Digital advancements have largely shaped the way companies create and implement their respective business strategies. As CIOs and IT leaders, you have the capability to adopt and implement an innovative digital transformation. But, it can be challenging to capitalize on these advancements and build an effective digital strategy that can continuously evolve and adapt to the trends in today’s business and consumer landscape.
With unprecedented world events forcing as many as 69% of boards of directors to accelerate their digital business initiatives, how and where do you begin to adapt?
The Shift to Digital
According to a Gartner study, 87% of senior business leaders recognize that digital acceleration is one of their priorities. However, only 40% of those organizations have implemented digital initiatives. With budgetary increases in technology expected to increase up to 7%, according to a Gartner press release, expect to see more ventures that bank on analytics and artificial intelligence.
The same press release shares that the boards of directors’ (BoD) priorities are changing. More BoDs are putting digital technology initiatives at the top of their list, followed by customer engagement. Managing their company’s remote workforce comes third in the list.
Still the question remains, how do you embrace effective digital transformation within your organization?
How to Build an Effective Digital Strategy
1. Begin with a vision.
It can be difficult to envision what your industry will look like in a few years, but it’s not impossible to determine the direction toward which your company is going by asking the right questions.
With the right questions, you’d be able to create a vision that can allow you to map out an appropriate digital strategy and come up with the necessary metrics to gauge your progress.
2. Define your goals.
What do you want to achieve? Do you want to increase your market share? Do you want to be recognized as an industry leader? Being able to define your Golden Circle—knowing why your company exists, gives you a firm foundation that can help your organization determine what your goals are.
3. Understand the current situation of your company.
Knowing where your company currently stands helps put things into perspective. Are you ready to incorporate innovation or do you to focus on strengthening the basics first?
4. Build your digital customer engagement
According to Paul Ricci, one of the key factors in implementing successful digital transformation involves building relationships with your customers to drive engagement.
Note that unlike traditional marketing projects, digital customer engagement is characterized by three factors: digital technology that’s rooted in the front-end customer experience, a digital ecosystem that’s capable of automating customer experience through various channels, and exposure to new growth opportunities.
5. Back your vision with the right digital platforms and operating models
An effective digital strategy needs more than a vision and goals. You also need to invest in the right digital platforms to create the appropriate digital ecosystems. Moreover, you need to empower this new digital strategy with next-gen, dynamic solutions that improve connectivity across different industries and allow for the development of new business models.
6. Embrace innovation
Change isn’t always immediately welcomed, but when you adopt and commit to constant innovation, your organization will be able to evolve with emerging technologies. With this in mind, it’s important to constantly review and tweak your digital strategy accordingly. Today’s digital strategies are a far cry from their traditional counterparts—they need to be constantly updated and attended to if you want them to consistently develop.
