5 Steps to ease your digital transformation

Matteo Kotch

November 02, 2018

Assessing your business and identifying your pain points can provide a solid foundation for your digital transformation.

We recognize that digital transformation can be an intimidating term. While it is widely used, it is also often misused. Digital transformation is about integrating digital technology into all areas of your business, resulting in fundamental changes to how the business operates and how you deliver value to your customers.

Today, demand for mobility and flexibility are among the main factors driving many businesses to innovate and change the way they operate. However, before you embark on this journey it’s essential to understand what’s driving your business. Following are five steps that we believe can provide insight as you consider your digital transformation.

1. Embarking on a digital transformation should start with a process audit, which may also extend to include a review of your operating model, organizational structure, as well as products, and services. It’s important to understand what’s going on in your business before you change it.

2. Once the business needs have been identified, you can turn your attention to your competitors. It’s always good to know where they are on their digital transformation journey. You may even be able to learn something from their experiences by figuring out which technologies have helped to increase their sales and revenues.

3. With these technologies in mind, it’s time to create an implementation plan that prioritizes which changes to make first. Everyone who will be affected by the changes must be included in this step. You will need to talk about resources, budgets and capabilities, and create a roadmap to capture the changes that need to be made.

4. Once the roadmap has been agreed upon, it’s time to implement. That means acquiring the budget, identifying who is responsible to do the implementation, re-designing the operating model and implementing the new technologies.

5. With the new technologies tested, it’s time for deployment. A comprehensive communication plan is essential at this step, to ensure that everyone is aware of the changes that will be taking place. You will probably want to run both the new and old systems simultaneously for a while, but once all of the key stakeholders have approved, it’s time to deploy the teams responsible for running the new system throughout the business.

Technology is evolutionary and digital transformation is no exception as it adapts to meet the changing needs of all stakeholders. Digital transformation enables the business to introduce new digital practices and to make adjustments as needed to improve both the customers’ and business’ experience.

Find out more about Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow™ and how ALE is helping customers embark on a digital transformation.