5 Factors for success in Digital Transformation

Introduction

While successful digital transformation has been proven to increase revenue, success is by no means guaranteed. With companies who make it their priority seeing up to 5.7 times more revenue than those who have not, it is certainly something that companies cannot afford to fail at.

2020 has been a challenging year for many of us, with the pandemic rapidly accelerating the need to reshape businesses to meet changing demands and the difficulties it has presented. According to Gartner, the pandemic has forced rapid digital innovation and created the need for cross-functional teams that bring together technology experts with business analysts to work collaboratively and at speed to develop new platforms and solutions.

The simplest way to define digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to modify existing, or creating new, business processes to increase operational efficiency, enhance customer and employee experiences and drive growth.

With digital transformation becoming a must for companies who want to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive, fast paced market, how do businesses ensure theirs is a success? We believe that there are 5 factors for success. Not only that, but you’ll be pleased to hear that there is one common way to achieve them all: Low-code.

Let’s take a look at those 5 factors for success and how Low-code can ensure you achieve them.

Need for speed

Speed is quite literally of the essence. Digital transformation not only requires legacy systems to be updated and replaced, but for all processes to be adapted to ensure that the business is performing to current requirements. If your project takes years, suddenly the applications you have brought in are no longer fulfilling requirements.

It can take months, even years, to develop new apps or web interfaces, which can result in huge backlogs. When taking on a digital transformation project across a business, there will be multiple applications that need developing and there simply isn’t the time to do it all with traditional hand-coding methods. Even if your IT department was willing to give up months of its time for endless projects, your customers are no longer willing to wait and neither are stakeholders and executives.

Being able to build applications quickly is, therefore, a must have for success. Luckily, low-code enables you to do just that. By eliminating the need for hand-coding, applications can be built within days or weeks. Deploying these applications quickly enables you to keep up with the fast pace necessary to ensure your digital transformation succeeds.

Data is the new oil

Data-driven decision-making is at the heart of every intelligent organisation on the road of digital transformation. One core principle of digital transformation is to provide a better customer service. To know what the highest priority for your customers is, there is no better place to look than your customers.

No, I don’t mean pop in on Cathy in her lunch hour and ask her why she bought your product – the answer is in your data. Every company collects data on its customers, but not every company uses that data. There are many reasons for this- from inaccurate or incomplete data, to data silos, to too many different formats of data. However, it is this data that you will need to ensure that your digital transformation is a success.

Not to worry, low-code is here to save you. A great starting point, for companies on the road to digital transformation, is consolidating and cleaning the data whilst building applications that allow complex analytics to identify where you can assist your customers best. Low-code development platforms, such as PhixFlow, can bridge data silos, clean your data, perform complex analytics, and then produce reports that drive intelligent decision making in the next stages of your companies’ transformation.

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More targeted outcomes

A difficulty that arises within digital transformation can be sweeping decisions made about processes by those outside of specific departments that, although seem like a good idea on paper, can miss out on key insights. In many cases, out of the box solutions are found to be lacking in key functionality. This can lead to staff reverting to old processes or having to build work arounds, all of which lead to delays in projects and, perhaps even worse, a lack of employee support.

However, with low-code, experienced developers and/or citizen developers have the power to quickly design their own solutions in accordance with their exact specification and requirements. By making the design process accessible to those working within the departments that require the application, the processes are designed in a way that works best for them. Most importantly, when it works best for them it works best for your customers too, leading to a better customer experience.

Lower risk and higher ROI

Many companies are reluctant to develop new applications. Often it can be difficult to determine in advance just whether these new solutions will meet the requirements of key stakeholders or customers. This can prevent true innovation from taking place within a company as some of the most advantageous changes can be difficult to prove in advance.

With low-code, minimum viable products can be created very quickly allowing companies to easily test if the application can meet requirements. With drag and drop functionality, less experienced citizen developers can be utilised, meaning you don’t have to worry about investing in expensive, time-consuming development resources when their existing workload is already heavy.

This gives your company the freedom to experiment and innovate, which is the hallmark of any successful digital transformation. Not only does it mean that processes can be constantly improved, but that you are creating a culture within the company that values and encourages new ideas.

Scalability

Imagine spending months developing an application to support a digital transformation project only to find, just a few months after deployment, that it is already lagging behind the curve. Requirements have changed yet again and the application needs key processes updating to meet with the current situation. It is a challenge that many companies have faced, even when just considering digital transformation. Why invest money into updating new systems when those new systems will soon need updating? With the current rate of change in the market, it’s certainly a fair question.

That’s why scalability is one of the most important factors for success. You need to know that your company can keep up with the demands of an ever-changing market. As Charles Darwin once said, “the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” Charles, if only you knew.

Luckily, low-code can help you not only survive, but thrive. Applications can easily scale, especially if you are using a platform like PhixFlow, that is capable of processing billions of records. Scalability isn’t just about increasing numbers of records, but also adapting processes over time. Without the need for arduous coding, changes to processes can be made within hours. Digital transformation is no longer a one-off project, but a continual process of improvement for which the sky is the limit.

Summary

With digital transformation being a must for companies looking to succeed today’s competitive market, it’s important to know how to ensure its’ success. For projects to be successful you need speed, data insights, targeted outcomes, lower risk and higher ROI and scalability. Fortunately, Low-Code platforms, such as PhixFlow, can enable you to achieve all 5 simultaneously and all with just one licence fee. To find out more about how PhixFlow can help your company succeed, get in touch with our team.