The events of the last two years have undoubtedly catalysed digital transformation. From remote working to online shopping, the Cloud, artificial intelligence and data analytics – digital technology is becoming increasingly embedded into our lives.

But digital transformation is about more than just the technology – it’s about how it’s used. While automation, data, and AI are powerful tools, they need to be adopted correctly to get actionable benefits.

As such, organisations across all industries need to think differently if they want to keep pace. There’s no point introducing new technologies but maintaining old habits.

While there are many advantages to using digital technology, the pandemic forced groups across all sectors to leverage them out of necessity. Many companies and industries have brute forced a process of digitisation without fully understanding how a strategic rollout is just as important as the technology itself.

This is understandable – digital transformation is often easier said than done. McKinsey research from 2016 warned that 70% of digital transformation projects didn’t reach their goals. This equates to around $900 billion worth of lost investments.

Starting digital transformation projects with the right mindset, and maintaining it over the journey, is vital to ensure success.

Here are some of the major shifts in thinking organisations need to make to get the best use of digital technology.

Start with a plan

When people discuss digital technology, the possibilities seem endless. This can trick us into thinking that digitisation can accomplish anything, and if you’re not using it to transform everything, you’re not doing it right.

But one of the best ways to start a digitisation project is to have a clear, concise goal in mind. Sometimes, this means starting small. But understanding why you’re doing it is the key.

Furthermore, it needs to fit into the broader strategy of the organisation. Simply introducing AI or automation for their own sake will achieve little.

To create a good digitisation strategy, focusing on customers or products can help ensure digitisation serves a purpose to the organisation. Often, that means discussing with key stakeholders for their insights.

“Every organisation out there can benefit from thinking digitally but you have to understand what you’re doing. Therefore, once you know what it is you do and how you do it, you can apply digital to that to grow your customer base and grow your organisation.” – iland VP of Solutions Architecture Marc Beder 

Embrace new skills

Getting the most out of data and technology requires new skills like programming and data analysis. Without expertise, digitisation can rapidly falter.

Being open to accessing new skills and knowledge is an important step in the digital transformation process. But where do you get these skills?

Sometimes, bringing in outside help is the best place to start. There are numerous data science consultancies that can help point a business in the right direction.

Upskilling key workers is another option – after all, nobody knows an organisation better than its own employees.

However, there are certain skills that are essential for just about everyone, especially leadership. Things like data literacy, or a basic understand of coding, are vital for decision makers to create informed digital transformation strategies.

Ultimately, it depends on what the organisation’s needs, capacity, and strategy are – you don’t always need to be experts to digitise successfully.

Love your data

Data is the foundation of many digital transformation projects. Understanding data, and the value of data, is a critical mindset change. More data means more insights, and that helps make operations smarter.

Too many companies undervalue their data, either failing to capture it, storing it improperly, or allowing it to degrade or become contaminated.

As such, putting in the groundwork is an important first step in digitisation. Leaders need to understand what data they have and how an organisation can get value from it.

Ensuring important data is captured, stored properly, updated regularly, and can be accessed easily are all important.

“Even with the widespread recognition of the value of data, a huge challenge across industry, especially in enterprises with remote, multiple operations, is that data is often lagged, inaccurate or inconsistent. To drive real value from data, there needs to be confidence across the board that it is accurate, timely and consistent if it is to inform crucial business decisions.” – Co-Founder and CEO, R3-IoT, Allan Cannon

Promote creativity

Data, analysis and analytics can seem antithetical with regards to human input and creativity – people often think of the human element being replaced by machines.

But creativity is a huge part of the digital transformation. Human input, expertise and insight are all needed to interpret data. Devising projects and ways to utilise digital technology, scenario planning, coding, and programming, all need creativity.

This means creating an environment that promotes experimentation. And that means accepting that sometimes, things might go wrong. In Silicon Valley, failure is an essential part of success.

Luckily, digital technology, with its ability to create digital simulations, provides the perfect sandbox for experimentation while minimising the consequences is important. Furthermore, these can help tailor processes to an organisation’s specific needs and capabilities.

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Be transparent

Transparency is a key tenant of digital transformation. When data is the lifeblood of so many projects, keeping it siloed and inaccessible can hobble projects before they begin.

Part of this is ensuring data can flow between different sources and get to the right people.

But transparency goes beyond data. It’s about getting everyone in the organisation involved. If digital transformation is going to occur, it can’t happen piecemeal. You need complete buy-in to make it happen.

Communication, collaboration, and cooperation are key. And there are plenty of tools, many of which have become household names, to help people work together, share insights and provide expertise.

If understand your data is the starting line for digitisation, understanding your organisation and employees tells you where the finish line is. It helps identify repetitive tasks that can be automated, places where work is isolated, and which workers can be better supported.

“Sophisticated communication platforms are used by many businesses to allow different departments and members of staff to respond to colleagues more efficiently. By providing a way for staff to stay connected with real-time updates of work completed, and the ability to track any guest requests on a single platform, operations can run a lot more smoothly, resulting in a more engaged workforce.” – Hop Software COO Richard Drummond

Let the machines do the hard work

There is a huge difference between digital technology and smart technology. Perhaps the critical mindset difference is using human decision making, supported by digital technology, and using actual AI to make decisions.

There are many decisions that can be automated – when to buy paper, when do send out certain orders, collating data for quarterly reports, for example. These enable processes like predictive maintenance or predictive ordering.

But most importantly, they free people to use their time, knowledge, and creativity for more interesting and valuable work.

Join the Conversation: Digital Transformation 2021 Summit

The potential of digitisation will be the focus of the upcoming Digital Transformation Summit on 28th October.

Now in its sixth year, the Summit has established itself as Scotland’s largest annual conference focussed on digitalisation and organisational change.

For more information on how to register a free place visit: www.digifutures.co.uk