Implementing Digital Transformation on a Reduced Budget?
Digital transformation is implementing IT solutions and digital technology to all areas of your business to deliver more value to clients. This transformation is necessary to ensure that your business meets the requirements of a changing market and work environment, as well as help you to evolve new business models.
However, a study by Stein IAS titled ‘Digital Marketing Transformation Survey: Executive Report’ reveals that although 81% of B2B firms believe that digital transformation is necessary, more than 75% of them think that it is a costly process.
So, how do you implement digital transformation without incurring high costs?
Make the Budgeting Process All-Inclusive
It is not feasible to try and include everyone across your company in the traditional budgeting process. However, when it comes to planning for digital transformation, you need to look into non-traditional approaches to budgeting.
Typically, you would handle corporate budgeting at a departmental level, with your financial director making a high-level approval of the budget.
Today, such a model is not viable, in an age when digital transformation stretches across the entire enterprise to impact different roles, locations, and departments. Digital’s ubiquitous nature needs you to take a collaborative approach which provides an overall understanding of your core processes and ensure that you factor each element into the budget.
Look Out for Hidden Costs
Besides the diverse needs of the different business arms of your organization, you will almost certainly need to accommodate other areas within your transformation budget. It is easy to overlook them, so make sure that you carry out thorough requirements-scoping activities that will unearth any supplementary items.
For instance, look out for costs related to the following:
- Do you need additional infrastructure for your digital solutions?
- Is there essential data that you need to migrate from your legacy systems?
- Do you need to invest to meet the required security, privacy, and compliance standards?
- Does your team need to gain new skills to perform effectively?
- How will you manage changes to your core business processes?
Ensure That Transformation Offers Value
The main driver of your digital transformation must be to deliver value. According to William McKnight, the President of McKnight Consulting Group, you will gain high value from a limited budget if the planning stage of your implementation includes tests of price versus performance.
If your sole focus is on adding new features without considering if they tie into your overall vision for the organization, your project will not deliver the results you expect. When defining your digital transformation budget, you need to note the reasons why you want to carry out the work you are planning.
Doing this will help you to justify your budget because you can list concrete benefits such as streamlined processes, a more extensive user base, or higher revenues. This also gives you a baseline that you can measure your success against, and a template to use when preparing budgets for future projects.
Be Agile
If you are carrying out a digital transformation for your company, then you are probably aware of the rate at which technology and changes in user behavior can change your organization’s requirements. Do you have a budget that is fluid enough to keep pace? Is it flexible enough to quickly capitalize on market changes and new trends?
Although many businesses have embraced agile operational processes, they still take traditional approaches – annual cycles, fixed costs, or defined requirements – when it comes to the commercial aspects of a project.
Clearly, if you are working on a limited budget, you need to change your mindset to get the most value from digital transformation.
Use Managed IT Services for Smooth and Fast Implementation
Managed IT services platforms make it quicker and easier to implement a data transformation project.
Managed IT service providers provide a range of digital transformation services that offer simplified deployment of new protocols and efficient maintenance of your digital infrastructure for seamless productivity. What’s more, managed services platforms allow for a faster flow of information and more effective decision-making.
They also contribute to your organization’s sustainability goals by eliminating waste through helpdesk solutions for proactive and automated responses to both small and large issues.
Digital transformation is never quick or easy and requires you to have a long-term and coordinated strategy. However, by following the steps above and having an adequately scoped budget, you can set up your organization for success. You will ensure that you target your investments toward areas of the most significant benefit, letting you do more with a limited budget.
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