Developing A Digital Transformation Framework: 3 Steps To Success

Your Roadmap to Digital Transformation Success 

Digital transformation is more than diving into the latest technology trends and trying to shoehorn something into your business. Simply choosing technologies in isolation and bringing them into your business can actually cause more problems than they solve and end up creating more cost inefficiencies (this often happens when companies choose separate technologies that have overlapping features). Instead, a successful digital transformation is about taking a company-wide view of your tech stack, processes and culture and understanding how they can be improved using new technology.

Part of this is developing a digital transformation framework that will guide your project and ensure you remain focused on the goals and outcomes you need, rather than getting sidetracked whenever some new technology grabs your attention. We’re going to take you through how to develop a digital transformation framework based on our work helping hundreds of companies go through their own successful digital transformation project.

The Importance of Digital Transformation in Today’s Business Landscape

Adaptability is a key trait for businesses that thrive in constantly changing environments and conditions. However, the limitations of legacy technology make this difficult, often boxing companies into rigid ways of working that don’t match modern needs. 

Business communication is a simple, but prime example. Relying on fixed phone lines and hardware prevents businesses from adapting to the new hybrid and remote working expectations and prevents companies and teams from being flexible over communication and working practices. Cloud communications – particularly Unified Communication as Service systems – allow teams to access their entire communication network from anywhere with an internet connection and mobile device. This opens businesses and workers up to a world of remote accessibility and versatility that simply wasn’t available before.

Key Drivers of Digital Transformation

There is no single reason to go through a digital transformation and the key drivers of a digital transformation will be specific to the business. Whether it’s trying to improve the customer experience using technology like Contact Centre as a Service, using cloud technology to improve collaboration or making data security a priority, there are many reasons to go through a digital transformation. We won’t go through them all here because we’ve written about them extensively in this blog (read our key drivers for digital transformation blog here).

Step 1: Assessing Your Organisation’s Digital Maturity

Evaluating Current Digital Capabilities

Before beginning your digital transformation, you need to look at how your company is already utilising digital technology. For example, you could examine your current IT infrastructure. If your current hardware is slow, inefficient and costs you productivity every day, a digital transformation will help you to make improvements.

Solutions like new data management options, cloud storage and cloud phone systems, could relieve your current hard drives and reduce the need for bulky, in-house servers. This will save you money in maintenance fees, too, as engineers will no longer need to visit your premises to make server repairs. With cloud services, your servers can be hosted off-site and managed by an external provider.

Identifying Areas For Improvement

First, you should look at where specific improvements can be made in your business, before making strategic decisions. A major area of improvement many businesses focus on during digital transformation is customer service. 33% of customers are frustrated having to wait on hold, according to HubSpot. If your business system is still dealing with long hold times, you’re cutting the chances of customers returning to your business. 

However, with CCaaS, you could drastically cut hold times, or eliminate the need for them altogether. Having an efficient, intelligent contact centre system that can automatically route callers to appropriate agents, quickly, will reduce the number of callers on hold, giving you the chance to solve their queries quicker than slow, outdated systems. Alternatively, customers could also opt for live chat solutions as part of CCaaS, so they wouldn’t need to be on hold at all.

Another big area of digital transformation is operational efficiency. Employees can struggle to juggle multiple programs and applications they need to complete day-to-day tasks, including making contact with customers. Office workers switch back and forth between programs 1200 times a day, which equates to four hours a week, according to data from Harvard Business Review. This is a lot of lost time that could have been spent on more productive work for the business.

If your business is acting similarly, you’re likely losing thousands in manpower hours. However, UCaaS (Unified Communications as a System) can remove the need for constant platform switching because it brings all major methods of communication – voice, text, messaging and video – into one easy-to-use app. This will save time, boost productivity and improve collaboration within your business.

Setting Digital Transformation Goals

It’s important to have specific goals when preparing your digital transformation, so you can keep track of your progress and examine anywhere you need to alter your strategy if you’re not seeing the results you want. First, set a reasonable timescale, showing when you want to reach certain goals, like having all areas of your business switched over to your new system, which could take time depending on the size of your business. Then, choose the information you can use to gauge your success or failure. For example, customer service responses. If you’ve put a new system in place to improve customer service, allow it to run for several weeks, before offering surveys to your customers at monthly (or longer) increments. If you begin to see improved scores, you know your efforts are working.

Step 2: Building a Digital Transformation Team

Digital transformation is not a one-man job. It takes months of effort from dedicated people, so you need the right people on your team to see your digital transformation efforts succeed.

Roles and responsibilities

Project manager

This is the person who will oversee the entire process and ensure all aspects of the digital transformation are on track. You should choose someone relatively high within your business hierarchy, but also someone familiar enough with your current technology and the technology you need.

Business Leaders and Analysts

These are the people who look at your business from a logistical perspective, identifying where your numbers are suffering. For example, if product output has slowed, it’s their job to decide where new digital transformation technology should be incorporated to help solve the issue.

Technology experts

These people will be the ones in charge of choosing and implementing digital transformation technology, like Elite Group. Working with experienced technology experts is essential if you want to ensure your new technology will be used effectively in your business. Technology experts should also ensure your Technology Officer (or similar role) is engaged throughout the process, so that all areas of the business can benefit and that no cross-department or individual opportunities for improvement are missed during the digital transformation journey.

At Elite Group, our technology experts are here to make sure the technologies that are implemented during your digital transformation are used to their fullest, so all areas of the business can benefit.

Change management specialists

These people will ensure that the organization’s employees are fully prepared for the changes that the digital transformation will bring. This can be done through the use of specialised training courses for employees, teaching them to work alongside the new technology, so they feel more confident in their roles. Change management specialists can also take a more interpersonal approach for those who feel especially intimidated by the new technology, setting their minds at ease with encouraging talks backed up by stories of other successful transformations and the positivity they brought to those businesses.

Assembling a cross-functional team

As digital transformation is a business-wide endeavour, all areas of the business need to be kept in the loop and have a say in how the transformation is executed from multiple standpoints. For example, your IT department will be able to offer advice and support, while your HR department will relay to you how employees are feeling about the new technology as you move forward. Having as many voices as possible or voices from all areas of your business will ensure the transformation is having the effect you want across the board, rather than being funnelled into a specific area. This also provides full transparency to people from all business departments.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration

Digital transformation is a physical process to replace technology, but it’s also about the mindset of the people surrounding the transformation. You should try to reinforce a culture of innovation and collaboration, one that encourages and emphasizes the use of new technology, rather than resenting it. There are several ways you can help your employees to further embrace digital transformation. Having them attend events like workshops and industry seminars or conferences will immerse them within the digital tech realm, while training courses will help them to become fully accustomed to the new technology they’ll be expected to adapt to. With a workforce that’s focused on the success of digital transformation, you’ll be at a distinct advantage over the many businesses where transformation floundered as a result of resistant staff. 

Step 3: Creating a Digital Business Transformation Roadmap

Define your digital transformation vision

Precision and clarity are key in digital transformation. It’s not enough to say you want to “improve” your business. You need to choose specific processes you want to improve, to serve a specific function. For example, you may want to improve your business phone system, for better communication between staff and customers internally and externally. 

When planning your business’s digital transformation, you’ll likely end up with a long list of things you want to see change, but that’s OK. As long as you have a clearly defined vision, you’re in a good position to move forward.

Prioritise Initiatives

Which areas of your business do you expect to see the most change or which areas of the business would deliver the biggest result (usually return on investment) for you? Prioritise initiatives within your digital transformation, rather than generalising the whole process. That way, you’ll be able to better gauge your success.

Find out more about how to successfully go through a digital transformation

At Elite Group, we’re highly experienced in helping many business models adapt to new technology to stay ahead of the trend. If you’d like to explore your own digital transformation strategy, get in touch with Elite Group today.