Scaling Digital Transformation- 6 Important Factors To Consider

Every year, technology is making strides to benefit both personal and professional lives. However, this constant change can often render it difficult for businesses to compete.

Of course, your business needs to adapt to these changes as fast as possible.

According to a report, 40% of business technology spendings goes toward upgrades and updates.

Why is it so? Or, more importantly, what do these upgrades refer to?

Understanding Digital Transformation

Contrary to common belief, digital transformation is so much more than adding new technologies.

For small and local businesses, it could mean taking their business online. For large and branded corporations, digital transformation could mean using cloud computing technologies.

Likewise, for B2C corporations, digital transformation may mean including digital payments. But, on the other hand, for B2B corporations, it could be automating the order placement process.

Technology is the key to building an organization these days. It helps increase the value of a business to the customers. And it also helps evolve within the industry.

In most cases, the changes are often the result of customer expectations. As the customer expectations improve, so do the company’s internal digital technologies.

But, how do you choose which technologies to include and which ones to avoid? Or, more importantly, how do you know if you need a technology upgrade in the first place?

The answer to the former question is listed below. As far as the latter one is concerned, the moment you realize your business is losing customers, it is a clear sign that you should upgrade your technologies.

Notably, there are many ways a company can scale its digital transformation. However, all these changes would still depend on some factors.

6 Important Factors To Consider

Let’s take a look at these factors to consider.

Budget For Digital Changes

While there are many technologies that a business can consider, not all would bring in the same returns. To put this into perspective, implementing digital changes would mean assessing the benefits they have to offer.

On top of that, it would require a substantial amount of capital investment.

When a business puts its money into something, it expects returns on investment. And this is precisely the reason to consider the budget when scaling up the digital technologies.

Training Needs Of The Employees

Another factor to consider during digital transformation is the need for training. Of course, with every new technology, some new features need to be learned.

For example, if a company adopts a new HR management software, the department would need to learn to use it properly. Or the company might need to outsource management services for the same. In either case, there is a need for employee training.

An upgrade that would require intensive learning and training would not be a good option. It would not only use up a lot of workable hours but would also require additional investment.

Picking The Right Technology

It is imperative to consider and decide on the technologies before investing. Which technologies would be helpful, the training needs, and the budget, have already been discussed.

However, there’s one thing still that needs to be discussed. It is worth mentioning here that within the same tech category, there are several tech classes.

For example, devising and rolling out new applications, followed by application management services that are needed.

Rushing into things may overload employees with too many significant changes at once.

Having A Transformation Plan

Your goals primarily decide the technologies that you take up. For example, if your focus is on improving customer experience, you need technologies that can help.

It could take some trial and error to find the right technology for your business. Since no two technologies are the same, they don’t offer the same level of user experience. On top of that, they won’t provide the same level of efficiency in the process.

Preparing for the transformation well in advance can help cope with these challenges. For instance, finding the right technology to help with your HR operations, you might consider your employees’ training needs. And, of course, how you’ll implement the changes.

Preparing For Onboarding Changes

At times, it might be easier to find the right technology for your company. But it certainly does not mean that the transition would be an easy task.

Consider this scenario. You have opted for an automated customer response tool. Of course, the tool has simplified the tasks for both – your company and your customers. But, at the same time, it might also make some of your staff completely redundant.

You need to prepare for such changes and embrace the idea of revolutionizing your company. In short, you should be able to communicate with your workforce transparently. And encourage them to embrace the changes as well.

Role Of Change Management

Whenever a change is implemented in a company, employee engagement plays a critical role. In many aspects, an employee’s day-to-day activities would also change with the technology.

Perhaps, the first and the most essential thing that you should consider is employee feedback on the change. If the employees don’t accept the changes, the overall transformation may suffer.

Keeping employees engaged and managing them throughout the transformation is, thus, critical. The more the employees engage with the changes, the smoother the shift would be.

The Takeaway 

So far, you should have a ballpark idea of what you should consider when digitally transforming your business. On this note, it is worth mentioning that not all changes are the same.

Some businesses might need to change everything they own to stay operational and competitive. But, at the same time, some might only need to make few tweaks, here and there.

The key here is to evaluate your business against your competitors.

Try finding answers to these questions – what are the changes that your competitors are making? How are the technological changes benefiting your competitors? Would implementing the same change benefit your business the same way?

And when you have answers to these questions, you’re already halfway to scaling up your digital transformation.

Moreover, there is no timeline for how long a change should take. But, perhaps, technology is constantly evolving, and so is the need to embrace the newer versions.