There are many components that can go into making your company’s digital transformation successful. For example, you need to have the right strategies to create an effective plan of action, an interdisciplinary set of skills to lead this change in business operations and culture, and a workforce with the job-specific competencies required to make it happen.
This is where implementing the right technology partner to support your digital transformation efforts can make all the difference. Your choice of a tech implementation partner will depend on what kind of strategy you are currently using, which includes how much customization you want, who will do the work, whether they can customize it for you, and even what type of relationship basis you want (e.g., turnkey, managed services). You can also have a look at an article on white glove approach.
The right tech implementation partner will be able to provide the required technology and services you need for your business transformation to succeed. Here are the 7 key steps to consider when choosing a tech implementation partner for your digital transformation efforts:
- Identify the type of transformation you need to drive. This can be done by identifying pain points within your organization or creating a vision of where you want to be in the future with technology (aligning this vision with business goals).
- Create a plan based on the above steps. The plan should focus on how new technologies will have to adapt, what data will have to be collected, and the organization’s key performance indicators.
- Select a tech implementation partner that meets your transformation goals. This includes choosing a company whose solution addresses your needs, has an experienced team with broad knowledge of technology trends, is easy to work with, offers training materials for your staff, and uses a well-tested implementation methodology.
- Create a rollout timeline that ensures all stakeholders will be ready to adopt the new technology during the implementation process. If you do not have time to train everyone in your organization before rollout day, use an outside training team supported by your tech implementation partner.
- Implement the new solution on rollout day. This is the day when your new technology goes live, so plan for anything to go wrong. Have an expert at the ready that can support any issues that arise on launch day.
- Evaluate results and optimize or expand new technology solutions as needed once they have gone live in the organization. Use performance monitoring tools to capture the data you need to make decisions.
- Incorporate new technology into internal processes, or create new ones that incorporate the use of technology. For example, companies like Uber and Waze are changing the way we view transportation; at this point in time, it would be hard not to consider these apps when planning your morning commute.
If you follow these steps, you should be able to successfully implement new technology in your organization. Implementing new technology is only one part of an overall Digital Transformation strategy; however, it must be done correctly in order for the benefits to outweigh the costs.