What To Look For In A Digital Transformation Partner

Most digital transformation projects fail to achieve their goals. What can be done to increase the number of successful digital transformations and make them less painful for businesses to undertake?

- It’s easy to understand why some executives might not be too keen on the idea of a digital transformation at their company: a 2020 research report from the Boston Consulting Group found that only 30 percent of transformations met or exceeded their target value and resulted in sustainable change.

That said, digital transformations had become a necessity for modern businesses even before the COVID crisis. In fact, the pandemic has only accelerated the need for remote monitoring and management capabilities.

That leads us to this urgent question: what can be done to increase the number of successful digital transformations and make them less painful for businesses to undertake?

First and foremost, it’s important to partner with a company that can help you succeed. Here are a few things to look for in choosing a digital transformation partner:

They’ll perform an in-depth analysis: Before a single line of code is written, it’s prudent for the partner to analyze your strategic business objectives and establish a technology road map that enables operational efficiency and growth. If your company has a hazy or confused vision for its digital transformation, it’s the partner’s fault for not articulating the goals and objectives of the project before anything else.

They’ll stabilize the existing technology eco-system: The partner should aim to resolve all open issues that are preventing pre-existing technology solutions from maintaining high availability for the customer.

They’ll build consensus among top managers about success: If key stakeholders differ on what success means, the digital transformation project may be doomed from the start. Building consensus around goals and how to measure progress will put everyone involved in the project on the same page. The partner should make it a priority to ensure executives understand the opportunity and what the company will achieve at the end of its digital transformation.

They’ll analyze the effect of the digital transformation on your customers: Needless-to-say, customers ought to be taken into account when performing a digital transformation. How will these changes affect them? Many times, digital transformations focus on operational changes and on optimizing production. But, a digital transformation project can also influence go-to-market strategies if, say, customer onboarding becomes a digital process rather than a manual one. If nothing else, a good digital partner should scout the competitive landscape to understand the impact on customers when other companies have undertaken similar projects.

They’ll optimize partner relationships: The digital transformation partner is not the only partner in most of these situations. To that end, your digital transformation partner should act as a leader and work to enhance relationships with third-party technologies providing services such as payments, cellular networking, software and hardware in order to rationalize costs and centralize accountability.

They’ll provide maintenance and support: Probably goes without saying but you’ll want to ask about the maintenance and support before signing a contract with the partner. After all, you may have a different idea about what support looks like and what it should cost. Better to work out those differences in the beginning rather than waiting until you’re near completion of the project.

They’ll work to ensure scalability: The partner should create a technology road map that aligns with your strategic business objectives. This plan should ensure delivery of key performance metrics while the scale of your operations increases. This last part is very important: it’s what will ensure the digital transformation will have a lasting and sustainable impact on the future of your business.

Want to learn more about digital transformations? Contact us today for a free assessment and an analysis of your options.