Is Your Business Ready For The Digital-First Economy?

Jan 1, 2023
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Regardless of the current limitations on physical proximity, businesses have accelerated their journey with their DIGITAL and AUTOMATION agenda.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC) Research, over 40% of all technology spending will go towards digital transformation.  Furthermore, CEO’s directly own or sponsor over 23% of those spending. Do you know what it takes to make the digital transformation successful and are you ready for a digital-first economy?

5 Focus Areas For Successful Digital Transformation

At StrategicFront, our vantage point lies directly with the successful digital transformation initiatives with our clients. We advise the following five focus areas:

Digital Strategy: What used to be called “Business-and-IT alignment” no longer applies in a digital-first economy. Organizations need to fundamentally think of their business as digital-first and rebuild a business strategy based on that foundation.  Developing a strong digital strategy starts with having a deep understanding of the products or services a business offers and the corresponding customer or employee experience in a digital-first economy.

Business Design: Applying new technology to radically change processes, the customer experience and overall brand value requires designing your business for the digital-first economy.  It is not a continuous improvement or development of a future state based on the current state.  It’s a full overhaul of the design of a business to leverage digital, automation, AI, IoT, SaaS, Cloud and other new technology that is available today and will be in the future.

Governance: When humans are no longer our only colleagues, the ability to control all of the new technology, while seamlessly integrating with human skills, requires a new governance. For example, Automation managers and employees need to manage the performance of humans, but also the Automation Bots themselves in terms of throughput, service level agreements, access to data, etc. Therefore, the need to design a governance structure in a digital-first economy often becomes more important than the technology itself.

Project Leadership: Any transformation requires strong leadership and in the case of digital transformation, it requires strong project leadership to make the transformation happen.  It is important to show early success and build a snowball effect to gain momentum.  Having strong project leadership experience in a digital transformation team is paramount to using tactics such as Agile delivery model, collaborative and constructive team, and leadership buy-in from the CEO and down.

People Change Management: Finally, no amount of technology prowess can make a digital transformation successful if the people within an organization do not own the change.  You do not need to be a part of the project or technology team to own digital transformation. The entire people-force within a business needs to be a part of the change and fully commit themselves to be a part of the digital-first business. Following a strong Change Management discipline can help achieve the right mind-set.

Find out more about StrategicFront and how your organization can position itself to be ready for a digital-first economy. Our consulting and automation services are based out of Toronto and New York. Fill out our contact form or email us at info@strategicfront.com for more information.

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Farzad Khan

Founder & Principal
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