An introduction to the what, why and how of digital transformation covering examples and 5 key challenges to overcome
We’re working in an era where the development of technology exceeds companies’ capabilities to manage the challenges created by the technology.
New platforms, apps and tools are emerging daily and as they do, customers, prosumers and keyboard warriors are adopting the technology, talking about businesses and brands, sharing feedback and pinning images of what they’ve bought.
Marketers and brands have lost control forever. On a regular basis we witness well-known companies managing customer conversations very publicly. And it’s not always positive.
Some businesses have made a full transformation to digital. They embraced ‘new media’ at an early stage, listened to customers and have digital strategies fully integrated within their businesses. Examples include RS Components who realised that they needed to create their own customer community and created Idea Spark, a forum for engineers to provide self-help, recommendations and new product ideas.
This is a great example of a brand adding engaging customer’s online by developing a more audience-centric proposition rather than product-centred, although purchases are still encouraged.
RS Components seems to understand its customers more than most and their Ecommerce Behavioural Marketing team, has segmented customers based on their customer journey, rather than product groups.
Dell is another example of a brand that acted early on the journey to transformation. This case study shows how they have been working on optimization in the analytics / customer experience team.
Understanding the challenges of digital transformation
While some companies have been working on optimisation for a long time and will be quite advanced, others may not. It will vary depending on the industry sector and across different marketing activities. I recommend that a good starting point is to audit your digital capabilities – see this tool developed by Dave Chaffey which enables you to review across a 5 point scale. You also need to review the barriers, obstacles and challenges to see what may have limited progress and how this can be overcome.
The challenge for many businesses is that they have long-established systems and processes in place. Many are product rather than customer focused. Some systems are entrenched in the business and changing these systems is challenging. It’s challenging on many levels:
1. Responsibility:
2. Skills and understanding:
3. Tactics first
4. Agencies
5. Customers
Moving from a traditional marketing orientation to a digital marketing orientation, seems overwhelming, so where is the best place to start?
A definition if Digital Transformation
So what is the scope of digital transformation. Let’s look at our definition of digital transformation. In the Smart Insights guide to Managing Digital Transformation, Dave Chaffey and James Carson explain that that digital transformation is:
“A staged programme of business improvements to People, Process and Tools used for integrated digital marketing to maximize the potential business contribution of digital technology and media.”
But there another issue. Companies have different definitions of digital strategy. Forrester in its State of Digital Business 2014 report, remarks that some regard digital strategy as “adding a new mobile app to their existing business or developing a social media presence” approaches which Forrester categorizes as ‘bolt-on’.
Confusion seems to reign with a lack of definitions inside organizations. One factor is certain, digital will continue to have a greater impact on how businesses operate.
Why is transformation needed now?
So why are we looking at digital transformation now? It’s been needed for some time, but the imperative is the growth of mobile device use which has enabled customers to instantly log in to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks. As they log in, they can openly discuss issues with and about your business. Tablets and smartphones have made it easier to swipe and perform a range of activities:
And how are businesses responding? This depends on the organisation’s level of digital adoption and understanding. For example, the long-established UK retailer, Marks & Spencer, launched a new website which wasn’t popular with customers. It used a new system that meant customers had to re-register on the site, but they didn’t discover this until they’d tried to add products to the shopping basket and repeatedly failed. It created significant negative comments online and the website were blamed for its poor sales, yet customers are still complaining, months after the website was launched:
However there are other areas of practice emerging:
It may be that the traditional process within this organisation for developing a new website excludes customers in the process. Brian Solis at Altimeter has been conducting research into ‘Why and How Organizations are Adapting for the Digital Customer Experience’ and he comments that “Digital transformation takes a truly customer-centric perspective that wins over one that’s mainly technology-centric. It starts by simply asking, “what would my digital customer do?” It continues with continually asking and answering the question.”
Marks & Spencer is not alone. Forrester discovered major disconnects between the marketing and technology sides of businesses, with responses signalling a “digital strategy execution crisis”. Their findings were based on a survey of 1,591 senior business leaders in the UK and US that took place during November 2013 to January 2014. This revealed that 74% of executives claim that their company has a digital strategy but the findings indicate “wide disparity” between strategies.
PwC have also been conducting research into Digital Transformation. Their 6th Annual Digital IQ Survey found that:
“nearly every organization lays claim to being a digital enterprise, but as our study revealed, only a minority are truly there.”
Their study identifies the five key behaviours that give companies the edge, enabling them to maximize their use of digital technology across the business and position them for better performance. They call this Digital IQ.
The first step towards transformation
If this resonates with you and perhaps you’re the lone digital voice in your organisation, trying to persuade other to take action, how do you get started?
The Smart Insights guide to Digital Transformation starts with making the business case for transformation. It’s getting buy-in at a senior level, before you take other action. How do you do this?
If you’re a smaller or mid-size business:
If you’re in a corporate or larger business:
So, I’ve mainly focused on the ‘what’ and ‘why’ in this article. In my next posts I’ll take a look at approaches and more examples of managing Digital Transformation that I have seen to be effective.
Download Expert Business Member resource – Change Management for Digital Transformation
This guide takes you through the essential actions to manage change and lead digital transformation projects through to a successful conclusion..