Despite the fact that there’s no one-size-fits-all method for enabling transformation, there is a common goal that companies can work toward: responsiveness.
At AppCentrica, we believe that there’s no silver bullet to successful Digital Transformation. Despite the fact that there’s no one-size-fits-all method for enabling transformation, there is a common goal that companies can work toward: responsiveness. This article defines what responsiveness means for your organization and how it can help direct strategies and tactics around Digital Transformation.
Responsiveness is an organization’s ability to identify and effectively adapt to the continuous change in their industry and in their customers’ preferences. Companies who effectively adapt to change are better able to manage disruption and consistently meet their customers’ expectations. Enabling responsiveness relies on the process of identifying, capturing, and transforming. This article will review each of these components and describe how they work to enable responsiveness.
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Identifying
Identifying is the ability to spot opportunities both inside the company and in the market. A major factor in being able to identify opportunity is the availability of insight generated from business intelligence and analytics. Being able to effectively implement these systems of insight are a reflection that a company has contextualized and prioritized its information, that it understands the impact of external factors on its performance, and that it can consistently make this information available to decision-makers at the right time.
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Capturing
Capturing is the ability to mobilize resources in order to seize opportunities. A company’s ability to capture opportunities can be improved in a number of ways. One example is ensuring flexible enterprise technology. Flexible enterprise technology allows for integration, scalability, and for new functionality to be introduced easily. Without this, organizations will constantly be tied-down by their enterprise systems. Inflexible systems often need to be replaced, whereas flexible systems can be extended relatively simply. Companies also have to be able to rapidly deploy products and services. While this often relies on being insight-driven and having flexible enterprise technology, it’s also influenced by an organization’s delivery methods. Companies who adopt continuous delivery methods, for example, can get their products and services to market faster, while improving their ability to make adjustments based on feedback, and uphold quality.
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Transforming
Companies not only have to be able to identify and capture opportunities, but reconfigure their resources and capabilities to be able to do this on an ongoing basis. Transforming is a company’s ability to assess and reconfigure their internal and external competencies. Broadly, companies have to consider the appropriate breadth and depth of their capabilities and resources to ensure they can effectively meet their business challenges on an ongoing basis. This means that there is a continuous reinvention of processes and business models, an emphasis on organizational learning, and significant investment in enterprise technology.
Ultimately, companies who are trying to approach Digital Transformation will need to identify their own unique opportunities, however, all companies can strive to be responsive. Developing organizational responsiveness relies on establishing greater insight, efficient operations and dynamic capabilities, speed in delivering products and services, and reconfiguring enterprise technology to be more flexible. Companies who develop this responsiveness will successfully navigate change and maintain their customer relationships.
