Planning to Modernize? Prioritize around Customer Needs

What does Digital Transformation really mean? In post four of our series, learn how to drive modernization efforts that help the customer.

Digital transformation isn’t just about IT staff finding new ways to perform old tasks. It’s about enterprise-wide modernization—transforming your organization with new digital technologies that enable you to rethink nearly every part of your business.

Digital technologies enable modernization by streamlining processes and improving the customer experience with better engagement and service. They make possible what was previously impossible, and open up new business opportunities that couldn’t have existed without them. In fact, results from our survey show 42% of decision makers will uncover new revenue streams using new technology.

Begin Your Modernization

Most organizations looking to digitally transform have numerous areas ripe for modernization, and it’s often difficult to figure out where to start. One way to prioritize is to focus on providing maximum value and impact for your customer.

For example, maybe the most pressing need is to mobilize existing applications so customers can access them on various mobile devices. An initiative to mobilize legacy applications can lead to modernizing the user experience and interface, consolidating data sources, and possibly moving backend systems to the cloud. Before you realize it, a more extensive modernization effort is underway. This is just one of many possible ways to leverage technology to make your business faster, better and more competitive.

Collaboration is Key

But such a strategy requires various parts of your organization to work together. According to a recent study by IDC, by 2018, 70 percent of siloed digital transformation initiatives will ultimately fail because of insufficient collaboration, integration, sourcing or project management. This indicates an urgent need for companies to align everyone around digital transformation initiatives, and focusing on the customer is likely the best approach.

Thinking of your transformation as a business goal—optimizing the customer journey— rather than just another IT initiative enables everyone to get on board. It encourages people to start thinking about how they can work more effectively with IT to use technology to improve the customer experience. This, in turn, helps build a culture of modernization within your company, and increases your chances for success.

Want to learn more about driving modernization efforts in your organization? Read The Digital Ultimatum.