There’s no denying the fact that almost everyone in the world today has a smartphone and these phones are used in their day-to-day life to make decisions on various tasks. From buying groceries to making a choice of which brands to buy from, everything is done on your phone. This is very good for the customers but it presents new kinds of challenges for different businesses. Businesses that have not adapted to the change have not fared well during this digital transformation.
Digital transformation nowadays affects every part of the business, on almost every level. Over the last few decades, it’s had a ripple effect on our modern-day enterprises. Here when we talk about a digital transformation, we do not mean one or two changes to your business model but a whole lot more than that.
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Following are a few challenges you’ll face during your digital transformation:
1. Employee Resistances –
even though employees are the driving force of your business, they may also be the reason for any resistance to change in the working of the business. Sometimes what happens is that when things start to change, old employees feel like their jobs are threatened and do not embarrass them as you would hope. Especially when it comes to digital transformation there is a skill gap that would make some of your employees even more hesitant.
2. A Lack of Clarity on The Budget –
changes are difficult in all aspects but especially on the budget. This whole process is always evolving and hence having a finite budget for all the implementation solutions can be very painful. You would need money for things like a virtual assistant or a Chatbot which can only be done by an intelligent digital solution so that you can beat your competitors. In this type of transformation, what the customers demand is always changing and hence may exceed your set budget. If there is any lack of clarity in the budget it will automatically slow down the decision-making time and would force you to take a step back.
3. No Clear Vision for The Customer’s Digital Journey –
whenever you see any company or business doing well, it never happens accidentally. You need a clear plan as to how you are going to meet your customer’s digital needs. For this, you need to first identify the needs, then set clear objectives of how you plan on achieving this, and then execute your plan. Often when you see that the numbers are not doing well or there is no growth in a particular company or business, it may be due to the fact that they did not plan it out well enough. You must first take a stock of all your assets, from the customers to your intellectual properties, then study the market well so that you can understand what the customers are looking for. Thirdly, be aware of all the latest technological trends that are emerging and which are relevant to your business model. Lastly, using all this information plan out your digital journey.
4. Inflexible Development Processes and Technology Stack –
a key to succeed in the digital market is the ‘test and learn’ approach. What this means is that whenever there is a new feature you add, it must be firstly measured, followed by adjusting it according to the customer’s feedback and also the usage of the data. But it’s important to note that this approach would work best if your development process normally involves a quarterly release cycle. What leads to an effective digital result is a leveraging agile process and technologies which can support this continuous integration and product release.
5. Old Business Model –
it is important to remember when making a digital transformation that it is not usually the same product or services just in a digital way. You have to adapt your whole business model and shift your thinking. For example, Netflix changed from DVDs to now streaming. It’s not the same product, it’s adapted to the new way. Start-ups are usually the ones that adapt well to this challenge as compared to older businesses. You will need a lot of willingness and innovation to make this change. But with a clear plan and motivation, it can be achieved.
