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Take Control of Digital Transformation or Watch it Fail

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Key Lessons from OPEX and Process Transformation Week 2016

What an eventful week! We were back at #OPEXWeek London where over 150 senior executives met to discuss process transformation through thought leadership and workshops. This year’s speakers hailed from major enterprises including Coca Cola, Volvo, EON and Fitness First to name just a few.

In a keynote session we tackled the top five questions on the minds of attendees when registering – all centered on today’s big buzz word – Digital Transformation. Bizagi’s CEO Gustavo Gomez and Arturo Derteano from Ernst & Young set out to get beyond the big idea and talk about the realities of digital transformation, sharing important wisdom.

Here are the top takeaways from each of the five questions:

 

1.  Who cares about Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is everywhere. It matters to any CEO of a company whose business model might be disrupted by ‘digitally born’ competitors.

‘TODAY’S CIOS ARE TASKED WITH ENABLING RAPID BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION – WITH NO INCREASES IN BUDGET’

Most companies are aware they need to digitally transform and know this means going beyond their current strategies, they strive to become a customer-focused organization. 80% of the OPEX audience stated business was the most vocal in demanding it.

Most business leaders know it’s imperative and part of surviving in the digital economy, but we all recognize that it is fundamentally difficult. True digital transformation requires connection and orchestration of the entire enterprise to improve customer experience whether that’s legacy systems, devices, applications, process and most importantly your people.

‘WE FORGET THAT PEOPLE ARE AT THE CENTRE OF EVERY PROCESS’

- TIM COOK – APPLE

 

 

2. What obstacles, missteps and mistakes do we most commonly see?

It’s widely known in the industry that 70% of digital transformation projects fail to meet expectations. We  do see commonalities in those project failures that explain the lack of success. Gustavo Gomez explained:

“ONE OF THE PRIMARY OBSTACLES WE SEE IS A CULTURE OF SILO’S THAT ARE NOT CUSTOMER-CENTRIC AND HAVE RIGID INCUMBENT LEGACY SYSTEMS. MISTAKES HAPPEN WHEN YOU CREATE TWO SEPARATE ORGANIZATIONS (LEGACY AND INNOVATION) THAT ENGAGE TO UPGRADE IT BELIEVING THAT CULTURE CAN BE CHANGED WITH A ‘BIG BANG APPROACH’.”

We asked the OPEX audience what they thought were the primary obstacles when trying to digitally transform and around 60% reported that a lack of collaboration between Business and IT was the most impeding factor to success.

 

3. What characteristics do organizations need to successfully capitalize on digital transformation?

Successful companies have a plethora of characteristics to achieve and benefit from digital transformation. We put our speakers on the spot to pin point what those are.

Gustavo and Arturo agreed that customer centricity has to be at the heart of every decision you take. Without this, real business objectives will not be met. Organizations must harness the full power of collaboration between business and IT to create a driving force towards a common goal. Transformation also demands the flexibility for agile experimentation with a commitment to continuous improvement.

In order to realize the goals of digital transformation, improvements must be made across the business and that includes business systems. We asked audiences which of those systems were the most important to tackle:

73% OF THE AUDIENCE BELIEVED OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS (SYSTEMS THAT SUPPORT OPERATIONAL AGILITY INCLUDING CORE OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS AND COMPANY-SPECIFIC BUSINESS APPLICATIONS) WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT.

 

4.  Why should operational excellence be part of business as usual?

One of the fundamental elements of success is profitability, in the digital economy this means efficiency. Operational excellence delivers that efficiency, and it’s not a one-off effort, it’s an on-going responsibility. These points were backed up by the show’s audience where 50% of delegates believed Efficiency (cutting costs) was their primary goal, the other 50% pointed to the Customer Experience (top-line growth).

But is this enough? For any organization to survive and thrive, squeezing efficiency out of process is the natural knee jerk reaction, but, and this is a big but – it is imperative to focus on agile experimentation, constant evolution and innovation to meet the needs of the digitally engaged customer.

 

5. What strategies and characteristics should a company possess to ensure a customer experience continues to be optimized?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, your people, your culture, your process and systems should be systematic in always keeping the customer front of mind. Digital disruption is already here, customers are tech-savvy, loyalty is no longer as monogamous as once was, it takes just one error and customers vote with their fingers – that’s lost revenue to you and I.

By investing in a customer centric culture and partnering with leading technology organizations any business can be a market leader in its industry.

Don’t take it from us:

99% OF YOU STATED THAT A FAILURE TO RESPOND QUICKLY TO THE PRESSING NEED FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WILL RESULT IN COMMERCIAL FAILURE.

Build these insights into your strategy and you’ll be creating the right foundation for achieving digital transformation. You’ll be avoiding many of the most common mistakes that businesses are making right now.