Why Digital Transformation Roadmap is The Transit Path For Technology Evolution?

Digital Transformation is one of the topmost priority for boardroom executives due to the current COVID situation. The companies are rushing to randomly implement technologies to manage the pandemic situation and not to transform into a digitally enabled organization. This is because companies are not completely aware of ‘WHY, WHAT, WHEN and HOW’ to transform. Moreover, random digitalization will create havoc within the organization which will further impact customer experience and brand image.

For every initiative, there will be several obstacles in the path to success and to reach the milestones. Similarly, in Digital Transformation, various challenges stand aside from the most common challenges; whereas core challenges are legacy system complexity, lack of funding, skills and no digital strategy in place. Digital Transformation is the road of great complexity, it requires the right strategy in place and preparation for a significant digital transition.

Key elements for a roadmap:

• Understand the current level and leadership vision
• Identify strategies and options for deployment
• Craft a Digital Transformation roadmap

Understanding the current level and leadership vision

Begin with an insight into your company’s external environment. Understand the industry’s external situation, important global trends, and competitive landscapes. For example, currently, there is a strong and optimistic cloud-based trend to reduce the total cost of ownership and shift from capital to operational spending. You need to gain insights into your organization’s internal state at this level. It is done by recognizing the leadership’s vision for the company, the business and IT plan, the organization’s resources and capabilities, and the connected network.

It is of utmost importance that the CXOs recognize the organization’s mission to draw up a future-proof roadmap. The aim is to understand the significance of Digital Transformation and to draw the scope and value of the related strategic components. The main strategic elements of Digital Transformation are prioritized by the leadership team based on their perceived significance and urgency.

Identifying strategies and options for the deployment

There are ample deployment strategies to choose from, including infrastructure migration, greenfield growth and hybrid implementation. Not every implementation strategy is the right fit for every business scenario. Determine and weigh up a list of primary action criteria based on the market results to identify the correct approach. Based on these main decision criteria, determine a weighted average for each deployment option, and pick the alternative with the best ranking. Some of the criteria to be considered are – new functionality, hardware or third-party license costs, standardized best practices, and the time taken to achieve business disruption. Next step is to consider the deployment options – public cloud, private cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployments. Once finalized, select the target architecture and transient architecture for the IT landscape.

Crafting the transformation roadmap

Build a comprehensive Digital Transformation roadmap – short, medium and long-term map consisting of multiple variables such as market transitions, strategy efficiency, infrastructure demands, organizational change management, and data processing.

The following activities are a part of transformation roadmap:

• Design Thinking
• Research
• Business Analysis or Technology Analysis
• Content Strategy
• Project/Product Management

It is fundamental to have the right strategy and to decide the transition goals before execution. The correct vision gets everyone on the same page and provides an understanding of how to execute the right strategy. A roadmap for Digital Transformation aligns technological resources and programs to the company’s strategy for business growth. Keeping the business milestones, market strategy and potential business outcomes at the core, Alvarium agents help in defining the digital projects & timelines to kick-start the Digital Transformation journey. Our Digital Transformation roadmap has helped various companies to go through continuous transformation journeys and optimize their business models. We integrate digital technologies into business processes and recommend data-driven business models for long-term business sustainability.