The buzz around digital transformation is extremely widespread and is here to stay. Given how quickly and efficiently organizations can preserve their competitive advantage with technology adoption, the pressure to embrace the latest digital tools and systems is immense.
Although a majority of organizations today are embarking on the transformation journey, almost 90% of digital transformation initiatives do not achieve their goals because companies aren’t sure of where they stand in the maturity matrix.
How do organizations determine what technologies they need or what solutions they should implement to make a difference in today’s dynamic, uncertain world? Through assessment of their digital business maturity! Read on to find out if you’re a digital starter, literate, performer, or leader!
Why Assessing Digital Business Maturity Matters
In today’s digitalized business environment, just implementing a handful of modern technology solutions is not enough for transformation. True transformation requires organizations to assess where they currently are with respect to digital adoption and get insight into core competencies they need to strengthen or develop their digital foothold.
Assessing digital business maturity helps organizations learn about their current digital state while allowing them to:
- Grow faster than their industry counterparts by having a constant focus on improving employee and customer experiences
- Look at technology as a business asset and invest in new and evolving technology solutions like cloud, AI, and analytics
- Break departmental silos, integrate data from across the organization, and enable effective, real-time collaboration beyond borders and boundaries
How to Assess Digital Business Maturity
It is believed that digitally mature organizations are far more likely to realize higher growth in revenues when compared to those who are less mature. Here’s how you can assess your digital business maturity and drive successful digital transformation:
Culture
One of the first steps in assessing your digital business maturity is to determine if you have a digital-focused culture: Does your workforce understand and appreciate the capabilities digital technologies offer? Do your employees use digital tools for day-to-day operations? Are they open to adopting new digital technologies and ready to get out of their comfort zones?
Vision
The next step in assessing your digital maturity is by determining if you have a strong digital vision or digital strategies in place: Do you look at IT as a strategic asset to the organization? Does your organization use modern digital tools like ERP, AI, or e-commerce to improve employee productivity, customer experience, and business performance? Do you rely on digital technology to create new products, enter new markets, or unlock new opportunities?
Investments
The investments you make in digital technologies is also a great indicator of your digital maturity: Do you prioritize investments into technologies that drive better employee and customer engagement? Do you drive efforts in constantly modernizing and updating your IT landscape, so it is better aligned with current trends? Do you regularly implement emerging technologies to improve your business outcomes?
Processes
Once you recognize whether you have digital strategies in place, it’s time to focus on your processes. Is your organizational structure and are your processes aligned around customer journeys? Do you make use of modern tools to enable cross-functional collaboration between teams? Is automation a core element of day-to-day operations?
Resources
When it comes to assessing your digital maturity, it is also vital to evaluate your hiring program: Do you have programs in place to find, hire, and upskill employees’ digital skills? Do you provide periodic training to your workforce on the latest digital technologies? Do you encourage and empower your employees to embrace digital tools to improve processes and collaborate with customers and partners?
In today’s era, digital transformation is a lot more than having the most modern tools implemented. More than ever today, it starts and ends with the experience you provide to your employees and your customers to drive long-term satisfaction and retention.
Being a digitally mature organization has many benefits: not only does it help you overcome operational and productivity challenges, it also strengthens your position in the market while empowering customers to have more trust and faith in your organization. So, if you want to achieve significantly better results, you need to assess your maturity level today and drive efforts in the right direction to become a digital leader!
