Digital transformation has always been closely intertwined with data. In fact, one of the first steps on the road to digital transformation is taking control of data and removing the barriers that prevent the business from exploiting it. But while technology leaders are certainly paying lip service to data by acknowledging it as an asset in their organization, to really make the most of data they must first understand and advocate for its transformative potential.
At the heart of this promise of transformation sits the need for a robust data foundation. But not every organization needs to immediately implement advanced analytics capabilities to serve its customers or improve workflows – and many organizations are just not ready for this setup. Instead, organizations that want to put digital-first and become truly data-driven can still make great strides with a more measured approach.Â
In this article, I’ll provide some practical guidance for organizations that want to unlock the power of data to help accelerate their digital transformation.
Many organizations fall into a common trap when approaching data and digital projects. They view these initiatives as way to upgrade technology, under the misguided assumption that upgraded systems and new applications alone will improve workflows and productivity. Whilst somewhat true, this approach lacks vital strategic focus. They’ve not asked themselves two key questions, ‘Why are we doing this? And what exactly are we hoping to transform?’.
Most digital transformation programs deal with the migration of offline, manual processes to online, digital environments. For this reason, digital transformation projects are, at their core, data projects, as migration requires the digitizing of data, content, and information across an entire organization. The two are more than just interlinked, they’re inseparable.
Similarly, every organization needs to establish desirable business outcomes from its digital transformation strategy, but many tend to ignore the impact of these transformational activities on their data. Successful transformations work two ways – digital plans have a profound impact on the proliferation and use of data, and the way that this data is managed has a direct impact on the success of the planned digital transformation.
That’s why aligning your data and digital strategies is a great place to start.Â
But even without a fully-fledged data strategy, you can still nail down a set of information and data-driven principles to drive a roadmap of activity that stems from digital transformation, marked by the adoption of new tools, technologies, and talent.Â
The outcomes of your data strategy should be chiefly concerned with the consumption of data. In short, you’re asking ‘who will benefit from improved access to more accurate data?’.
Inspired by User Experience (UX) teams and their approach of researching and defining personas, a key aspect of any data strategy should be to put your users first. And to do that, you need to define data personas and understand their data experience. For example, utilities organizations will have teams of field engineers, as well as office-based teams in charge of organizing maintenance callouts. The information for both sets of users might be the same, but there are several significant contextual issues that must be reconciled. An engineer working underground will likely be equipped with a tablet device and may be working with gloves or other PPE on. This means form factor, application interfaces, and data visualization must be suitable for the user and the work they need to carry out.
