Digital transformation is a journey rather than a destination. That can make it tricky for IT teams that are traditionally accustomed to measuring success in postmortem-type results or ongoing performance metrics. However, it’s especially important to track digital transformation progress.
“The harsh reality is that around 70 percent of digital transformations fail, and this was pre-pandemic. COVID-19 is accelerating demand for digital transformation faster than ever before as the pandemic is exposing mass inefficiencies and disrupting traditional ecosystems and Business models,” says Kevin McCaffrey, CEO and founder of digital transformation consultancy Tr3Dent. “Now more than ever, companies across every industry must make sure they’re on the right path with digital transformation to ensure business continuity and remain competitive.”
This is true across industries and – increasingly – company sizes and geography. Will every Organization evolve into a tech company? Perhaps not, but they’ll get closer and closer to being one.
“Go-to-market strategies, customer interactions, and workforce enablement are all examples of activities that are being transformed by technology,” says Seth Robinson, senior director of technology analysis at technology association CompTIA, “and companies must embrace new mindsets around tech adoption and investment in order to remain competitive.”
Some key indicators show that a Business is headed in the right direction transformation-wise. Certain ones will depend upon the Organization’s goals for digitization; others are more universal. “Organizations need to define their own criteria of what success looks like,” says Yugal Joshi, vice president of digital, cloud, and application services research for Everest Group. “For example, if they were planning to get onto digital channels, which got accentuated due to the pandemic, their metric will differ compared to if they were focusing more on driving internal efficiencies through digital initiatives. Moreover, their existing and new technology landscape will also play a crucial part in defining these metrics. However, they can learn from their peers and the broader market.”
Consider these seven factors that signal your organization is making positive progress along its digital transformation path.
This will look different depending on the baseline level of maturity of the organization, says Mark Sami, director of technology at business and technology consultancy West Monroe. Generally speaking, IT functions focused on digital transformation develop an approach to digital projects and programs that serves them well long term.
