Digital Transformation: What, Why, and How?

Ever since Digital Transformation took over traditional systems and methods, companies have been striving to keep up with the ongoing trends to satisfy the needs of their clients. Customers now constantly seek the best product/service in the market. The ongoing digital revolution is significantly increasing customers’ buying power.

Most people have this misconception that digitalization or technology is the same as Digital Transformation. So, to have clarity, let us first look at what is technology or digitalization and how it is different from design-led Digital Transformation.

Digitalization is the process of transitioning from a traditional business into a digital business by using digital technologies and changing business models, thereby providing new revenue and business value-producing opportunities. Moreover, technology transformation includes the use of new technology products and services that are rapidly advancing, user-centric, agile, and having data-driven capabilities, which are the table stakes for almost every organization that wants to adapt to disruption.

Design-led transformation, on the other hand, is the continuous transformation of business and organizational activities, business models and processes to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of a mix of digital technologies. When done in a strategic and prioritized way, the design-led transformation has an accelerating impact on the present and future shifts of the organization and the society. It is more about the change than about digitalization or technology.

Implementing design-led transformation: What, When and How?

Digital Transformation covers all aspects of business flow – be it a digital business, a business in the transition stage, or a business that follows traditional processes. The acceleration of technology adoption and change leads to new business strategies, markets, technologies, processes, operations, data management techniques, better customer experiences, and innovative ways to tackle business challenges, and eventually leads to a new economy.

Many organizations that are into the Digital Transformation journey are looking to measure the progress, gauge maturity and benchmark against the competitors in their industry. What most businesses lack is the clarity to assess the business maturity and what key elements and pillars to measure along with which new and different business capabilities to look for.

At Alvarium, we analyze all the aspects of customer and business models effectively and carve the best path for Digital Transformation. Our digital maturity assessment spans over 200+ questions with 6-7 key pillars for analyzing every aspect of the business.

Here is a glimpse of Alvarium’s digital maturity assessment:

Sample structure

A survey before strategic visioning exercise

Analysis of the discussions during strategic visioning

The goal of any Digital Transformation exercise is to improve customer experience and organizational experience at continuous momentum. Businesses must understand that Digital Transformation is not a one-time thing, but a continuous process and it will change the way business is carried out and bring in new business models to satisfy the end customer and add business value.

How Alvarium Helps?

Alvarium enables companies to go through a smooth and continuous transition and gain a better idea of the areas which need to be Digitally Transformed, in order to operate effectively. Our unique and collaborative approach drives new and matured companies to go through continuous transformation journeys and optimize their business models. We understand that while technology, customer behavior, digital and IT strategy, and value pools are evolving, businesses need to calibrate their operational, IT, and digital strategies, to realize sustainable ROI.

Businesses must avoid chaotic initiatives and plan smooth transformation journeys while planning the extent and speed of digitalization. For this, they must consider a holistic view of their business, data, and technology, and take calculated risks. Alvarium takes into consideration the evolving technology, value pools, customer behavior and market dynamics and drives transformation to help businesses stay relevant and achieve their business goals. We bring together our analytical capabilities, industry best practices, in-depth business processes and current state of technology. We integrate digital technologies into business processes and recommend data-driven business models for long-term business sustainability.