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Building the foundation for digital transformation

Why businesses must modernize infrastructure, culture and business processes to truly meet the needs of today's digitally-savvy customers.

July 25, 2016

By Aaron Shook

As modern technologies like mobile, IoT, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence evolve and become a reality, businesses have been left scrambling to lay the necessary groundwork and build the proper infrastructure to take full advantage of these solutions.

Much like a house, a digital solution is only as good as the foundation supporting it. Attempting to build the aforementioned features on top of legacy technology can lead to elongated timelines, depleted budgets, and less-than-ideal solutions. Although the scope of this article prevents a deep dive into technology systems, it will attempt to address common problems that impact digital transformation efforts and the tie-ins to a solid technical foundation.

The first element of a digital transformation that most companies invest in is a mobile offering. As consumers become increasingly more inclined to engage with companies via mobile devices, businesses have begun to think mobile-first with their strategies. This line of thinking is the right move strategically, but the elephant in the room that most marketing and line of business professionals don't consider before making the leap is the state of their in-house technology stacks and whether or not they are ready for the move to mobile.

For more about how mobile innovation is changing the retail landscape,
attend the upcoming CONNECT Mobile Innovation Summit
happening Aug. 15-17 in Chicago.

Let's take a look at some data from the retail vertical to illustrate these issues. According to The State of the Mobile Experience study, 91 percent of retail companies already have a mobile website, and 84 percent already have a mobile app. Likewise, 77 percent of retail decision makers with an existing mobile presence ranked their mobile strategy as seven or higher on a 10 point scale.

However, retailers say they still struggle to integrate mobile with their overall business operations. More than half (54 percent) say they struggle to integrate mobile with their current digital marketing strategies and 42 percent say face difficulties uniting marketing and IT departments. A comprehensive mobile strategy is incomplete without a corresponding strategy to address the IT department’s technical debt and make the in-house systems “digital-ready.”

For companies to truly execute on today's digital strategies (including mobile), investing in modernizing in-house systems, infrastructure, and data storage solutions should be considered table stakes. Examining all infrastructure with an eye toward centering systems and processes around the customer is the key to being able to rapidly deliver value with your digital strategy. The following advice will help businesses maximize engagement and revenue in an increasingly digital world.

Listen to your users

Digital transformation starts with your users and the user journey. Businesses will never see return on investment from digital investments that do not put the customer at the forefront of the investment. Likewise, the in-house IT systems and architecture should be re-invented with a customer-first mindset. Modern-day customer relationship management solutions have put the customer at the forefront of their technology solutions and this decision has reaped great benefits both for their software and for customers using it to re-invent their digital foundation.

Legacy architecture and technology implementations are significant roadblocks preventing businesses from offering a top-notch digital experience. Nearly half of survey respondents in the retail vertical (48 percent) list slow page load times as a recurring issue, 31 percent list customer difficulties navigating on mobile, and more than a quarter (28 percent) list either smaller images/videos or not being able to pay on mobile as a roadblock. These problems are all merely symptoms of a larger issue: legacy technology systems that were designed for use in today’s customer-centric, digitally-driven market. Although band-aids can be applied to alleviate the symptoms of specific problems like the ones mentioned, modernizing in-house systems and architecture is a must for addressing the real problem.

In addition to centering technology systems around the customer, businesses must also center their strategies around the customer. Learning exactly what customers want from a digital experience and providing a frictionless user experience are the goals, and the journey to reach these goals is one of constant, incremental improvement. Many companies will find that different demographics of users have different expectations. A strategy focused on continuous improvement by leveraging data collected from analytics, A/B testing, user journey mapping, and user studies can help focus investments on features that will engage the user and ultimately lead to more conversions.

Shift your culture

A cultural shift is also at the core of every successful digital transformation strategy. The State of the Mobile Experience study found retailers face serious roadblocks when it comes to collaboration across departments internally. Too often, IT and marketing departments operate in isolation, and, as a result, their strategies do not align into one holistic vision.

The marketing department brings a wealth of experience in user demographics, customer expectations, and the plethora of touch points that their business has with the customer. IT, on the other hand, has the requisite knowledge of systems architecture, engineering, and software delivery to re-design in-house systems in order to meet customer and business goals. Savvy executives who understand the goals of the business would be wise to design strategies around leveraging the talents of both marketing and IT to execute upon customer-centric business visions.

Breaking down the barriers between marketing and IT is one of the most important changes a business can make when executing a digital transformation strategy. Elements of a digital transformation such as mobile rely on an understanding of both customer needs and business goals, and, correspondingly, of the digital systems capable of addressing these needs and goals. Executing a successful digital transformation without everyone rowing in the direction and bringing their knowledge together toward a common goal is a near impossibility.

Transform your business process

Lastly, a successful digital strategy should always include a business process transformation. How a company operates behind the scenes can drastically impact the customer's digital experience. Too often, business processes are not centered around the customer, and, as a result, the customer experience suffers. When designing or changing an in-house process, always ask yourself the following question: How can this process be better designed to impact the customer experience?

Business processes must be updated to bridge the gap between channels and devices in order to enhance a customer’s omnichannel experience with the brand. In the retail vertical, this process transformation also means investing in the infrastructure needed to provide customers with a completely integrated and seamless experience from desktop to mobile to in-store.

Executing a digital transformation ultimately requires businesses to make significant shifts internally in order to meet customer needs. Today's customer expects seamless processes and advanced features, particularly via mobile, that are difficult for businesses to offer when operating with an old-school mindset. Businesses who invest in revamping in-house technology systems while taking the time to understand their users, shift their internal culture, and re-engineer business processes around the customer will gain market share in today’s increasingly competitive digital retail landscape. 

Aaron Shook is Lab Technology Officer at PointSource which provides digital transformation services. For more insight on PointSource attend the upcoming CONNECT Mobile Innovation Summit.