Why Digital Transformation Projects Fail
You’ve probably already heard that 70% of all Digital Transformation projects fail. Many people believe that this is due to insufficient planning or internal resistance to change, however, we’ve found that the reasons are a little more complicated than that. The good news is, with the right knowledge and guidance, they are easily overcome.
Firstly, let’s remind ourselves what Digital Transformation is.
Digital Transformation refers to the adoption of systems and processes to achieve strategic business goals. It means you buy or build new business software that integrates within your business, creating new streamlined processes and giving you access to new data to put you ahead of the curve. It means is that your people will be doing something different in their day-to-day role, which could mean a restructure or change to roles and responsibilities.
Why would you want to transform if you’re already using online systems to run your business? Because transformation fundamentally changes how you operate, allowing you to accelerate and take the lead ahead of your competition. When done properly, it can positively impact both top-line revenue and bottom-line profit. Most importantly, it meets your customer’s needs seamlessly and efficiently, allowing you to exceed their ever-increasing expectations.
With this in mind, if you’re ready to make some changes to your organisation, you want to make sure that your project succeeds. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and resources and potentially damaging your company culture along the way.
These are the top reasons that Digital Transformation projects fail:
You’re not failing properly
You’ve likely heard the term fail fast, but have you ever heard the term “Fail Forward?” I’ve coined this term to refer to the way that a business can not only anticipate failure, but also learn from it. Too many businesses try once or twice, can’t make it work they want it to, and then give up. The benefit of pushing ahead is that not only can you learn from your own mistakes, but you can also learn from the mistakes of other organisations that have experienced similar hurdles. Failing Forward allows you to implement processes and strategies to overcome future or anticipated challenges.
You’re not mapping your processes correctly
It’s impossible to design your future state unless you understand your current state and where the issues are. Too many businesses jump into mapping where they want to be in the future, but fail to clearly document how they currently operate first. It’s important to map the current state and the points that are causing difficulties - both internally for employees and externally for customers - so you can easily understand who is impacted by the changes. A bonus is that your change manager can compare the current and future state documents to easily create their plan as they’ll know exactly what’s changing for each person.
You’re not focusing on your people
Your employees are the lifeblood of your business and any kind of change that you implement must involve them from beginning to end, instead of looping them in at the end of the change process. This allows you to get your team on board with the changes, instead of causing them to feel blindsided by them. By doing this, you create champions of change who will drive your transformation across the organisation. If not, you risk isolating your team and creating resistance to change across the board.
Your goals aren’t clear
Clear KPIs are a no-brainer for successful change, but did you know that your goals should also be agile? This means that your KPIs need to be regularly monitored and potentially changed during the transformation process. Being adaptable with your goals along the way will help ensure that your project makes lasting change to your organisation in the long run.
You don’t have the right people in the right roles
People are key in any and all types of Digital Transformations, which is why it’s vital to ensure that you have the right people in the right roles driving your change. Of course, this includes a strong leadership team who are effectively communicating each step of the change process to their teams. But, it also includes making sure your stakeholders are on board and participating in the change, as well as ensuring you have a project manager leading the change if it is determined that one is needed.
You’re not celebrating your success
Don’t leave the celebrations for the very end, instead, mark each step in the right direction as a win and acknowledge the people that are making it happen. Celebrating the small wins will keep your team engaged, ensuring that motivation stays high for the longevity of the project. Thinking long term is key and making it to the finish line in one piece isn’t possible without constant motivation and drive.
You’re not bringing in a change management expert
You may think that you don’t need a change management expert to help you carry out your Digital Transformation project and, in many cases, you would be right. However, most organisations find that bringing in extra resources helps them manage change smoothly, efficiently and cost effectively.
At Leading Edge Global, we can help you plan and execute your Digital Transformation project by developing your transformation roadmap, designing your new operating model and working within your teams to deliver the technology solutions to help you achieve improved performance.
We can help you with any cloud-based platforms such as ERP and CRM or we can help you build a bespoke solution to meet your specific business needs.
We have created a methodology that integrates project and change management through the entire project lifecycle, ensuring full participation, engagement and support across the organisation to maximise ROI of your digital transformation.
Want to find out more? Get in touch today.