5 inspiring tips to help you with digital transformation

[5 Ws on Digital Transformation] This post was originally published on the DIVISADERO.es blog

The 5 W’s are a classic of any journalist's working method. Essentially it is about gathering the necessary elements of a reality in order to convey what happened to a third party with impartiality and rigor.

In this case we are not dealing with the same 5 W's, nor do we intend to tell a story. Our aim at DIVISADERO is to convey in simple language how we have approached the Digital Transformation model, applying rigor and flexibility to the challenge that most large corporations are tackling right now.

This path (Where) starts from a context and defines a situation to be reached (What). From that moment on, new ways of doing things are applied (hoW) and steps are taken to integrate all customer-related tasks (to Whom) under a single vision (Why): Aligning customer needs and the organization's objectives as a lever of transformation.

This is how we understand that essential path

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha

Where “the path”

Digital transformation is a maturity process, and that is why a path perfectly represents the journey of any organization from a first phase of digital learning to a stage of transformation. From there on it is a “continuum” in which new ways of doing things keep changing inside the organization.

It is a simple path and the simplicity lies in the ability of organizations to adapt their ways of doing things to the new decision processes their customers are already facing, as a result of the emergence of digital assets. Is it possible that this path is not so simple for my company? Any rigidities we might come across along the way will depend to a large extent on each organization's internal resistance to adapting its processes and its decision-making dynamics to the ways and the new purchasing models that consumers have already internalized naturally. Yes, the truth is that customers in every industry are one step ahead on this path.

To adapt this model to the different degrees of digital maturity our clients find themselves in, we have created a support methodology that combines strategic analysis, digital personalization tools, testing, audience profiling, and all of it with a deep and rigorous use of the vast amount of data generated in the digital environment. We have called this model Path to Digital Transformation - P2DT.

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

What

Every corporation knows its strategy perfectly. Now, do we know how to adapt that strategy to an environment of uncertainty where technology adoption has changed the behavior of customers, competitors and entire industries?

The emergence of new technologies and customers' new ways of deciding have already altered the rules of the game in every industry. First it was music, then Travel, followed by Telcos. Even Banking and Insurance have seen how their distribution models no longer carry the weight they used to in their customers' first-purchase decisions.

It is clear that there is a decisive factor in the need to transform digitally, and that is the digital maturity of each vertical. Even so, every company starts from an initial scenario and from a starting ecosystem of digital assets: apps, websites, blogs, social media profiles, analytics tools, CRM, third-party integrations for campaigns, content repositories, data marts, etc. Is that ecosystem ready to take on the challenge of Digital Transformation? How does my company stand in relation to other competitors?

“The goal is to transform data into information, and information into decision-making.” - DIVISADERO

hoW

Once the strategy has been defined and refined with the different digital implications of each industry / competitor / customer target, the company is in a position to have a clear view of the foundations of its digital transformation model. Now, does the company know how to walk that path?

At DIVISADERO we have built up expertise based on Digital Intelligence and Analytics as a lever for development and optimization. Handling and analyzing large amounts of digital data in real time has always been our main skill. Putting that data to work in the digital strategy to turn data into information and information into decision-making is the lever of any transformation process. The data is needed and the people are needed to work with a methodology based on the use of data. Does the company have the right people to manage that transformation, built on the use of data and on learning from it? And last and most important, are we clear about which indicators to watch in order to assess whether we are straying from the path?

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” - Lao Tzu

to Whom

Most companies have already invested heavily in building segmentation models, both to shape their relationship or distribution strategy and to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. In this new environment, users' interactions with the different assets generate a large amount of data that in many cases could help define new segmentation models. These ways of generating new homogeneous approaches to customers based on digital data are what we call digital audiences.

Traditional segmentation is without doubt still a valuable asset for your business, do you think it is possible to bring in new information to refine those segmentation models? And now that we have enriched our segments by profiling audiences on digital assets, is it possible to make the return journey? How can we enrich both the online and the offline strategy from this information?

Sales funnels, blog content, interactions on social networks, campaign leads, app users and a great many new ways of profiling users can serve us well to help our sales teams in physical stores improve their results. In addition, visits to a physical store, phone conversations, even emails from the sales force to their customers, can be put to use to generate new sales opportunities both in the physical store and on the website or the app. Both paths are possible.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results” - A. Einstein.

Why

Once we know what the desired situation is in the digital transformation process, we know our customers better than ever and we have also learned how to generate learnings from every point of interaction with our customers, what are we waiting for to turn these learnings into value for our customers?

Managing your digital assets is only one part of the path; bringing together all the available information to generate an experience and a value proposition that is relevant for your customers is moving forward along it.

By now nobody has to explain to you that your customers are, among others, the people for whom you design your brand promise and around whom you have built your mission as a company. Is your company ready to turn that new flow of information into a continuous source of value creation for your customers?

If at this point you still have doubts that aligning your customers' objectives with your organization's objectives is one of the most important challenges any organization faces, you are not yet ready to digitally transform your organization. In that case I think it is time for us to go back to the first step.

“I do not conceive of any reality at all as without genuine unity.” - Gottfried Leibniz.

See the original post on the DIVISADERO.es blog

Bernardo Crespo is a Digital Transformation Leader and an Ontological Coach certified by Newfield Network in Bogotá (Colombia). He holds a degree in Business Studies from UCLM and a final year of a BA Honours in Management and Economics, University of St Andrews. He also holds an Executive Master's in Relationship Marketing, CRM and E-commerce from ICEMD and lectures at several business schools in Spain. He worked as digital marketing director at BBVA España.

These days I help companies walk the path of Digital Transformation at DIVISADERO.

I have discovered and keep discovering the beauty of games applied outside of games #gamification