Recently, I have been reading about industry’s distrust in ‘Digital Transformation’ initiatives that IT consultancies are encouraging their clients to adopt. Why are CXOs feeling this way?
While I understand their disinclination toward these broadly-termed or unfocussed technology initiatives– this may be a dangerous trend, because companies do need to move forward rapidly with technological advancement toward Industry 4.0 to maximise their chances of future success.
According to George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy, “Digital transformation marks a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people and processes to change business performance”. The crux of the definition does not lie in the actual technology or tools being used in the initiative, but rather in the transformation of the mindset of the leadership and the subsequent change in the organization’s culture and ways of operating, not forgetting the attitudes inculcated in the ranks and files of the team.
- Misrepresenting the term ‘Digital Transformation’ in the era of Industry 4.0
While it is sometimes useful to have a broad, umbrella term that covers many different types of IT initiatives and programs, perhaps we need to revisit the usage of the term ‘Digital Transformation’.
How do we define digital transformation initiatives? Is it any IT initiative that helps to move a company from currently tedious, time-consuming, manual (and therefore error-prone) processes and systems, to digital, automated, machine-operated (therefore fast and probably error-free)?
When we consult with clients on moving towards digitization and therefore towards a digital transformation, we insist on addressing the challenges of how to make sure that attitudes of leadership and teams are changed to embrace digitization at all levels in the organization.
Pure digital strategy and implementation of digital tools and technologies cannot help organizations move towards becoming truly Digital Enterprises.
- Missing out on involving integrators and insiders into digital initiatives
Many companies feel that moving towards digitization of their current business processes is such a major-change, that they need to bring in new digital-savvy managers to take over their digital initiatives. While this may sound like a progressive idea, it has been shown in many cases to have an adverse effect.
A global survey by McKinsey found that one of the key elements of success in transformative IT initiatives is linking transformational goals to specific individuals within the organization. For digital transitions to work smoothly, it is essential to involve insiders and long-timers in the organization and assign specific integration responsibilities to them. These are the employees who understand the culture of the organization and who are ‘in-the-know’ of what works and what doesn’t. Since they have a good understanding of the business, the processes and the people, they are the best people to have on your team when it comes to effecting change in the ranks and files of the organization.
At CCR Technologies, we make sure we involve these ‘integrators’ when we deploy workflow management and automation services.
- Unwillingness to embrace change
The third and last reason in our view is about organizational unwillingness to change. Sometimes, this is apparent in the attitudes of the leaders themselves – they are at times uncertain of whether certain initiatives could prove successful, and at times, they are simply not confident about their team’s commitment to follow-through on large-scale transformative initiatives – with good reason!
Execution teams who are set in their ways and follow certain processes and systems are often resistant to embracing new processes and tools. Change initiatives – whether digital or not – are notoriously difficult to implement.
Successful change requires commitment at all levels. Leaders must share the conviction of their vision and also encourage teams to rethink their processes and convince them of the benefits of the new processes and systems.
When CCR Technologies is at the helm of digitization initiatives…
At CCR Technologies, we create readiness for organizations to transform themselves into Digital Enterprises by using simple yet powerful workflow automation techniques, geolocations, mobility, web applications, intuitive dashboards and data analytics tools.
We can integrate new processes and tools to your existing platforms and systems and bring disparate data into centralized systems which help in data visualization – impacting business decisions and results.
Want to learn more about how we can help your organization to successfully implement and run digital initiatives?
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