Digital transformation, another blog about that buzz word.
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Why? Digital transformation is not a process or product, but a mindset with a desire to move past the old way. Like agile, you can do agile and follow all the steps of scrums, stand-ups, sit-downs, swim lanes and neat terms like that… but are you truly agile or are you choking it with over the top processes…
I’ve been working with a client for a good part of two years on what began as advertising that then morphed into digital transformation. A task that has taken the path of influencing their decisions, rather than simply setting them up on G-Suite and a new website.
Often we find as we dive into the buzz of digital transformation we end up digitising the same rubbish processes we use to follow.
True digital transformation, is no buzz word, but a mind shift, into the uncharted territory of uncomfortable change. Where we have to look at the processes that exist and decide if they are actually the best way forward, or, is there a better more efficient way.
An example of this was looking at the accounting practice of this client, to begin with, they wanted their CRM customised to match the way they currently did things. Which was very manual and highly paper-based. Now we could have gone ahead and built the solution to match their need, but would this have ended in a transformation? Or would it just be another story in the many of bad systems built on bad practice…
You guessed it, we didn’t build the software but instead looked at how they were conducting their process and what the desired outcome was. Then we looked at the existing way the CRM operated and simply adjusted the processes to match. This came with discomfort and resistance, but once implemented it made for a lower cost, more efficient and ultimately better outcomes for the business.
I’m sure you are wondering why I started to work with the client on their transformation, it’s not my normal line of work. I’m more comfortable thinking of crazy things to do with tech and people to create stories and inspire engagement that has a connection to the culture of the brand… Sorry, getting sidetracked, read more on that here.
I got involved as the client had been lead down the path by another provider, they talked the talk, selling the vision of great transformation… only to be charged a fortune and told that they hadn’t invested enough when it came to the ‘process’ of transformation. The client knowing well I have a passion for all things digital and every company I am involved with is fully immersed in digital, cloud-based and well and truly enabling the culture of digital nomads (sorry I had to drop a buzz word in there). So they asked, and I said sure, but it’s not about a process…
Digital transformation is a constant journey that looks at the business and asks, can this be done with zeros and ones? Can this be done by a robot? Should this be done this way forever? Let's drop the ‘Digital’ bit, as this is just a process of change to enable business, but that too is a transformation, not necessarily a digital one.
Transformation is change, and change should always be constant.
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