Digital transformation is, above all, a big challenge for your company. If you want to go through this complex process smoothly and successfully, you need a plan that will help you organise all the relevant elements and processes. And that’s what we want to talk about today.
The digital transformation roadmap aims to illustrate and show all involved parties and employees how to get to where you want your company to be in the near future. Typically, the end result is a full digitalisation of all crucial processes and activities taking place within the company – from IT and marketing through customer service, manufacturing, sales and HR.
Specifically, you have to pay attention to three essential elements:
1. People: Who will be responsible for the transformation? What skills are necessary? What culture do we want to have after the transformation?
2. Processes: What is going to change in the way we work? What digital tools do we need? What processes need to be adjusted?
3. Physical elements: Do we need to change anything about our office, branches or devices/machines that we use on a daily basis? Do we need to invest in some additional devices or tools?
Start with a strategy
Every digital transformation has to be well-thought-out. You cannot start with everything at once. Things that have a direct influence on how you serve your customers should be prioritised. Determine your business model, company’s goals and customer challenges. You can think of conducting meetings and workshops to ensure you set the right priorities and challenges to solve.
The next step is to analyse your current digital solutions and digital activities. Answer these two questions: What does our company do, and how? What do we use digital products for? This way, you will find it easier to see what can be improved and how. Of course, you will also need to broaden your knowledge of what’s currently possible (the IT world is evolving very rapidly!). Also, not every technology out there will be useful for your business. For example, suppose you run a graphic design company. In that case, you likely won’t need the internet of things (IoT) or additive manufacturing (3D print) because these technologies are irrelevant to your work.
Your digital transformation strategy needs to be adjusted to your company’s needs and profile. Moreover, it should be an integral part of your overall business strategy. The next step is to create a detailed roadmap. Here’s how you can do that.
How to structure your digital roadmap
The roadmap for the digital transformation of your business should be composed of two basic elements:
1. Objectives: What you want to achieve, what’s the expected outcome
2. Related projects: How you want to achieve it, what technologies and solutions are necessary
Furthermore, these two elements ought to be divided by different departments in your company. That’s fully logical; your accountant doesn’t have to be involved in implementing marketing automation, correct? Each department has different goals and challenges, and your roadmap should reflect that.
To make your roadmap more legible, consider creating it in a graphic presentation (an infographic or a flowchart) and include three elements in it:
1. An overview: Gather the most important information in one place: What you want to do, how you want to do it and why you want to do it.
2. The outcome: Keep your goals and expected results at the forefront. This way, you will stay focused, and you will plan work more easily.
3. A description of each point: Limit yourself to the most important information/data. All the additional elements, guidelines and instructions should be stored in different files (e.g., Excel sheets) to maintain full transparency.
Find out more about creating a digital transformation roadmap
Are you getting ready for the digital transformation of your company? Therefore, you should take a look at the full version of this article. It will help you grasp the whole idea and see how to prepare for this huge milestone in your company’s development! Read more here: Building a successful digital transformation roadmap step by step.