Digital transformation initiatives are constantly falling short of their desired objectives, despite investing significant time and resources. This can be caused due to several reasons. According to research, 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail to meet their goals, wasting an estimated USD $1.4 Trillion annually.
Experts have identified a lack of stakeholder engagement as a major cause of these failures. Organizations that fail to engage their key stakeholders in the digital transformation process, are more likely to encounter delays and cost overruns, and ultimately fail in their endeavors.
To avoid these pitfalls and ensure the success of your digital transformation efforts, we’ll explore the importance of effective stakeholder engagement and communication strategies, and practical methods for engaging them more proactively.
Defining the Importance of Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is a key strategy for enterprises, regardless of their size or industry. To understand why it is so important, consider these statistics. Spending on technologies and services for digital transformation is expected to reach USD $2.3 Trillion globally, by 2023. The digital transformation market is predicted to grow 19.1% annually, between the years 2021 and 2026.
According to a survey by professional services network Deloitte, 60% of executives believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation, and 62% believe it will remain a priority for the next few years. Digital transformation offers many benefits, including improved customer experience, well integrated organizational culture, greater collaboration, quality improvement, competitive advantage, and cost reduction. According to McKinsey, a management consultancy firm, companies that fully embrace digital transformation can achieve cost savings by 50%.
Benefits and Outcomes of Digital Transformation
When it comes to achieving a successful digital transformation, seeking the help of specialized third party service providers is the ideal way for organizations. This is where ATSG comes into the picture. We offer a wide range of digitally transformative capabilities that can enhance your organization’s processes and operations.
ATSG offers Hybrid Cloud and Transformation Services to enable enterprises in seamlessly transitioning to cloud computing environments. Our Managed Network Services (MNS) offer un-rivaled network visibility, performance monitoring and remediation of issues, thanks to our AI driven platform, ATSGOne Observability Manager.
In addition, ATSG offers Collaboration and Client Experience services that can help your organization deploy better communication platforms, develop strong service centers for improved customer experiences, and provide collaboration tools to help fully remote as well as hybrid teams work together.
Our Digital Workplace solutions, such as Site and Field Services can readily provide expert technical assistance, or resolve maintenance issues. ATSG’s Digital Employee Experience (DEX) solutions refine and improve the employee experience across the modern digital workplace.
ATSG also offers class leading Cybersecurity capabilities, such as Managed Detection and Response (MDR), to provide a robust security system with automation driven risk mitigation.
The Role of People in Digital Transformation
The role of people in technology cannot be underestimated, as even the most advanced technology can fall short, without the right skills and mindset for change. This is where the first pillar, the People, comes into play. To ensure success, it’s important to focus on skill development, change management, and clearly defining leadership roles. This includes stakeholder investments for digital transformation initiatives, and ensuring that the review of workflows and processes is transparent and inclusive.
The Role of Stakeholders in Digital Transformation
For digital transformation projects to succeed, it is crucial to consider stakeholder involvement in today’s modern era. Project failures that cost around USD $2 Trillion annually, are primarily caused by non-engagement of stakeholders. To avoid such failures, businesses and tech leaders must prioritize stakeholder involvement in technology initiatives.
How to Include Stakeholders in Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is not just about adopting new technologies, but also about changing the way you work, communicate, and deliver value to your customers and other key stakeholders. However, managing the feedback and collaboration of your stakeholders can be challenging, especially when they have different levels of digital literacy, interest, and involvement.
Here are a few steps to effectively engage external stakeholders in your digital transformation initiatives:
- To kickstart your digital transformation project, it’s important to have a clear and compelling vision of what you want to achieve, why it matters, and how you plan to achieve it. This vision should also align with your strategic goals, customer needs, and market opportunities. It’s also important to communicate this vision clearly and consistently to your stakeholders.
- Not all stakeholders are the same, so it’s important to identify and segment them according to their level of power, interest, and impact on your organization. This will help you tailor your communication, engagement, and feedback strategies to suit their needs and preferences.
- Digital transformation is a collaborative effort, so it’s important to involve your stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. This includes involving them in the design, development, testing, implementation, and evaluation of your digital solutions, as well as in the change management and adoption activities.
- Communication is the key to successful digital transformation, so you need to communicate with your stakeholders regularly, openly, and transparently, using the channels that they prefer and understand. You also need to listen to their questions, comments, suggestions, and feedback, and also acknowledge and respond to them promptly and respectfully.
- Digital transformation may require your stakeholders to learn new skills, adopt new behaviors, or use new tools or systems. Therefore, you need to provide them with the necessary training, education, and support to help them adapt and thrive in the digital environment.
- Finally, it’s important to recognize and appreciate your stakeholders’ efforts, contributions, and achievements in the digital transformation process. This includes celebrating milestones, success, and learnings, as well as providing constructive and positive feedback, recognition, and rewards that match their expectations and preferences.
Future of Enterprise Digital Transformation Strategy
The impact of integrating stakeholders across the digital strategy of an organization can help them gain interest in improving the technological and strategic alignment. The ultimate goal for all organizations is to have all their vendors and stakeholders on the same level of digital influence and enhancement, as the organization itself.
This ideally helps with the overall success of operations and revenue growth for the business, especially in today’s competitive market. With solution providers like ATSG, organizations and their stakeholders can attain remarkable levels of achievement and the desired outcomes.
Contact ATSG for best in class Managed IT Services, Cloud Computing, Technology and Cybersecurity solutions for your enterprise, and its key stakeholders.
