What is Business Strategy?
In simple terms, it is a plan of action. What you will do to reach your objectives. Including what you won't do and what objectives you don't plan to achieve, either explicitly or implicitly.
Business strategy is developed for different scopes. First, your entire organization. Second, a department. Third, a significant initiative. A digital transformation is an example of a significant initiative strategy.
These distinctions are important. Digital Transformation is usually only one part of an organization's entire plan of action.
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is changing your organization to embrace digital technology. This goes further than implementing new technologies. It is about transforming the entire organization's mindset and culture.
There is a significant difference between embracing digitization, digital products, and digital transformation.
Digitization
Digitization is changing your existing business processes and information into a digital form. Most software relies on people to decide, and take action - it then records the results. a digitized process will have one or more automatic steps.
We developed a digitized procure-to-pay process where approval of requisition was approval to pay a matching invoice. Over 2 million labour hours per year.
This required digitization of requisitions, product descriptions, product quality standards, and receiving functions. When the quote matched the requisition, it proceeded. When the delivery matched the order in description, quality, and quality, it proceeded. When the invoice matched, it proceeded. People became involved in these processes only when there was not a match.
Digitization is a fundamental need in a modern business. What would you do with 2 million productive labour hours?
Digital Products
The IT4IT standard defines a digital product as 'unifying entity referenced over the full management lifecycle.' Which is quite a mouthful.
The reason they use this definition is that only the most granular Digital Products are simple. What seems like a single product to the consumer will usually be made up of a recursive array of sub-products.
So, they use digital product as a unifying concept. Aligning end-to-end management activities. Product Management, development, consumer interactions, and operational support.
It allows your organization to understand what they are working on and what consumers they serve.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is about transforming your organization's mindset and culture. Transforming is role in its ecosystem and engagement with business partners. Transforming its processes. Transforming its technology footprint and technology organization. Transforming the products and services. Most of all, transforming your customer experience and engagement.
Without a well-defined digital transformation strategy, businesses risk falling behind their competitors and missing out on opportunities for growth.
What is an architected approach to digital transformation?
We believe that Enterprise Architecture is the best way to guide effective change. Enterprise architecture excels at finding the meaningful connections. You must know what must change to develop your digital transformation strategy, your action plan.
Without understanding the interconnected nature of products, services, technologies, and environment, benefits will fall short. Bring relevant connections to the front. Guide effective change.
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Why is Digital Transformation Strategy Important?
We know that in a world where technology is constantly evolving, organizations must embrace digital. Defensively to protect their existing position and stay relevant. Offensively to drive innovation and unlock additional revenue streams. Simple digitization will optimize workflows, enhance productivity, and deliver exceptional experiences to customers.
We know that a good strategy is an action plan. It tells you what change and actions you will take to reach your objectives.
We know that digital transformation requires a fundamental change to your organization.
We know that your strategy will tell you what you are not doing, and provide a sequence of action.
Why is a digital transformation strategy important? Without one, your organization's risk cannot be calculated. You cannot calculate falling behind in productivity. You cannot calculate missed opportunities for growth. In a changing world staying in the same place is falling behind.
Key Components for a Digital Transformation Strategy
Seven levers tells us that without each lever controls an outcome.
- Business Process Transformation (BPT) is about controlling our organization. Traditional manual intensive processes are brittle, expensive, and very difficult to change.
- Customer Engagement and Experience (CEX) is about understanding and managing expectations and experience. We know expectations are subjective, ephemeral, and qualitative. Also, engagement is the behaviour. Interactions across touchpoints. The 2nd lever is about customer loyalty.
- Product or Service Digitization creating products or services that are focused on the outcomes the customer wants. The 3rd lever is about maintaining and increasing the value proposition.
- IT and Delivery Transformation is about ensuring your IT organization is up to being in the primary value chain and competing in the market. Lever 4 is about enterprise agility and good decision making.
- Organizational Culture is about transparency in decision-making, informed by data. Continuously optimizing your product and service portfolio. Lever 5 is about competence and decision making.
- Business Strategy is about using or building your digital capabilities and choosing unique configurations of the Value Chain. Lever 7 is about building synergy and minimizing risk.
- Ecosystem and Business Model Building are about reimagining your ecosystem and business partners. Attract and retain partnerships. Driving clarity about the business focus of each player in the ecosystem. Lever 7 is about ecosystem synergy.
Additional Digital Transformation Strategy considerations include:
Your organization's digital readiness
Before embarking on a digital transformation journey, it is essential to evaluate your organization's current digital capabilities and identify areas for improvement. This assessment will help determine the scope of your digital transformation strategy and identify potential barriers to success.
Identifying goals and objectives for digital transformation
Clearly defining your goals and objectives is crucial for the success of your digital transformation strategy. Whether it is improving operational efficiency, enhancing customer experience, or expanding into new markets, your goals should align with your organization's overall vision and mission.
Choosing the right technologies for digital transformation
With a plethora of digital tools and technologies available, it is important to carefully select the ones that align with your organization's goals and objectives. Whether it is cloud computing, artificial intelligence, or data analytics, choosing the right technologies will enable you to leverage digital capabilities effectively.
Resistance to change
Change can be met with resistance, especially if employees are not adequately prepared or informed about the benefits of digital transformation. It is important to address any concerns or fears and provide the necessary training and support to facilitate the transition.
Legacy systems and processes
Organizations that have been operating using traditional systems and processes may find it challenging to integrate new technologies seamlessly. It may require significant investment and resources to upgrade or replace legacy systems.
Data security and privacy
With the increasing use of digital technologies, data security and privacy have become major concerns. Organizations need to ensure that they have robust cybersecurity measures in place to protect sensitive customer and business data.
Tools to Develop Your Digital Transformation Strategy?
Embarking on developing a Digital Transformation Strategy should be supported with available tools. For an architected approach to Digital Transformation we recommend the following materials from our library.
Enterprise Architecture Practitioner's Guide
Chapter 7 of the EA Practitioner's Guide discusses how to develop an enterprise architecture to support strategy. It can be readily adapted to digital transformation strategy.
Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF & Navigate
Our Practical Enterprise Architecture course can be configured to directly support strategy. We will pull from this configuration when we are developing an EA Team that must support strategy.
The online version is configured to support Portfolio.
Seven Levers of Digital Transformation
Seven Levers is the foundational reference architecture for digital transformation. The levers' order will help you construct a capability-based plan or architecture roadmap for your digital transformation strategy..
Conexiam Navigate Atlas to support Strategy
The Navigation Atlas to support strategy is about building strategy. A Digital Transformation Strategy is an Initiative Strategy that will support larger enterprise or departmental goals.
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How to Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy?
Developing your Digital Transformation Strategy will not have a clean, simple process. It will have complex decision making and involve a number of transition states and decision-points.
To help develop a Digital Transformation strategy requires a strong enterprise architecture team. It must be nimble and attuned to your organization. The information required is very predictable.
Understand the current context
- in-flight improvement portfolios and their success
- the planning horizon (3, 5, and 10 years)
- any crisis in terms of market, competition, or suppliers
- goals, objectives, initiatives, competitive, and tactic analysis
- how the organization generates value (operating model)
Find assumed & actual deficiency
- Assess current state against Concerns
- Agility
- Differentiation
- Value Proposition & Customer
- Confidence (Uncertainty)
- Competitive Landscape
- Assess current state against Seven Levers
- Business Process Digitization
- Customer Engagement & Experience
- Product & Service Digitization
- IT & IT Delivery
Look for the source of deficiency in executing Digital Transformation
- Business Model
- Value Chain Model
- Digital Product Model
- Application Development Model
- Infrastructure Provider Model
Explore options to overcome deficiency
- Options Analysis
- Roadmap Type 3: Scenario
- Business Motivation Model (preferred courses of action)
- Architecture Trade-off using Concerns
Test transition states on the Digital Transformation Journey
- Agility - ability to react to changing circumstances
- Value Proposition - ability to foster innovation
- Risk - Uncertainty of success and steps to mitigate uncertainty
- Change Impact - What changes, where & when
Build Incremental Capability
- Business Process Digitization
- Customer Engagement
- Digital Product
- Customer-facing Service Digitization
- Internal Service Digitization
- Information Technology (Shared & Distributed)
- IT Financial Management (Product & Platform Cost Optimization)
Document the Digital Transformation Strategy
- Hambrick Strategy Diamond
- Business Motivation Model (courses of action and outcomes)
- Portfolio (Capability-based Plan)
Conclusion & Key Takeaways
In conclusion, a digital transformation strategy is crucial for businesses to thrive in the digital age. It enables organizations to harness the full potential of digital technologies and revolutionize the way they operate. By assessing digital readiness, setting goals, choosing the right technologies, and implementing and managing the strategy effectively, businesses can drive innovation, enhance productivity, and deliver exceptional experiences to customers. However, implementing a digital transformation strategy comes with challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome. By addressing these challenges, organizations can embark on a transformative digital journey and stay ahead of the competition in the digital age.
Remember, digital transformation is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing process that requires continuous adaptation and innovation. Embrace the power of digital transformation, and unlock the full potential of your organization in the digital age!