Digital transformation (DT) involves the adoption of advanced technologies to transform a business’s core structures and processes. This can be as simple as an office shifting from paper records to online data management or as complicated as an industrial manufacturing process being automated with remote sensors that feed data to AI applications.
Whether driven by technology or changing market conditions, leading businesses incorporate DT into their everyday operations. As a result, they can quickly adapt to new opportunities while still maintaining stability and efficiency.
Forrester reports only 27% of enterprises actively track core business outcome metrics to measure the success of their digital transformation projects. It’s not surprising, as many companies struggle to know if their initiatives are working. Often, the biggest challenge is people-related. Despite the latest and greatest technology, an initiative is likely to stall out if employees aren’t fully engaged or comfortable with the changes.
Mercer’s Swift notes that three groups of employees tend to slow transformation momentum: old-timers, by-the-book players, and lone wolves. Efforts to address these groups should be a key part of any strategy to accelerate progress.
A powerful way to accelerate a digital transformation is to use modern collaboration tools to help teams across departments and geographies work more effectively. For example, a manufacturing company could move from physical data centers to a cloud platform like Google Cloud to reduce deployment time and boost application performance and stability. This would also allow for the creation of new internal service delivery capabilities and more efficient project turnaround times.