Digital Strategy – A Definition
A digital strategy encompasses the key components of future investments in critical technology, improving business models and processes, and managing data and resources.Priority initiatives for future investments may include enhancing online customer experiences, leveraging data analytics for decision-making, and automating manual processes.
Digital strategy also focuses on business model innovation, which involves reimagining how the company creates value for its customers. It is crucial to consider both digitalisation of business processes and business model innovation in a digital strategy.
Digitalisation involves using digital technologies to streamline operations and improve efficiency, while business model innovation looks at fundamentally changing how the business operates and creates value. In today’s fast-paced and technology-driven environment, a digital strategy is essential to address current trends, stay ahead of competitors, and prepare for future innovations.
By constantly evolving and adapting to technological advancements, businesses can ensure they are meeting customer needs and maintaining a competitive edge.
Digital Strategy – A Roadmap
Creating a digital strategy roadmap involves outlining a comprehensive plan that aligns an organisation’s business plans, business goals with digital initiatives. The following roadmap serves as a guide or a strategic approach for implementing digital technologies, processes, and tools to drive business growth and improve customer experiences.
Digital Strategy – Identify A Champion
In selecting the digital strategy champion, it is essential to prioritise qualities such as vision, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of digitalisation. The ideal candidate should have a strong grasp of technology and industry trends, as well as the ability to centralise and mobilise digital efforts across the organisation.
Some good options could come from Middle Management or even a senior business leader from Senior Management such as a Chief Digital Officer (CDO), the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This leader should possess the skills to develop and execute a comprehensive digital strategy while fostering collaboration and communication across different departments.
The responsibilities include driving digital transformation, identifying opportunities for innovation, and aligning digital initiatives with the overall business objectives. They should have the authority to make decisions and allocate resources to support the digital strategy, as well as the ability to influence and inspire change throughout the organisation.
Digital Strategy – Understand The Impact of Digitialisation
The digital transformation of businesses has had a significant impact on prices, the economy, and the stability of prices. Any organisation embarking on a digital strategy or individual digital projects must understand the potential impact it is going to have and where.
With technology, organisations are able to streamline operations, leading to cost savings and allowing them to offer competitive prices in the market. The economy has also been influenced by digitisation, as it has led to increased efficiency and productivity.
However, the stability of prices has been somewhat affected, as digital platforms have made it easier for consumers to compare prices globally, leading to increased price competition. Digitalisation has significantly influenced consumer behavior by providing easy access to information and the ability to compare prices globally.
This has led to a more informed and price-sensitive consumer base, resulting in changes in purchasing patterns and habits. Specifically, digitisation has affected business operations by allowing organisations to automate certain processes, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs.
Digital Stategy – Explore Innovative Technologies
The technology landscape for enterprise applications has been rapidly evolving with the integration of new technologies such as AI, big data, blockchain, NLP, and driverless cars. These technologies are transforming the way businesses operate, providing opportunities for automation, predictive analysis, and enhanced decision-making.
AI and NLP are being used for customer service automation and natural language processing, while big data is providing insights for better decision-making. The blockchain technology is being integrated into supply chain management and secure transactions, and driverless cars are impacting the transportation and logistics industry.
In considering potential tech vendors for investment, companies may look into established players in AI and big data like IBM, Microsoft, and Google, as well as emerging startups specialising in blockchain and NLP technologies. Also, understanding the marketing technology landscape is crucial for businesses to grasp the full breadth of how a digital strategy could impact their operations.
By leveraging these technologies and vendors, businesses can stay competitive and innovative in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Digital Strategy – Applying New Technologies
Some of the new digital applications identified and researched include AI-powered chatbots for customer service, cloud-based project management tools, and augmented reality for product visualisation. These critical technology applications can be implemented in organisations to identify opportunity areas such as improving customer satisfaction and retention, streamlining project management processes, and enhancing product marketing.
By looking at similar companies within and outside the same industry or activity, organisations can see that these digital technologies have been successful in providing solutions such as personalised customer interactions, efficient team collaboration, and engaging customer experiences. These insights can help tailor implementation strategies and measure the potential impact of these digital applications on the organisation in question.
In terms of digital strategy opportunity areas, subsets could include enhancing customer engagement through chatbot interactions, optimising project management through cloud-based tools, and boosting sales through interactive product visualisation with augmented reality. By building upon these subsets of digital strategy opportunity areas, organisations can maximise the benefits of the new digital applications.
Digital Strategy – Assess Skillsets & Identify The Gaps
The skill sets of the individuals within an organisation are usually identified as being basic, intermediate, and advanced. The digital leader and both Senior Management and Middle Management will need to carry out a full assessment of the current digital skill set to help identify where the gaps are located and how this is going to impact on the digital action plan.
Some personnel will only be able to utilise digital devices, email communication, web search and online transactions. Susequently better equipped will be able to utilise business software and data management. Complicated data analysis, software development and high-level computing competences in the range of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning will only be attributed to the advanced skill set.
Develop a digital adoption plan and a strategic approach to help identify and maximise digital talent already within the organisation by improving the dexterity among employees and empower them to take on the technological trends of today and achieve the digital vision of the organisation.
Digital Strategy – Set Company Goals
As with any strategy action plan organisations must set stretched but achieveable goals to measure the results of their actions and attain a competitive advantage. A digitalisation strategy will often see organisations target objectives such as:
- Reduced costs
- Higher productivity
- Improving customer expectations
- Greater agility
- Increasing collaboration
It is important to first understand and confirm a baseline for each objective prior to implementing a digitalisation strategy. Only by fully clarifying how each targeted area is currenly performing will organisations be able to determine any improvement and if they have acheived the goals they set out to attain.
Once the initial process has been embedded it is critical that a process of continuous improvement becomes the common priority within the organisation, always looking for opportunities to improve and maintain a competitive advantage.