A roadmap for digital transformation

Let’s talk about transformation. After all that’s why we’re here: to help you manage change within your business. Transformation accelerates the speed at which you do business; improves your time to market; brings operating costs down, and fosters productive changes in every process, employee, and product.

It’s all right there in the name. It’s transformative.

Companies who embrace a digital transformation strategy believe they are 68 percent more productive than those who don’t. But the term ‘Digital Transformation,’ can often fill managers’ hearts with fear. With such a grand title it’s easy to assume that the workload and cost involved will be out of proportion to the gains.

Not so.

You shouldn’t feel overwhelmed at the prospect of digital transformation because you are completely in charge of the size and scale of your own project. Whether you’re a solo-preneur or the MD of multi-national company Digital Transformation can affect your business in multitudinous ways. It all starts with that first step.

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When you are leading any kind of transformation, you need to get used to juggling the execution of the existing company strategy whilst working on your digital transformation. New processes and new tools will be a requirement as will breaking down your project into manageable chunks (for your sanity as much as anything!)

To successfully execute a digital transformation for your organisation your first port of call needs to be your vision. According to a study conducted by the MIT Centre for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting, leaders in successful enterprise-level digital transformation focus on these three key areas:

• customer experience,• operational processes,• and their overall business model.

In this guide we’re going to map out a 6-point plan that you can follow when managing your digital transformation. We’re going to be discussing the devices and techniques you can use that will make your life easier, deliver more value and ultimately provide your company with the transformational success story your customers are looking for.

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The reality of digital transformation

Having a clear vision and distilled strategy is essential to successful implementation across the business. Your vision should consider three key elements on which you can map out your process:

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1) Envisioning

• Goals – Set out relevant goals for what you want to achieve over a defined period and ensure you have the buy-in from the organisation to work towards them. Your goals need to be focused on how technology can improve your products, your processes and the customer experience.

• Dependencies – Digital transformation requires more than just technology. It will need everyone within your organisation to be involved in some capacity. You must to consider how everyone is connected to this project.

• Milestones – Digital transformations don’t usually happen overnight, in fact they can be an evolution that can span several years. In order to

TOP TIP: Rank your business goals on ‘available resources vs perceived rewards.’ If you can prioritise your digital transformation journey based on the available resources in house and current knowledge-set you have available, you can identify whether certain goals will require less resource and time to make a positive impact.

maintain momentum, buy-in and excitement around the project you need to celebrate key milestones along the way. You can link these milestones to specific releases and major features that the team is delivering to show tangible progress.

An effective plan is only as good as the team executing it. Which is why, before you start to formulate your planning documents, you need to appoint your dream team.

While talent is a key ingredient in a successful digital transformation, you might find resistance within your current team, perhaps because they have enough on their plate already. Reprioritise to accommodate this, or you can also outsource.

There are plenty of resources and skills out there, such as digital design, analytics and digital marketing consultants and experts. Not to mention managed IT. They can help transform your company. Think outside the box with regards to talent within your organisation and get the right people onboard who are passionate and knowledgeable about the subject.

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2) Fail to plan, plan to fail

‘It is no longer enough just to have the best applications and devices.’ says Duncan Tait, Head of Americas and EMEIA at Fujitsu. ‘Without talented and capable people to use them, they are meaningless.’

As you create your plan and communicate this to the wider business, you can begin to utilise the tools and end-user devices that will no doubt form a major part of your strategy.

Microsoft found that 84 percent of global executives believe new technology will help them be more creative, but 60 percent say they don’t have the right tools.

The tools and products that you use within your organisation – and better yet – within your digital transformation project, will directly affect the efficiency and attitude of your team. End-user devices, such as the Microsoft Surface range, connect all of your business functions. It helps to eliminate siloes and it breaks down communication barriers within an organisation. This empowers your team to innovate and be independent.

You can make full use of devices like the Surface Pro, a stream-lined device that can adapt to any working environment, by using made-for-business services. This will arm your team with is the collaboration tools that will ultimately determine how well you:

• Communicate • Make decisions• Engage • Measure success

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3) Tools and end-user devices to implement your plan

Here are some of the features you can have built into your Microsoft devices for maximum productivity:

• Skype for Business – for conference calls, instant messaging and on-the-go client meetings.

• Exchange online – hosted email with advanced capabilities and anti-malware protection.

• SharePoint – collaborate with all your reference resources in one place.

• Office 365 – get all the Microsoft tools you’re familiar with, and more.

Ensuring your digital transformation team can work from anywhere in the world, communicate and share effectively and deliver against your goals and milestones is a vital recipe for success.

Microsoft Surface offers the ultimate range of products to suit every type of employee. The Surface Pro is great for on-the-go project managers; the Surface Book 2 is the perfect 2-in-1 device that will have your sales team raking in clients, and the Surface Studio is an intuitive tool for your design team.

With Probrand, you can even get these devices and services as part of our Surface-as-a-service offering.

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Once your project is fully underway, you should be seeing progress on all of your initiatives as well as signs that a ‘digital mindset’ has taken hold of your organisation.

Now is the time to ramp things up.

At this point the ‘digitised’ parts of your business should be making revenue, with each initiative building upon the success of the last to ensure forward momentum is maintained and budgets aren’t wiped out.

You should now be reviewing those digital transformation initiatives that are working. Focus your energy on the areas that are impacting the core priorities of the business the most, and having a significant impact on:

• Engaging your customers• Empowering your employees • Optimising your operations

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4) Snowball your rollout

Agile methodology: if there’s one constant in this digital world, it is change. To continue to succeed in your digital transformation your organisation has to commit to the most frightening (yet most powerful) concept of all – change management. In order to maintain your newly improved customer satisfaction processes, your empowered employees and all of your new and optimised operations, you must always keep one eye out to the sunset. You can do that by getting your company to adopt agile principles.

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5) Continuous improvement

Cut out the cubicles in favour of collaboration and communication.

Banish the boundaries and silos that have been favoured for generations.

Instead, adopt a culture of agility in partnership with Microsoft Surface, a range of devices built with the end-user in mind. The line-up offers everything your employees could need in terms of speed, storage, ease of use and intuitive touch.

Better still, you can combine your Surface product with monthly cloud subscriptions that mean your staff can be working in your meeting room one day (via the Surface studio) and then from home on the Surface laptop another. Evolve your ways of working to reflect the capabilities these kinds of upgraded devices offer.

We want to highlight a couple of key issues for you to keep on your radar as you embark on your digital transformation journey:

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6) Beware the unknowns

Forgoing the cultural shift

Transformation has to sink deep into an organisation’s culture in order to truly be effective. Culture guides behaviour and behaviour will determine whether an alignment to new business objectives and tools is realistic within your organisation.

A commitment to digital transformation and an acceptance of change must be reflected in company policies, mission statements, and the daily actions that your organisations’ leaders take. Communicating this is a key part to ensuring a culture adoption and you can utilise tools such as SharePoint and Skype for Business to ensure regular communication and promotion is managed, and that employees are happy with changes.

Don’t ignore your plan

We’ve done our best to combat this common pitfall by providing you with a roadmap for digital transformation. But, now it’s up to you to make it come to life. Plot your targets, timelines, resources requirements and budgets using this guide.

In 2017, Censuswide interviewed over 1,600 decision makers in mid- to large-sized businesses in a variety of industries. They found that 70 percent of leaders believed there was a lack of digital skills in their organisation.

It can be difficult to understand which skills you’ll need within your team when digital transformation and technology is moving at such a fast pace.

The truth? It all comes back to adopting that digital-first mindset. The concept of agile working supported by up-to date technology and systems will prepare your workforce for the changes that will inevitably come.

Utilising Microsoft Surface and Microsoft’s suite of cloud tools, you can ensure that there are no gaps in your team’s productivity or software. If you’re interested in learning more about Surface products for business, get in touch with us.

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0800 977 5969

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Plan for change