Businesses are beginning to realize that, throughout their evolution, they must invest in change to keep up with and ultimately lead in a new era of connected markets. As a result, businesses are now entering an era of “digital transformation” to integrate and improve the customer experience.
Altimeter Research Group explores the role of new customer behavior and disruptive technology in influencing how organizations evolve in their digital transformations.
Some highlights from this research are outlined below:
Internet of Customers
As technology becomes a permanent fixture in everyday life, organizations are faced with an increasing need to update legacy technology strategies and supporting methodologies to better reflect how the real world is evolving.
The focus of Altimeter's report is on the "Customer Journey." This sentiment and focus is also something that Salesforce.com continues to market.
“We need to reassess how we connect to our customers in a whole new way. Some companies pivot to their shareholders, or partners. We pivot to our customers. Pivot to your customers. That is what the new world is about.” - Mark Benioff (Salesforce.com)
The biggest challenge in business today is that customers aren't interested in spending time talking to you about how they use your product, they have other more important things to do. With all of the connectedness going on globally businesses are now recognizing that behind everything put on the Internet, every device, every app, and every tweet, is a customer.
Elements of a Digital Transformation
Digital transformations within organizations are broad and there is no magic formula or process to implement these changes. The key is that organizations need to identify both external (customer-facing) and internal (people, process, technology) initiatives that align with their business strategies to effectively build a scalable infrastructure for the digital economy.
The 3 main elements highlighted in Altimeter's Research are outlined below. For more in-depth analysis on their findings in these areas download their report here.
Vision and Leadership
- New Vision
- Executive Leadership
- Change Agents
Digital Customer Experience
- Holistic Customer Experience Focus
- Culture of Innovation
- Data Integration
- Internal Collaboration
- Digital First Mindset
Digital Transformation Team
- Center of Excellence
- Organization Structure
- IT Partnership
What struggles does your organization face? What's preventing you from executing your Digital Transformation?
Sources: Altimeter Group, Salesforce.com, Brian Solis