Digital transformation is one of the greatest business challenges of the 21st century, and a bridge that all company leaders have to cross. Maybe they have known for years that they have to deal with digital transformation, but they were always able to find an excuse to put the project off a little longer. Usually that's because either it feels like too much of a big job, or they aren't completely familiar with the solutions that would help them complete the journey. As a result, some fear that instead of increasing the reliability and the revenues of their company by taking a step forward, they will experience a negative impact from potential mistakes made along the way.

At the same time, society as a whole has essentially already achieved its own digital transformation, in large part due to the changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic: consumers now both accept and even demand a digital approach from companies. With these kind of market conditions, when every kind of service is moving online, companies know that they cannot put off their digital transformation any longer as it would leave them at such a significant disadvantage in relation to the competition.

Yet even though we are already prepared for corporate digitalisation at a societal level, companies still need to do it in a way that avoids the biggest pitfalls and mistakes. Irrespective of the hunger for digitalisation, no one is immune to the consequences of getting things wrong.

In this article, we present you with the four most common errors that companies commit when carrying out corporate digitalisation so you don't have to struggle to recover from the same mistakes.

1. Thinking of digitalisation as the destination in itself, not just a tool

Today, digital transformation is highly desirable from a business perspective: it increases efficiency, reduces costs, and streamlines a company’s internal processes. In fact, it is not only desirable but absolutely vital, as intense market competition means it is essential if your company wants to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. Yet it follows that digitalisation is not the goal itself, but rather the best tool to make your company better and faster in order to achieve its objectives.

Many business leaders, however, chase perfect digitalisation as an end goal in itself. The problem is this means they tend to forget digitalisation is not actually a finite process, but rather an eternally evolving field that itself is undergoing constant transformation. This means the task of the experts and leaders responsible for digital transformation is not only to identify areas for improvement and set metrics to track progress, but also to set up a digitalisation strategy that launches and keeps track of the never-ending digitalisation of the company. 

2. To think that you will be floundering in the dark because you are travelling down an unknown path

Historical progress and economic development have been accompanied by constant technological renewal. The goal of this renewal is to deliver the value created by the company to customers sooner, with higher quality, greater efficiency, and proper presentation, thus accelerating the business cycle. 

Digitalisation is 'only' a new milestone in that process of technological development, a process that began exactly 70 years ago with the appearance of the first commercially available computer. Given that we can already see many historical examples of what will happen to companies that successfully switch technology and also to those who do not, the introduction of corporate digitalisation and its proper implementation no longer feels like such a difficult decision.

In addition, business leaders shouldn't worry about having to resort to revolutionary new methods, as there are many outstanding examples available of technological adaptation in recent decades.

3. Forgetting about transformation strategy 

Many companies make the mistake of only planning to reach the final destination, a perfectly digital future, without keeping in mind the path that will lead them there. As we mentioned above, there is no such thing as a perfectly accomplished digitalisation process, because constant renewal is required. Nevertheless, you do need to have a transformation strategy that ensures you move forward with digitalisation in line with your corporate values and the needs of your company. 

With companies who imagine a purely digitalised future, paper documents can end up disrupting normal operations: during the transformation process, which is likely to take several years, they are seen as a kind of anomaly. The reason for this is that in the absence of a comprehensive strategy at the company, paper-intensive departments like HR or finance tend to be left behind. As a result, the company’s development can be held back by monotonous administrative activities. 

Forcing an idealised vision also leads to inflexibility, which reduces the adaptability of the organisation and can also encourage to the development of informal processes. This is because only with a transformation strategy can you examine in detail exactly which areas of digitalisation need to be affected in order to meet the expectations of increased efficiency. In the absence of this, actual problems will not be remedied by the applied digitalisation solutions: they will only obscure or amplify them, giving rise to new problems.

4. Not asking for help when you don't have the necessary resources or digital transformation knowledge in-house

A good digital transformation strategy is concerned with transition planning and smooth implementation. Yet in order to implement the strategy, it is essential to have access to partners or staff who have significant knowledge and experience in this specific field. Without the necessary capacity and knowledge, you may experience serious issues and obstructions during the implementation of the strategy, often causing the management's worst fears regarding digital transformation to come true.

This problem can be easily eliminated by carefully selecting expert partners who are willing to support and implement a digital transformation strategy, either created by you alone or in collaboration with them. 

Summary

All in all, we can say that though digital transformation is a present day phenomenon, it is not a unique event in the history of technological adaptation. Fortunately, if you are looking for ideas it is easy to find many examples of how other companies have succeeded in completing similar technological transformations.

Digital transformation is the kind of tool that can significantly increase the effectiveness of your company, and with the right partners, combined with a transformation strategy, you can set your company on the path to continuous digital optimisation.