Digital Transformation Driving Companies Back to the Basics

Digital Transformation is the latest mantra for companies; the latest big buzzword.

Of course, it's more than that. There's reality to the phrase as a survey recently released by PointSource confirmed. "At least a quarter of companies plan to invest more than 25% of their budgets in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, voice-activated technologies or facial-recognition technologies. Yet over half of these organizations (53%) feel that they’re unprepared to effectively use the technologies they plan to acquire."

This is a telling finding. The companies recognize the potential of these technologies, and are jumping into their acquisition, but have not clearly determined how exactly they are going to use them.

The most basic element of strategic planning, whether it be corporate planning or IT planning, is to study the overall objectives of the organization and develop a plan that is consistent with those objectives - a plan that helps the organization to achieve those objectives.

Yet, Greg Ng, vice president of digital engagement at PointSource, points out that "Digital solutions and strategies exist to solve so many of the problems companies face today. But decision makers consistently struggle to parse down to just the digital capabilities that are right for them."

Therein lies the problem. finding those solutions that actually fit with the corporate objectives and will help to achieve them. It's an old problem, and the solution has been around for years - focusing on that aspect of corporate strategic planning that begins with defining the objectives, identifying the potential solutions, analyzing which solutions are likely to work the best, and writing action plans that will make them a reality. It's not as simple as it sounds, and not as romantic as re-imagining the company, but it's as essential an approach as it ever was, perhaps even more so. For more, see this article and the related study.