Adopting or modifying your technology strategy in response to shifting client demands or organizational goals is typically referred to as a digital transformation. Digital transformation enables organizations to become more agile and innovative, optimize internal operations, enhance customer engagement, and drive business growth. However, the digital transformation roadmap may be different for every organization. For example, to improve its client experience, a business may implement AI or cloud computing. Conversely, it may change its supply chain such that machine learning is used more effectively or may make use of predictive analytics and forecasting techniques to meet production demands. Yet in any instance, embarking on a digital transformation journey offers organizations a new opportunity to re-imagine how a business can be operated using new digital processes and technologies.
According to Gartner, 91% of firms are already involved in some or the other type of digital endeavor. Despite the ease with which so many companies are beginning their transformation, many others are struggling to finish. In fact, according to BCG, almost 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail to achieve their intended objectives. Like any other change management process, organizations often experience difficulties and pain points during the transformation process. These problems might range from issues that are primarily related to individuals to structural restrictions to technology limitations, and many other things. These pain points might be overwhelming and may cause the digital transformation to stall.
In this blog, we’ll go through twelve of these issues with digital transformation and how you can solve them. Let’s get started:
Digital transformation pain points
Lack of a strategy
Simply stated, a digital transformation strategy is a thorough road map of the techniques you intend to use to seamlessly transform your company into a digital platform while also being able to overcome resistance and build buy-in from employees, customers, and partners by clearly communicating the benefits of digital transformation. Many businesses start their digital transformation without a proper strategy for what they plan to achieve. Because of unrealistic expectations, lack of direction, and vague goals, organizations struggle to prioritize initiatives, allocate resources effectively and measure progress towards their digital transformation goals.
Complicated Software and Technology
The complexity of software and technology can make the process of digital transformation quite challenging. The common challenges for businesses going through a digital transformation could be the high cost of implementation, data integration, resistance to adoption, compatibility with other existing systems and end-user satisfaction. Before beginning a transformation, management should keep this in mind and look to identify the most user-friendly, and integrated solutions.
Executive support
Your C-suite must support a digital transformation for it to be effective. Insufficient leadership support and varying opinions could pose challenge in arriving at a consensus. The leadership teams needs to set the tone and create a sense of urgence and excitement around digital transformation. Leaders should take the forerun in prioritizing the digital initiatives and tying it to the organizational goals and values. All stakeholders involved must agree on the project priorities.
Insufficient IT skills
A knowledgeable, and competent IT team is necessary for your transformational initiatives to be successful. Organizations often face issues due to a lack of employee skills in data analytics, application design, cybersecurity, and software integration. According to Capgemini, missing digital skills are seen by 77% of businesses as the main barrier to their digital transformation.
Large amounts of digital data
Digital transformation involves the use of huge amounts of data. This often involves integrating data from multiple sources, which can be challenging due to the varying data formats, structures, and quality. Ensuring that data is properly integrated and standardized is critical to achieving the desired insights and outcomes. Poor quality data can lead to inaccurate insights and decisions, which can harm a company’s operations.
Digital transformation budget
The significant financial strain that comes with digital transformation is another issue. Due to the size of the investment, businesses must carefully plan their budget and develop a plan of action that will both meet the demands of their clients and the company.
Cultural Mindset Change
Digital transformation involves not just updating software and implementing new technologies but also a fundamental shift in the way organizations think, operate, and interact with customers and stakeholders. This change is important to break down silos, encourage collaboration and experimentation, and foster a culture of innovation and agility. Hence it is important to accept and adopt this change if you want your digital transformation initiatives to be successful and produce efficient results for both customers and the company.
Maintaining pace with emerging technologies
Another significant pain point for companies undergoing digital business transformation is catching up with emerging trends and cutting-edge technologies. Technological advances are happening quickly. Staying on top of new trends and technologies has become quite challenging while being essential.
Security challenges
Several businesses hurriedly adopt digital solutions and transformation to cloud centralized systems to respond to unexpected shifts in customer preferences. This sudden shift can however bring cybersecurity threats, data breaches, insider threats and other compliance issues.
Slow ROI (Return on Investment)
Several firms anticipate an improvement in ROI during or shortly following the implementation of digital transformation. Yet regrettably, it takes longer than executives anticipate to see in ROI. Digital transformation comes with investment in new technologies, software and infrastructure, complex implementation, limited expertise for implementation, resistance to change all of which results in delay in realizing the ROI. There isn’t a practical answer for this; instead, it’s crucial to keep in mind that these processes require time.
Changing customer demands
Customers’ requirements might vary over time with the advancement in technologies. They continuously search for services that are easier to use and have better features. This indicates that further work is required to deploy the new digital technologies that would be agile and can satisfy the ongoing changes in client demands.
Departmental silos
Lack of collaboration amongst different departments, duplication of efforts, inefficient workflows, limited visibility to decision making are some of the common challenges associated with departmental silos. It becomes difficult or impossible to share data across departments that have inadequate communication, which causes them to become “siloed” and functionally independent from one another. A company’s resources can get greatly affected as a result of isolated departments’ costs. According to SIS study, communication problems and delays can cost $520K annually for a typical SMB with 100 employees.
How to Overcome Digital Transformation pain points?
Sometimes it may seem impossible to overcome the difficulties and pain points of the digital transformation, and certain factors are beyond your control. Nevertheless, there are steps you can take to work around them and guide your company through a smooth transition to the digital world. The following tips can help you overcome the challenges:
Make the Right Technology Investments
As a known fact, new digital transformation technologies is the current trend and it might be challenging to stay current with every single one. Yet if you invest in the right technologies by evaluating carefully whether they align with the overall business objectives and provide a clear ROI, you can overcome these difficulties and reap the benefits of digital transformation.
Design an Effective Implementation Strategy
Your idea for the new transformation must be supported by a strong implementation strategy. An effective IT strategy that provides uniformity across the board should be used in conjunction with your priorities and initiatives. An effective implementation strategy involves identifying clear goals and objectives, allocating resources effectively, communicating with stakeholders, and providing training and support to employees. This can help address slow ROI, limited expertise, resistance to change, departmental silos and ensure the success of digital transformation initiative.
Recruitment and skill development
According to a recent IBM poll, just 41% of CEOs surveyed believe that they have the personnel, skills, and resources needed to implement advanced digital business strategy. Thus, the necessity of qualified workers to continue the process should be understood by organizations, and if necessary, they should carefully consider investing in hiring new staff members who possess the necessary experience, skills, and knowledge. Employees must also be trained on new tools and prepared for emerging technologies.
Workplace cultural shift
Organizations must begin the transformation process with people rather than technology if they want to succeed digitally. By increasing an understanding of digital transformation management and other associated factors, organizations need to concentrate on changing their entire organizational culture, thought process and ways of working. Including the entire team from the start and maintaining open communication with them are effective ways to reduce employee resistance to change. By encouraging employees to embrace change, take risks, and share knowledge, organizations can create a work environment that is more receptive to digital transformation initiatives.
Strengthen Cybersecurity Plan
If you want to accomplish secure digital transformation, your cybersecurity skills must constantly be strengthened. To address problems before they become high-risk breaches, a proactive monitoring system must be in place. When employing third-party applications to look for vulnerabilities, use patch management.
Develop a thorough financial strategy
Poor financial management and planning might cause you to spend more than you intend to. To prevent this, establish an effective financial strategy for your digital switch. Before implementing the change, make an estimation of the expenses, possible long-term advantages, and investment gains. Consider the additional costs your transformation may bring in as your business grows.
Keep open lines of communication at all stages
A recent Gartner poll found that 65% of decisions made now are more difficult than those made in the past. Today’s decision-making processes encompass a wide range of options and participants. To enable wise decision-making, you must maintain open channels of communication with all parties involved. By doing so, data silos can be broken down and business choices can become more meaningful.
Invest in a robust digital platform like an ERP
ERP software is a valuable tool for starting your journey towards digital transformation. In a Deloitte report, 69% of businesses reported using ERP software to accelerate digital transformation. Best cloud ERP systems offer an adaptable framework for incorporating cutting-edge innovation, including process automation, predictive analytics, mobile applications, and cloud-based solutions. With the right ERP implementation techniques, key business processes can be simplified, which can eventually encourage digital transformation.
Epicor cloud ERP solutions is a comprehensive end-to-end ERP system that offers digital transformation services with top-notch technologies like AI, IoT, and BI integrated within, making it a future-ready ERP software. Its efficient modules, high mobility, and extensibility enables organizations to scale up rapidly and make smarter decisions to keep up with the changing market trends.
Conclusion:
Digital transformation is crucial for organizations to stay competitive and meet the needs of their customers in today’s rapidly changing business environment. However, it comes with several challenges that can hinder its success, including cybersecurity threats, data breaches, limited expertise, slow ROI, departmental silos, and resistance to change. To overcome these challenges, organizations must invest in the right technologies, design effective implementation strategies, choosing the right ERP, recruit and develop necessary expertise, create a workplace culture that is receptive to change, and strengthen the cybersecurity plans. By addressing these challenges, organizations can benefit from increased efficiency, cost savings, improved customer experiences, and a more secure and resilient digital environment. To achieve these benefits, organizations must embrace digital transformation as an ongoing process that requires ongoing evaluation and adaptation to stay ahead of the curve.
So, are you ready to face the challenges associated with your digital transformation? If not, then we at RheinBrücke – Digital Transformation Partner in EMEA region, can help you start your organization’s digital transformation journey easily, contact us now.
