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This month we're launching a survey that will take the pulse of digital transformation programmes across both public and private sectors. What are the drivers? Are there any significant barriers to overcome? And how are different types of organisations progressing?

In setting up the survey, we've given a great deal of thought to the role that digital transformation is playing in a range of organisations.

To be successful, any digital transformation programme must align with the broader goals of the organisation. After all, there are many ways of getting to a finishing line, but knowing where you're going and how you plan to get there puts you in a far stronger position along the way.

What can those people tasked with leading this change do to deliver successful transformation effectively, at a time when, as Forbes recently reported,58% of CEOsstill see the rapid pace of technological change as a challenge?

Upgrade to efficient IT solutions

A primary focus should be to understand and communicate business impact and cost of ownership oflegacy IT systems, compared with the cost of digital transformation. Continuing to operate inflexible, inefficient systems has its own inherent costs. However by leveraging API's to develop new services, or the flexibility of cloud computing to unlock data insights you can drive innovation and breath new new life into existing systems.

Align processes to your customers' needs

It's important to show how digital transformation can deliver real changes to the customer experience. Can key business processes be automated? Kcom worked withNHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)to implement a hosted cloud-based solution featuring natural speech recognition in order to handle the high volumes of calls its contact centre had to handle. This made applications for the European Health Insurance Card, an extremely popular NHSBSA service, much easier for customers.

Can stakeholders and customers complete some of their more straightforward interactions on an online self-service portal? And if so, what will this mean for satisfaction ratings and how much money will you save?

Securing internal buy-in for change projects is easier when it's clear that any short-term service disruption will, in the long-term, give way to more scalable and flexible solutions.

Make sure you have the right skills in place

Modernising the way you operate, in order to become more efficient, requires working in new ways, as well as embracing new technologies. This can mean re-evaluating the skills needed by your workforce for digital delivery.

However, skill shortages are often a key limiting factor to digital transformation ambitions. Recent research fromForresterfound that, on average only 16% of executives across all sectors believed they had the necessary people and skills to execute their digital strategies.

Know what success looks like for you

Since digital transformation requires both cultural buy-in and financial investment, there's a real need to measure impact and demonstrate ROI. Yet, as Capgemini identified inThe Difficult Art of Quantifying Return on Digital Investments, this can be a tricky area to get right. You'll need to invest time in understanding and communicating the specific benefits for your organisation - and put metrics in place to demonstrate delivery and outcomes.

Map out your digital transformation journey

Whatever position your organisation is currently in, and whether you're leading from a financial, customer experience, or IT role, ensuring your people, systems and processes align with wider business objectives is the first real step towards true digital transformation. Over the next few weeks, we will be showing you how to to achieve this - covering topics such as:

  • Tactics to get key internal stakeholders on-board with your vision for digital change
  • How to meet customer demands for services delivered across a diverse and growing number of channels

Start your journey by completing our digital transformation survey and we will send you an exclusive report detailing all results, to help you benchmark your digital progress against similar organisations.

  • IT systems, internal processes, and people all have a role to play in delivering successful digital transformation.

  • Process automation must not come at the cost of customer satisfaction.

  • The costs of maintaining legacy IT systems can outweigh that of upgrading or replacing them.

By: Paul Dewar | 25 February 2016

KCom Group plc issued this content on 25 February 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 25 February 2016 09:34:35 UTC

Original Document: http://www.kcom.com/connected-thinking/opinion/opinion-articles/successful-digital-transformation/