5 considerations for your digital transformation project

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to digital transformation.

It looks different for every organisation we work with – which is why we take time to get “under the hood” of an organisation with our discovery phases at the start of a project. You need to ask yourself what you’re trying to get out of an investment in technology.

Are your operations and workflows effective?

Do you need to change your culture?

What does success look like for your business post-launch?

We sat down with our team to learn more about what you should consider for your digital transformation project.

1. Consider your current situation

Before we think too much about the future, we need to think about where you’re at now.
In the Discovery stage, we analyse things like:

Your processes
Your systems
Your approaches
Your pain points

This is a very important first step in any digital transformation project.

By analysing the current state of play and the different types of users involved, we can start planning a product roadmap to suit those audiences. It’s also important to consider the risks that are likely to come up, such as:

Technology stack
Strategy
Data leakage
Privacy
External threats
Regulation

A good example of this is our current Drivespeed project; the Discovery stage found that we needed to make sure we adhered to automotive industry regulations on accessibility and security. Other potential risks included copy changes, how to proceed if deadlines were missed and quality of information provided. We informed the customer of mitigation plans early, so that if these risks played out, everybody knew how we would tackle the problem.

Identifying risks as early as possible allows our teams to mitigate any issues before they have a serious impact on your organisation or the project – and together with the rest of our research, all this helps us to prioritise the most important tasks first and build a product strategy that works.

2. Consider your goals

Imagine you’re writing an email or a Tweet about your product in a year’s time.

What would it say?

6B’s Commercial Director Rebecca Willis uses this exercise early in a digital transformation project. She says it’s a useful tool for long-term goal setting. Then, you can map out your product journey.

Being crystal clear on your goals right from the beginning is critical in digital transformation.

Let’s go back to Drivespeed as our example. We’re synchronising all their systems into one and this multi-faceted project includes:

Building a front-end portal to enhance the customer journey
Overhauling the back office system
Integrating a bespoke CRM system so that Drivespeed employees can work across multiple platforms
Live system dashboards
On the road calculator
Multi-factor authentication to protect privacy

By keeping the end user’s goals in mind, we devised a roadmap that prioritises Drivespeed’s key aims first. Our project will save Drivespeed employees time and enhance their customer journey.

And because we work in an agile way, we have the flexibility to adapt if other goals take priority mid-project.

For example, if new legislation is brought in to protect privacy, we can adjust the roadmap and prioritise any privacy issues before anything else.

3. Consider your technology pain points

Sometimes when clients approach us, they’re using lots of different systems and spreadsheets to access and manage data.

In this case the clear benefit of a tech build is that we can build a unified platform so they only need to access one system. This will free employees up to focus on more important issues, rather than time-consuming manual tasks.

It’s just one example of how we can help an organisation – a few other examples of technical solutions to your challenges may include:

Modernising legacy systems
Using automation tools to transform your operations or manufacturing
AI to monitor and gain insight into user behaviour
IoT to help you redesign products with a digital component

But we always say there’s no point in tech for the sake of it; it must provide a genuine positive change to your organisation.

That’s why we spend a lot of time user testing.

We use analytical tools to monitor how a user interacts with a website or system. Using this data, we can design a system that we know will work.

The alternative would be to mock up designs that a customer may not like, or come up with a system that doesn’t function properly.

4. Consider your people

Our Head of Design Phil Millward highlights that having an open mind is critical for digital transformation.

He says that a client will often have a specific, visual idea for what they want their digital transformation project to look like – but sometimes, that design may not translate into getting more enquiries or fulfilling objectives.

“It’s not just about creating a nice-looking website,” said Phil. “Will it work? Will it appeal to the user? Anyone can make a good looking website, but you need to do the research and make sure it’s functional as well.”

As well as open-mindedness, Commercial Director Rebecca Willis says it’s important that key stakeholders have bought into your digital transformation project: “There are risks inherent with totally changing your systems. The best thing you can do is to get buy-in from your own staff in the early days.”

5. Consider your culture

Research from McKinsey says that culture is the biggest barrier to digital effectiveness. In their survey, 33% of respondents said culture was a bigger challenge than lack of talent, funding or senior support.

6B recognises the importance of culture. That’s why we live by our own 6Be values; they’re embedded into our workplace as well as our projects.

It’s vital that everyone is on board and pulling in the right direction. You can adopt new technology, but if your people aren’t invested in it, digital transformation won’t work.

6B is uniquely positioned for digital transformation because of our culture of accessibility and transparency. We give you access to our staff as we carry out the project and we are more affordable than our competitors.

We also provide ongoing support once a project is live so that changes are fully understood and adopted by everyone in your organisation. We give training to those who will use the system most, and create detailed handovers so that even new members of staff can use your new system.

We’re obsessed with client success at 6B. That’s why we make it our mission to ensure that you get the most out of bespoke digital transformation.

Do you want to find out more about digital transformation with 6B?

Do you need accessible digital transformation services to revolutionise how you operate?

From improving customer experience to increasing staff efficiency, our tech-savvy experts will help you achieve your goals.

Speak with us today