Is Your Digital Transformation Roadmap on Track? Use These Guiding Principles.

In Asia Pacific, the four goals companies want to achieve for digital transformation are:

1.      Improving operational efficiency (28 percent)

2.      Enhancing business agility (25 percent)

3.      Delivering better customer experience (24 percent)

4.      Managing business risk more effectively (23 percent)

But in the thick of transformation, it can be challenging to maintain sight of the goals. Here are a few guiding principles for your transformation roadmap that has helped some of our clients keep on the right track:

Focus on the customer—and only the customer

Customers come first. This is the golden rule that will keep your program on the right path to ultimate success. Your digital initiatives should be built to chip away friction points and create channels for personalized engagement across multiple touchpoints. This involves everything from streamlining customer databases to persona-based marketing. Getting insights into your customers is also key. Therefore, implement data analytic capabilities that can keep track of how your channels are doing, what your audiences want, and optimize your strategies based on what the data is telling you.

Prioritize and maximize your cybersecurity

Cyber threats remain a big issue for digital transformation and the recent ‘Petya’ ransomware attack proves this point. At the rate at which threats are evolving, protecting everything is becoming impossible. Instead, take a “prioritize and maximize” approach. Work with an experienced IT service provider to assess your networks thoroughly, identify weaknesses, and deploy the right security layers to plug the gaps. This way, you avoid merely throwing money at the problem blindly, and take a smarter, effective stance for cybersecurity. 

Ensure your clouds are working together

Cloud infrastructures are inseparable from successful digital transformation. They are the key to improving scalability and utilization. As you start using multiple clouds, you need to ensure that they are within your full control. This means prioritizing the reliability of your networks, systems, and infrastructure—ensuring that you can connect rapidly and drive operations round-the-clock with no hitches. 

The signposts I’ve laid out should give help guide your journey to digital transformation. For a more organized approach, consider partnering with third-party providers—such as managed IT services companies—to support some of your transformation fundamentals. They can offer specialized solutions and skill sets that would otherwise be beyond the expertise of your company.