Digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for organizations seeking measurable value, resilience and agility. Whether your organization is considering pursuing transformation initiatives or still asking “what is digital transformation”, it’s important to take the time to understand the history of the term, how it’s defined and what the benefits are.
Understanding what digital transformation means can help leading enterprises reimagine business models and operations with one goal: to deliver lasting impact and trust.
What is digital transformation?
When the term was first introduced over a decade ago, it referred to the process of transferring data and information from analog to digital, but let’s face it: the internet has been around long enough for that to no longer be the common case. These days, it means something different.
Simply put, digital transformation reimagines business models, operations and culture through the intelligent use of technology and data. It drives customer trust, operational efficiency and long-term value creation.
The benefits of digital transformation include enhancing user experience, improving overall efficiency and empowering team members behind the scenes. While there are many ways to accomplish digital transformation outcomes, they all enable you to reimagine how people interact with your company and services.
Why invest in digital transformation?
While it may feel like you are always trying to improve your business operations and increase your market share, using the practices outlined by digital transformation allows for the use of data and digital strategies for better implementation.
Improving your business through digital transformation can create value by increasing your return on investment (ROI), whether you are using it to improve customer service, decrease marketing spending or find a new revenue stream. Using digital transformation strategies allows your business to become more efficient in existing operations, using data to create the best solutions.
Understanding digital transformation outcomes and successes
In a world where AI, digitization and data analytics are becoming crucial business modules, it’s important to understand exactly which digital transformation outcomes are right for your business’ needs. When you consider which area you’d like to improve, finding digital transformation success becomes easy.
Common digital transformation outcomes among industry leaders include:
- Customer experience – You can use digital transformation to create personalized, insight-driven services for your customers, whether individuals or businesses, that improve satisfaction and loyalty.
- Operational efficiency – Digital transformation, such as implementing an ERP system, can also be used to streamline performance by automating tasks and optimizing processes based on data analytics.
- Employee impact – While improving productivity can be viewed as operational efficiency, it can also impact employees and provide modern and flexible technology for employee use, allowing teams to improve alignment and increase collaboration.
- Innovation and growth – Reviewing data insights during your digital transformation can create opportunities for new or improved products or services.
Create a roadmap to successful digital transformation
To achieve digital transformation outcomes and success, you need a comprehensive strategy in place that reflects your goals and considers the unique hurdles your business faces throughout the process. With three out of every four digital transformation programs failing because of the adoption of the changes, it’s important that you build the framework or digital strategy roadmap supported by strong communication and change management to ensure alignment and adoption across all levels.
A simple online search will provide multiple plans for executing public sector digital transformation within your organization. Though they may range from three to ten steps, you’ll find that they all include the same basic framework:
Steps for an effective digital transformation
- Step 1: Set your goals – Start by identifying and understanding your specific and measurable business goals.
- Step 2: Audit – Whether your goal is focused on marketing or products, auditing operations sets the current benchmark for future comparison and allows for an easier time when creating the plan.
- Step 3: Plan and strategize – Use your audit to identify opportunities in current operations that will move you closer to your goal. During planning, the team that will be implementing the changes should be involved. Their feedback and knowledge of current processes are important to improve the outcomes of your digital transformation.
- Step 4: Implement – Bring the strategy to life by deploying solutions in manageable phases, supporting teams and continuously tracking outcomes against defined goals. This final step can take weeks or months, depending on your plan and strategy for digital transformation in the commercial and public sectors.
Considerations for your digital transformation
Whether you are working to optimize processes or make it easier for data-driven decisions, your digital transformation strategy is vital for achieving success. Since no two organizations are alike, making sure you have a clear vision for your desired digital transformation outcomes is essential.
When creating your organization’s digital transformation strategy, you’ll want to ensure that you are consistently considering the technology, processes, people and skills. Aligning these is key to securing a successful digital transformation outcome.
Improving the success of digital transformation through partnership
The leadership behind the digital transformation is essential for its success, as they’ll need to oversee the project from start to finish. The best consultants in the field will be able to identify opportunities within your business in a succinct manner. Those experts can attest that, when implemented correctly, there are plenty of benefits of digital transformation.
Example of digital transformation outcomes and customer service
Depending on your customer service goals, you can tailor your digital transformation strategy to align with your key performance indicators (KPIs). If you are working to improve customer service, you may have KPIs that focus on response time, customer satisfaction and customer service requests.
To create a successful digital transformation, consider solutions like a self-service portal, allowing user-facing solutions that free up your customer service team. Another solution could include an AI-powered chatbot that’s ready to assist with common solutions as a first response to customers, allowing for more immediate service. Your team may also work to create customer profiles to allow for easier access to previous service needs and decrease the need for background information.
Example of digital transformation and retail
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many brick-and-mortar businesses adapted to the necessity of online sales. The global pandemic accelerated the use of digital transformation, and we witnessed a mass adoption of different e-commerce and omnichannel-focused practices as businesses worked to maintain operations and meet shifting customer expectations.
While examples like curbside pick-up and flexible work models existed before the pandemic, their adoption was propelled by the need to continue operating with minimal disruption. These changes have since become standard across the retail industry, reinforcing the value of integrated digital platforms that streamline operations, improve customer experiences and enable rapid scaling.
The same digital principles extend beyond retail as well—solutions like CGI OpenGrid 360, which streamlines operations across utility networks, and Ratabase, which modernizes insurance pricing, demonstrate how targeted digital platforms can be rapidly onboarded to drive efficiency and long-term business value.
We partner with organizations to envision, build and scale digital ecosystems that deliver measurable digital transformation outcomes. Our consultants help modernize operations, harness data for decision-making and accelerate sustainable growth.
