Why digitally transform?
Common drivers of digital transformation include reducing costs, improving productivity, providing a better customer experience, and ensuring governance and compliance. However, by far the biggest motivation for this change in the way companies operate is the need to survive. Changes in the market, disruptions to the supply chain, and shifts in customer expectations have made the ability to quickly adapt a necessity. Digital transformation gives you the agility needed to respond to such changes and not only stay competitive but stay in business.
Why set objectives for your digital transformation project?
Digital transformation is about educating employees on the benefits of a new way of working and encouraging them to embrace new technologies rather than fear them. Setting objectives is important for two reasons:
- Objectives provide everyone involved in the project with a clear understanding of what they are working towards and where their focus should lie, motivating them to bring about change.
- Objectives allow you to evaluate, track, and measure the performance of the project, keeping everything and everyone on course for success.
Common digital transformation objectives
As with the drivers of digital transformation, the objectives set will vary from one organization to another. However, some of the most common digital transformation objectives include:
1. Reducing costs
Automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks means that not only can they be completed faster and at a lower cost, but the human effort that previously went into them can be reassigned to more value-adding activities elsewhere.
2. Increasing revenue
Utilizing digital technologies to get things done quicker allows you to serve more customers, growing your customer base and increasing revenue.
3. Increasing collaboration
The success of any business is down to the collective effort of the entire organization. Digital transformation connects employees allowing them to share knowledge and ideas and align their efforts towards your organizational goals.
4. Increasing employee productivity
Digital transformation benefits employee performance in two ways:
- Reducing silos and bringing together different data sources means employees can access the business information they need to complete tasks faster.
- As the more mundane tasks are taken off their to-do list they can focus on more valuable, rewarding work.
5. Improving agility
Being able to respond to change (and do so rapidly) is crucial to keeping up with market trends and competitors. Connecting the people, applications, robots, and information in your organization allows you to quickly adapt processes to meet new demands and avoid getting left behind.
6. Improve customer experience
Customers will often interact with your business through various channels. Process improvements made through digital transformation allow you to better meet customer needs and do so more quickly.
7. Increase governance and compliance
Failure to comply with regulations can damage brand reputation and incur hefty fines – but staying on top of the ever-changing number of regulations in the marketplace means compliance isn’t an easy task. Digitizing processes increases transparency and minimizes risk, making adhering to regulations and demonstrating compliance simpler.
8. Gain competitive advantage
Better meeting customer needs, increasing productivity, and improving agility gives you the edge over your competitors.
How to determine your digital transformation objectives
Every business objective should align with the company vision and be a step towards achieving the longer-term goals of the organization.
When setting objectives it is vital to:
- Identify the value drivers within your business and how to maximize their performance as this is key to determining where change can have the most impact.
- Engage with all stakeholders to understand current processes and the pain points experienced to identify where improvements can be made.
- Make them SMART+C (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timed + Challenging).
Executive search firm Russell Reynolds’ goal was to modernize their way of working to maximize value to clients while improving employee experience. They implemented a time tracking system to understand the effort individuals were putting into daily processes and the pain points experienced so they were able to set objectives that addressed each of these.
Starting your own digital transformation project? Discover how Bizagi’s Low-Code Process Automation Platform can help.
