Why the Digital Transformation?

Why the Digital Transformation has been on everyone’s lips for some time.  Is it the Buzz Word of the hour?  Definitely!

Will it soon be replaced by another Buzz Word? Definitely!

For now, the Digital Transformation seems to be perceived as a panacea for productivity and profitability!  And governments have decided to offer different types of assistance to businesses in their quest for Digital Transformation.

The fact remains that if our governments have decided to invest in companies to help them perform better, it is certainly because they detect a malaise.  Unsurprisingly, our national productivity rate is a good indicator of this.*

What is Digital Transformation?

According to Wikipedia, “it is the global phenomenon of change linked to the rise of digital technology and the Internet”.  But what else?  “This concept considers that new information and communication technologies – especially digital – are at the origin of major transformation projects within companies. »

And this transformation ultimately has two major objectives:

• Improve the quality of the Customer Experience with the entire ecosystem (accessibility at all times and real-time interactivity).
• Accelerate New Product Development (real-time competitiveness with rapid adaptation to market demands)

How can the Digital Transformation be performed?

How does this translate in our organizations in terms of IT in particular? As we have been repeating for more than 10 years on this blog, through a series of development projects of all kinds:

• Process automation
• Process optimization
• Valuation of company data
• Creation of Business Intelligence

These transformation projects “although more IT oriented” are also important in that they will contribute to generate all or part of the Business Intelligence that will feed and enlighten the Customer Service and Product Development departments on the needs, requests and complaints of Customers and Partners on the one hand and market expectations on the other hand.

What will be the main steps from an IT perspective?

Generally speaking, a Digital Transformation plan will be a multi-stage process that will affect many aspects of the organization.  For example:

• Implementation or replacement of a CRM
• Implementation or replacement of an ERP
• Implementation or replacement of a management system
• Automation of a particular process through custom development
• Creating a Data Warehouse (data warehouse)
• Implementation of a platform or a security layer allowing secure (interactive) communication

Your digital transformation plan may not consider all of these aspects; each organization has its own budget, priorities, capabilities, etc., which is being implemented within a specific timeframe.

For the next two posts, we will consider the case of an organization whose two priorities in their digital transformation plan are:

1. Replacement of an existing CRM
2. Automation of a specific process

And you, what are the priorities of your Digital Transformation Plan?

Are you lagging behind or up to date in terms of Customer Service and New Product Development and, more importantly, in terms of IT infrastructure supporting these two Departments?

* Canada’s productivity growth rates are low by international standards, and the level of Canadian productivity is now average by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards. The productivity gap between Canada and the United States (U.S.), at 20 per cent, is of particular concern.