A digital transformation can enhance your business’s customer experience, increase operational efficiency and improve your business model by integrating more modern technology into your business, but without sound, centralized leadership, such a large transformation can devolve into chaos.
The proper way to head up a digital transformation is with a digital transformation officer, a dedicated leader who is in charge of leading the change, organizing the transition, tracking results, troubleshooting and moving the project successfully along to completion without confusion.
Benefits Of Having A Digital Transformation Officer
Every team needs a captain, and every project needs a manager. The digital transformation of your company is no different. A digital transformation is a company-wide, multifaceted technology overhaul involving countless people, departments and systems. Without a digital transformation officer, an overhaul like that can quickly go awry.
But with a digital transformation officer leading the way, the process is more orderly, less chaotic and more likely to meet milestones and deadlines with a minimal amount of headache and hassle. A digital transformation officer’s responsibilities include:
• Marking benchmarks.
• Organizing tasks and timelines.
• Troubleshooting issues.
• Maintaining proper progress toward deadline
• Making sure the digital transformation activities align with the company’s overall vision and that technology is used to enable the company’s mission.
• Explaining the concepts of digital transformation such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning and more to anyone, even non-tech employees, in the organization.
• Building, implementing, monitoring and optimizing a strategy for the digital transformation.
• Measuring the transformation’s outcomes.
• Communicating to staff why the digital transformation is beneficial and walking them through the process of making that transformation.
After the initial digital transformation, the digital transformation officer’s duties will convert into maintenance, optimization and further improvements. At this stage, the digital transformation officer will regularly assess the organization’s technological capabilities against what is happening in the market and make sure the company’s technology keeps delivering value. The officer should develop KPIs to make sure digital initiatives keep adding value to the business and optimize systems to improve continuously.
Without A Digital Transformation Officer, Silos Cause Redundancies
One downside to not having a dedicated digital transformation officer is that, without one, the technological transformation will be done in silos because there is no centralized point of coordination. With each department doing its separate transformation, redundancies inevitably occur along with unnecessary spending.
With a digital transformation officer leading the change, company-wide costs can be shared between departments, and technical discoveries and knowledge can be disseminated easily throughout the organization. This reduces spending on the digital transformation itself as well as helps to speed the process along by eliminating redundancies. With so many changes being made at once, it’s critical to have someone directing the ship so everyone stays on track.
The Skills Of A Top-Notch Digital Transformation Officer
When hiring a digital transformation officer from an outside organization or promoting someone from within, there are certain skills the person should possess.
The best digital transformation officers excel in two areas: understanding the what/why/where/how of technology, also known as digital capability, and leadership skills.
Digital capabilities encompass a wide variety of technical know-how. This would include:
• Knowing the best ways to invest in digital technology for your organization.
• Understanding how technology can be used to optimize business processes and the customer experience.
• Being familiar with the technological landscape and recommending the right technologies for the business and target audience.
In addition to technological know-how, leadership capabilities are a key characteristic of a good digital transformation officer. They need to be able to move your staff to action and keep them motivated through what can be a lengthy and frustrating technological transformation. Anyone who has ever had to learn to use unfamiliar technology knows just how frustrating that process can be. A good digital transformation officer shows strong top-down leadership that helps keep people on track by setting the pace, providing guidance and ensuring goals are met.
Certification programs for digital transformation officers combine all of these skills into one training and certification program. Such a certification can help you identify potential candidates with the digital transformation skills you need. It’s a good idea to work with a digital transformation officer that’s already certified, or you can put your in-house digital transformation officer through the certification course.
Embrace The Next Level Of Technological Advancement
Keeping up with the latest technological advancements and implementing them at your company is a full-time job. Whether you choose to promote from within or hire an outside digital transformation officer, you’ll be in good stead to have a single point of communication to lead your company’s charge into the next level of technological advancement.
In the context of the Industrial Revolution, applying technology to operating mechanisms in each organization is extremely necessary, and is also an inevitable trend to minimize workload while still ensuring efficiency and enhance its competitive position in the market. Furthermore, applying management software into a business will also help build an organization with a clear system, promoting consistency, transparency and accuracy. Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution – a business consultant in Vietnam – is an internal work management system as well as the management of automated, online, user-friendly approval processes, allowing businesses to operate more effectively on the path of digital transformation.
Forbes
