The 12 key areas you need to get right for a successful digital transformation project.
Transforming digitally is a complex process for companies to accomplish. They must look at how the digital age is impacting their business process and will have to make difficult decisions. The longer a company has been in operation the harder it can be to make the changes required. Newer companies can find the process of digital transformation a less daunting task as they have been created in a digital environment. They can be more attuned to the various factors that are affecting the modern business landscape. Many companies will be somewhere in the middle between these two outlying examples and have various parts of their business already digital but other parts that need more work. If you’re currently considering embarking on the digital transformation process, or if the process is already underway in your company, consider these 12…
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August 15, 2016
Take the Opposite approach to Digital Transformation
“The one constant of change is that it’s always for someone else...except it's not.”
Today's customers demand to be recognized across every channel, whether online or offline. They don't care about which part of the company they are dealing with, to them, there's only one brand. Yet, companies continue to give customers a disconnected experience, with sales, service and marketing each working to engage the audience on their own, without coordinating their efforts. It makes customers frustrated, disengaged and disloyal. In a 2013 research study by Oracle, 89% of customers said they had switched brands due to a bad customer experience.
The convergence of technology and behavior is only accelerating and the butterfly effect it causes is transformative and disruptive. Markets are shifting to such extent that they open the door to innovation with new products, services and ways of doing business becoming the norm as…
An honest and frank look at the often flawed digital procurement process from the [supplier] dark side
The software procurement process is fundamentally flawed. It's a waste of time and I'd go as far to say that neither the buyer nor the supplier ever really get the result they are looking for.
I hold this view as a digital director who has dealt with a fair number of tender processes over the years and, while I appreciate where this process comes from and why it is used, I just feel it's time to urge businesses to start shaking off this hugely out of date way of buying when it comes to digital. After all, it's a legacy of the advertising industry that operates in a totally different way than it does now.
So what's the problem?
Overall I think it's that…
How to survive digital transformation
I'm not sure we should be encouraging people to think of digital transformation as armageddon scenario, but then again it does bear certain similarities. It's hard work, and keeping your team united is key to success (or that's what I'm lead to believe by all the survival movies I've seen).
When you're working on a digital transformation project, anything that can go wrong probably will. It's a difficult task, so it makes sense to get some help. In fact, Gartner research shows that digital transformation initiatives only have a 30% success rate, so most fail. To make sure yours doesn't, it might be wise to have a read of tfm's new Digital Transformation Survival Guide.
Thanks to tfm for publishing this infographic. If you want more advice on managing the digital transformation process, expert business members can download our …
Does the age of the employees affect the culture of the company?
The average age of the engineers that built the most powerful rocket ever built in human history, which landed a man on the moon, had an average age of 28. Now the average age of a NASA engineer is 47. I don't want to sound ageist, but it's been a good long while since anyone's been on the moon.
So does the average age of a company's employees say anything about its dynamism? Well, maybe I'm a little biased because I'm still a little wet behind the ears, but I think it might just have something to do with it. The chart below shows innovative companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce and Google all having considerable younger median ages than the likes of IBM and Oracle. Don't get me wrong, the latter two are great companies, and probably have a fair…
Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace and many businesses are struggling to keep up.
In recent years, the introduction of 3D printing, intelligent robots and self-driving cars are all facilitating a technological change that is happening at lightning speed all around us. As soon as authorization has been passed, installation occurred, implementation process finishes and users are comfortable using a solution; predictably a shiny new thing appears on the horizon and the process has to start all over again.
Bruce Weinelt (Head of Digital Transformation at the World Economic Forum) highlights how industry “is being driven by a staggering range of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between people, the internet and the physical world. It's a convergence of the digital, physical and biological spheres.”
But what is Digital Transformation?
"Digital Transformation” has had a variety of definitions, some useful, some…
The key to effective transformation is being connected
If there is one word that seems to be in every conversation today, it’s transformation. It started as digital transformation and now many businesses are panicking about business transformation. This new strategic focus is driven by the disruptions brought through social, mobile, and digital…. which were all the buzz words du jour over the past few years. Remember when every conversation you had last year was about “big data”? And the year before it was all about social and the social enterprise? And a few years back it was all about mobile? And many years ago it was all about digital media and digital channels?
All these are buzz words about a new technology or platform that was evolving from being an emerging trend to becoming mainstream. Digital channels, social enterprise, mobile networks and big…
Five recommendations for approaching digital innovation in order to serve the customer better
Through using digital technology and media, customers have found new ways to communicate, consume and share. They now measure the performance of organisations and the brand experience based on the standards set by ‘digital natives’ such as Amazon or Uber. Customers expect the same rapid response times, a seamless omnichannel experience and real-time information from every other organisation they do business with.
While most traditional organisations now have customer-centricity and enhancing the customer experience high on their strategic agenda, they’re at a distinct disadvantage as few of these organisations have been built around the customer’s needs or with an ‘outside-in’ approach. Digital start-ups, on the other hand, have customer-centricity at their very core which gives them the edge on customer experience.
Why digital disruptors have the edge…
4 Agile Marketing Experts give their views on what it takes
Unfortunately, too many marketers have confused ad-hoc social media promotions with genuine agile marketing.
While the original concept of ‘agile’ as a way of working was first popularised in the world of software development, it wasn’t until recently when applied to the realm of social media that we’ve started to talk about ‘agile marketing’.
Certainly real-time engagement with your customers can get you noticed. Oreo Cookies, for example, is famous for its ‘dunk in the dark’ tweet during the Super Bowl power outage.
The success of Oreo Cookies has spurred many brands to attempt their own quick turnaround content for social media, which has often got them noticed in the wrong kind of way.
From barely thought-out newsjacking attempts, to the sloppy creation of ham-fisted memes, poor execution has helped make agile marketing a…
Technology is continuing to change the way we view digital marketing at breakneck speed, but the future is bright for digital marketing
It’s quite apparent that technology has brought the marketing field a long way. We wouldn’t be immersed in the digital marketing field without it. However, many marketers, particularly those in small businesses, don’t recognize just how much and how often technology is changing. For that reason, they have a very difficult time keeping up, which could be their biggest marketing mistake.
“In a nutshell, we’re living in a rapidly changing world where ‘on the fly’ collaboration sessions involving voice, video, and data sharing are becoming commonplace,” says Jeremy Cioara of CBT Nuggets, a company devoted to technological advancements. “Executives and employees have their expectations set high when it comes to supporting collaborative communication within an organization.”
With the ever-present…
