When is your company ready for digital transformation?

When people bring up digital transformation in a business context, it sometimes conjures up images of frantic technology purchases. Major investments are made in new software and devices — and that’s the end of the story.

Digital transformation is a lot more than just an exercise in technology or solution adoption. It entails a whole new approach to doing business, enabled by suitable technology and centered around the customer. It sits at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology for the dual purpose of differentiating the company and reinventing the CX for lasting growth in a digitally accelerated age.

In this blog, we will try to offer some insights on how an organization can decide whether it is ready for digital transformation. We will take a look at some of the key conceptual, strategic, and technological puzzles that must be solved before the organization can embark on that transformative journey with assurance.

Relevance is a holistic commitment

Part of the misunderstanding stems from the outdated “inside-out” approach, where KPIs and internal resources dictate how an organization designs and carries out activities to generate growth. What digital transformation calls for, however, is the opposite — an “outside-in” method that centers the worries, needs, interests, and headaches of the customer, that builds and adjusts strategies based on how they respond to the organization’s products and services.

To onboard, delight, and keep customers that will turn into brand loyalists, it is key to deliver tailored exchanges and experiences at key touchpoints and in relevant contexts. One should not interpret this as simply a cue for adopting new channels and send campaigns that encompass more than a single touchpoint. Rushing for more is never the whole point, nor will spray-and-pray overcome the challenge at hand.

An outside-in approach, embraced for the purpose of driving digital transformation, requires a restructuring of the business to ensure customer-centricity and relevance in every aspect of their experience with the organization.

What is best for your customers — at this specific location, channel, and/or time? Are the products designed to match the interests of the target segment?

Is there enough data to carry out your engagement efforts? Where is all the data located? Do you have the capabilities to turn the overwhelming amount of data from all the sources into valuable insights?

Are there not just one-off messages, but evolving communication flows to inform diverse audiences about your offerings? Can the interactions and journeys evolve with the customers? Have you mapped out the metrics that matter to your organization and introduced the right technology and process to proactively track how well your marketing activities are going?

In short, at every step of the many possible digital journeys across your ecosystem, there must be effective digital enablers to facilitate them, harness valuable insights, generate concrete business impact, and attribute ROI.

Read more: The benefits successful digital transformation can bring.