Digital transformation solutions are complex by nature, with technology choices only one consideration of many. During a digital transformation project you’ll probably be upgrading legacy systems, implementing multiple integrations and managing organisational change.
The 9Yards team of digital transformation experts have compiled a list of key considerations for teams designing a digital transformation solution.
Align Digital Transformation Objectives With Business Strategy
Aligning your solution with the broader business strategy is the foundation of successful digital transformation. It also ensures that your solution is not just about technology and drives real business outcomes.
Common business objectives for organisations on a digital transformation journey often fit into the categories of:
- improving efficiency
- mitigating risk
- enhancing customer experience
- unlocking new revenue streams
To be able to align your solution with business objectives you’ll need to understand your business strategy including long and short term goals.
Something to note: If your organisation’s business strategy has not been reviewed recently, your digital transformation project might be the prompt that initiates a review. These are fast-changing times and strategies may not have kept up.
Digital Transformation Should be Scalable and Flexible
Even if this project is addressing a specific problem set or opportunity, your organisation’s digital transformation journey is more than a one-time project—it needs to scale and evolve with your business. You’ll achieve this by keeping longevity and agility in mind.
At 9Yards we’ve seen the key to ensuring your solution can adapt to future growth is to build flexible, scalable architectures that can grow with your business.
Aim to design a solution that meets current demands and will also adapt to future technology advancements and evolving business needs.
Have you Prioritised User Experience and Adoption?
If a digital transformation solution is to succeed, it must prioritise UX for customers and employees alike.
How readily employees and customers adopt a new solution or new processes, can have a significant impact on its success. Aim to design a solution that employees will quickly adapt to and interact with.
Understanding your users – both employees and customers – is absolutely critical. To successfully transform systems so that they are intuitive and user-friendly, you need to engage end-users early.
Early and frequent engagement of employees will instil a sense of ownership and empowerment that can vastly improve adoption. User experience (UX) design that considers consumer needs, preferences and personalisation will encourage early adoption by customers.
At 9Yards, we’ve seen first-hand that issues with employee and customer adoption can adversely impact even the most well-designed technical solutions so we strongly recommend prioritising user experience from the beginning of your design process.
Data Security and Compliance are Critically Important
Data security has never been more important. Non-compliance carries significant financial and reputational risk so your solution must meet regulatory requirements. You’ll also want to make sure that whatever solution you implement gives your customers and employees the confidence that you take data and cyber security seriously.
Mid-sized organisations in particular may not have the internal expertise when it comes to cybersecurity and data security. It’s one reason why 9Yards digital transformation consultants recommend that engaging cybersecurity experts is essential.
Just as your overall digital transformation journey goes beyond technology alone, your data security design should consider the challenges of change management, organisational readiness and leadership buy-in to ensure the solution is sustainable and realistic.
And of course, conduct thorough risk assessments to safeguard your data and ensure that your digital transformation solution design complies with relevant industry regulations and best practices, protecting your business.
Harmonise Integration with Existing Systems
Successful digital solutions integrate new and updated technologies seamlessly with your current systems.
At 9Yards our solution designs are standards-based, and developed to maximise reuse. This reduces overheads to keep your budget on track. In practical terms it also improves data integration and operational efficiency.
Your solution needs to work harmoniously with existing infrastructure. This will require an assessment of your current systems – and of course that is also a key step in developing a digital transformation roadmap.
Your overall aim when it comes to integration is to minimise disruption and optimise workflows. The mindset to adopt when approaching solution design is to enhance your existing ecosystem rather than creating more complexity.
How 9Yards can help with your digital transformation solution design
9Yards consultants have extensive experience across multiple sectors, providing strategy and solution design services for organisations going through digital transformation.
9Yards uses a design thinking approach to optimise user experience providing advisory services that include security by design, and a solution architecture practice that ensures scalability and flexibility.
Get in touch now, to find out how 9Yards digital transformation experts can ensure your solution design is flexible, sustainable and supports your business goals.
