Catalyzed during the pandemic, digital transformation ramped up at wildly unimaginable speeds. Companies raced to respond to internal and external demand, prioritizing IT and coalescing quickly on digital projects. As the pandemic eases and we shift into a post-Covid mentality, the pace of new and existing initiatives will need to be sustained to capture the many gains made in 2020. An executive mindset focused on the value of IT and strategically addressing financial pressures around it, created an ecosystem for long-lasting change to take root.
Expectations around innovation, security, and privacy, and business alignment are top-of-mind challenges that CIOs face today. In a new ebook by Gartner, Kristin Moyer, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner CEO and Digital Business Leader Practice dive into what companies will need to prioritize to sustain digital momentum.
Key take-aways from “Sustain your digital momentum”:
The objective is to discover how to continue accelerating digital transformation in 2021 and beyond. “If the pandemic disruption has taught one lesson, it’s that organizations operating with legacy infrastructure and analog processes will struggle to meet the expectations of customers who’ve been forced to go digital,” writes Moyer.
Organizations sped up initiatives to drive crisis response. “Digital acceleration” is the faster progress using data and technology to optimize and transform an enterprise organization — it is focused on enhancing customer engagement, generating new revenue, and serving customers through the digital channels they choose to use.
Four digital business accelerators:
- Win differently by pursuing new customers and sources of demand revealed by the pandemic.
- Unleash force multiplier through empowering momentum with business model innovation, workshop, or external (e.g., an acquisition).
- Banish drags by removing the negative forces that add friction to the business.
- Redirect resources from areas like travel, entertainment, or real estate and redeploy them to digital priorities.
To organize areas to accelerate and where to invest, Moyer recommends prioritizing according to strategic intention in a “portfolio model.” This model includes a “Fast Lane,” “Growth Lane,” “Fix-It Lane,” “Slow Lane,” and “Exit Lane.”
Culture must also be considered. “Culture hacks” must be initiated to be more receptive to the accelerating change because digital is a business and cultural approach. One way to make progress is to “default to positive” like starting every meeting by talking about what’s working. In addition, culture shifts can include creating a new employment deal, championing agile learning, and empowering business technologists.
Digital acceleration can be maintained by taking these three steps:
- Pause, discuss and document the progress made on your digital plans.
- Evaluate what adjustments are required to maintain or accelerate digital plans.
- Teach the organization what needs to be done differently.
As is the case in all new pursuits, especially those riding the wave of fundamental change, digital acceleration will take some fine-tuning to get just right. CIOs and IT leaders should take proactive steps now to sustain and fuel digital transformation’s next phase in a post-Covid world.
