How to become a truly digital enterprise

The terms digital enterprise and digital transformation are more dominant topics in the business world today than ever before. A simple search on Google of “digital enterprise” yields about 1.3 billion results.

In today’s world, where we are practically doing everything online, it is imperative that businesses transform into digital enterprises that are ready to compete in the business world.

What is a digital enterprise?

A digital enterprise is “a business that has completed a digitalization strategy (aka, digital transformation) to fully incorporate digital tools and technologies across all aspects of their operations, from ideation thru realization to utilization,” according to a definition by Siemens Digital Industries.

Not only does a digital enterprise embrace the use of digital technologies in its day-to-day operations, but it also uses digital infrastructure and processes to improve business performance and drive growth.

A digital enterprise leverages technology to transform its operations, customer experience, and overall strategy in a unique way. It will use digital technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, analytics, and the internet of things to automate processes, improve decision-making, and drive innovation.

By fully embracing a digital transformation, a digital enterprise can achieve new efficiency, agility, and competitiveness levels in a rapidly changing business landscape.

What are the pillars of a digital transformation?

These are the organization’s capabilities that you need for digital transformation.

Digital technology: A digital enterprise leverages the latest technology, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the internet of things, to automate processes, improve decision-making, and drive innovation.

Customer-centricity: A digital enterprise prioritizes the needs and experience of its customers, using data and technology to deliver personalized experiences.

Data-driven culture: A digital enterprise has a culture that values and leverages data to inform decision-making and drive innovation.

Agile and flexible operations: A digital enterprise can quickly adapt to changing business needs with flexible and agile operations that can pivot and scale as needed.

Collaborative and cross-functional teams: A digital enterprise fosters collaboration across functions and departments, breaking down silos and empowering teams to work together to drive digital transformation.

Continuously evolving strategy: A digital enterprise has a strategy that continuously evolves to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

By having these pillars in place, a digital enterprise can achieve new efficiency, competitiveness, and growth levels.

Innovative leaders consider the following key elements to a successful digital enterprise.

1. Business alignment

Businesses that have a shared vision between the business and IT Teams. Changing how things are done will help the organization understand each department, understand the impact of change, evaluate their needs, move faster, innovate more, and constantly reinvent itself.

2. Speed of innovation

Fast speed of innovation can be achieved through legacy architecture, CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) pipeline, and automation of software delivery processes.

3. Talent & organization

An organization can train its talent to prepare them to adapt to a cloud-native architecture. Training, leadership support, upskilling, and continuous communication are all the required structures needed for digital transformation.

Steps to achieving a digital enterprise status

Becoming a truly digital enterprise requires a comprehensive digital strategy that aligns with overall business goals and drives digital transformation.

A successful digital enterprise will incorporate data, its talent, common processes, and operations so that the entire organization can collaborate more efficiently and effectively.
Here are steps to help achieve your business transformation digitally.

1. Define digital vision and strategy

Define the business’s digital vision and develop a strategy to achieve it. This vision will help everyone picture where the business aims to go, and the benefits the business will provide for its customers.

The digital strategy includes identifying digital technology trends, mapping out the customer journey, and identifying areas for improvement and how the change will happen. It is important that businesses align their vision with their strategy and measure their performance regularly.

2. Invest in digital infrastructure

Invest in the right digital technologies and infrastructure to support the digital vision and strategy. This includes cloud computing, artificial intelligence, analytics, and security.

Henkel is using data to have a better understanding of its customers and create custom solutions in its adhesive technologies business unit. It has created a digital twin along the entire value chain.

Tesla is a great example of a company that is utilizing the latest digital infrastructure. Tesla developed its own digital stack, enabling the company to update its car software over the air.

3. Embrace digital culture

Foster a digital culture that supports innovation and encourages employees to embrace new digital technologies and processes. Focus on becoming a change-ready organization that embeds an agile mindset to all its employees. Provide training and development programs to equip employees with the skills needed to succeed in a digital environment.

Businesses striving for digital transformation are open to bringing in new talent from other sectors to extend their capabilities. They are business- and customer-focused and passionate about creating value for their customers through innovation.

eSalon is a business focused on providing personalized hair product selection for at-home selection. Henkel has created BizDevOps that unites its business domain and IT experts. They all create and operate everything end to end.

4. Transform processes and operations

Identify processes and operations that can be streamlined or automated through digital technologies and implement them to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Businesses should introduce new digital roles that cooperate with other companies and other stakeholders in the industry to produce innovative solutions.

Streetbees is changing how market data is collected and how fast the information reaches the business. The company has empowered consumers to give direct insights into their buying and usage behavior. They do this by sending in their videos, photos, and messages of the activities they are involved in using their digital devices.

5. Continuously measure and refine

Continuously monitor and measure the impact of digital investments on business performance. Use the insights to refine and adjust the digital strategy as needed to ensure that the company remains ahead of the curve.

By following these steps, a company can become a truly digital enterprise, capable of delivering an exceptional digital customer experience, and achieving sustainable, long-term growth.

It is important to note that companies should recognize that digital transformation will not happen at once. It is a process and companies need to continually search for new ways of doing things, take advantage of new technologies and collaborate with others to develop new innovations.

Challenges

Digital transformation process however, is not without challenges. Let’s take a look at some of these challenges and how businesses can maneuver across these hurdles.

1. Conflict between IT and business teams

Without a great understanding of the whole digital transformation process, there is bound to be conflict between how the business thinks and the IT team’s understanding of the project. Change top management mindset and working together to embrace new digital processes.

2. Unskilled talent

Digital transformation will require a complete overhaul of organization structure and culture. Your business cannot underestimate the role people play in your digital transformation journey. Unskilled talent will only slow your business down and create barriers to progress. Focus on continuously training your employees, acquiring new skilled talent and creating an environment that attracts new talent to join your company. Put an emphasis on building partnerships with other stakeholders who can share talent in the industry.

3. Agile deployment

Technology is constantly changing and requires fast deployment and a strong scalable foundation. It is crucial that you prepare your team to be able to handle a fast environment.

4. Outdated technologies

Starting your digital transformation journey using outdated technology is not only expensive, but it is also cumbersome and complicated. Businesses running on legacy architecture are not able to quickly adapt to new technologies and innovation.

Businesses should take a coordinated approach to select agile technologies, ensuring they are at the forefront of digital transformation

5. Lack of resources

If your IT Team does not have adequate resources, its output and responsiveness will decline. This means that essential innovation projects get postponed, and other issues take priority.

A business focusing on only one department will not experience the full benefits of digital transformation. They may share higher revenues but low profitability. Their growth is slower, putting them at risk of being cut out from the market.

Conclusion

A truly digital enterprise has transformed business processes both in customer relations and internal operations.

The challenge businesses face today is trying to catch up with constantly changing technology, remain relevant to customers, and meet their changing needs on time.

Companies should be prepared to integrate technology, new tools, and new talent in their operations to succeed as digital enterprises.

About the author:

Arindam Mukherjee is an IT supply chain architect and published author in leading supply chain publications. He can be reached at [email protected].

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