In today's rapidly changing business landscape, technology transformation has become a critical factor for success. But throwing money at technology alone, will not guarantee success. In fact, the success rate of digital transformation initiatives has historically been painfully low. But why?
True Transformation
To be truly transformative requires a huge amount of investment in time and resources, and the challenges that come with it are equally significant. If you are to make the impact you are looking to make, you’ve got to look well beyond the IT and technology function in your business. You need to look business-wide, and this means gathering support from across the business.
Yes, We Can
In effect, your digital transformation initiative needs to go on a long, exhausting political campaign. It needs to win votes early and it must keep building momentum in order to stand against the test of time and be successful. Yes, you can!
At this scale, the only way you can gather the number of votes you need, is by creating cross-functional partnerships. This is fraught with political landmines and requires translating what you are looking to achieve into lots of different languages so that everyone feels personally connected to your vision and the purpose of the transformation.
In other words, you have to talk in terms of the business outcomes that are valuable and understood by the stakeholders in front of you.
Speaking the Right Language
Think about it. Finance is focused on increasing profitability; marketing is focused on protecting the company’s reputation; and executive leadership has growth targets it needs to meet. All these divisions are achieving their goals in completely different ways. Understanding these motivations and personalising a narrative that aligns to them is an art – a very delicate art.
As a good starting point, the outcomes you are trying to achieve with your digital transformation need to come in three key languages: fiscal outcomes, agility outcomes and performance outcomes.
Fiscal outcomes focus on the financial performance of the transformation and measure the success of the project in terms of its impact on the organisation’s financial results. Agility outcomes centre around the business's ability to adapt to changing market conditions, and will measure how malleable your transformation is to an ever-changing environment. Performance outcomes measure the success of the transformation in terms of its impact on the organisation’s operations and overall performance.
If you can cover all these areas, you’ll be focusing on outcomes that are valuable and understood by all stakeholders across the organisation. This will enable them to connect to what you are trying to achieve and will unify their efforts through the creation of a common goal.
Now your initiatives will no longer be under the resourcing microscope and will instead be liberated to get whatever is required to be successful – because everyone is invested in its success.
How Does This Apply to You?
So, how can you take all of this information and start applying it in your organisation – today?
Stop throwing money at the problem for a start. Transformation relies on other finite resources like time, people, and cross-functional partnerships. Get a measure of what your resource availability looks like. What can you deploy today? Then, align your technology initiatives to key business outcomes. Only those that link all the way through to the business strategy and the vision it has for the future get a chance of winning resources.
Next, arrange your portfolio in priority order where priority is based on alignment to the business’s objectives. This gives you your focus. Then begin improving your cross-functional relationships. Learn a new language. What matters to each of your key operational teams? How do they work best? How do they manage their departmental projects? Only then will you be able to help different teams understand each other and their way of working.
It’s all about creating a common goal. How does every department's individual objectives clearly tie back to the company’s objectives? Make the company’s objectives the holy grail. Ensure everyone is aware of them and understands how their work influences the wider goal. And then you’re good to go.
Interested in learning more? Ask us for more information – let’s have a chat about it all.
Start Your Digital Transformation with Crossfuze, a ServiceNow Elite Partner
Crossfuze is a leading ServiceNow Elite Partner with a proven track record for delivering successful digital transformation projects for businesses of all sizes. Our team of certified experts provides end-to-end implementation services, including strategy, design, implementation, and ongoing support. We focus on customer success driven by a commitment to delivering solutions that create measurable business value, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive profitability.
With deep industry experience, innovative technology solutions, and a customer-centric approach, Crossfuze is the ideal partner for businesses seeking to improve their customer retention and profitability. To learn more about ServiceNow CSM and how Crossfuze can help your business succeed, reach out to us at LetsTalk@crossfuze.com today.
