meet set targets.

With that said, your current employees are the people who know your business and its customers best. Closing the skills gap by training employees to use and understand new technologies is a priority of 65% of businesses for very good reason.

Employees love to learn. In fact, for 66% of employees, it isn't a salary increase that motivates them to seek upskilling opportunities - it's the simple joy of learning new things and developing new skills.

So, while upskilling increases the technical abilities of your workforce, this is far from its only benefit. By unleashing your employee's potential through upskilling, you will reap the benefits of a workforce that is more confident, productive, and aligned with the digital goals of your company.

Training builds the confidence of employees, and should include a thoroughly planned and organized system. Including a library of comprehensive and well edited videos of processes, guides and standard operating procedures can be beneficial during this process.

 

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3.   Remain Agile and Adaptive

Businesses who fear digital transformation often do so because of how rapidly - and sometimes unpredictably - digital technologies are capable of driving change. Understandably, it can feel much safer to stick with what you know than to deal with the risks of investing in new technology.

However, along with conducting comprehensive internal and external research, you can significantly minimize any risks associated with digital transformation by remaining agile and adaptable.

Forget annual or quarterly reviews. When it comes to digital transformation, reviews and adjustments should be happening on a monthly or weekly basis.

Research shows that businesses performing regular, data-driven adjustments are more likely to report digital transformation success. To accommodate these frequent, high-velocity adjustments, businesses ingrain agility into the core design of their strategy and the culture that surrounds it.

As well as implementing a short development cycle, you can embrace digital transformation by practicing flexible talent allocation, devising dynamic budget plans, and cultivating a culture of agency, risk-taking, and collaboration.

As a gracious work perk, why not reward employees for taking risks and generating new ideas? Businesses with successful digital transformation strategies strongly agree that rewards for risk-taking and idea-sharing are important to employee productivity and satisfaction.

Keep in mind that digital solutions are agile by nature. In the long-running on-premise vs cloud debate, flexibility and scalability are two of the biggest benefits of the cloud.

4.   Prioritize Company-Wide Communication

Digital transformation is a top-down maneuver, with the visions of the C-suite executive managers driving initiatives down the pyramid. In order for these initiatives to reach every corner of your business, the C-suite not only needs to create a clear, unified vision, but they need to communicate it effectively.

Digital transformation should always be approached holistically. From IT and operations to sales and marketing, every department, team, and individual employee needs to be aligned with your transformation goals. This reduces the risk of silos and aids the creation of a synergistic strategy.

Managers and internal communications teams should make it a priority to consistently distribute relevant information, adopting an internal knowledge-based culture that prioritizes transparent communication and knowledge-sharing.

Effective knowledge management can increase employee productivity by up to 40%. Informed employees also possess the confidence needed to contribute innovative ideas and take appropriate risks.

 

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If your business operates on a global scale or you have a lot of remote employees, effective communication is all the more important. By investing in a flexible business office phone system with VoIP capabilities and native integrations, you can provide employees with enhanced communication capabilities and easily-accessible information. This is regardless of their physical location, time zone, or device.

5.   Track the right metrics

According to data gathered by McKinsey, CEOs are usually more than capable of describing the processes that currently drive their digital transitions. They can explain, for example, the implementation of a new automation technology or the launch of a new tech product.

But when it comes to quantifying the bottom-line impact of these initiatives, CEOs tend to lack confidence in their answers. This is because data monitoring and analysis commonly falls at a functional level.

The head of marketing is responsible for tracking digital leads. The head of sales is responsible for tracking digital sales. The head of operations is responsible for monitoring operational improvement. The problem? This important data can become siloed in different branches of the company.

It's critical that leaders have a bird's eye view of digital processes and their real-time impact on the business as a whole. While it's impossible to track every single metric across every single department, tracking fundamental, cross-organization metrics allows leaders to monitor the overall value of the digital movements.

Metrics that leaders should be tracking include:

• Return on digital investments
• Digital sales
• Talent acquisition, satisfaction, and retainment
• Net promoter scores
• Time-to-market and time-to-value

Wrapping Up

Starting small can help to dispel the fears surrounding digital uncertainty. Embracing the convergence of physical and digital entities can be as simple as implementing an email marketing automation strategy or investing in the best business phone service provider for your global or remote communication needs.

With the speed of innovation driving continuous change, businesses need to accelerate digital transformation efforts if they are to have any competitive advantage or position in the business landscape. This transformation doesn't rest on the implementation of emerging digital technologies alone, but on the adoption of a culture that welcomes agility, risk-taking, and change.

Armed with engaged, high-quality talent, a unified vision, and an agile, knowledge-sharing culture, your strategically implemented digital strategy will be set to succeed.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Conn - Senior Director, Demand Generation, 8x8

 

Richard Conn is the Senior Director for Demand Generation at 8x8, a leading business phone options and communication platform with integrated contact center, voice, video, and chat functionality. Richard is an analytical & results-driven digital marketing leader with a track record of achieving major ROI improvements in fast-paced, competitive B2B environments. Richard Conn also published articles for domains such as RightInbox and Upside. Check out his LinkedIn.