Digital transformation was one of the biggest trends in 2018, and it looks like that will continue in 2019. What’s the evidence to support this? For starters, most organizations project that 50%+ of their revenue will come from digital by 2020, while the World Economic Forum estimated that digital transformation will contribute over $100 trillion in value to businesses and society by 2025. Besides that, there are several emerging trends within digital transformation that organizations should take note of:
Digital transformation leading to significant leadership innovation
A recent Randstad study found that 95% of 3,000 surveyed companies believed they needed a new and different types of leadership to address the impact that digitization will have on their operations. The same study highlighted key traits that these leaders should possess, including:
- The ability to keep people connected and engaged (76%)
- Be more agile and digitally savvy (77%)
- Drive a culture of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement (76%)
- Be adept at risk-taking (60%)
According to the MIT Sloan Management Review, CEOs are also spearheading digital transformation initiatives more often. This may be due to the fact that companies are beginning to view this sort of undertaking as a business priority, not just a technology or IT goal.
A renewed focus on change management to ensure scalability and sustainability
Companies are becoming more aware of the need to focus on the critical role that their people play in implementing their digital vision. Lack of expertise is ranked as one of the main obstacles to digital transformation, with nearly 40% of organizations citing it. To complicate matters, rapid technological advances are forcing large companies to adapt quickly. Identifying and training change agents from within the org, bringing in a consulting partner, or implementing programs like self-service partner onboarding can help ease scalability and sustainability concerns. Robust and customizable enterprise service management platforms like ServiceNow are also becoming increasingly popular solutions for businesses interested in the digital transformation and automation of key services.
Companies will double-down on data and analytics.
Data and analytics can impact every aspect of a business, and more leaders are aware of its potential now. In fact, an estimated 60% of CIOs are growing their budgets for analytics, machine learning, and data science. Enterprises will also attempt to create new efficiencies by making their data less siloed and fragmented.
Organizations will focus on eradicating technical debt
Technical debt can be a major obstacle to a successful digital transformation. Years of jury-rigged solutions, poor documentation, and other issues can create a technology labyrinth with multiple dead-ends that must be addressed before a major initiative can take place.
Is your organization thinking about undertaking a digital transformation initiative? We can help, tell us about your challenge.
