The Practical Guide to Digital Transformation

Quickly Master the Essentials with Tips, Case Studies and Actionable Advice

Antonio Weiss

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781398603660
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

Digital transformation is a vital practice for organizations trying to keep up with competitors, but with new digital approaches constantly promising to revolutionize the workplace it can feel impossible to keep up. Cut through the hype with this accessible guide to making end-to-end digital transformation happen. While technology offers the possibility for business improvement, successful digital transformation also requires an effective strategy, the right culture, change management, the ability to stimulate innovation and the knowledge of where to upskill and where to bring in new talent. The Practical Guide to Digital Transformation covers each of these factors and more by breaking the process down to 17 easy-to-follow and practical steps.Each chapter includes a case study of an organization getting it right, along with advice on putting the principle into action, key tips and tricks, and what you might say in your next meeting. This book also outlines how to start with the foundations of 'doing digital' and build from there, including data science, cyber security, workable technology, minimised stack duplication, data registers and good user experience. Quickly build confidence and make change happen with this actionable guide to the essentials of digital transformation.

Part One

Getting the strategy and roadmap right

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Maybe it was a tap on the shoulder from the CEO. Or perhaps an unexpected email. Or maybe this was your dream job all along. Whichever way, someone, somehow has entrusted you to help the organization ‘become digital’. Good luck.

You may not have a particularly strong digital or technology background, but you likely have a keen interest in the subject. It’s likely that much of what you do know will be self-taught. That’s great. This book isn’t going to teach you how to code (arguably no book can – you just need to try it). But it should give you a clear sense of the fundamentals of digital transformation and how to put them into practice.

Whether you’re inheriting a spaghetti of software systems and obsolete hardware or asked to create a technology blueprint from scratch, you will need to start with the basics. You need to get the digital strategy in place. Chapter 1 covers the first-order issues. What are you trying to achieve? How does it fit with the wider corporate strategy? Whose neck is on the line if this goes wrong? And why are you even doing this? You may think you already know all of this, but it’s worth pausing and checking you do really have all the answers before steaming ahead. Get the strategy wrong and you’re on the wrong track from the offset.

Chapter 2 addresses an underappreciated reality of transformation. All options are not open to you. A venture capital-backed Silicon Valley start-up founded by Stanford University data scientists will most likely have different means of delivering its digital strategy than a self-financed regional accountancy firm. Neither way is necessarily better. But it pays to be realistic. In this chapter you’ll be given the tools to self-assess your organization and pick a winning strategic delivery vehicle accordingly.

In Chapter 3 we start getting into specifics. Working back from your strategic vision and with consideration of the vehicle at your disposal to get there, we break down the steps to form your digital roadmap. What do you do, and when? What is independent and what is interdependent? What will help you build momentum and what is hard but essential to do? The roadmap charts a path to achieve your vision. It won’t be set in stone, but it will at least begin to point you in the right direction towards success.

01

What is a digital strategy?

Sure, everyone wants to ‘do digital’. But why? What are you trying to achieve here? And how will you know if you’re succeeding?

The principle in a nutshell

A digital strategy sets out the vision for an organization. It defines a small number of strategic options for how to deliver the vision and recommends a preferred option. The strategy must link directly to the organization’s overall transformation objectives. Importantly, it must encompass all facets of ‘digital’: user needs, technology architecture, digital services and underpinning data flows.

A great strategy ties together the current state of an organization’s digital maturity with its future ambition. It defines a clear and realistic timeframe for achieving the future ambition: essentially, how to get from A to B. There will always be different routes that organizations can take for realizing their ambitions: being an early adopter or fast follower, investing lots or investing the minimum, taking risks or being cautious. The digital strategy must consider such issues, evaluate them and propose a recommended way forward.

A digital strategy should be high-level. The detail comes once a preferred approach is agreed. The strategy should be easy to read for a non-technical audience. It should also be exciting and motivating. In an increasingly digital world, there are huge possibilities available to leverage technology to better meet the needs of citizens and customers in ways that were unimaginable until only recently.

What’s the problem being addressed?

An effective digital strategy should help to address various common challenges organizations face:

• Creating a seamless connection between corporate objectives and digital objectives: a golden thread must run from an organization’s overall objectives straight through the digital strategy. If it’s not clear how an element of the digital strategy helps meet the overall goals of the organization, it probably shouldn’t be part of the strategy.
• Understanding why we need to change: transformation is hard and if people reading the digital strategy don’t understand why change is needed, it’s unlikely they will embrace the new ways of working required. The strategy should set out – in stark terms, if required – why failing to change is not an option.
• Reducing organizational silos: a digital strategy must span across all parts of the organization. Digital cannot be boxed into a single unit or team – it affects everyone.
• Prioritizing effort and resources: the art of strategy involves realizing a future ambition with finite resources. A digital strategy should set out what gets delivered, and when. And importantly, what gets deprioritized.
• Knowing if it’s working: teams and organizations need to know if delivery is on track. Setting measurable, realistic and demonstrable targets is vital.
• Getting the right people involved: studies into failed digital transformation invariably cite a ‘lack of leadership’ as a critical missing factor.¹ However, organizations need to ensure that digital strategies not only are well articulated and led, but also that they are sufficiently resourced to succeed.

Putting the principle into action

So where do you start? In the first instance, it’s worth checking why you’re even asking about a digital strategy. Whose job is it to create the digital strategy? What is your role in the organization? An effective digital strategy needs to be set by the senior leadership – we’re talking board level – but implemented by all. If you’re a chief digital/transformation/technology officer, you probably still need a mandate from your CEO and board colleagues to embark on devising a new digital strategy. If you’re a head of/senior manager and you know change is needed but the leadership in the organization is failing to act, you’ll most likely need to influence and manage upwards – convincing the upper echelons why the organization needs to act.

There’s no perfect time to develop a digital strategy, but there are often external or internal factors that make one highly advisable. These might include:

• change in senior leadership and vision;
• organization-wide transformation programmes being launched;
• expiring technology contracts;
• competitor organizations launching digital initiatives;
• customer expectations that far outstrip the reality of the service you currently give.

Launching a digital strategy because of one of these factors may seem a little reactive, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing – there is already an in-built case for change. Proactively starting a new strategy in the absence of such factors may give you the luxury of time to think, but means you probably need to work harder to explain to colleagues why change is needed.

The value in setting out your thoughts in a simple and easy-to-follow manner should never be overestimated. Figure 1.1 sets out a ‘strategic vision on a page’ approach that you can use to guide your thinking.

Figure 1.1 Strategic vision on a page

Figure 1.1 details

The details of the strategic vision are as follows: vision, what are you aiming to achieve? In what timescale? How will it differentiate you from competitors; leadership and resourcing, who is ultimately accountable for the success or failure of this work? Who is leading the work on a day-to-day basis? Who is part of the team; objectives, how will you measure success? Are your measurements tangible, timely and realistic; user needs, who are your users? Are there internal and external users? What are their core needs from your organization; case for change, why are you doing this? And why are you doing this now; risks and dependencies, what are the risks of doing this work? How does work relate to other things going on in your organization?

Let’s see how we can address each of these in turn. The vision for y...

Table of contents

• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Why you need this book
• Part ONE Getting the strategy and roadmap right
• 01 What is a digital strategy?
• 02 Choosing your strategic delivery vehicle
• 03 How to do a digital roadmap
• Part TWO Making change happen
• 04 Ways of working
• 05 Senior and organizational buy-in
• 06 Funding digital
• Part THREE Doing digital
• 07 Understanding your users
• 08 Doing the bare minimum
• 09 Building new services
• 10 Buying technology
• 11 The cloud, APIs and open source
• 12 Using data science to inform decision-making
• 13 Stimulating innovation
• Part FOUR Future-proofing
• 14 Protecting and defending your organization
• 15 The ethical digital organization
• 16 Upskilling and bringing in new talent
• 17 Defining the next horizon
• Conclusion: 10 principles for digital transformation
• Appendix: A framework for understanding digital, data and technology
• Index