Digital Back to Front

The topic of digital, and digital transformation is one that is being discussed and explored extensively. It may have started in the manufacturing industry under Industrie 4.0 in Germany, but it has significantly impacted every country and industry in the world today.

Regardless of whether someone may agree with the concept of digital transformation, or not, the truth is that it is a relevant topic that bears investigation. No matter what you choose to call it, or how you frame it, digital transformation is essentially the application of technology to drive, enable and revolutionise how businesses work.

Many businesses are already exploring what this means to them, and their customers, staff, partners and vendors. The trend seems to be that digital transformation is being spearheaded by front-office channels and interactions.

But is this really the right way around? Are we looking at digital transformation backwards?

More often than not, the digital transformation discussion starts with what, or who, we want to impact, and how we think we can do this through front-end technologies such as mobile applications, social channels and new technology channels such as bots.

While it makes perfect sense to look at who we want to engage with, and to what end, it is entirely possible that organisations are jumping the gun a little once they’ve decided on who and why. It happens all too frequently that once this has been decided, organisations jump straight into the front-end digital technologies and forge ahead to create this envisioned experience.

Unfortunately, what is often lacking is that poignant pause where organisations need to take a look at what they have, and what their culture, operations and processes can realistically support. If the back-end frameworks, operational processes and organisational culture is unable to support a front-end technology, the likelihood of any such initiative failing is significantly increased.

If we were to apply this same thinking to something most of us are familiar with, we could liken this to the introduction of a brand new, incredibly efficient car that runs on a new kind of fuel that not only is more cost effective, but also creates a safer, more luxurious and engaging drive. This car is not only affordable to build, deploy and drive, but also easy to distribute.

So, what happens if we take this kind of new car to market and not only invest in the manufacturing and marketing costs to get it out there, but also the logistics of distributing the car, only to find that there is no way for anyone to gain access to the new fuel that this car requires.

We would have effectively created and distributed what could arguably be the best car in the world - a car that no one can practically use or get the benefit from. Now we would end up having to decide to cut our losses and go back to the older models, or scrambling to get the right logistics and operations in place to ensure that everyone could get a hold of the fuel to use this car.

This is effectively what many organisations are doing today. There are numerous engagements underway that are designed to revolutionise the employee or customer experience. However, the back-end processes, operations and company culture are simply not able to support these and therefore these engagements are likely to be plagued with non-stop issues and concerns, either resulting in scrapping of a solution that could have made a tangible difference, or a rushed support structure that is rife with operational problems that dilute the experience and value that was originally planned.

Let’s explore a practical example. What if a financial organisation created a revolutionary mobile application that allowed new customers to sign up directly from the application, transact with any known vendor, log queries and view their history? What if this same organisation couldn’t process the increased volumes of queries or transactions? What if the transactions weren’t secured properly and were exposed to vulnerabilities that could have financial and legal ramifications? What if the culture of the organisation has always been to focus on the benefits of the products and services on offer rather than what the value to the customer is and both new and existing customer’s experience is negatively impacted which results in increased churn due to mixed messaging?

The truth is that digital transformation is a back to front journey, no matter where you stand. If you are purely operationally focused, you need to flip your mindset to understand what you are aiming to achieve at the strategic end. If you’re strategically focused, you need to alter your viewpoint to ensure that you can operationally support this strategy.

Ultimately, real digital transformation requires a team that can work from all directions to ensure that the transformation is real, feasible, and aligns to the organisations objectives. Failure to look at a digital transformation strategy with this back to front mindset, or at least as part of a holistic team that allows other team members to look at these areas is likely going to result in either a digital strategy with a flawed execution plan, or an execution plan that isn’t aligned to strategy.
Both will result in wasted expenditure and will impact the results that could be garnered by aligning the approaches into a holistic strategy and execution plan that are mutually reinforcing.

Businesses need to first align what they want to strategically achieve, and instead of jumping onto the digital bandwagon, focus on what they can achieve today while putting a robust and executable plan in place to be ready for digital transformation when it’s right for the business.

Do it back to front, but keep looking forward to how it will make the business stronger in the future.